Humboldt University Berlin

In 2017 for the first time since World War II, a right-wing populist party entered the German Bundestag. What came as a massive shock to many political observers in Germany, was merely the expression of a trend stretching across industrialized countries for a couple of decades now: the return of the illiberal right. This course tries to find explanations for the success of the AfD and other right-wing movements or parties, with a specific focus on Germany and the East-West divide that less than 35 years ago still cut Europe and Germany in two halves. This looks for answers to questions such as: Why do people vote for right-wing populist parties? What lesson can the history of right-wing extremism offer for contemporary politics? Can the experience of forceful and rapid change among citizens of formerly Communist states explain the prominence of Illiberalism in Eastern Germany and, potentially, beyond? The course is divided into three parts, which deal with the past, present and future of Illiberalism respectively. For each part, the course undertakes an excursion within Berlin and discuss a Berlin-based movie to demonstrate how the traces of Illiberalism can be found throughout the city.

Students read complex texts from various sources and topics, which built a basis for reading comprehension and oral discussions. Students express their points of view and defend them in front of others. They analyze the strategies and instruments needed to debate, and they create an oral presentation on a topic they are studying.

This course considers travelling artists and artworks in Europe in the 16th and 17th centuries and the way in which people and objects interacted, thus shaping different local cultural contexts and places around Europe. Through the study of iconic travels such as those by Albrecht Durer, Raphael, Lorenzo Lotto, Martin van Heemskerk, El Greco, Sofonisba Anguissola, Federico Zuccari, Caravaggio, Artemisia Gentileschi, Pieter Paul Rubens, as well as the travel of major artworks within Europe, the course addresses the dynamics and forms of cultural encounters, their narratives, and meaning for today’s art history and its methodologies. Visits to the collections of Berlin museums (depending upon pandemic restrictions) allow students to study in depth specific artifacts and to learn how to look closely at works of art.

This course provides an introduction to linguistics. The theoretical focus is on the core areas of the discipline: phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics. Students apply theoretical concepts when analyzing concrete linguistic data, primarily from English, with a focus on North American varieties.

In this course, students investigate how music influences our thoughts, feelings, and actions. Students study foundational methods, concepts, and theories of music psychology and critically debate empirical studies. Students get an overview of the wide range of topics in the subject, and they carry out independent literature research on a music psychological issue, to create experimental designs and to be able to assess experiments.

How do our unconscious biases impact the way we view people within the African Diaspora? This course explores intersectional inequalities of citizenship and the politics of Belonging and how our unconscious biases impact the way we view (Black) Africans and people within the African Diaspora. The relationship between migration, social cohesion, and national German identity has become an increasingly contentious political issue. Historically, the settlement of migrant groups and the formation of minority ethnic groups have changed the socio-cultural, political and economic fabric of receiving societies. The course explores the relationship between racial and ethnocultural diversity. Students are encouraged to the intentional notion of undoing – unlearning and dismantling unjust practices, assumptions, and institutions – as well as persistent action to create and build alternative spaces and ways of knowing, particularly concerning the Black (African) Diaspora. Berlin is used as a case study for themes covered, however, students are encouraged to reflect on their own identities and the expressions of various identities around the city.

The European Renaissance was an age of revolutions: in thought and discourse, politics and government, philosophy and religion, and science and technology. According to an older view of history, these revolutions inaugurated the modern world, thus giving birth to a glorious age of enlightenment and progress. More recently this narrative has been seriously challenged from a variety of standpoints, including from feminist, postcolonial, and global paradigms. The value of Western culture has been deconstructed, the history of “the West” and its place in global history soberly re-evaluated. In 2017 a new study appeared that invites us to revisit the Renaissance and its importance for world history: Bernd Roeck’s DER MORGEN DER WELT. Integrating comparative and counterfactual approaches, it asks what was special about the Renaissance, why it did not happen elsewhere or at another point in time, and what its legacy is today.

Lower intermediate level B1 allows students to progress from the elementary command of language of the basic course level to the independent language use of level B2. Students develop reading, listening, writing and speaking skills in these courses with the purpose of improving the understanding of the lectures, seminars and exercises in their own field of study in Germany. This helps students carry out assignments in their own subject successfully. The B1 level is split into two consecutive courses, the B1.1 course covers the first half of the level and the B1.2 course covers the second half of the level.