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Semester Classes

Foto: Miriam Prüßner

Regular Semester Classes

The International Undergraduate Study Program (IUSP) takes courses from the university's regular course catalogue. Usually, classes take place two hours per week.
Important: Each class, whether held in English or German, is being supported by tutorials (obligatory!) in English with four hours per week, especially for IUSP students. In the tutorials, students are working up the contents of the lecture, not only of the first eight weeks the IUSP participants are staying, but also the contents of the second half of the German semester. In addition, the tutors work more deeply on the topic with the students and deepen their knowledge.

The IUSP students give presentations and write essays on the topics according to the respective class and tutorial. Generally, marks are given for oral work (presentations, performance in class etc.) and written work (reports, bibliographies, homework, essays etc.).

Class Choice: We are adding classes as they come in from the professors, and will start publishing classes from December on for the Spring semester, and from July on for the Fall semester.* As soon as the list will be complete, we will notify all students, and ask for their class choice in an email. We will ask for their final decision after their arrival in Marburg. Only students with the language level B1.1 and above can enroll for classes held in German.

Note on Class Attendance
Please bear in mind that attendance is required in order to receive credit for IUSP classes. Failure to attend classes or tutorials can result in grade cuts and/or a grade not being issued to you if you do not attend classes and tutorials regularly. Absence of 15% of the class/tutorial time or more will result in failing the class. IUSP students do not have the option of simply sitting for the exam at the end of the semester without having attended classes. Health issues and other serious reasons for missing lectures are, of course, another matter. Please keep your teacher and/or the IUSP staff informed if you are unable to attend lectures.

*Please note:
Generally speaking, class descriptions are posted online later than what many colleges and universities outside of Germany are accustomed to. The reason for this lies in the differing academic calendars. The classes for the spring semester in Marburg are published in January; classes for the fall semester in Marburg are published in July. We recommend looking at classes from the previous academic year to get a feel for what classes will be offered in the corresponding semester of the current academic year. In most subject areas, similar courses are offered on a rotating basis one time each academic year. We do not offer the same classes every year/semester. Introductory-level courses, however, are generally repeated. Browsing through past catalogues can be helpful in giving you an idea of what courses may be offered and what courses may be counted towards your degree.
The descriptions in the class list are taken from our university course catalogue. 

Class List Fall 2026

Subject Area: American Studies 

  • Prof. Dr. Carmen Birkle: Introduction to North American Studies (held in English)

    Lecture, online, asynchronous

    This lecture class will serve as a survey of the discipline of North American Studies as well as the literature and culture of the United States and, to some extent, of Canada and the English-speaking Caribbean. We will look at what North American Studies actually is and does and will exemplify our more theoretical insights with phenomena taken from literature and culture. American Studies by definition is interdisciplinary so that our examples will be taken from literature, history, film and TV, music and art and will show how their interaction and multiple perspectives help us to understand what we talk about when we talk about North America. Literary and cultural theory and practical analysis will be integrated. Our objects of analysis will range from Christopher Columbus’s early letters to Europe all the way up to twenty-first-century presidential elections and inaugural speeches and representations of current protest movements such as #BlackLivesMatter and #MeToo. Significant historical moments such as the foundation of the United States, slavery and the Civil War, Native Americans and the Westward Movement including immigration and imperialism, the Harlem Renaissance and the Great Depression, the Civil Rights and Women’s Rights Movements, 9/11, Artificial Intelligence, and the Corona crisis will be intertwined with literary texts, popular examples, and concepts and theories such as emancipation, gender, class, and ethnicity. Our socio-historical categories will be (im)migration, emancipation, and globalization. We will read and analyze one short story for each session. We will also look at the current political situation in the United States, most probably in the form of a panel discussion.

    Reading Requirements (Short Stories):
    Stephen Crane, “The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky” (1898)
    Sui Sin Far, “Mrs. Spring Fragrance” (1910)
    Washington Irving, “Rip Van Winkle” (1819)
    Charlotte Perkins Gilman, “The Yellow Wallpaper” (1892)
    Pauline Hopkins, “Talma Gordon” (1900)
    Zitkala-Ša, “The Soft-Hearted Sioux” (1901)
    Alice Walker, “Nineteen Fifty-Five” (1981)
    Annie Proulx, “What Kind of Furniture Would Jesus Pick?” (2003)
    Joyce Carol Oates, “The Mutants” (2004)
    Isaac Asimov, “Satisfaction Guaranteed” (1951)
    All stories will be made available on ILIAS by early October.

  • Prof. Dr. Carmen Birkle: Re-Imagining U.S.-Canadian Relations in Times of Crisis (held in English)

    Seminar, Tuesday 2-4 pm

    At the 2026 World Economic Forum at Davos, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney noted that shifting global dynamics demanded reconsidering Canada’s position in North America and the world. In a speech that was hailed as bold and strong, Carney reminded his global audience that “nostalgia is not a strategy” because “the old order is not coming back.” The speech laid out a way for the country and other middle powers to act together and “build[] what we claim to believe in,” thus projecting a form of reimagining based on shared values such as solidarity, strength, and integrity. While Carney’s address must be seen, first, in light of the recent heightened tensions with the United States, whose imperial threats of annexation have provoked strong national responses from Canadians, it is, second, also a response to a wider global context of rising authoritarianism and populism that have challenged established understandings of order and solidarity. Coming at the heels of Justin Trudeau’s 2015 description of Canada as the “first post-national state,” Carney’s call turns a new page in the book of Canada’s ongoing quest for a national identity.

    We will discuss in class Canada’s cultural and political positioning toward the United States and its assumption of a new role in world politics and will read several political speeches geared toward the current U.S.-Canadian relationship. Moreover, we will also look at historical developments, beginning with settler colonialism and Canada’s brief invasions by the United States in the Revolutionary War (1775) and the War of 1812. Ultimately, we will discuss why Canada seems to have become for people a place of escape from the United States, originating in the prominent Underground Railroad during the times of slavery, via the first Trump administration, until today. We will discuss the nature of a border as well as questions of national identity.

    In addition to political issues, we will also discuss the movie We Stand on Guard (Brian K. Vaughan [U.S. American] and Steve Skroce [Canadian]) and read short fiction and novels that focus on U.S.-Canadian relations by Thomas King, Omar El Akkard, Philip Roth, and Louise Penny. An interesting cultural phenomenon is also the Haskell Free Library and Opera House, opened in 1904 between Derby Line, Vermont, U.S., and Stanstead, Quebec, Canada, so right on the border between the two countries. These very different perspectives, also genre-wise, will give us an insight into the relationship between the United States and Canada.

    Please aquire the novels before the beginning of the semester. We will proceed in chronological order. 

    Required Reading:
    Akkard, Omar. American War (2017)
    King, Thomas. “Borders” (1991)
    Penny, Louise. The Grey Wolf (2024)
    Penny, Louise. The Black Wolf (2025)
    Roth, Philip. The Plot against America (2004)
    All shorter texts and speeches will be made available on ILIAS by the beginning of the semester.

  • Prof. Dr. Carmen Birkle: Caribbean Crossroads to North America (held in English)

    Seminar, Tuesday 4-6 pm

    Across centuries, the Caribbean islands / nations have served as crossroads to both North and South America and have variously been considered a part of Central America, South America, or North America. While geographically stable, they have been socio-politically fluid, as first inhabited by Indigenous people (Arawak and Taino) and Caribs, then colonized by European powers such as England, France, Spain, and the Netherlands, and then independent nations, territories, or members of the British Commonwealth. The connections North / South, East / West are, therefore, myriad. Moreover, Caribbeans have migrated in great numbers to the United States and Canada and have not only contributed to those countries’ cultures, politics, and economy but have also created their own literature, which serves as a tool of mediation between cultures. In addition to reading short fiction and novels by Edwidge Danticat (Haiti; USA), Erna Brodber (Jamaica; USA), Shani Mootoo (Trinidad; Canada), Dionne Brand (Trinidad; Canada), Angie Cruz (Dominican Republic; USA), and Cristina García (Cuba; USA), we will also look at the Caribbean islands as a bridge for the United States to South America, extending the historical 1823 Monroe Doctrine to the twenty-first century.

    We will focus on gender and migration, ethnicity and class, (im)mobility, and narrative perspectives and modes. Our discussion will be embedded in the history of slavery with the transatlantic slave trade and the Middle Passage, European settler colonialism, and current political concerns of dictatorships, authoritarianism, imperialism, and citizenship.

    Please aquire the novels before the beginning of the semester. We will read the texts in chronological order. 

    Required Reading:
    Brand, Dionne. “Train to Montreal” (1988)
    Brodber, Erna. Louisiana (1994)
    Chancy, Myriam. Village Weavers (2024)
    Cruz, Angie. Dominicana (2019)
    Danticat, Edwidge. “Children of the Sea” (1995)
    Danticat, Edwidge. Breath, Eyes, Memory (1994)
    Mootoo, Shani. Moving Forward Sideways like a Crab (2014)
    All short stories and further short readings will be made available on the ILIAS platform by the beginning of the semester.

  • Dr. Juliane Gamböck-Strätz: Bodies of Tomorrow: Science Fiction and Posthumanism (held in English)

    Seminar, Thursday 10 am-12 pm

    This seminar approaches posthuman bodies through science fiction literature. The posthuman(ist) understanding of bodies is mainly influenced by two factors: emerging (bio-)technologies and a changing relationship between humans and their animate and inanimate environment. As a result, the posthuman body is becoming a site of shifting borders. Since the body is increasingly considered a dynamic and hybrid machine and its former, alleged boundaries vanish, it can and needs to be fine-tuned and perfected through add-ons and enhancing methods. Former physical limitations vanish as it becomes an assemblage of organic and inorganic, of technological and natural circuits. This seminar studies representations of posthuman bodies, humans, androids, robots, etc., in selected science fiction writings. Science fiction as a genre does not only depict the reactions, hopes and fears towards technological progress and social, cultural, economic and ecological changes, but it is also informed by the current perception of living and working within an exploitative economy that is becoming ever more coercive in its disciplining methods on the body. Therefore, by relying on historical facts as well as political realities, science fiction oscillates between forecasting future realities and dramatically mirroring social conditions.

    In this class, we will encounter different texts and types of media that deal with posthuman bodies. Among these will be, for example, short stories by Philip K. Dick, William Gibson, and Paolo Bacigalupi. 

  • Dr. Juliane Gamböck-Strätz: Exploring Kinship in Times of Planetary Precarity (held in English)

    Seminar, Wednesday 12-2 pm

    This seminar approaches contemporary questions that concern the formation of kinship relationships. While kinship studies have historically challenged assumptions that kinship must be rooted solely in biology and genealogy and have looked beyond constructed boundaries of the familial and the social, the course will investigate how we imagine and theorize belonging in a world shaped by climate crisis mass displacement, racial capitalism, extinction, and technological transformation.

    Doing so, this seminar will read theoretical approaches to kinship and making kin as critical frameworks to analyze works of art, literature, media, and film. Rather than treating kinship as a fixed biological, genealogical, or legal category, we will explore alternative forms of care, solidarity, and responsibility across living webs of relations, and thus across constructed boundaries such as race, class, gender, sexuality, nationality, species, and ecology.

Subject Area: Business Administration and Economics

Subject Area: English Studies

  • Prof. Dr. Sonja Fielitz: Transgressing Boundaries: from Overreachers to 'Unruly' Women in Early Modern English Literature (held in English)

    Seminar, Tuesday 6-8 pm

    This advanced seminar explores numerous ways in which early modern English literature imagined and challenged social, political, and gendered boundaries. Focusing on figures who transgress accepted norms – from the ambitious overreacher and the political rebel to the outspoken, sexually autonomous, or intellectually assertive woman – we will examine how early modern literary texts negotiate the tensions between individual desire and institutional authority and investigate how acts of transgression both threaten and redefine the limits of power, identity, and social order. The selection of texts below will pay particular attention to the representation of ‘unruly’ women, whose resistance to patriarchal expectations exposes the instability of early modern gender norms and the cultural anxieties surrounding female agency. By the end of the course, students will have developed a nuanced understanding how literary representations of boundary-crossing illuminate broader questions of authority, discipline, resistance, and self-fashioning in early modern England.

    Plays to be discussed: Doctor Faustus by Christopher Marlowe, Macbeth by William Shakespeare, Much Ado about Nothing by William Shakespeare, The Duchess of Malfi by John Webster, and 'Tis Pity She's a Whore by John Ford.

    The plays by Marlowe and Shakespeare must be read before the beginning if term. There willFormularbeginn be an introductory test on their content in the first session.

    The plays by Webster and Ford must be read during the reading week in November.

Subject Area: German Studies 

  • Prof. Dr. Volker Mergenthaler: Georg Büchner (held in German)

    Seminar, Tuesday 6-8 pm

    Georg Büchner — Frenzels auflagenstarker »Abriß der deutschen Literaturgeschichte«, im analogen Zeitalter steter Begleiter auf den letzten Metern vor dem Deutsch-Examen, zählt Georg Büchner zu den »wichtigsten Autoren des Jungen D[eutsch]l[an]d und der politischen Dichtung des Vormärz«. Als Büchner 1837 stirbt, ist er dreiundzwanzig, jünger als heute die meisten Examenskandidat:innen. Hinterlassen hat er neben einer politischen Flugschrift »Der Hessische Landbote«, einigen naturwissenschaftlichen Abhandlungen, Übersetzungen französischer Dramen und Briefen nur eine Handvoll literarischer Texte: einen Erzähltext: »Lenz«, zwei Dramen: »Leonce und Lena«, »Danton’s Tod« und ein dramatisches Fragment: »Woyzeck«. Zu Lebzeiten Büchners wurde nur einer davon, »Danton’s Tod«, veröffentlicht. Einen Namen hat Büchner sich bis 1837 nur als steckbrieflich gesuchter politischer Aktivist gemacht, als Dichter ist er weitgehend unbekannt. Gleichwohl gehören seine literarischen Werke bis heute zum Kanon, werden in den Schulen behandelt, im Literaturstudium, seine Stücke regelmäßig auf die Bühnen gebracht. Im Seminar werden wir Büchners literarische Texte in den historischen Koordinaten der frühen 1830er Jahre untersuchen und die Prozesse ihrer so erfolgreichen Kanonisierung zu beleuchten versuchen. Ein gemeinsamer Theaterbesuch ist - abhängig von den Spielplänen der hessischen Bühnen - vorgesehen.

  • Prof. Dr. Volker Mergenthaler: Epochen und Epochenbegriffe der deutschsprachigen Literatur von der Frühen Neuzeit bis zum 20. Jahrhundert (held in German)

    Seminar, Thursday 8-10 am

    Epochenbegriffe sind so geläufig wie problematisch, geläufig, weil sie Orientierung auf dem unübersichtlichen und nahezu grenzenlosen Terrain der (deutschsprachigen) Literatur verheißen, problematisch, weil ihr Gebrauch zu selten in Rechnung stellt, dass sie Resultate komplizierter Aushandlungs- und das heißt: Ein- und Ausschließungsprozesse sind und weil sie dazu verleiten, in literarischen Texten dasjenige zu suchen und vorzufinden, was ihre Epochenzugehörigkeit erwarten lässt. Die Vorlesung versucht beide Seiten der Medaille zu betrachten. Sie wird einerseits, und zwar ausgehend von literarischen Texten, wichtige Epochen(begriffe) der neueren deutschsprachigen Literatur vorstellen, andererseits ihr Zustandekommen, ihre Kompatibilität und ihre Erschließungskraft kritisch zu beleuchten versuchen.

  • Prof. Dr. Marion Schmaus: Goethes “Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre“ (held in German)

    Seminar, Wednesday 10 am-12 pm

    ‚Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre‘ (1795/96) gehört zu Goethes bekanntesten Werken, neben dem ‚Faust‘ hat Goethe an den Meister-Romanen ein Leben lang gearbeitet. Als der Roman erschien, hat er ein neues Romangenre, den Bildungsroman, begründet und zugleich junge Zeitgenoss*innen wie Friedrich Hölderlin, Dorothea und Friedrich Schlegel, Novalis zu Korrektur- und Überbietungsversuchen herausgefordert. Neben den wichtigen Themen: Adoleszenz und (geschlechtsspezifische) Bildung, spielen Theater, Liebe, Berufswahl, Religion, Geheimgesellschaften und politische Utopien, bedeutende Rollen im Roman. Das Seminar wird diesen Aspekten im Close reading nachgehen, die Romanform diskutieren, die zeitgenössische Rezeption und die Wirkungsgeschichte des Textes bis heute verfolgen und am Roman literaturtheoretische Zugänge erproben.

    Bibliographie: Text: Goethe: Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre (Reclam oder Insel TB); Weiteres auf Ilias.

    Nutzung der Online-Lernplattform ILIAS und BigBlueButton.

    Kurzreferat/Sitzungsmoderation, Hausarbeit/Portfolio.

  • Prof. Dr. Marion Schmaus: Lyrik der Romantik edieren, archivieren und ausstellen (held in German)

    Seminar, Tuesday 12-2 pm (14 tägig) und Block (November 16)

    Die Epoche der Romantik hat einige der bekanntesten deutschsprachigen Gedichte hervorgebracht, u.a. Eichendorffs ‚Mondnacht‘, Heines ‚Lore-Ley‘, Novalis‘ ‚Wenn nicht mehr Zahlen und Figuren‘, sowie zahlreiche prominent vertonte Lieder (Schubert, Schumann usw.). Das Seminar wird gemeinsam die Interpretation von Gedichten einüben und vertiefen, die Epochensignatur ausgewählter Gedichte erarbeiten, deren Edition in verschiedenen Ausgaben und Medien verfolgen und an einem Exkursionstag in der Reading Week, am 16.11, die Ausstellung von Gedichten im Frankfurter ‚Deutschen Romantik-Museum‘ diskutieren. Alle Lyrik- und Romantik-Fans und solche, die es werden wollen, sind herzlich eingeladen.

    Bibliographie: Text: 50 Gedichte der Romantik (Reclam); Weiteres auf Ilias.

    Nutzung der Online-Lernplattform ILIAS und BigBlueButton.

    Kurzreferat/Sitzungsmoderation, Hausarbeit/Portfolio.

  • Prof. Dr. Marion Schmaus: Poststrukturalismus (held in German)

    Blockseminar, November 18+19 (all day) + October 10 (2-4 pm)

    Beim Poststrukturalismus handelt es sich um eine vom Frankreich der 1960er, 70er ausgehende Literatur-, Kultur- und Gesellschaftstheorie, die soziale Machtverhältnisse aus der Perspektive ihrer historischen Veränderbarkeit analysiert. Das Seminar diskutiert die literaturtheoretischen Klassiker des Poststrukturalismus von Roland Barthes ‚Der Tod des Autors‘ über Foucaults ‚Was ist ein Autor?‘ und Derridas ‚Semiologie‘ bis zu Foucaults späten Texten zur Ethopoetik: ‚L’écriture de soi‘, ‚Ethik der Sorge um sich‘ und ‚Ästhetik der Existenz‘. Dabei ist das Seminar auch als Wunschkonzert angelegt: Schlagen Sie vor, welchen Text des Poststrukturalismus Sie in gemeinsamer Lektüre entschlüsseln wollen; welche Texte Sie für Ihre Abschlussarbeit brauchen etc. Gerne können wir zudem die poststrukturalistischen Impulse in Gender und Queer-Studies oder im Postkolonialismus verfolgen.

    Das Seminar findet als Kompaktseminar in der Reading Week, 18.-19.11 statt, in einer Vorbesprechung im Oktober stimmen wir uns über das Seminarprogramm und die Texte ab: Mi, 21.10., 14-16 Uhr.

    Bibliographie: Zur witzigen Einführung: Donald D. Palmer:  Structuralism and Poststructuralism for Beginners (Graphic Novel). Random House 2007; und Reclam: Texte zur Theorie des Textes; Texte zur Theorie der Autorschaft; Weiteres auf Ilias.

    Nutzung der Online-Lernplattform ILIAS und BigBlueButton.

    Kurzreferat/Sitzungsmoderation, Hausarbeit/Portfolio.

  • Prof. Dr. Marion Schmaus: Einführung in die Neuere deutsche Literatur (held in German)

    Lecture, Wednesday 12-2 pm

    Die Vorlesung führt in die Arbeitsgebiete und Verfahrensweisen der Neueren deutschen Literaturwissenschaft ein. Die Veranstaltung richtet sich an Studienanfängerinnen und -anfänger sowie an alle, die sich noch einmal der Grundlagen des Faches vergewissern wollen. Auch für ein Schnupperstudium ist die Veranstaltung geeignet.

Subject Area: History 

  • Prof. Dr. Christian Kleinschmidt: Zwischen Weltmarkt und Wiedervereinigung. Wirtschaftsgeschichte Deutschlands nach 1989/90 (held in German)

    Seminar, Tuesday 2-4 pm

    Die deutsche Wiedervereinigung und die „Wende“ nach 1989 stellten erhebliche Herausforderungen für die Wirtschaft in West- und Ostdeutschland dar. Das betraf die Transformation der ostdeutschen Wirtschaft in eine Marktwirtschaft nach westlichem Vorbild, die zweite Globalisierungsphase ab den 1990er Jahren, die Finanz- und Weltwirtschaftskrise 2008, die Eurokrise 2009, die Digitalisierung, den Klimawandel und entsprechende ökologische Herausforderungen, den demographischen Wandel und die Migration ebenso wie den Wandel des Sozialstaats. Ausgehend von neuesten wirtschafts- und sozialhistorischen Untersuchungen soll die jüngste Phase der deutschen Wirtschaftsgeschichte vorgestellt und analysiert werden.

    Literatur:
    Berghoff, Hartmut. Trügerischer Wohlstand. Eine Wirtschaftsgeschichte der Berliner Republik seit 1990, München 2026; Paqué, Karl-Heinz: Die Bilanz. Eine wirtschaftsgeschichtliche Analyse der deutschen Einheit, München 2009; Rödder, Andreas: Deutschland einig Vaterland. Die Geschichte der Wiedervereinigung, München 2009.

  • Prof. Dr. Christian Kleinschmidt: Lektürekurs zu Zwischen Weltmarkt und Wiedervereinigung. Wirtschaftsgeschichte Deutschlands nach 1989/90 (held in German)

    Recitation class, Wednesday 10 am-12 pm

  • Prof. Dr. Eckart Conze: Die Weimarer Republik (held in German)

    Lecture, Friday 10 am-12 pm

    Die Weimarer Republik ist uns wieder näher gerückt. Ihre Geschichte, vor allem die des Scheiterns, ja der Zerstörung der ersten deutschen Demokratie, hat im Lichte demokratiefeindlicher Dynamiken der Gegenwart an Aktualität gewonnen. Auch vor diesem Hintergrund behandelt die Vorlesung die Geschichte der Weimarer Republik von ihrer revolutionären Entstehung 1918 bis zu ihrem Ende 1933. Als Überblicksvorlesung geht sie auf politische Entwicklungen (Innenpolitik, Außenpolitik) ebenso ein wie auf wirtschaftliche, gesellschaftliche und kulturelle und die Verflechtung dieser Entwicklungen. Sie zeichnet kein Bild einer Demokratie, deren Untergang von Anfang an vorherbestimmt war, sondern betont auch die Chancen und Möglichkeiten der Republik, die freilich zugleich und von Anfang an durch ihre Feinde unter Beschuss stand.

    Literatur:
    Detlef Peukert: Die Weimarer Republik. Krisenjahre der Klassischen Moderne, Frankfurt a.M. 1987 u.ö.; Nadine Rossol / Benjamin Ziemann (Hg.): Aufbruch und Abgründe. Das Handbuch der Weimarer Republik, Darmstadt 2021; Ute Daniel: Im Zwischenreich. Eine Geschichte der Weimarer Republik 1918 bis 1933, Hamburg 2026.

  • Prof. Dr. Benedikt Stuchtey: Hannah Arendt: Politisches Denken im Zeitalter der Extreme (held in German)

    Seminar, Monday 2-4 pm

    Hannah Arendt (1906-1975) gehört ohne Zweifel zu den einflussreichsten Politologinnen und Philosophinnen des 20. Jahrhunderts. Das Seminar beschäftigt sich mit ihren Hauptschriften und soll zentrale Begriffe ihres politischen Denkens und Handelns - wie zum Beispiel "Herrschaft", "Staat", "Macht", "Revolution" - diskutieren und in dichter Lektüre ihrer Schriften, Reden und Korrespondenzen sowie im Umfeld ihrer Zeitgenossen wie Martin Heidegger, Hans Jonas und Karl Jaspers erklären.

    Hannah Arendt (1906–1975) is undoubtedly one of the most influential political scientists and philosophers of the 20th century. This seminar examines her major works and aims to discuss key concepts in her political thought and practice – such as ‘rule’, ‘state’, ‘power’ and ‘revolution’ – and to explain them through a close reading of her writings, speeches and correspondence, as well as in the context of her contemporaries, such as Martin Heidegger, Hans Jonas and Karl Jaspers.

    Literatur:
    Dana Villa (Hg.), The Cambridge Companion to Hannah Arendt, Cambridge 2000; Stefania Maffeis, Transnationale Philosophie. Hannah Arendt und die Zirkulation des Politischen, Frankfurt/M. und New York 2019; Thomas Meyer, Hannah Arendt. Die Biographie, München 2023.

  • Prof. Dr. Benedikt Stuchtey: Nationalism in Ireland in the long Nineteenth Century: From the United Irishmen (1791) to the Easter Rising (1916) (held in English)

    Seminar, Tuesday 10 am-12 pm

    This advanced seminar, taught in English, provides an overview of Irish history from the late 18th to the early 20th century, with a particular focus on nationalism. The United Irishmen’s Rebellion (1798), the founding of the Catholic Association (1823), the Great Famine (1845–49), the emergence of the Home Rule movement under Isaac Butt (1870), the founding of the Gaelic League (1893), and finally the Easter Rising in Dublin (1916), the War of Independence (1919–21) and the Civil War (1922–23): The long nineteenth century was an era of violence, but also one of fascinating political ideas, movements and significant international tensions, within which Ireland operated in the context of the British Empire. An excursion to Dublin is planned for the first week of February 2027.

    Literature:
    D. George Boyce, Nationalism in Ireland, London 1991; Alan O'Day und John Stevenson (Hg.), Irish Historical Documents since 1800, London 1992; Arthur Mitchell und Pádraig Ó Snodaigh (Hg.), Irish Political Documents, Dublin 1989; Benedikt Stuchtey, Geschichte Irlands, München 2012.

  • Prof. Dr. Benedikt Stuchtey: Einführung in die internationalen Theorien und Methoden des Kolonialismus und Postkolonialismus (held in German)

    Recitation class, Tuesday 12-2 pm

    Die Übung richtet sich an Studierende im Bachelor-, Lehramt- und Masterstudium. Sie befasst sich mit den grundsätzlichen internationalen Theorien und Methoden des Kolonialismus, Imperialismus und Postkolonialismus und geht quellennah am Beispiel originaler Texte von der Vormoderne bis zur Zeitgeschichte vor. Auch werden benachbarte Felder wie Globalgeschichte und Transnationale Geschichte behandelt. Sie soll ein Verständnis davon vermitteln, wie die koloniale Expansion die Welt prägte und mit welchem Vermächtnis der Imperien wir heute konfrontiert sind.

    This module is aimed at students on Bachelor’s, teacher training and Master’s programmes. It examines the fundamental international theories and methods relating to colonialism, imperialism and post-colonialism, adopting a source-based approach using original texts from the pre-modern era through to contemporary history. Related fields such as global history and transnational history are also covered. The course aims to provide an understanding of how colonial expansion shaped the world and what legacy of the empires we are confronted with today.

    Literatur:
    Sebastian Conrad, Globalgeschichte. Eine Einführung, München 2013; Margrit Pernau, Transnationale Geschichte, Göttingen 2011; María do Mar Castro Varela und Nikita Dhawan, Postkoloniale Theorie. Eine kritische Einführung, Bielefeld 2020; Florian Wagner, Kolonialismus und Antikolonialismus?, Tübingen 2026; Benedikt Stuchtey, Geschichte des Britischen Empire, München 2021.

  • Paulina Gennermann: Cocoa and Colonialism: European Chocolate Companies between Economic Interests and Politics (held in English)

    Seminar, Thursday 8:30-10 am

    This seminar is about one of our most favourite sweets and its main ingredient: Chocolate and cocoa. From a historical perspective we will dive into the world of chocolate makers and cocoa production throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. We will discover the developments of cocoa plantations and of the creation of chocolate brands. While chocolate became associated with famous European companies like Cadbury or Stollwerck, the necessary cocoa remained a raw material of colonial origin. Throughout this seminar we will discuss the imperial dynamics and colonial interests regarding cocoa production and chocolate making.

    Using original documents from the 19th and 20th century as well as current research papers, we will learn how cocoa and chocolate are to be connected with imperial interests and colonial dynamics.

Subject Area: Informatics & Mathematics

Subject Area: Media Studies

  • Prof. Dr. Angela Krewani: BookTok: Literature on TikTok (held in English)

    Seminar, Wednesday 10 am-12 pm

    This course introduces students to BookTok as a contemporary digital literary culture. We will examine how literature is presented, discussed, recommended, marketed, and emotionally staged on TikTok. Rather than treating BookTok merely as a trend or promotional tool, the course approaches it as a media-cultural phenomenon in which reading practices, literary taste, authorship, publishing, fandom, affect, and platform algorithms intersect.

    The seminar focuses on the changing conditions of literature in social media environments. We will discuss how TikTok’s short-video format shapes literary communication, how readers perform their identities and affects online, and how genres such as romance, fantasy, young adult fiction, memoir, and dark academia circulate through platform-based recommendation cultures. Particular attention will be paid to questions of visibility, authenticity, gender, community formation, commercialization, and the role of publishers and influencers.

    The course combines perspectives from literary studies, media studies, platform studies, and cultural theory. Students will engage with theoretical texts as well as concrete BookTok examples and will learn to analyze TikTok videos, hashtags, recommendation practices, reading challenges, and forms of participatory literary criticism. The aim is to understand BookTok as part of a broader transformation of literature under digital and platformed conditions.

    Students are expected to read regularly, participate actively in discussions, and contribute to the analysis of current BookTok practices.

  • Prof. Dr. Josh Carney: Right-wing popular media and the creation of political reality: the case of Turkey (held in English)

    Seminar, Tuesday 12-2 pm

    In recent years, the concurrent rise of right-wing populist political movements on the one hand and right-wing media and social media on the other has received ample commentary. What is less studied is the degree to which popular/entertainment media may be an integral part of this broader phenomenon. The case for such influence is particularly clear in Turkey, where the authoritarian government and its allies in the private media sector have extensive control over production, distribution, and regulation not only of news media, but also much popular media—most particularly television drama. In this course we will examine the political economy of the Turkish media sector, theoretical literature on the political valence of popular culture, and the growing body of work on the political implications of popular culture in and from Turkey.

  • Nilgün Yelpaze: Humor in Digital Media (held in English)

    Seminar, Tuesday 2-4 pm

    A new wave of stand-up comedians has emerged globally by using the affordances of digital media alongside in-person performances. This generation of stand-up comedians employs the method of "punching up," making jokes that critique the status quo regarding especially gender, identity, and politics. In some cases, they have been targeted and censored by authoritarian regimes. Prior to the rise of stand-up comedy in its current form, memes and other forms of digital media also served as powerful tools of resistance and resilience. This course examines the production and circulation of humor in general, and stand-up comedy in particular, through the lens of digital media, with particular attention to Turkey (but not limited to). The aim is to understand the connections between joke-making and everyday politics, as well as the role of digital tools in these processes.

Subject Area: Peace and Conflict Studies

  • Dr. Kerstin Zimmer / Annkathrin Müller: Rosania Simulation Game (held in English)

    Blockseminar, October 31 + November 7 + November 14 + prep meetings, no tutorial needed

    In this seminar (Übung), participants take on the role of conflict actors in a fictitious conflict scenario in three different simulation games. The three simulation games are each based on the same initial conflict, but there are time and level jumps in the conflict between the dates, so that conflicts with different actors and at different conflict phases are simulated. First, it is an internal conflict (1st simulation game), which escalates into an international conflict (2nd simulation game) and finally, after a peace treaty has been concluded, it also has to be regulated at the regional level (3rd simulation game). The seminar consists of a general introduction, three preparation sessions and three days of simulation games as well as a debriefing.
    The aim of the seminar is to examine different methods of conflict resolution through a practical approach. Participants have the opportunity to try out different approaches to conflict management, to experience the complexity of conflicts in practice and to strengthen soft skills such as relativizing one's own point of view and empath

  • Dr. Kerstin Zimmer: How Democracies Die (held in English)

    Seminar, online, Thursday 4-6 pm

    Are contemporary democracies under threat, or are we witnessing a transformation of political conflict rather than democratic decline? This seminar explores one of the most pressing questions in contemporary politics through a close reading of Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt's How Democracies Die. The book serves as the central point of departure for the course and will be complemented by recent academic articles and case studies that address developments since its publication.
    While the United States provides an important reference point, the seminar adopts a comparative perspective by examining cases from Europe and beyond. We will discuss key concepts such as democratic backsliding, populism, polarization, institutional conflict, and democratic resilience, and critically assess different explanations for the challenges facing contemporary democracies.
    Approaching democracy from the perspective of peace and conflict research, the seminar understands democratic erosion not simply as institutional decline but as a process of political and societal conflict. Throughout the course, we will ask where these conflicts emerge, how they reshape democratic institutions and norms, and under what conditions they become a threat to democracy.
    Designed for an international group of students, the seminar combines theoretical discussion with empirical case studies and encourages participants to compare developments across different countries. By the end of the course, students will be able to analyze contemporary democratic crises using established concepts from comparative politics and conflict analysis and to critically evaluate competing interpretations of democratic change.

     The final assessment consists of a term paper (Hausarbeit). 

    Active participation and thorough preparation of the weekly readings are expected throughout the semester.

  • Dr. Kerstin Zimmer: Nazi Germany and Colonial Rule in Eastern Europe (held in English)

    Seminar, Monday 2-4 pm

    This seminar examines how violence transforms societies and how colonial perspectives can help us understand different forms of domination, occupation, and mass violence in Eastern Europe. While colonialism has traditionally been associated with overseas empires, recent scholarship has increasingly applied colonial perspectives to European history, particularly to the German occupation of Eastern Europe during the Second World War and to the imperial history of Russia and the Soviet Union.

    The seminar introduces students to key concepts of violence, colonialism, empire, race, ideology, and genocide before exploring current debates on whether and to what extent Nazi rule in Eastern Europe can be understood as a colonial project. Students will engage with competing interpretations and discuss both the analytical potential and the limitations of colonial approaches.

    Rather than treating the Holocaust and the Second World War solely as historical events, the seminar places them within broader discussions about empire, territorial expansion, racial hierarchy, settlement policies, occupation, and the long-term consequences of mass violence.
    Throughout the course, students will compare different colonial projects and examine how concepts developed in one context can (or cannot) be applied to others.

    The seminar combines theoretical discussions with case studies and collaborative learning activities. Students are expected to prepare the assigned readings and actively participate in discussions. No prior knowledge of Eastern European history is required.

Subject Area: Political Science

Subject Area: Religious Studies

Class Lists from Previous Semesters

Spring 2026 (PDF)

Fall 2025 (PDF)

Spring 2025 (PDF)

Fall 2024 (PDF)

Spring 2024 (PDF)

Fall 2023 (PDF)

Spring 2023 (PDF)

Fall 2022 (PDF)

Spring 2022 (PDF)

Fall 2021 (PDF)

Fall 2020 (PDF)

Spring 2020 (PDF)

Fall 2019 (PDF)

Spring 2019 (PDF)

German Conversation Classes

The main goal of our Conversation Classes is to improve students' ability to communicate and interact in German. The classes focus on teaching students conversational techniques and strategies, improving students’ listening abilities, and strengthening students’ grasp of German grammar and vocabulary. The conversation classes will have the same language levels as the intensive German language classes. Attendance is mandatory, absence of 15% of the class time or more will result in failing the class.