Azakhiwe Nocanda

English B2

Tuesday, 12-14
+ mandatory workshop on Thursday, 26 June (9am-4pm)
Room: 0323-26, Hausvogteiplatz 5-7

How do our unconscious biases impact the way we view people within the African Diaspora? The course aims to explore intersectional inequalities of citizenship and the politics of Belonging and how our unconscious biases impact the way we view (Black) Africans and people within the African Diaspora. The relationship between migration, social cohesion and national German identity has become an increasingly contentious political issue. Historically, the settlement of migrant groups and the formation of minority ethnic groups have changed the socio-cultural, political and economic fabric of receiving societies. We will explore the relationship between racial and ethnocultural diversity. Students are encouraged to the intentional notion of undoing – unlearning and dismantling unjust practices, assumptions, and institutions – as well as persistent action to create and build alternative spaces and ways of knowing, particularly concerning the Black (African) Diaspora. Berlin will be used as a case study for themes covered, however, students are encouraged to reflect on their own identities and the expressions of various identities around the city. Class sessions will be composed of lectures, online discussions forums and an excursion through Berlin’s Black History. Course materials and readings are designed to give special emphasis to the African Diaspora initiatives and perspectives of shaping their own history. Ultimately the course provides students with a wide interdisciplinary introduction into the othering of (Black) Africans, so that students can interpret contemporary African issues with an informed historical background.

Alexandre Nogueira Martins, Julia de Freitas Sampaio

English B2, German A1

Monday, 16-18
Room: 0323-26, Hausvogteiplatz 5-7

This course explores the complex historical and contemporary dynamics of German colonialism, anti-colonial resistance movements, and the impact of colonialism on present-day German society. Divided into four themes that intersect throughout the classes, the course provides a comprehensive understanding of the German colonial past, anti-colonial struggles in Berlin, contemporary Berlin as a site of colonial heritage, and the emergence of post-colonial and decolonial movements in the city. The first main theme is the German colonial era, in which we examine key historical events, colonial practices, and the territories under German control. We explore Berlin as a physical and symbolic space that reflects the remnants of German colonialism and consider how these remnants shape the city's identity. The second one focuses on resistance movements against colonization. We study the diverse strategies and initiatives employed by individuals and communities who fought against German colonialism both in the colonies and in Berlin and the capital of the German empire. Moving into the third theme, we investigate the effects of colonialism on contemporary German society. We examine how colonial legacies continue to shape social, political, and cultural structures in Germany today. Topics include the influence of colonialism on immigration policies, racial dynamics, cultural heritage, and the representation of marginalised communities. As far as the fourth theme is concerned, we engage with postcolonial and decolonial contemporary movements. We critically examine different theoretical frameworks and approaches used to deconstruct colonial power structures, challenge Eurocentric narratives, and envision alternative futures. We explore the global context of decolonial movements and their relevance to Germany and Berlin specifically. 

Dr. Victoria Bishop Kendzia

English B2

Tuesday, 14-18 (7 four hour sessions: 15, 22, 29 April, 6, 20, 27 May, 3 June)
Room: 0323-26, Hausvogteiplatz 5-7

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 aims to enable the students to get to know a number of Berlin museums focusing on Memory and Post-WWII migration using anthropological methods and to critically analyse them within larger theoretical frameworks of “self” and “other” constructions. The aim is to explore the role of museums in rendering such constructions visible and therefore debatable. In addition to visiting the sites, there are scholarly readings and in-class discussions.  The discussions will be based on the museum visits and the students’ questions on the readings.

Carrie Bly, Lea Fink

English B2

Monday, 14-16

Room: 0323-26, Hausvogteiplatz 5-7

What is at stake in reading, writing, depicting and telling the histories of Berlin’s architectural and urban landscape? How do historical and analytical frameworks shape scholarly understandings of the city? How does the architecture of Berlin shape its history and theory? Conducted as a discussion seminar, this course uses recent architectural and urban histories of 20th century Berlin to explore different ways of narrating the city’s history. Each week, students will approach Berlin’s urbanity through different textual and visual media to discuss the themes and methods—from femininity to migration, politics to privatization—by which they narrate the entanglement of Berlin’s physical and social landscape. Over the course of the semester, students will develop their scholarly reading techniques, and their fluency in the multipolar and manifold circumstances of the city. The premise of the course is that engaging the narrative can lead to ‘changing the narrative,’ thereby opening the door for students to develop an original final project, situating their worldly experience in the past, present and future of Berlin.

Dr. Mai Lin Tjoa-Bonatz / Felicitas von Droste zu Hülshoff

English B2

Friday, 12-16 (6 four hour sessions: 2, 16, 30 May, 13, 27 June, 11 July)
Room: 0323-26, Hausvogteiplatz 5-7

Berlin is a multi-cultural city with a diverse cultural life and rich heritage The course is designed to foster active learning practices while advancing complex museological questions of curating Asia’s tangible and intangible culture in Berlin. The excursions to museums and cultural institutions present a platform for engaged debates about current challenges facing curatorship: e.g. nuanced solutions for restitution and decolonization, the ethical value of exhibition displays, links between academic research, artistic production and museum stakeholders. The critical debate surrounding curatorial practice includes theories of heritage and museum studies as well as provenience research, concepts of outreach and educational programs. We address core conceptual questions regarding property issues, museum formations and their histories. Objects, music, religious heritage or memorialization reflect Berlin’s colonial legacies and minority histories of different communities from Asia.

Dr. Betiel Wasihun

English B2

Friday, 10-12
Room: 0323-26, Hausvogteiplatz 5-7

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 will on the one hand examine the impact of surveillance on society by looking at the multifaceted ways technologies, societies and the arts interact and, on the other hand, reflect on surveillance in a totalitarian context while comparing observation techniques in the GDR with contemporary surveillance methods. The course further encourages students to critically engage with the representation of surveillance in contemporary literature, film and popular culture and maps out important themes with regards to surveillance and its repercussions (e.g., visibility, identity, privacy and control). Furthermore, the course provides an overview of the interdisciplinary field of surveillance studies 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.

Dr. Deniz Güneş Yardımcı

English B2

Friday, 12-16 (7 four hour sessions: 25 April, 9, 23 May, 6, 20 June, 4, 18 July)
Room: 0323-26, Hausvogteiplatz 5-7

The labour migration from Southern European countries to Germany, which started in the mid-1950s, had an important socio-economic and socio-cultural impact on the countries’ societies and influenced their film culture. German filmmakers began to feature the first guestworkers’ difficult lives in films such as Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s Katzelmacher (1969). In the 1990s, second- and third–generation Turkish-German directors such as Fatih Akın and Thomas Arslan marked the end of the so-called ‘guestworker cinema’ and started to create a transnational and diasporic cinema featuring a culturally hybrid Germany. Berlin (especially Kreuzberg) has always been one of the favorite settings in all of these migration movies. The transformation of Berlin’s first Guestworker Ghettos to culturally hybrid urban districts over the course of 60 years is very well reflected in all of these cinema cultures. This interdisciplinary course crosses and connects the academic fields of migration studies, film studies, and cultural studies. In the first part of the course, we will explore how migration, immigrants, and diasporas are represented in cinema. The second part of the course then gets more specific and we approach the representation of Berlin in these migration movies.

Dr. Felix Helbing

English B2

Tuesday, 16-18
Room: 0323-26, Hausvogteiplatz 5-7

The Weimar Republic (1918-1933) was a period of remarkable cultural transformation and social upheaval in Germany. Against the backdrop of economic and political turmoil, gender and sexual nonconformity flourished in Berlin and other urban centers, challenging traditional norms and giving rise to vibrant LGBTQ+ communities. This interdisciplinary course examines how gender and sexuality were experienced, represented, and contested in Weimar-era Germany. Drawing on a diverse array of primary sources - including theater, visual art, literature, film, and theoretical texts - we will explore how marginalized individuals and communities navigated, expressed, and politicized their identities. Key topics will include the emergence of sexual science and the conceptualization of the "third sex"; the proliferation of queer spaces, subcultures, and social movements in 1920s Berlin; intersections of gender, sexuality, race, class, and disability; artistic and literary depictions of gender fluidity and erotic desire; medicalization, criminalization, and the state's response to gender/sexual nonconformity; the rise of fascism and the violent backlash against LGBTQ+ rights. Through close engagement with primary sources and cutting-edge scholarly work, students will gain a nuanced understanding of the complex, often contradictory dynamics that defined gender and sexuality in Weimar Germany. This course will equip students with the critical tools to analyze the interplay between cultural production, social movements, and the politics of identity.

Fabio Braun Carrasco, Felipe García

English B2, German A2-B1

Monday, 10-12

Room: 0323-26, Hausvogteiplatz 5-7

Berlin is often seen as mostly progressive due to its left- leaning and multicultural image, but the city's socio-political landscape is more nuanced. The Berlin Wall's legacy still shapes socio-economic divides between East and West, influencing political positions. The city center, inside the Ringbahn, leans left/green, while the conservative/right lies outside this transport boundary. Historical changes include the integration of GDR infrastructure and the revival of Prussian heritage, alongside the gentrification of some areas. Rising rent prices have sparked debates over housing, with a plebiscite by Deutsche Wohnen und Co Enteignen proposing communal control of real estate. This highlights tensions on the role of the market. Berlin also reflects global trends like the rise of far-right movements and neoliberalism rooted partly in historical East-West societal divides. These conflicts, however, reveal broader debates on societal values and the common good. Tthis course will explore these debates through subtopics such as gentrification, inequality, and political polarization, e.g. on environmental and housing policy.

Dr. Sasha Shapiro

English B2

Wednesday, 14-16
Room: 0323-26, Hausvogteiplatz 5-7

 This course examines how the University of Berlin (now Humboldt University) became Europe's philosophical center, tracing its evolution from its revolutionary founding in 1810 through its various transformations. By exploring the dynamic relationship between the university's philosophers and Berlin's cultural and political life, we follow how philosophical ideas developed within its walls and resonated beyond them. The course examines key figures who taught, studied, or lectured at the university—from Hegel's influential tenure and the Young Hegelians, through Dilthey's establishment of the human sciences and Cohen's Neo-Kantianism, to the philosophical responses to war, division, and reunification. We explore how the University of Berlin shaped major philosophical movements while being shaped by Berlin's dramatic historical transformations: from Prussian reform era through imperial expansion, from Weimar culture through Nazi persecution, from Cold War division through reunification. By examining philosophical texts alongside historical documents and cultural materials, students will understand how the University of Berlin fostered philosophical innovations that responded to and influenced some of the most significant political and cultural developments of modern Europe.