Humboldt University Berlin

In this course we will study code-switching, the alternation between two or more languages (or two or more varieties of a language) within the same discourse. We will relate code-switching to both individual and societal multilingualism, investigate the phenomenon from a structural perspective as well from sociolinguistic and psycholinguistic perspectives, see how theories of code-switching have developed over time, and apply a variety of theoretical perspectives to the analysis of examples of code switching involving a variety of language pairs.

Dao 道 (sometimes written Tao) means path or road and extends to mean methods and principles. It has a broad range of usage across different schools, most obviously philosophical and religious Daoism. In this research group, we will be reading and discussing selections from the foundational texts of Daoism, the Laozi (also known as Daodejing) and the Zhuangzi, and their direct historical and current reception. We will read texts of both religious and philosophical Daoism. Reading suggestions from participants are welcome. This research group is open to interested bachelor’s and master’s students of all disciplines. Prior engagement with Chinese philosophy is welcome but not required, as we will be starting with the foundational texts.

This course introduces students to the description, analysis, and interpretation of popular music. We will focus mainly on the music of popular music, exploring (1) how it is structured, patterned, and organized, and (2) how it achieves its effects. We will consider various stylistically relevant musical features, such as form, melody, harmony, timbre, rhythm, and sound design. Students will build their skills in identifying and describing salient features in popular works, and they will learn to produce their own critically informed close readings of individual popular songs. We'll also look at ways others have modeled these skills. A wide range of musical styles will be discussed, though the course is not intended as a historical survey.

While potential urban green space accessibility is being discussed widely, specific barriers that affect accessibility are often under-estimated. They are not equal to limited or uneven accessibility nor are they exclusively related to physical settings. Rather, the variety of barriers and their complex interactions including people’s perception, personal conditions, and institutional frames make this subject fuzzy and difficult to operationalize for planning purposes. Given the importance of barriers for decision-making of people, this class will conceptualize different barriers on realizing recreational benefits of urban green spaces within the frame of environmental justice. Studying multidimensional barriers allows for a more comprehensive understanding of individuals’ decisions in terms of accessing recreational benefits and a discussion of planning responses. Based on theoretical insights and local examples, the focus will be on qualitative and quantitative assessments methods for studying barriers, as well as on potential planning pathways for mitigating or minimizing barriers.

This course offers a systematic introduction to the central themes of the philosophy of mind. It is divided into three parts. The first part deals with fundamental problems. In addition to more traditional distinctions such as that between dualism and monism, newer empirical theories of consciousness and the conflicts that exist between them are also discussed. The second deals with methodological questions and central concepts such as emergence or supervenience. The third part deals with particularly important individual problems. This includes the problem of free will, theories of embodied and extended cognition, and questions of self-confidence. The lecture will fundamentally also take empirical findings from psychology and neuroscience into account.

Personal dedications in book copies from this author's library are examined as documents of literary history. The form, content and dating of each individual dedication must be contextualized through extensive research in order to find out to what extent they are documents of East-West German, transnational or GDR-internal relationship networks. In the first step, we explore the bibliophilic form and variety of dedications in the “turning library” comprising several shelves from the basement of Christa and Gerhard Wolf's Pankow apartment, which, after being donated and moved, is now located at the Christa and Gerhard Wolf private library work and research center. The second step is documentation and the third is an attempt at contemporary and literary-historical contextualization.

In this course, students practice writing simple texts and train grammar topics that are important for both casual and formal writing. The focus is on writing occasions from everyday private and student life (e.g. creative writing, notes, emails). Students also prepare a short essay at the end of the course. The grammar topics that are covered are based on the students' texts. Students' willingness to write short texts on a regular basis is therefore important.

This course aims to provide a range of qualitative research tools to invoke different stories, views, voices, identities, embodimenets and experiences. We discuss the theory, methodology and foundation of non-textual research methods. These different methods are hoped to provoke a new way of thinking away from the Western canon, contribute to more democratic and just research settings, and open up possibilities for transforming social inequalities. Through readings, class discussions, lectures from invited guests, and practical exercises students will explore the potentials and challenges of various methods, identify opportunities to use them, and consider how to treat and deal with data that comes out of the use of creative methods. This course is suitable for anyone who would like to experience and learn more about alternative and/or complementary methods to existing qualitative approaches (i.e. focus groups, interviews). It is of advantage if participants have prior experience of and with qualitative research. Participants at the early, middle and final stages of a qualitative research project will benefit, but if possible, it is best to consider data collection and analysis at the proposal stage.

In literary uchronies, fictional scenarios are created that are based on an alternative course of history. They can therefore be understood as thought experiments that seek an answer to the question of what would have happened if history had taken a different path at one point: What if the Second World War had taken a different course? What if the turning point hadn't happened? What if the First World War had never ended or had never happened at all? The lecture approaches this phenomenon from different perspectives, tracing the history of concepts and genres as well as identifying thematic focuses of concrete literary uchronies. The distinction from Uchronia in historical science will also play an important role. In this way the course shows that literary uchronia is not just a (sometimes quite amusing) game of the imagination, but in most cases also a challenging and intensive examination of the past as well as the present.

This is the second part of my lecture series ‘Kant and the Constitution of Objectivity’.  This course deals mainly with Transcendental Dialectic. I will argue that Kant establishes a new and distinct notion of objectivity here, which is built on the insight that the objects of empirical cognition are always conditioned with respect to certain metaphysical grounding relations and provoke the idea of something that is unconditioned in this respect. Understanding how this notion of objectivity arises and why it falls short of providing us with cognition, e.g., of the self, of the world as a whole, and of God, will allow for a better understanding of Kant’s arguments against rationalist psychology, cosmology and theology. We will also deal with the object of practical reason – the good – and see in how far the objects of theoretical and practical reason are distinct and in how far they are similar.