History

This course examines Australian politics from a historical perspective. It explores the foundation and working of democracy, the formation and transformation of the party system, and the relationship of politics to broader changes in society. The first part follows a chronological structure, beginning with traditional Indigenous government and extending through the colonial era to the present day, while the second examines a range of themes such as federation, nationalism and republicanism, women, gender and politics, rural politics, Indigenous politics and the media.

The extensive independent study field research paper produced by the student is both the centerpiece of the intern's professional engagement and the culmination of the academic achievements of the semester. During the preparatory session, IFE teaches the methodological guidelines and principles to which students are expected to adhere in the development of their written research. Students work individually with a research advisor from their field. The first task is to identify a topic, following guidelines established by IFE for research topic choice. The subject must be tied in a useful and complementary way to the student-intern's responsibilities, as well as to the core concerns of the host organization. The research question should be designed to draw as much as possible on resources available to the intern via the internship (data, documents, interviews, observations, seminars and the like). Students begin to focus on this project after the first 2-3 weeks on the internship. Each internship agreement signed with an organization makes explicit mention of this program requirement, and this is the culminating element of their semester. Once the topic is identified, students meet individually, as regularly as they wish, with their IFE research advisor to generate a research question from the topic, develop an outline, identify sources and research methods, and discuss drafts submitted by the student. The research advisor also helps students prepare for the oral defense of their work which takes place a month before the end of the program and the due date of the paper. The purpose of this exercise is to help students evaluate their progress and diagnose the weak points in their outline and arguments. Rather than an extraneous burden added to the intern's other duties, the field research project grows out of the internship through a useful and rewarding synergy of internship and research. The Field Study and Internship model results in well-trained student-interns fully engaged in mission-driven internships in their field, while exploring a critical problem guided by an experienced research advisor.

This course explores art and politics in France from the revolution to the present. Through a multimedia approach including sculptures, paintings, prints, commemorative monuments, architecture, street art, and photographs, it retraces the changing forms that some of the most salient political messages have taken in modern French art. The course follows a chronological progression from Revolution to Empire, followed by the rise and fall of the Second Empire and the resulting thirst for revenge. It then broaches the 20th century, including the politics of the avant-garde, the art of colonialism, and the varied aesthetic responses to the rise of totalitarianism on display at the 1937 World’s Fair in Paris and evident in the art of collaboration and resistance produced in Occupied and Vichy France during the Second World War. The art of 1960s countercultural contestation (anti-capitalist, anti-colonial, feminist, etc.) is then studied, before examining recent initiatives in the realm of commemorative art and cultural display that approach issues facing contemporary French society today, such as terrorism and constructively confronting its colonial legacy. The instructional format consists of both lectures and group site visits to museums and monuments throughout the city.

With a career spanning nearly 50 years, Stephen King is one of the world's most popular and influential writers, his stories and iconic characters forming an integral part of the American cultural landscape. Film adaptations of his work continue to receive critical acclaim and extraordinary box office success. The analysis of Horror film and fiction can reveal cultural anxieties at significant socio-historic moments. In this course, students explore the ways in which Stephen King's shorter novels, novellas, and film adaptations of his work interrogate the American psyche, capturing its fears and apprehensions at defining points in modern history. Taking an interdisciplinary approach, this course uses King's work as a lens through which to examine developments in American horror cinema and fiction, investigating the articulation of cultural anxieties from the New England Puritan imagination in the influential works of Edgar Allen Poe and H.P. 

Berlin’s rich museological landscape lends itself to in-depth exploration of Germany’s difficult heritage: How are the upheavals of the 20th and 21st centuries, especially, remembered and represented? This course enables students to get to know a number of Berlin museums focusing on Memory and Post-WWII migration using anthropological methods and to critically analyze them within larger theoretical frameworks of “self” and “other” constructions. To explore the role of museums is rendering such constructions visible and therefore debatable. The course consists of classroom sessions and site visits.