Free University of Berlin

In Germany, the field of Intelligence Studies is marginalized in academic curricula. This seminar tries to fill the gap and introduces students to the emerging and complex field of Intelligence Studies. Students will learn about the strengths and weaknesses of the academic field and about its main theoretical debates. Emphasis will be put on the development of theories of international intelligence relations. One session will reflect on the methods and methodology in intelligence studies. Students will study the historical origins of intelligence agencies in the Middle East, especially within the Cold War context, and their role up until today (for example, OSINT + AI). Further, students will explore diverse themes such as covert action campaigns, the institutions’ highly bureaucratic set-up and their exercise of repression and violence. Within the course of the seminar, we will give a broad overview of several Middle Eastern intelligence agencies. We will highlight two examples: Iraqi and Syrian intelligence agencies. The examples will serve to illustrate the aforementioned themes. Further, students will be familiarized with the involvement of Western intelligence agencies in the Middle East, with a focus on both Germany's during the Cold War: German foreign intelligence (BND), East German State Security (MfS). Additionally, we will look at the new trends in Intelligence Studies and, for instance, investigate how intelligence is portrayed in literature and films.

This course provides an overview of the history of German literature from the 18th to the 21st century. Starting from the knowledge that the psychological sensitivities of an age are reflected in literature, and supported by reading and discussing representative texts, e.g. from Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Heinrich Heine, Franz Kafka, Bertolt Brecht or Ferdinand von Schirach, the focus of the seminar is based on the following topics: the desires, demands, and utopias found in the literature; the influence of developments of the history of thought, social upheavals, and technological innovations on literary expression; the interplay between art, music, and literature; the ability of fiction to inspire social changes; and the ways in which respective authors incorporate literary legacies into their own works. A valid and living impression of literary development from the classical period to the present is provided through texts, and also through film clips and field trips. For instance, the course includes a visit to the Deutsches Historisches Museum and students obtain deeper insight into the art of the Romantic period with a tour through the Alte Nationalgalerie.

Cuba, the "Pearl of the Antilles" had long been the heartpiece of imperial aspirations. One of the last Spanish colonies after the revolutions in South and Central America, it played a defining role in Spanish imperial identity. Meanwhile in the US, intellectuals had argued all throughout the 19th century that the island was a natural extension to the Nation, and should be conquered as a logical conclusion to the Monroe Doctrine. When after the war of 1898 the island came into American hands, Spain fell into a deep crisis of identity. The United States though took its first steps into the arena of colonial world politics, in turn becoming an empire. All the while, the Cuban’s desire for independence became a mere footnote in the aftermath. The colonial and imperial struggles had another dimension to them: Gender. A common propaganda theme in the US depicted the Spaniards as raping Cuba. While Theodore Roosevelt and his "Rough Riders" came to define the ideal American masculinity after the war, Spaniards questioned if they were still manly enough to belong to the club of civilized European nations. This seminar will follow three objectives: First, understanding the importance of Cuba to Spain and the United States before the war of 1898, as well as the events leading up to the war. Second, comparing the ascent of the American Empire with the decline of the Spanish Empire. Third, introducing the analytical category of gender as a tool to understanding geopolitical conflicts in the age of colonialism.

This philosophy course addresses the historical reality of the German moment of philosophy in two subsequent phases. In the first part, the course follows the emergence and full deployment of German philosophy from its Kantian beginnings to Hegel's grand but fragile synthesis, trying to understand its richness as well as its fragility. In a second part, the course discusses the later renewal of German philosophy in the late nineteenth century and its historical tragedy in the twentieth century. This includes a discussion of the new beginnings of philosophy since the mid-nineteenth century, from Marx, and Nietzsche, via Frege and Mach, to Husserl and Wittgenstein, who have been reacting to the scientific and political revolutions of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Martin Heidegger as an established pro-Nazi philosopher and Max Horkheimer as the leading philosopher of the “Frankfurt School” driven into exile are studied as philosophers immersed into the Night of the twentieth century. Finally, post-World War II developments in philosophy (as exemplified by Jürgen Habermas and Ernst Tugendhat) are looked at as pathways out of the self-destructive turn philosophy in Germany had taken in the first decades of the twentieth century, and as passages into an emerging world philosophy. The course is based upon contemporary attempts at rethinking a global philosophical perspective. The focus is on the tension between the Enlightenment heritage of a universalizing human philosophy and a national culture project, as well as on the tension between classicist rationalism and romantic emotionalism in its construction as a series of philosophical projects. From the perspective of a German version of the dialectics of the Enlightenment, the German philosophers of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries are studied in context, combining the reading of key texts with a reconstruction of their historical contexts and their interaction.

This course provides students with an introduction into European environmental and climate politics and policy. Theories on European integration are discussed and students consider their explanatory value in understanding the emergence of environmental and climate policy. Special attention is paid to the European Union's institutional set-up and the actor constellations involved in policy-making processes. The course then reviews the policy cycle and explores the influence of different actor groups on the initiation, agenda setting, decision-making and implementation of European environmental policy. The focus is on regulatory areas related to the environment, climate change, and energy policy. Students consider the problems, debates, and decisions, and compare political expectations and results.

Within the scope of this course, basic concepts of EU competition law are examined along with the recent decisions by the EU Commission. The aim of the course is to teach students how to evaluate current debates on EU competition law within the framework of EU Law. It is expected from participants to conceptualize main concepts of EU competition law and consequently, to be furnished with the ability of holding fundamental discussions in this manner.

This course explores the relationship between the natural world and United States culture, considering specifically the visual expression of that relationship: How have Americans imagined “nature” and represented it? How have concepts of land and landscape shaped perceptions about social order, identity, and sustainability? The course provides both a historical framework for thinking about these questions as well as a contemporary perspective, particularly in the context of a potential new era known as the “Anthropocene.” 

In Germany and Europe public debates on migration, migrant and ethnic communities and religion play a big role in politics and society. This course first analyzes the concepts of race and racism, looking at historical and contemporary moments as well as developments of racism in society. Further, it examines the various uses of terminology in the field and particularly elaborates on the concept of ‘intersectionality’, studying racism and discrimination from this angle. After gaining the theoretical lens for this course, students engage with clear examples of different forms of racism and discrimination such as Antisemitism, anti-Black racism, anti-Muslim racism or anti-Gypsyism. These examples are analyzed and contextualized by looking at structural and societal problems of racism. Finally, students visit and hear from activists in Berlin dealing with the problem of racism and discrimination. Additionally, the course looks into how governments and policy makers try to tackle racism within their own societies. Students learn from this course the different concepts and forms of racism and are able to apply this knowledge in future discussions by critically questioning processes and events in politics and society.

Living and studying in a foreign country can be an exciting time in your personal and intellectual development. One productive way of dealing with the onslaught of impressions is to write about it. This course is designed to help you transform your ideas into a well-considered piece of literary writing. The resulting text may be fictional or non-fictional. It could take the form of a short story set in Berlin, a literary reportage, a creative essay, a series of poems or even the beginning chapter of a novel. Program: This course will be conducted workshop-style. You will work on your own text throughout the semester, and share and discuss it with your fellow students and the instructor. In addition, we will conduct short writing exercises and discuss assigned texts about the process of writing.

This in-depth seminar on the general methodology of psychotherapy focuses on child and adolescent psychotherapy with a focus on the consequences of trauma and child protection. The heart of the seminar is the dream-focused behavioral therapy, a modular and component-based therapy with about 16 sessions with the children and a caregiver. In addition, further methods of trauma therapy with children and adolescents and other trauma-related topics such as experiences of racism and discrimination and their consideration in psychotherapy are examined in more detail.