Humboldt University Berlin

Cities at War is a lecture series bringing together scholars from war-affected cities to explore how armed conflict shapes urban life and space. Unlike studies that conflate urban militarization with cities enduring active conflict, this series centers on the physical destruction, ruination, and everyday survival strategies within cities at war. It examines how planning, reconstruction, displacement, and commodification are formed by the continuum of times of war and times of peace. A key aspect is the erasure of knowledge, heritage, and memory - both through material destruction and the ideological rewriting of cities in post-conflict nation-building.

This course explores Berlin through the lens of émigré and exile literature, examining works by writers who either left Berlin or found refuge within it. Through close readings of texts spanning from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries to contemporary works, students analyze how experiences of exile, migration, and displacement shape literary imagination and cultural identity. The course moves through Berlin's key historical moments—from the Russian émigré communities of the 1920s, through the forced exile of Jewish writers, to post-war Turkish-German literature and contemporary refugee narratives. By pairing literary texts with theoretical frameworks and conducting original ethnographic research, students investigate how different waves of migration have transformed both Berlin's physical spaces and its literary landscape. Special attention is paid to how writers represent specific Berlin neighborhoods and how various communities have shaped the city's cultural geography. Through engagement with memoir, fiction, poetry, and first-hand accounts, students explore themes of memory, nostalgia, linguistic displacement, cultural adaptation, and the evolving relationship between place and identity in émigré writing.

In this course, students review, consolidate, and expand their knowledge of basic German grammar. They practice structures needed in everyday communication.

This seminar examines curatorial perspectives and exhibition-making in Berlin, with a focus on past, present, and future approaches to cultural production in response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic. It offers a specialized and contextualized study of exhibitions in Berlin about HIV/AIDS from the 1980s to the present, examining how curatorial practices have evolved alongside shifts in public discourse, activism, and artistic production. Visits to Berlin-based institutions and conversations with both local and international artists and curators grant students first-hand insight into contemporary curatorial strategies. The seminar is particularly suited for students interested in academic and curatorial research within the framework of socially engaged art practices. Coursework includes reading theoretical texts, watching relevant films, participating in group discussions, and critically analyzing artworks and exhibitions. Students also engage with curatorial writing strategies and develop a final project: a conceptual proposal for an exhibition that responds to the HIV/AIDS epidemic within Berlin's cultural and political context.

This course explores how concepts of mobility, boundaries, and (un)belonging are negotiated in modern travelogues about Europe by afrodiasporic as well as African writers. In the postcolonial fashion of "Irritating Europe", the class examines central ideas of European self-imagery, such as its humanism and supposed progressiveness. Students analyze how Black travel literature not only functions as a deconstruction of colonial discourses but also establishes a new literary geography: the Afropean space.

This course provides students with a general overview of social inequalities in health at the individual and population level and how they differ across time and place. It spans topics from sociology, public health, epidemiology, and demography to explore the various factors that produce and exacerbate health inequalities. Emphasis is placed on first building foundational knowledge about health inequalities and its determinants, including understanding how health is defined and measured, and what are the factors that influence health at the individual (e.g., socioeconomic status, family structure) and population (e.g., cultural norms, welfare systems) levels. The course then discusses how health changes over the life course and over time. A central focus throughout this course is on contextual differences, so readings cover a range of countries and populations. Students are expected to critically engage with scientific articles selected by the instructor and are encouraged to contribute relevant articles for discussion in class. A solid understanding of quantitative research methods is essential for the successful completion of this course.

This course offers an in-depth critical analysis of right-wing populism, emphasizing its theoretical foundations, historical evolution, and contemporary empirical manifestations. Students explore the ideological underpinnings of right-wing populism, its intersections with nationalism and authoritarian tendencies, and its broader implications for democratic governance. Through interdisciplinary scholarly literature, critical media analyses, and collaborative discussions, the course examines how right-wing populist movements emerge, sustain, and transform within diverse political systems and cultural contexts, focusing particularly on case studies from Europe and North America. Special attention is also given to the relationship between right-wing populism and pressing global issues such as climate change, fostering awareness of how environmental concerns are framed, instrumentalized, or denied within populist rhetoric. Upon completion of this course, students can clearly define and differentiate between key concepts including right-wing populism, radical right, and extreme right. They are capable of analyzing and critiquing the core ideological dimensions of populism and identifying the underlying factors that drive the emergence and rise of right-wing populist movements. Additionally, students evaluate the impact of digital communication technologies on populist rhetoric and political mobilization. They are also equipped to conduct comparative analyses of right-wing populist phenomena across different national contexts and critically assess the consequences of right-wing populism on democratic institutions, civil society, civic norms, and environmental discourse.

This course covers the politics of immigration in Europe. Students engage with key debates and empirical findings related to public opinion on immigration, including how perceptions of cultural, economic, and security-related threats shape attitudes toward immigrants. The course explores how immigration influences voting behavior and electoral outcomes, particularly in the context of the rise of anti-immigration parties across Europe. Students investigate the causes and consequences of these parties' success, as well as the strategic responses of mainstream political actors. In addition, the course places emphasis on the experiences of immigrants themselves, including political discrimination, integration, and the pathways to political incorporation. The phenomenon of anti-immigrant violence is also addressed. Basic knowledge of quantitative research methods (multivariate regression, causal inference, and experimental design) is desirable but not required.

Using direct engagement with Late Antiquity and medieval artworks housed in Berlin’s Staatliche Museen, this seminar introduces students to a solid method of interrogating images and objects. It focuses on the particularities of the Christian image, namely its capacity of figuring the invisible and its relationship with the Hebrew Scriptures. The way the Hebrew Scriptures were transformed into the “Old Testament” in images serves as the seminar’s guiding thread. By examining specific distinct objects, students trace the emergence of Christian imagery, explore the contradictions it struggled with, and consider the dynamics of artistic creation in the Middle Ages. The first sessions offer a brief introduction to the central themes. In the following sessions, students visit the Bode Museum and other state museums. During these sessions, each student presents an assigned object, followed by an open group discussion. The class also addresses questions regarding the ways of exhibiting medieval objects in museums.

This course critically examines key conceptual frameworks such as decolonization, postcolonialism and anti-colonialism - particularly in relation to art, museums and heritage. Emphasis is placed on challenging Western systems of knowledge and exploring alternative perspectives on seeing, curating and narrating. The course includes guest lectures from scholars and practitioners as well as field visits to museums and exhibitions.