Summer Courses

GERMAN 1: Elementary German.  Krueger

MTWT 9-12pm 

Class Number: 13151

Units/Credit: 5

Session A: May 23 – July 6

GERMAN 2: Elementary German.  Wolf

MTWT 9-12pm

Class Number: 14027

Units/Credit: 5

Session D: July 5 – August 12

GERMAN R5B sec.001: Reading and Composition – Felder

TuWTh 10-12:30pm

Class Number: 13152   

Units/Credit: 4

Session A: May 23-July 6

Description:

This course will explore the work and life of Franz Kafka, one of the most important literary figures of the 20th century. We will dive into Kafka’s world by examining several of his short stories, including “The Metamorphosis,” “The Great Wall of China,” and “Josephine the Singer of the Mouse Folk,” as well as some of his parables and diary entries, and connect these works to the historical and biographical context in which they were written to get a better sense of who Kafka was as a man and writer. 

GERMAN R5B sec.002: Reading and Composition – Harris

TuWTh 3-5:30pm

Class Number: 13153   

Units/Credit: 4

Session A: May 23-July 6

Description:

“Yesterday’s Future: Science Fiction and Modern Technology”.  Science fiction is enjoyed by millions each day, whether in novels like The Left Hand of Darkness, television series such as Star Trek or Westworld, or video games, including Detroit: Become Human. Although it can be appreciated purely as entertainment, this genre has additionally served as a method of social commentary, with creators using the distancing effect of foreign and fantastic settings to critique governments, oppressive regimes, and social norms under the cover of fiction. Set in an alternate reality – whether due to politics, climate change, or a life-changing technology – science fiction often examines themes from the real world, such as race, gender, class, and what it means to be human. This course will analyze science fiction tropes and modern technology, including CRISPR-Cas9, robots, and Deepfakes, to explore how sci-fi enables and provokes discussions of challenging and controversial topics. 

All readings and written assignments are in English. The primary purpose of this course, which satisfies the second half of the Reading and Composition requirement, is to help students cultivate the research, vocabulary, and argumentation skills necessary to write convincing academic papers.

GERMAN R5B sec.003: Reading and Composition – Reitz

TuWTh 10-12:30pm

Class Number: 14923   

Units/Credit: 4

Session D: July 5 – August 12

Description:
“Imagining a Diverse German”.  In this  course, we will explore the contemporary discourse on diversity through the phenomenon of migration to Germany — a country with a long, complex history of migration, leading political and economic roles in Europe, and an increasingly heterogeneous population. We will enter the discussion through journalistic, political, literary, and academic texts, and seek to compare competing conceptualizations of a diverse German society. We will pay special attention to the positioning and portrayal of dominant and marginalized cultures, the active rhetorical othering of foreigners, Jews, Muslims, and non-whites as well as the resurgence of conservative terms such as Heimat (homeland) and Leitkultur (guiding culture) in public discourse. We will ask how German politicians, journalists, activists, and authors imagine a diverse Germany should look, function, and succeed. All readings, discussions, and assignments will be in English. 

GERMAN R5B sec.004: Reading and Composition- Salehi

TuWTh 3-5:30pm

Class Number: 14924

Units/Credit: 4

Session D: July 5 – August 12

Description: 

Is there something objectively good about great art? What does it mean to say that taste is subjective? What is the purpose of art – and does it even need one? What does the media we consume say to us? What does it say about us? In the mid-18th century, the German philosopher Alexander Baumgarten coined the term “aesthetics” to designate a theory of sensibility that produces a certain kind of knowledge, that is, knowledge derived from our sensual perceptions. This course will survey the next 200 years in the German tradition of aesthetics and the philosophy of art, exploring its central concerns about the relationship of art and entertainment to truth and how our interaction with media reflects and even shapes the way we experience reality as a whole.

At each meeting we will analyze a short excerpt from theories of art by poets, playwrights, novelists, filmmakers, and philosophers. The research component will familiarize students not only with secondary scholarship, but also with artworks by these theorists and their contemporaries. Students will come out of the course having cultivated the research, vocabulary, and argumentation skills necessary to write convincing academic papers.