History

This course examines the history of the Holocaust and the literary, theological and cultural responses to the destruction of European Jewry. It looks at how it was possible for the Nazis to come to power, what the first policies of persecuting Jews in Germany were, and how those policies escalated to expulsion, ghettoization, and mass murder across Europe. It also discusses contemporary cultural representations and the often-intricate politics of Holocaust memory.

This course offers a study of the physical and natural environment of Spain. It examines Spain's territory in relation to its social environment and economy, both nationally and regionally. This course also discusses Spain's diversity through examination of its natural regions and its autonomous communities. Finally, it focuses on the transition to democracy, the Spanish constitution and current institutions, and Spanish society today.

This course examines selected topics on Hong Kong History. 

This course examines key issues in the history of sex, gender, power and identity. It will examine the challenges faced by women (and people of other minoritized genders and sexualities) in gaining legal and political recognition. Attention will be given both to structural inequalities and changing assumptions about masculinity and femininity, gender relations, sex roles and sexual practices. 

 

In the 19th century, the Tibetan Plateau was one of the last so-called "blank spots" on European maps, along with other regions of Central Asia. Due to its strategic position in Central Asia and growing economic interests, developing Tibet became an ambitious goal for many Europeans. The seminar examines in what form and with what motives different interest groups such as missionaries, traders, adventurers, scientists and colonial officials acquired and circulated knowledge about Tibet. Why was certain knowledge considered important? How was the collected knowledge interpreted, used and presented? The aim of the seminar is the methodical introduction of the students to colonial history in Asia and the discussion of the role of the so-calledGreat Game between Great Britain and Russia for supremacy in Central Asia, the effects of which reach into the present.
 

Since the 1983's March for equality and against racism (“Marche des Beurs”), up until the current debates on Islamism separatism, the French public sphere is struggling with a new intellectual debate, which can be described as “the postcolonial question”. By defining and questioning this phrasing, this course first establishes a political history of immigration in France, and how it has deeply defined and redefined the definitions of social progress. Moreover, using diverse approaches in social science, the course explains this rising issue of identity politics in France which seems to have deeply impacted the political scene. The appearance of this issue is mostly due to economic crises, recent immigration waves and diverse social and political movements which stirred a topical debate on the notion of identity - but also the parallels established with the American debate on race and gender, and how the French university has used (or refused) these categories. Analyzing the evolution of immigration and Islam in France, and how the administration has tried to address these stakes, the course discusses political and religious phenomena which currently are one of the main fault lines within French parties - both within the left and the right, on the question of integration or assimilation, on a liberal or strict vision of laïcité. The teaching mainly focuses on France, in order to understand the consequences of these events as a matter of domestic policy. However, those dynamics are systematically compared to foreign similar events and replaced in a Euro-Mediterranean context through a comprehensive chronology.

This course offers an introduction to social movement studies, a dynamic field of academic studies that has grown in prominence for the past several decades. It focuses on the protests that have emerged and developed in the United States since the 2007-2008 financial crisis, as the United States has been home to a wide range of movements and counter-movements that have attempted to define or redefine notions such as equality, justice, and democracy. Throughout the world the 2010s and 2020s have been characterized by innovative or renewed forms of contentious politics that directly challenged the political status quo and neoliberal hegemony. Topics include Occupy Wall Street; the Tea Party; the 2011 occupation of the Wisconsin State Capitol; the January 2021 attacks on the federal Capitol in Washington, D.C.; the 2012 Chicago teachers' strike and the 2018-2019 teachers' strikes in predominantly Republican states; the recent successful organizing efforts at Amazon and Starbucks; the different iterations of the Movement for Black Lives; far-right rallies under the Trump presidency; campaigns against campus sexual assault in the early 2010s; the worldwide #MeToo movement and anti-feminist reactions fueled by the so-called men's rights movement; the 2016 No Dakota Access Pipeline protests and the Green New Deal; and corporate misinformation campaigns, behind-closed-doors lobbying, and judicial battles waged by Big Oil companies against environmental justice movements.

Topics in this course include an overview of the early Irish legal system (Brehon law), the structure of early Irish society and its institutions – in particular: the early Irish system of law enforcement in the absence of a centralized state and associated police force; the status of women in early Irish society, including marriage arrangements; Irish family structures; an overview of farming and food in early Ireland, and the nature and background of Irish "sacral" kingship and the concept of truth.

On the basis of historical sources and overviews, this seminar presents the most important German protest movements. While the first part focuses on the great protest movements of the second half of the twentieth century, the second part is devoted to contemporary protest movements. Our special interest is the media support of the protest and the critical questioning of keywords like "Wutbürger".