Free University of Berlin

There is hardly any musical style, genre, or context which has not been significantly affected by the pervasive digitalization of recent decades. From digital audio workstations to computer-generated music, from laptop performances to fan remixes, from cloud computing to commercial distribution channels – digital technology has profoundly changed the ways in which music is produced, performed, disseminated, and consumed. This course examines the nature of these shifts and samples salient and productive intersections of music and technology. Through specific case studies, the course tackles the following questions: How have digital technologies enabled unprecedented modes of making, using and perceiving music? In what ways has digital mediatization shaped our experiences with musical content and style? And how do we reconcile the long-established connections between music, performance and liveness in an era when the paradigm of reproduction seems to be omnipresent? In the first five sessions the course considers the impact of digital technologies on the production of music. After an introducing outline of basic shifts in music and musicianship caused by digitalization and the computer, the course looks at concrete musical examples in order to understand the influence of digital technologies both on the creative process of music making and on the aesthetic reflection on it. The second half of the course starts with exemplary examinations of digital music technologies in music-related genres and domains, such as film, video games, or sound art. At the end of the semester the course extends the scope and considers cultural issues that are entailed by digital possibilities of sharing, disseminating, and consuming music. In particular, we discuss the intertwining of digitization and commodification as well as its impact on the experience of music in everyday life.

This seminar deals with the linguistic subfield of syntax. Concepts and terms of syntactic analysis are introduced and applied to Romance languages. Students learn about different generative and usage-based syntax theories and analyze specific syntactic phenomena in detail. In addition to these basics, a main focus of the seminar is to work out the points of contact and interfaces of syntax with other areas of linguistics, such as morphology, semantics, information structure, and pragmatics.

This pre-semester course prepares foreign students for academic study at a German university. The focus is on the improvement of oral and written expression as well as grammar and lexical proficiency. The course covers selected topics on German politics and society within a historical context. In addition, excursions are planned to introduce students to German culture. Students work with cultural topics in everyday situations and broaden their intercultural knowledge. They are introduced to independent learning methods and familiarize themselves with typical learning situations at German universities. In this class at the B2 level according to CEFR, students consolidate their knowledge of grammar and study complex structures. They systematically expand their vocabulary and include abstract terms and topics. The course includes exercises to improve oral and written communication such as doing research, structuring, presenting, and discussing. Writing skills are enhanced through different types of academic texts and handouts. The B2 level is split into two courses, the B2.1 course covers the first half of the level and the B2.2 course covers the second half of the level.

In this bridge class on the A2/B1 level according to CEFR, students review, consolidate, and are further introduced to basic grammar points and vocabulary. All four skills are further developed and expanded upon. Topics are taken from Berlin and German history and culture and also include politics as well as intercultural topics and current events.

Digital media are an essential part of the lives of teenagers, as they are crucial elements of the social environment in which children grow up. Undoubtedly, adolescents play a key role in the popularity of various digital media sources and have a great influence on media trends, topics, and forms of expression. The complexity of the development and socialization of adolescents can be better understood when it comes to the influence of digital media, such as television and film, social networks, gaming, and music. This bachelor course approaches “youth” by exploring both how it relates to age and child development, but also how this implicitly evokes specific qualities in terms of gender, sexuality, class, race, ethnicity, nationality, and ability. The course examines digital media through the various types of content and technologies available, and critically examines who produces and consumes such media. The course asks questions about what media young people engage with and why, what media content they produce, how media impacts them, and what responsibility content creators and tech companies have in this regard. The course focuses on helping students develop a better understanding of how youth and other identities, such as gender or sexuality, are socially and culturally constructed, and assess the ways in which they are performed in a variety of youth cultures and subcultures. Each week the students engage with different media content and related digital platforms, and learn to critically examine how we can situate the concept of intersectionality in these. This in turn allows them to have a deep understanding of the roles that youth play politically, economically, and culturally.

This course is intended for students who have no prior knowledge of German. In this class on the A1 level according to CEFR, students learn and solidify basic grammatical structures and systematically build their vocabulary. They train the four skills of listening, reading, speaking, and writing in everyday situations and do simple exercises to practice and improve their verbal and written skills. Students are introduced to independent forms of learning and studying. The class covers and reflects on civilization and culture in Germany, Berlin, and at the university as related to everyday life. Topics include personal information, living situation, institutions, traffic, traveling, health, weather, and festivities.

In January 2021 a commission appointed by the federal government released an extensive report on the integration of people with a Migrationshintergrund, or migration background, in Germany. The report set out a concept of integration, discussed integration with regard to a wide range of policy areas, including health and housing, education, and employment, and raised issues like religion and language. Also included in the report were the dissenting positions of several commission members, which underline the extent to which integration remains a contested and controversial idea. The course uses this report as the starting point for an analysis of the concept of integration. The course considers the economic, social, political, and cultural aspects of the concept developed in the report, and compares it with terms like cosmopolitanism and multiculturalism. The course also discusses the implications of integration for employment and education policy.

The goal of this inter-disciplinary bioinformatics course, consisting of lectures, exercises, and a seminar, is to introduce students to (1) key theoretical concepts, computational strategies, and algorithms for predicting RNA secondary structures and related features, covering probabilistic and comparative machine learning methods; (2) key experimental concepts for transcriptome-wide RNA structure and RNA-RNA interaction probing; and (3) key research contributions published in recent years.