Intensive reading of Marx's Capital vol. 1. We read the work closely from beginning to end during the semester. Attention is paid to questions of translation. Knowledge of German is not required, but be prepared to engage with the German text. Secondary readings and other writings by Marx will be included as necessary.

The course lays a foundation for functional acquisition of German. Class time is devoted to language tasks that will foster communicative and cultural competence and will emphasize listening and reading strategies, vocabulary acquisition, authentic input, and oral production. Conducted in German.

Continues the goals of GER 101, focusing on increased communicative proficiency (oral and written), effective reading strategies, and listening skills. Emphasis on vocabulary acquisition and functional language tasks: learning to request, persuade, ask for help, express opinions, agree and disagree, negotiate conversations, and gain perspective on German culture through readings, discussion, and film.

Develops deeper proficiency in all areas (cultural understanding, production skills, and receptive skills), using a combination of language-oriented work and cultural/historical content, including film and texts.

Continues improvement of proficiency in speaking, listening, reading, and writing using texts, online media, and other sources as a basis for class discussion. Grammar review is included. Conducted in German.

This course will tackle exemplary works of modern German society and culture, including literature, art, film, essays, speeches, and autobiographies. It offers an introduction to the most important events and issues from the first half of the century: the foundation of the German state, the German Colonial Empire, Berlin as a modern metropolis, World War I, the rise of National Socialism. Intensive practice in spoken and written German with an emphasis on vocabulary acquisition and complex syntactical forms.

This course has four goals: 1) to introduce students to key authors, genres, and movements in German literary history between 1770 and the present; 2) to provide an opportunity to deepen interpretive skills through reading and discussion of representative texts; 3) to encourage students to explore theoretical approaches to cultural material; and 4) to provide intensive practice in spoken and written German.

Is there a historical basis for the fierce ladies of 'Game of Thrones'? Why do modern depictions of medieval queens portray them as wickedly ambitious? In a variety of texts about the villainy and sanctity, eloquence and wit, humility and power of women--both real and imagined--this course will explore the long history of negative reactions to leading women, the multiple strategies by means of which such figures have asserted various kinds of authority, as well as what they have suffered in consequence. By unraveling the complex gender and power dynamics of the past we will also develop a better understanding of such issues in the present.

This introduction to methods for the study of German literature, media, and culture will hone the research skills necessary to develop a substantial piece of independent scholarship. Combining methodological reflection with practical training and experimentation, we will probe such questions as: What is at stake in "reading" texts and other media closely or at a distance, historically or with an eye to form? How does one find, organize, distill, and respond to extant scholarship? What distinguishes a strong research question or hypothesis? And which intermediate steps lead from the cursor blinking on a blank page to a polished research paper?

What happens when writers confront dance? Around 1900, dance became a topic of enormous fascination in works of Euro-American Modernists such as Mallarmé, Rilke, Woolf, Beckett. This seminar will explore this and earlier encounters, juxtaposing them with texts written by dancers such as Loïe Fuller, Josephine Baker and Katherine Dunham. Topics include gesture; expression; human vs. technological movement; connections/tensions between dance and language, choreography and writing, performance and text; the (de)construction of gendered and racialized otherness. Readings will be supplemented with time-based media and live performances.

What does it mean to have taste? How is it formed? How does it relate to fashion? How dependent is it on money and education? What are the connections between the aesthetic and moral parts of so-called "good taste"? Can there be a pure judgment of taste free from questions of social positioning? Is taste regarding design different from taste regarding art? Is there such a thing as a taste that turns against the logic of taste? What does taste as a social and aesthetic category have to do with taste as a gustatory sense? This seminar will explore these and other aspects of the multi-facetted phenomenon of taste from a variety of perspectives.

What makes the diary such a popular form of self-expression? Are there collectively written diaries? Is the diary a media practice? What happens when diaries are "written" not only with text but also photographs, audio files and video? How can a standardized form foster intimate personal communication with one's own self? This seminar will explore the history and the varied practices of the diary, from famous historical examples such as Franz Kafka and Virginia Woolf to current vernacular digital formats of auto-fiction such as lifelogging, weblogs and Instagram.

The seminar offers an introduction into romantic prose and close readings of the most famous stories by the German poet, dramatist, novelist, and journalist Heinrich von Kleist (1777-1811). Our discussions will focus on the relations between literature and politics, legal problems and the representation of history.

Readings and discussion of current theoretical and practical issues in Instructed Second Language Acquisition (ISLA), with a goal of understanding how theory should inform classroom praxis. Primary audience is the current teaching staff of GER 101. In English.

This seminar undertakes a sustained engagement with one of the most prominent literary projects of the 20th century. Focusing on exemplary chapters we discuss the narratological, aesthetic, epistemological and ethical dimensions of this novel fragment.

According to the diagnosis associated with the term Anthropocene, humans are the decisive geological force responsible for various recent ecological changes and crises. Although there are alternative concepts and narratives to account for the current situation, 'Anthropocene' has installed itself as the privileged designation for the rethinking of the relationship between nature and culture. The seminar discusses the challenges this task poses for art and aesthetics. We explore terms like the sublime, the uncanny, the spectral, the ironic, the melancholic, the grotesque, the monstrous, and the (post-)apocalyptic in this context.

The media of literature, art, science and knowledge formation in general depend on a constant supply of so-called 'natural resources' such as fibers, metals, wax, vinyl and rare earths. This seminar combines discourse-analytical approaches from literary and media studies and the history of science with new methods of media ecology, critical infrastructure analysis and environmental studies to critically analyze these medial resource dependencies at different scales, both local and global, interrogating the normative, epistemic, aesthetic, geopolitical and economic frameworks that have co-constituted modern media.

Is there a future to the study of literature? Just as the concept of literature has changed markedly over time, so too have approaches to literature at universities and in the world of media. Yet courses on the history of the study of literature are rare. John Guillory's 2022 Professing Criticism serves as the starting point for this seminar in disciplinary self-reflection on the history and present state of literary study. The practice of literary studies in the USA is compared to other institutional models such as media literacy, Cultural Studies and Literaturwissenschaft in Germany.