History

This course provides an overview of long-term developments in the world economy and reviews how the theoretical insights of social scientists help us to understand world history better. The main emphasis is on understanding the two main problems of social and economic history: what are the origins and drivers of economic growth, and why does that process result in wide disparities in wealth?  Students independently carry out a research project and acquire skills relating to social and economic historians, for example, source criticism, and working with data and theory.

This course examines the relationship with history using a perpetual round-trip between modern times and its challenges. Modern representations are based on numerous Greek and Roman categories, but the terms "democracy" and "republic,” and the historical relationship with the body, sexuality, religion, and the environment, have been used with various means to an end, depending on immediate news or justification of interests with certain groups. Historical figures have thus become hostages in a world looking for landmarks. Using historical documents (texts, images, films, series) and contemporary sources, this course begins with current problems (the pandemic, democracy in crisis, the refugee issue, the #Metoo movement) to examine their supposed relationship with the antique world, before moving towards a critical reading of the habits we now have that existed during ancient times.

This course offers an introduction to the various forms of territorial organization in contemporary societies. Topics include: the Industrial Revolution and the new European map; colonization of Africa and Asia; world conflicts and totalitarianism; the Cold War; de-colonization and the third world; political transformations in Latin America; the European Union; the current geopolitical framework.

This course will cover the establishment of the Discipline of Modern Chinese History and the "Paradigm" of Related Studies

1. the origin of the establishment of modern Chinese history as an independent research field

2. several mainstream research "paradigms" and related issues awareness, exemplary works

3. Overview and characteristics of historical materials in modern history

This course examines the Holocaust, including the development of Nazi ideology; racial antisemitism; responses of victims; role of by-standers; post-war politics; Holocaust denial; and war crimes prosecution.

What does it mean to live in a surveillance society? How does the digital age challenge questions regarding privacy, individuality, and freedom? When does surveillance as care tip over into surveillance as control? And how does the Stasi system of vigilance prefigure contemporary surveillance culture? This course on the one hand examines the impact of surveillance on society by looking at the multifaceted ways technologies, societies, and the arts interact; and on the other hand, reflects on surveillance in a totalitarian context while comparing observation techniques in the GDR with contemporary surveillance methods. The course also explores how surveillance is represented in contemporary literature, film, and popular culture. The course maps out important themes with regards to surveillance and its repercussions (e.g., visibility, identity, privacy, and control). The course provides an overview of the interdisciplinary field of surveillance and covers the latest research in the following major areas: 1. Relationship between surveillance, power, and social control; 2. Histories of Surveillance: GDR and the Stasi (especially in the context of Berlin) 3. The concept of privacy; 4. Surveillance in the arts and popular culture.