CIEE, Berlin

Students gain an understanding of the issues and processes involved in developing an international marketing and branding strategy and plan, as well as the execution of marketing and PR operations on an international scale. Course content and practical assignments focus on real-world problems such as identifying and evaluating opportunities in international markets, developing and adapting marketing tactics in relation to multiple, specific national market needs and constraints, and coordinating marketing and branding strategies in global markets. Guest lectures by local business professionals and company visits provide first-hand context and experience for the issues explored in the course.

This course examines a multinational corporation and the ways it formulates, implements, evaluates, and conducts its international and global business in the most cost-effective and efficient way. Students explore how an organization must effectively coordinate all business units (human resources, finance, accounting, sales and marketing, R&D, logistics, corporate social responsibility, etc.) across national boundaries, extending them to places where the environment can be challenging and, at times, even hostile. This course equips students with the necessary tools and concepts to analyze and understand the formulation, implementation and evaluation of a company. 

This course provides students with an overview of the dynamics of the global financial and international monetary systems. Students develop knowledge of the fundamental concepts needed to understand foreign direct investment, financial flows, international trade and investment deals. As political risk and economic exposure to global events have become more immediate, special attention is given to the 2007-2012 world banking crisis, the role of central banks in the stabilization of national economies, national debts, and the specific economic challenges to which individual countries have been exposed in varying ways. Alternative views and policy measures to help struggling economies overcome the economic and financial crisis like contracting (or expanding) government spending are assessed and critically analyzed.

This course provides students with fundamental knowledge of the German architectural tradition through a historical survey of key buildings and urban spaces. Political, cultural, historical and technological factors are closely studied as influences on the process of design and final built forms. Throughout the course, representative architectural examples in Berlin are also studied. Students explore how the city is a particularly rich site to observe how numerous competing political visions and social movements influenced German architecture and urban development.

This introductory course explores the origins of universal civil rights in the USA with an emphasis on historical events, review of biography and legacy of significant activists and change makers from the USA and other countries. The course also presents cases to examine the relationship between the causes triggering civil rights development, and how these events can relate to impactful social events and movements in the last decade in different regions of the world. The course intends to provide a theoretical background, a historical review of events, and a social analysis of movements that students can study by using varied resources for data collection and examination of influential media resources or independent documentation of these processes.

This course provides students with insight and tools to analyze migration in 20th and 21st centuries, focusing on the major migration waves that have involved the USA and how it is also perceived as a transfer of knowledge, goods, capital and networks across borders. Demographic, economic, social, political and religious causes of migration are addressed through the analysis of specific case studies, which provide the students with a map of the most significant movements of people and their aftermaths in the decades to follow. The  instructor and different guest speakers pose a variety of questions such as, what are the definitions of migration? What is the role of states in defining and managing migration? Does it complement, compete with, subvert and/or foreshadow ethnic, national, religious, class and gender identities? What are the most vulnerable migrant groups? How do practices of migration cohabit with the state? What are the references in migration studies to concepts such as multiculturalism, toleration, diversity, collective rights, alienation and difference?

This course seeks to immerse students in a professional work environment. Students have the opportunity to observe and interact with co-workers, and learn how to recognize and respond to cultural differences. Students compare concepts of teamwork and interpersonal interactions in different cultures as experienced on the job. Seminar work helps students apply academic knowledge in a business setting and identify opportunities to create value within the company. Students research a specific topic related to their work placement and present their findings in a final research report.

This course investigates the interconnectedness of poverty, human development as a measure of collective and individual quality of life and social progress, and human rights as an international discourse, legal and political construct. The course combines theoretical approaches to case studies with a historical and comparative perspective. Students learn how to analyze poverty and human development indicators; interrogate and compare different conceptions of rights and their effects in shaping analysis, policies and objectives; and evaluate the roles of social movements, governments and NGOs in social and economic development.

This course introduces students to the history of German cinema, with a special focus on the crucial role of Berlin as both production site and film set. Students engage with important milestones in the history of German cinema, many of which are set in Berlin, and learn about their historical, political and aesthetic contexts. Special emphasis is placed on the so-called “Berlin School” of filmmaking, a New Wave emerging in the late 1990s, and continuing to be highly relevant today. CIEE offers the course in German and English, and this version of the course is taught in English.

This service-learning course combines a structured curriculum and extensive partnership with a local community-based organization to offer tangible community service. Here, student community service includes direct
engagement as well as a research-based action plan addressing a specific challenge or goal identified by a community-based organization. Students begin by exploring key community-based organizations: examining their
mission, vision and goals, and the place of the organization in the local community. Each student then works with an assigned partner organization and invests at least 90 hours partnering with the organization, working with them
and investigating ways to solve a challenge or issue the organization has identified. Student service-learning includes exploring the proximate and ultimate drivers of the organization's chosen challenge, and the organization's
infrastructure, resources, limitations and possibilities for reducing barriers to achieving the organization's self-identified goals. In concert, coursework probes the role of community-based organizations in both local and global
contexts, common challenges of community-based organizations in defining and implementing their goals, the role of service-learning in addressing these issues, and effective ways for students to help them achieve their mission,
vision, and goals. Coursework also guides the student's service-learning experience by helping students develop sound international service ethics, provide tools to investigate solutions to common development issues, aid in
data analysis and presentation, and provide best practices to illustrate findings and deliver approved joint recommendations orally and in writing. Throughout, students use service-learning as a means to expand their global awareness and understanding, explore shared aspirations for social justice, and develop skills to work with others to effect positive change.