Free University of Berlin

Political economy describes the multifold interactions between the political and economic subsystem in a society and is studied by many different disciplines. This lecture series invites scholars and practitioners from economic history, economics, history, literature and sociology to present on different sectors and aspects of the American political economy. Topics range from labor to housing markets, from migration to the international dollar system and from social movements to racialized capitalism. The lecture provides students with a unique interdisciplinary introduction into current research into American political economy, from many JFKI scholars and beyond.

The course introduces students to the interplay between trade, migration, and issues such as inequality, environmental degradation, and global politics. It equips students with the analytical tools and essential knowledge necessary to engage in contemporary debates on these issues, helping them to gain a deeper understanding of the interconnected dynamics in the globalized economy. The course covers both theoretical concepts and empirical studies. Students will understand the key theories and concepts underlying international trade and migration and have developed an awareness of how trade and migration trends are influenced by and contribute to challenges in areas like the labor market, environmental sustainability, or social cohesion. For the final examination, students are expected to demonstrate their ability to critically evaluate and discuss the relationship between trade or migration and at least one of the challenges discussed throughout the course.

This course focuses on sustainability and its impact as the most important global transformation project of the current time. It primarily discusses theories of change and human planning and design, but also topics such as justice, freedom, progress, growth, capitalism, and inequality.

Revolutionary movements often times embed their actions in places where power is physically located, i.e., houses of parliaments, presidential palaces and so on. Aiming at the so-called nerve centers of powers can be crucial in successfully disrupting power. Throughout history public spaces have time and again served as playing fields for contentious politics: During the French revolution, the storming of the Bastille in 1789 held symbolic value, while the protest camp in Cairo’s Tahrir square was crucial for the overthrowing of the Egyptian regime in 2011. Beyond those, examples of the use of space for contentious politics by both resistance and repression actors can be found in Khartoum (qiyadah sit-in), Beijing (Tiananmen massacre) and Tirana (Skanderbeg Square) to name a few. But how do these squares and places become revolutionary – or not? Following this question, the seminar aims to explore the relationship between revolutions and space, delving specifically into the role of public spaces for revolutionary oppositions in mobilizing, building shared identities, and configuring spaces which embody their visions for a different future. 
 

This course consists of an introduction to the major authors and debates in the history of post-45 art. The seminar lays the basis for to further studies and is meant to familiarize students with a set of basic texts that have helped shape and transform our discipline since the mid-20th century. Students read classical and more recent texts by art historians, critics and theoreticians, such as, Claire Bishop, Benjamin Buchloh, T.J. Demos, and Rosalind Krauss, as well as discuss such central concepts as institutional critique, site-specificity, post-modernism, relational aesthetics, post-coloniality and the environmental turn.

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 B2.2/C1.1 level according to CEFR, students consolidate their knowledge of grammar and study complex structures and do in-depth study of grammatical structures that are typical of academic writing and its application in text production and reception. 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. Students critically analyze different types of texts and systematically expand their vocabulary (including abstract vocabulary) and stylistic ways of expression.

This course explores how the EU can be understood as a differentiated political system, both in relation to its member states and non-EU countries. It looks into differentiation in various forms, including variation in the extent to which states participate in EU policies (horizontal differentiation) and in the level of integration across policy areas (vertical differentiation), and it explores the drivers of such differentiation. The course also discusses the consequences of differentiation for the legitimacy of European integration.

The seminar enquires the question of how affluence translates into influence, both on the domestic and international level via the engagement with three recently published books. With Guido Alfani’s “As Gods Among Men. A History of the Rich in the West”, the course asks what makes a person rich, what the richs’ role is in society and how either changed across history. With Katharina Pistor’s “The Code of Capital. How the law creates wealth and inequality”, the course seeks to understand the law and its international application as a core mechanism that turns affluence into influence. And with Helen Thompson’s “Disorder. Hard Times in the 21st Century”, the course assesses the implications of “aristocratic excess” on contemporary democratic politics. The seminar is an introduction to the topic and does not require any previous knowledge. However, it does require a commitment to reading substantive parts of each book.

This seminar discusses the concept of genocide and the meaning of violence. As a first step, students read theoretical texts about genocide, mass violence, different forms of war and the Holocaust. Second, students study several examples of genocides in the modern and premodern periods. They analyze the specific nature of each and compare them to find out what unites and separates them. Students read theoretical texts about the concept of genocide and study the history of mass violence, war, and the Holocaust. Applying a global perspective, the course compares different forms of genocide and gets to the bottom of the question what unites and separates them.