The election to the 20th German Parliament will be held on September 26, 2021. It will, very likely, bring an end to 16 years as chancellor of Angela Merkel, who is not running for reelection. With ongoing fragmentation of the German party system, it is also quite possible that a new coalition format – for example between the conservative party, CDU, and the Greens – may emerge to govern the country. Our class uses this election for the in-depth comparative study of the German political system and its electoral process. It includes the investigation of candidate nomination processes, political campaigning, the role of political parties and government formation. These matters will be approached to gain in-depth knowledge and a systematic comparative understanding. The timing of the class gives us a unique opportunity to analyze the run-up to the election as it happens and we can analyze campaign events and debates. The overarching goal is to understand the dynamics of parliamentary democracy. The class can be complemented by special case studies of select European democracies according to the interest of the participants. Guest talks and discussions with political practitioners and academic observers in Europe will be part of the class. The class will be held in English. Students can take their exams in German or English. Sven T. Siefken is a political scientist at the Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg. He is a member of the editorial board of the German journal of parliamentary affairs (“Zeitschrift für Parlamentsfragen”) and of the board of the Research Committee of Legislative Specialists of the International Political Science Association (IPSA). He is currently editing a book on the role of parliamentary committees in the policy process (Routledge, 2021) and writing a textbook on the German Bundestag (Springer, 2022). His last book dealt with parliamentary oversight (Nomos, 2018).

Why Germany? What relation does Germany have with Africa? This course seeks to answer questions surrounding Germany’s relationship with Africa by unraveling some discussion about the nation’s history and how it has become a diasporic destination for Africans. Starting from the scramble for and the partition of Africa by France, Germany, Spain, Portugal, and Great Britain, students will consider the debates surrounding migration, race, and identity, including the histories and legacies of colonialism, imperialism, fascism, and racism. We will also examine how Germany became a diasporic home to many Africans. In addition to tracking Africans’ migration to Germany over centuries, students will gain insight into the shifting notion of diaspora, understand how Africans perceive Germany, and examine the questions of race, identity, and the history of minoritized and racialized groups in Germany through literature and other key texts. The course will be offered as a student-centered, reading-and-discussion intensive course that facilitates critical thinking. By engaging in class discussions, debates, and writing critical reflections of the readings, students will come to understand how and why African-Diasporic identities emerged and diverged in Germany.

This course traces the turbulent history of Berlin from its role as imperial and colonial capital and the formation of the German nation state in 1871 to its rebirth as a newly global and cosmopolitan city after reunification. In over 150 years, this city has witnessed periods of fame and innovation, unprecedented urban growth, cutting-edge modernity, and a burgeoning cultural scene, as well as the destruction of two world wars, the horrors of Nazi Germany, and the deep fissures of the Cold War. We will explore how these diverse developments and upheavals are reflected in literature, film, music, art, architecture, and urban form. Taught in Germany, concurrently with German language course. Block 3 will focus on Imperial Germany, World War 1, the Weimar Republic, and Nazi Germany. Block 4 will focus on the Berlin Wall, the so-called “economic miracle” and guest worker program, coming to terms with the Nazi past, and “Ostalgie” (nostalgia for East Germany).

As early as the 15th century, white Europeans had not only already colonized the entire world, but they had also colonized information about the world. Without the slightest doubt they had developed monopoly control over concepts and images which still have influence on global societies today. Curating Across Borders is an Afrofuturist commentary on German colonialism, National Socialism, the post-war generation, reunification and Germany in the 21st century, interrogating the Eurocentric and racist pathology and corruption that influences policy around the world. This course will lead to an exhibition at the Fine Arts Center where the visual responses will be open to the public. Instructor: Dr. Natasha A. Kelly, Max Kade Visiting Professor from Berlin

Never in world history has the number of migrants been higher. Displaced by geopolitical wars, oppressive regimes, persecution, droughts, famines, floods, and rising temperatures, migrants seek a better life somewhere else. Today’s most intractable problems transgress the borders modern nation-states have drawn to define their territories. They reveal the interconnectedness of the globe and blur the boundaries between seemingly separate realms: the private and the political, work and home, what is near and what is distant. Yet crises such as global warming, poverty, and human rights violations also energize attempts to police national borders, curtail migration, tighten definitions of citizenship, and ratchet up cultural and social divisions. In this course, we explore different political, cultural, economic, and legal concepts important to the study of migration, citizenship, exile, belonging, and displacement in our contemporary world. While we ask why the United States and Germany, for example, have become migrants’ popular destination, we approach this course from a variety of angles—from political science and history to law, sociology, and, above all, literature—to better understand the extent to which questions of migration and citizenship are some of the central questions of the 21st century.

This course introduces students to contemporary Turkish German Cinema in the context of labor recruitment in West Germany, the experiences of second- and third generation Turkish Germans, and the more recent history of migration as well as current issues in German society. We will begin with an overview of migration history more generally and the labor recruitment treaties of the 1950s and 60s specifically, before we move on to the depiction of so-called guestworkers in New German Cinema and then the rich and diverse body of films of Turkish German Cinema proper. Throughout the course we will draw connections between Turkish cinema, transnational cinema, and the newly emerging Black/Afro German Cinema, and we will end with a case study of the Autorenfilme of Fatih Akın, one of the most popular and critically acclaimed Turkish German filmmakers today. We will discuss questions of cultural difference, equity, and power, and of the identity, experience, and history of minoritized and racialized groups in Germany. We will examine representations of citizenship, ethnicity, race, gender, sexuality, religion, and other interlocking identity categories, and we will place special emphasis on the tensions between national, transnational, and minority cinema.

Examines how the identities of marginalized communities in Berlin, such as Black Germans, Jewish Germans, Turkish Germans, migrants, refugees, victims of Neo-Nazi terrorism and police brutality, and LGBTQI communities, are predicated on racism, heterosexism, colonialism, imperialism, and other forms of oppression. Additionally, considers how these communities resist, reject, revise, and reproduce these narratives as they construct their own subjectivities. Prerequisite: consent of instructor & Taught in Germany. (May meet either the Critical Perspectives: Global Cultures or Social Inequality requirement.) (Meets the Critical Learning: SHB requirement.) (Meets the Equity and Power: EPG requirement.) (Not offered 2021-22). 1 unit.

The seminar introduces the paths to government in the parliamentary democracy of Germany and compares it with other European systems. In discussion with Armand Zorn, Member of the German Bundestag since 2021, the seminar shows how a young person, immigrated from Cameroon at the age of 10, got politically active in German politics and became a “rising star” in the Bundestag. We will look closely at working a political party, the nomination process, electoral campaigns, coalition building, setting up the parliamentary structures and the processes of legislation. Individual experience is reflected based on theoretical understanding and empirical knowledge. Comparing the German case with other political systems in Europe leads to a broader understanding. The class requires no previous knowledge of German politics and will be held in English. Students can choose to take exams in German.

What is “Europe”? What does it mean to be “European”? Who gets to define the boundaries of Europeanness, and what groups have been included or excluded, centered or marginalized as a result? This course seeks to answer such epistemological questions by unraveling and deconstructing some of the central, naturalized, imposed, and often monolithic narratives that have been projected onto and out from Europe. Examining these mechanisms from a critical perspective, students will look at the diverse cultural, linguistic, national, religious, ethnic, racial, and other factors that have continued to shape Europe throughout its history. They will consider debates around issues of identity and ideology, including the histories and legacies of colonialism, imperialism, fascism, and racism, and learn to view Europe as a place of multiplicity and difference, changing institutions, and ever-shifting borders. Taking a transdisciplinary approach that includes literary studies, art history, race and ethnic studies, film and media studies, cultural studies, history, and geography, among other fields and theoretical frameworks, “Unraveling Europe” unsettles the common assumption that Europe is and always has been fundamentally European. (Meets the Equity and Power: EPG requirement.)

The Holocaust seems to deny representation. Shoshana Felman describes it as the attempt to annihilate the act of witnessing altogether. How then can the overwhelming enormity and horror of such an atrocity be conveyed and understood? What limits do art and history confront when representing trauma and genocide, and how might the work of these disciplines inform and enhance each other? Our class will study the history of the Holocaust and its representation by examining a range of literary, cinematic, and analytical texts. We will read subjective accounts that speak to the experience and identity of Holocaust survivors, as well as their own critiques of Holocaust representation, in the form of memoir, autobiography, testimony, poetry, and the novel. We will read historical and philosophical texts, and watch documentary and popular films, that investigate the causes, nature, and legacy of the Holocaust. Finally, because the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was drafted immediately following the liberation of the camps, we will interrogate the discourse of human rights by comparing representations of the Holocaust with those of other wide-scale human rights abuses.