Courses - Spring 2014

Currently under development.

This zero credit course will take place during the first two weeks of the semester and will be desinged to give students a background in German history and culture.

This course continues your introduction to the language and everyday culture of German-speaking countries. You will expand your understanding of important vocabulary and customs as well as more advanced language structures and idioms. The focus of the course will continue to spoken communication and everyday language use, but there will also be increased attention to reading and writing assignments. Since the goals of communicative and grammatical competence are ultimately inseparable,students are guided towards using German as accurately as possible.

This course covers the second part of a four part German course. Together, these courses (Elementary I and II and Intermediate I and II) should help you develop a level of proficiency in German that would enable you to study abroad in German-speaking countries, to pursue advanced study of German in the US, or to use German for travel, leisure, and work. At the end of Intermediate German II (or Intensive Intermediate German) you will be prepared to successfully take a proficiency exam.

Sample Syllabus

This is an intensive introductory course to the language and culture of German-speaking countries for students with no knowledge of German. The focus of the course will be on communication with emphasis on the use of German in real-life situations, as well as providing knowledge of grammar and vocabulary. At the end of the semester, students will have acquired all the skills usually obtained in the two semesters of Elementary German sequence.

Your engagement with German language will also include learning about Berlin and the Federal Republic of Germany today. In addition to language instruction, the course offers a rich cultural program that includes visits to famous museums and places in Berlin. These visits and field trips are closely related to the subjects taught in class and will help you utilize your knowledge outside the classroom.

This course covers the first two parts of a four part German course. Together these courses (Elementary I and II; Intermediate I and II) should help you develop a level of proficiency in German that would enable you to study abroad in German-speaking countries, to pursue advanced study of German in the US, or to use German for travel, leisure, and work. At the end of Intermediate German II (or Intensive Intermediate German) you will be prepared to successfully take a proficiency exam.

Sample Syllabus

Open to students who have completed the equivalent of one year of elementary language instruction and to others on assignment by placement examination.

The first intermediate course stresses the acquisition and practice of more sophisticated written and spoken German. The focus is on expanding conversational skills, but the course also includes guided composition practice, vocabulary work, and grammar review. 

Sample Syllabus

Prerequisite: GERM-UA 9003, Intermediate German I or equivalent.

Intermediate German II is the second part of a two semester intermediate sequence. You will continue to study grammar, vocabulary and other aspects of language. You will also learn about the cultural and historical context of the German language. The class is taught entirely in German and emphasizes the language skills necessary to communicate effectively in a foreign language – speaking, reading, viewing, writing, and listening. This course intends to create a balance between working with intellectually stimulating subjects and practicing the skills needed to communicate in a foreign language.

This course covers the fourth part of a four part German course. Together, these courses (Elementary I and II and Intermediate I and II) should help you develop a level of proficiency in German that will enable you to study abroad in German-speaking countries, to pursue advanced study of German in the US, or to use German for travel, leisure, and work.

Sample Syllabus

In this intensive intermediate course you will continue to study grammar,vocabulary and other aspects of language. You will also learn about the cultural and historical context of the German language. The class is taught entirely in German and emphasizes the language skills necessary to communicate effectively in a foreign language – speaking, reading, viewing, writing, and listening. This course intends to create a balance between working with intellectually stimulating subjects and practicing the skills needed to communicate in a foreign language.
Throughout your engagement with the German language you will also learn about Berlin and the Federal Republic of Germany today. In addition to language instruction, the course offers a rich cultural program that includes visits to famous museums and places in Berlin. These visits and field trips are closely related to the subjects taught in class and will help you utilize your knowledge outside the classroom.

This course covers the second two parts of a four part German course.Together these courses (Elementary I and II; Intermediate I and II) should help you develop a level of proficiency in German that would enable you to study abroad in German-speaking countries, to pursue advanced study of German in the US, or to use German for travel, leisure, and work. At the end of Intensive Intermediate you will be prepared to successfully take a proficiency exam.

Sample Syllabus

The course introduces students to the language and everyday culture of German speaking
countries. It is aimed at students with no prior knowledge of German. It focuses on the development of competence in verbal communication and the acquisition of specific
communication structures, which can be used in daily life in Berlin. Grammar teaching
focuses on structures that are needed for daily communication.

The course is divided into two blocks: until halfway through the term students will be
introduced to basic practical language skills e.g. how to convey essential information
about themselves, their family and friends; how to give and follow simple directions; how
to obtain information by asking questions or how to describe daily activities.

The second block of this course focuses on specific cultural topics related to practical use
of the German language. During excursions – all in German - students will experience
how they can apply their German language skills while having cultural experiences.

A textbook in conjunction with current culture-rich supplemental materials, offers
students a balanced approach to developing their individual language & culture
competencies.

This course does NOT cover Elementary I. It is open to students who have no previous
knowledge of German and:
• do not need to complete Elementary I for their major, or have completed the
language requirement for their major.
• who have been to two other global sites, or study at an NYU portal campus.

Conducted in German. Postintermediate - 100 level.

In this course, we will give you an impression of newer German history and presence and discuss its political, social and cultural aspects. In this context we will place emphasis on relationships between the people from former Eastern and Western Germany and also focus on multiculturism in Germany.  During the course of the semester, we will explore narratives which are related to our topics from a variety of genres: narrative prose, newspapers/magazine articles, films, and radio plays among others. We will also watch several films and read several stories.

Sample Syllabus

Conducted in German. Postintermediate - 100 level.

The course explores twentieth-century German culture by studying the history of Berlin´s unique and rich theater landscape, for theater is a telling mirror of its time and the society it is created in and performed for. The course starts with a general introduction into German theater history, and then begins its investigation in late-nineteenth century Imperial Germany. Case studies of the actors, authors and theaters that defined each period cover Berlin's theater history from Imperial times to the Weimar Republic, "The Third Reich" the ruins of postwar Berlin, the division of East and West, the collapse of Communism and reunified Berlin. We will use different media, such as articles, excerpts from books, interviews, video recordings and performances, literature, film and images/photos. In addition, we will read parts of or entire theater scripts.

We will also visit the theaters that feature so prominently in Berlin's cultural history and have a look at what they are offering today. We will attend at least four performances. Participation in the theater visits and film screenings is a fixed part of the course program. We will prepare for the performances and discuss them in class afterwards. A weekend theater workshop is also planned.

This course is mainly a conversation course in which we will discuss theater productions and works, as well as analyze and interpret historical and political topics and questions on the social impact of theater.

Sample Syllabus

Conducted in German. Advanced - 300 level.

This seminar focuses on cultural-historical reflections of the 20th century in art and literature and provides an overview, exploring the cultural, literary, and artistic history of Germany. We will examine not only various epochs of modernity such as Naturalism, Dadaism, and New Objectivity, but also look at epoch-making artists and authors, as well as the different ways art and literature have impacted the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic.

From a cultural-historical perspective, we will examine Germany as a country that has undergone many changes from the industrialization at the end of the 19th century to the present day. At the same time, we will analyze the city of Berlin as a center of art and a place where art flourishes - from the late 19th century to the present. How is the city perceived and received as a place? What kind of (symbolic) significance is associated with the city, and what conclusions can be drawn about the cultural self-image of the people? What kind of art develops in Germany and Berlin, and what is its relationship to the city itself?

Three classes will take place in various museums in Berlin (National Gallery, the Hamburger Bahnhof and Berlin City Gallery). These visits are intended not just to acquire a well-founded knowledge of original objects, but also to train students in the proper description and fundamentals of scientific object analysis. The work with originals is also a prerequisite for a sound understanding of the references between literature and visual arts. In this respect, the literary scholar Ulrike Lindemann and the art historian Dr. Heinke Fabritius will lead the course as team-teachers.

Students will gain familiarity with the newest trends and current projects (in galleries, private collections and training institutes) by going on a field trip to Berlin’s art scene after 1989, where an early exchange and communication between NYU students and creative artists is initiated.

Sample Syllabus

Another studio art course is currently in development.  Photography and drawing are currently under consideration.

This course will likely carry a supplies & studio fee for all non-Steinhardt Studio Art majors. More details will be available soon.

Sound art is perhaps the multidisciplinary art par excellence. Eluding most attempts at tidy classification, sound art can share formal elements and concerns with traditional sculpture, film and video, performance art, conceptual art, architecture, installation, and of course with music. This studio course will explore sound across its many and sometimes contradictory vectors, allowing students intensive work on sounds and their composition, as well as on projects that explore the broad and rich interaction of sound with other disciplines of art.

There are two main tenets of the course. The first is that issues fundamental to sound art engage some of the key problems of modern and contemporary art. Rather than viewing sound as a peripheral practice, we will see how it has been decisive in the narrative of 20th and 21st century art, exciting many of the key debates that carry through to this day. The second principle is that listening, or careful observation, can be primary in the creative process, coming before expression. From John Cage onward, the value of listening, of observation as a primary creative act, has re-attuned many strains of western art (from conceptual, minimal, and land art to media and installation art) to new ideas of process, complexity, and ecology.

This course can be approached from any level of experience. No previous work with sound or with digital media is required, only a willingness to explore the boundaries of art-making that is a natural outgrowth of working with sound as an artistic medium.

This course will carry a supplies & studio fee for all non-Steinhardt Studio Art majors. More details will be available soon.

Intended for Studio Art students to work on projects over the course of the semester under the guidance of an artist mentor.

Sample Syllabus

This course usually addresses the question what today's art world is and how it can be navigated. What are the leading conventions, reoccurring trends, practical constraints and concerns within it? What are alternatives to the prevailing institutions and structures? Do artists need gallery representation or art school training to succeed? What constitutes success for individual artists, art-centric cities or institutions?  (The syllabus is currently in development.)

Under development. Description coming soon.

NYU Art History Students: This course counts for Urban Design credit or Art History Elective credit.

NYU Sociology Students: This course counts as an advanced seminar.

Berlin with its alternating history is a fascinating background to study the constantly changing relationship between "Place, Building and Time".
Together they are three important threads of the "urban fabric", we also will learn more about two other threads, the "Scale" and the "Public-Private Realm".
Classroom Discussions and tours during the semester will focus on different aspects of the complex relationship between the architecture of a building, the threads of the urban fabric surrounding it and the questions of sustainability.

Sample Syllabus

NYU Art History Students: This course counts for Urban Design credit or Art History Elective credit.

NYU Sociology Students: This course counts as an advanced seminar.

The seminar consists mainly of field trips to different museums in Berlin, with a focus on the ensemble of five major art museums on "Museuminsel", which have been built over a period of 100 years.  Discussions will focus on the nature and social function of museums as well as their role as places where the image of the state and its civil society are constantly reshaped.  Other topics include museum architecture, collecting as a cultural technique, and Prussian-German intellectual history from the 18th to the 20th century.  Selected pieces from the rich collections of the Berlin museums will be closely examined.  Previous knowledge of art history, architecture, or German history is not required, but useful.

Sample Syllabus

This survey course analyzes the ways that our social and ecological worlds intersect.Through an exploration of historical and contemporary debates, we will consider how ideas about the "environment" and "society" - and the relationship between the two - are the products of socio-cultural, economic, and political processes. We will also consider the ways in which material conditions guide and constrain social life, from natural resources to disease. Fundamentally, students will learn to apply social scientific insights in order to theorize "environment" and "society" (or nature-culture) as inseparable and mutually constitutive, rather than opposed and mutually exclusive.

Sample Syllabus

The course gives an introduction to various aspects of EU environmental policy making and policy implementation. After a brief recap of the basics of policy making in the EU, students will learn about the guiding principles and developments within EU environmental policy, the main actors and their interests in and influence on policy making. An optional part of the course might be a visit to the European House of the European Commission (EC) in Berlin where students either have the opportunity to role-play the decision-making process of the EC on the introduction of CO2-standards for cars or to engage in a debate with an EC representative. The second half of the course analyses EU environmental policies in different issue areas (e.g. climate change, biodiversity, waste) for their effectiveness in solving environmental problems. Different policy instruments are discussed for their merits and shortcomings (one example will be the EU Emissions Trading System) and linkages to other issue areas of EU policy making (e.g. industry and agriculture) are discussed. Finally, the course provides an international perspective on EU environmental policy making: sessions will evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of EU environmental policy making at home and in international negotiations, compare it with US environmental politics, and discuss future challenges (e.g. EU enlargement) and trends for EU environmental governance.

Sample Syllabus

With the focus on urban ecology this course examines Berlin’s urban planning approaches and their history, asking whether and how, the city’s built form, biophysical processes, and social life are intertwined and ‘sustainable’. The course offers an extensive survey of theory and method drawn from the fields of ‘urban’ ecology, geography, and anthropology, as well as site visits to several facets of Berlin’s ‘green’ past and present. By combining the experience of site visits with a careful study of contemporary urban ecology, we will consider how contests over environmental knowledge, socio-cultural ideology, and discourse shape human engagement with urban nature. The main questions are: how have Berlin’s ‘green’ features developed in relation to economic, socio-cultural, and political processes? How do sustainable projects change Berlin, and how are they experienced and shaped by different social groups? This is a reading-intensive 6-credit course that meets for 3,5 hours per week.

Sample Syllabus

Provides an overview of the legal and institutional foundations of the European Union before focusing on the question of the EU's democratic legitimacy or lack thereof. The historical process of European unification will be explored and various positions on the EU's democratic deficit and ways to remedy it examined. The roots of the current tensions between Europe and the U.S. and the future of European-American relations will also be discussed. 

Sample Syllabus

NYU Sociology Students: This course counts as an advanced seminar

Examines the development of Europe's and America's images of one another from the 18th century to the present through literary texts and historical documents, with special attention to sources from Germany. The roots of current U.S.-European tensions, both cultural and political, will also be explored. 

Sample Syllabus

From its beginnings, cinema in Germany was embroiled in heated debates about its potentials and shortcomings, its aesthetic, social and political value. At the core of these emphatic debates stands the question where cinema is to be located: is cinema a form of art or mere entertainment for the masses? And what does it mean to be a work of art? What is its significance as popular medium? With these questions, film’s relevance, then, reaches far beyond the worlds it presents on screen. It is intrinsically linked to questions of German identity and self-perception.

This course provides an overview of the different roles of cinema as we follow the medium and the debates that surrounded it at crucial junctions in the turbulent history of the 20th century in Germany. We will shed light on cinema and its aesthetic debates as they reflect on and are entangled with social and political discourses and will see that cinema itself should be understood as contribution to these discussions. The course aims to give some insight into the competing ideas of intellectual histories and evaluate them from the angle of the visual medium and to thus offer a better understanding of German identity.

Note: Students may not register for both this course and Comparative Modern Societies due to content overlap.

Germany’s profound influence on Modern European history and culture is felt nowhere as visibly as in Berlin. This interdisciplinary course analyzes the city’s contributions to culture––in literature, memoir, music, film and painting––and its politics in the wider context of European trends. The course provides a comprehensive survey of Modern Berlin history and examines how artists reflected on those changing times. Special topics include: Christopher Isherwood’s fictionalized memoirs during the Weimar Years, the Nazi Aesthetic during the Berlin 1936 Olympics as constructed by filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl, the photo-realist reflections of painter Gerhard Richter on terrorism in Berlin in the 1970s, and Germany’s literary reassessment of guilt and victimhood following reunification. Readings and lectures are supplemented with walking tours of Berlin and its museums, to look at traces of historical, social and cultural change in situ; how memory, history and place interact over time in specific locations.

From its beginnings, cinema in Germany was embroiled in heated debates about its potentials and shortcomings, its aesthetic, social and political value. At the core of these emphatic debates stands the question where cinema is to be located: is cinema a form of art or mere entertainment for the masses? And what does it mean to be a work of art? What is its significance as popular medium? With these questions, film’s relevance, then, reaches far beyond the worlds it presents on screen. It is intrinsically linked to questions of German identity and self-perception.

This course provides an overview of the different roles of cinema as we follow the medium and the debates that surrounded it at crucial junctions in the turbulent history of the 20th century in Germany. We will shed light on cinema and its aesthetic debates as they reflect on and are entangled with social and political discourses and will see that cinema itself should be understood as contribution to these discussions. The course aims to give some insight into the competing ideas of intellectual histories and evaluate them from the angle of the visual medium and to thus offer a better understanding of German identity.

Note: Students may not register for both this course and Comparative Modern Societies due to content overlap.

Germany’s profound influence on Modern European history and culture is felt nowhere as visibly as in Berlin. This interdisciplinary course analyzes the city’s contributions to culture––in literature, memoir, music, film and painting––and its politics in the wider context of European trends. The course provides a comprehensive survey of Modern Berlin history and examines how artists reflected on those changing times. Special topics include: Christopher Isherwood’s fictionalized memoirs during the Weimar Years, the Nazi Aesthetic during the Berlin 1936 Olympics as constructed by filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl, the photo-realist reflections of painter Gerhard Richter on terrorism in Berlin in the 1970s, and Germany’s literary reassessment of guilt and victimhood following reunification. Readings and lectures are supplemented with walking tours of Berlin and its museums, to look at traces of historical, social and cultural change in situ; how memory, history and place interact over time in specific locations.

NYU Sociology Students: This course counts as an advanced seminar

This course examines the works of Marx, Nietzsche, and Freud, three German thinkers who pioneered radically different and influential interpretations of modern life. The aim of the course is to provide an introduction to the central ideas and texts of each author, and construct dialogues on topics such as the modern subject, history, art, interpretation, religion, politics and morality. While taking account of the historical complexities and stylized conventions of each text, the course will highlight the recurrent themes that animate these influential writings and continue to shape our contemporary understanding of society and individual. The seminar not only delves into the origins of these influential traditions of modern Western thought, but also underscores their relevance in contemporary social thought and humanities. 

Sample Syllabus

This course addresses literary and cultural representations of Berlin in the late 19th and the 20th century. Accordingly, students will investigate different aspects of Berlin ranging from its growing to a metropolis during the German Empire and its cultural richness in the Weimar Period to the devastation of the city during World War II; from the division in the postwar period, which also produced two separate literary systems, to polyphonic and transcultural prose after reunification. The course will also focus on Jewish as well as German-Turkish literature. In its theoretical approach, the course offers insights into new paradigms of cultural studies such as "spatial turn" or "urbanism" as well as seeks to enhance academic skills in the reflection of gender aspects.

Sample Syllabus

This is a seminar designed to accompany GLS internships.

Sample Syllabus

NYU Sociology Students: This course counts as an advanced seminar

Examines the development of Europe's and America's images of one another from the 18th century to the present through literary texts and historical documents, with special attention to sources from Germany. The roots of current U.S.-European tensions, both cultural and political, will also be explored. 

Sample Syllabus

Students may not register for both this course and Berlin's History & Culture due to content overlap.

Explores the society, politics and culture of contemporary Germany through lectures, readings and visits to institutions and organizations around Berlin. Examines the historical developments in the 20th century (failed democratization, National Socialism, Communism, postwar reconstruction, reunification) that have shaped today's Federal Republic. Germany's place within a united Europe will also be discussed. 

Sample Syllabus

Note: Students may not register for both this course and Comparative Modern Societies due to content overlap.

Germany’s profound influence on Modern European history and culture is felt nowhere as visibly as in Berlin. This interdisciplinary course analyzes the city’s contributions to culture––in literature, memoir, music, film and painting––and its politics in the wider context of European trends. The course provides a comprehensive survey of Modern Berlin history and examines how artists reflected on those changing times. Special topics include: Christopher Isherwood’s fictionalized memoirs during the Weimar Years, the Nazi Aesthetic during the Berlin 1936 Olympics as constructed by filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl, the photo-realist reflections of painter Gerhard Richter on terrorism in Berlin in the 1970s, and Germany’s literary reassessment of guilt and victimhood following reunification. Readings and lectures are supplemented with walking tours of Berlin and its museums, to look at traces of historical, social and cultural change in situ; how memory, history and place interact over time in specific locations.

Under development. Description coming soon.

With the focus on urban ecology this course examines Berlin’s urban planning approaches and their history, asking whether and how, the city’s built form, biophysical processes, and social life are intertwined and ‘sustainable’. The course offers an extensive survey of theory and method drawn from the fields of ‘urban’ ecology, geography, and anthropology, as well as site visits to several facets of Berlin’s ‘green’ past and present. By combining the experience of site visits with a careful study of contemporary urban ecology, we will consider how contests over environmental knowledge, socio-cultural ideology, and discourse shape human engagement with urban nature. The main questions are: how have Berlin’s ‘green’ features developed in relation to economic, socio-cultural, and political processes? How do sustainable projects change Berlin, and how are they experienced and shaped by different social groups? This is a reading-intensive 6-credit course that meets for 3,5 hours per week.

Sample Syllabus

This course examines diverse current urban trends in Berlin and their connections to worldwide phenomena. It focuses on the way that different social groups (according to class, milieu, origin, gender or sexuality) appropriate urban space and constitute place-­‐‑specific identities.

It uses the city of Berlin with its multiple layers of history as a laboratory for contemporary urban research with historical, empirical and theoretical material. We will study key debates on urban developments, partly as field visits, in regard to housing, migration, gentrification, and we will search for the creative and the sustainable city. You will be introduced to the contemporary discourses on those trends and to new ways of reading and seeing a city.

Sample Syllabus

This course provides a broad survey of the main traditions of classical, modern, and contemporary political thought in the West. The primary focus will be placed on examining the historical antecedents of some of the foundational concepts and practices that distinguish our political behavior and institutions today. Some of the critical issues discussed include the divergent views of human nature and ideal society, the structure of authority and sovereignty, the rise of political morality, the defense of liberty, equality and justice, and different models of democratic practice.

Sample Syllabus 

Students may not register for both this course and Berlin's History & Culture due to content overlap.

Explores the society, politics and culture of contemporary Germany through lectures, readings and visits to institutions and organizations around Berlin. Examines the historical developments in the 20th century (failed democratization, National Socialism, Communism, postwar reconstruction, reunification) that have shaped today's Federal Republic. Germany's place within a united Europe will also be discussed. 

Sample Syllabus

Provides an overview of the legal and institutional foundations of the European Union before focusing on the question of the EU's democratic legitimacy or lack thereof. The historical process of European unification will be explored and various positions on the EU's democratic deficit and ways to remedy it examined. The roots of the current tensions between Europe and the U.S. and the future of European-American relations will also be discussed. 

Sample Syllabus

This course introduces the distinctive concerns and methods of sociological theory, and examines the value and problem of 'theorizing' modern (global) society.  It begins with the major contributions of Marx, Durkheim, Weber, and Simmel.  Attention will be paid to the social and intellectual context of these thinkers, but the primary focus will on their ideas and their relevance to the analysis of modern society and social processes.

Sample Syllabus

Please note that the Spring session of this course is not a joint course with Humboldt students.

This course is designed as a collaborative project between NYUB and Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin offering students a unique opportunity for academic and cultural exchange in a classroom that serves as a test lab for global education. Please note however that during the spring 2013 semester Humboldt student participation may be limited.

The course will focus on the current realities and future possibilities of global higher education at the backdrop of its historical and conceptual coordinates. A glance at the contemporary higher edu-cation landscape reveals ambivalent trends and directions: Excellence and internationalization protrude as paradigms that drive universities to secure their stakes in global higher education market. National politics of education further enhance this competition among institutional front-runners by launching excellence intiatives or entering in supranational Bologna-type arrangements to facilitate cross-border academic exchange and knowledge production. As a consequence a range of distinct regional approaches to global education have emerged from national models and prac-tices of education. Designed as a pilot seminar, this course will serve as a site of academic dialog between NYU and HU students in one classroom by pursuing the following three steps. First, it seeks to familiarize its participants with the visions and promises of global education while also paying attention to potential perils involved in globalizing national models of education. Among others, we will address questions such as: How are modes of producing and disseminating know-ledge affected when education crosses borders? What does global education demand from student learners and how are globally educated citizens envisioned? How can experiences of knowledge production and education specific to one context be made operable in another? In a second step, the course introduces and compares regional approaches to global education. Different national histories of higher education yield different answers to the questions formulated in the first step. Yet, debates center around (one) global education, not educations. This tension requires scrutiny and, in a third step, it will ask students to develop an informed and critical position on the stakes of global education.
In order to make use of the unique classroom setting the course will employ independent (out-of-class) and in-class, individual and collective, analytical and interpretive formats. Students will be particularly encouraged to fully embrace the learning impulses resulting from the intercultural encounter between NYU and Humboldt students. The language we are going to acquire in this course is called global education. By starting to learn its rules and formulas, students are likely to see possible future trajectories of educational development and might even envision their future role in it. The course will feature guest speakers on selected topics. The class discussion will culminate in a colloquium at which both NYU and HU students will present their final projects.

Sample Syllabus

NYU Art History Students: This course counts for Urban Design credit or Art History Elective credit.

NYU Sociology Students: This course counts as an advanced seminar.

Berlin with its alternating history is a fascinating background to study the constantly changing relationship between "Place, Building and Time".
Together they are three important threads of the "urban fabric", we also will learn more about two other threads, the "Scale" and the "Public-Private Realm".
Classroom Discussions and tours during the semester will focus on different aspects of the complex relationship between the architecture of a building, the threads of the urban fabric surrounding it and the questions of sustainability.

Sample Syllabus

NYU Art History Students: This course counts for Urban Design credit or Art History Elective credit.

NYU Sociology Students: This course counts as an advanced seminar.

The seminar consists mainly of field trips to different museums in Berlin, with a focus on the ensemble of five major art museums on "Museuminsel", which have been built over a period of 100 years.  Discussions will focus on the nature and social function of museums as well as their role as places where the image of the state and its civil society are constantly reshaped.  Other topics include museum architecture, collecting as a cultural technique, and Prussian-German intellectual history from the 18th to the 20th century.  Selected pieces from the rich collections of the Berlin museums will be closely examined.  Previous knowledge of art history, architecture, or German history is not required, but useful.

Sample Syllabus

Provides an overview of the legal and institutional foundations of the European Union before focusing on the question of the EU's democratic legitimacy or lack thereof. The historical process of European unification will be explored and various positions on the EU's democratic deficit and ways to remedy it examined. The roots of the current tensions between Europe and the U.S. and the future of European-American relations will also be discussed. 

Sample Syllabus

NYU Sociology Students: This course counts as an advanced seminar

Examines the development of Europe's and America's images of one another from the 18th century to the present through literary texts and historical documents, with special attention to sources from Germany. The roots of current U.S.-European tensions, both cultural and political, will also be explored. 

Sample Syllabus

NYU Sociology Students: This course counts as an advanced seminar

This course examines the works of Marx, Nietzsche, and Freud, three German thinkers who pioneered radically different and influential interpretations of modern life. The aim of the course is to provide an introduction to the central ideas and texts of each author, and construct dialogues on topics such as the modern subject, history, art, interpretation, religion, politics and morality. While taking account of the historical complexities and stylized conventions of each text, the course will highlight the recurrent themes that animate these influential writings and continue to shape our contemporary understanding of society and individual. The seminar not only delves into the origins of these influential traditions of modern Western thought, but also underscores their relevance in contemporary social thought and humanities. 

Sample Syllabus

This course addresses literary and cultural representations of Berlin in the late 19th and the 20th century. Accordingly, students will investigate different aspects of Berlin ranging from its growing to a metropolis during the German Empire and its cultural richness in the Weimar Period to the devastation of the city during World War II; from the division in the postwar period, which also produced two separate literary systems, to polyphonic and transcultural prose after reunification. The course will also focus on Jewish as well as German-Turkish literature. In its theoretical approach, the course offers insights into new paradigms of cultural studies such as "spatial turn" or "urbanism" as well as seeks to enhance academic skills in the reflection of gender aspects.

Sample Syllabus

Students may not register for both this course and Berlin's History & Culture due to content overlap.

Explores the society, politics and culture of contemporary Germany through lectures, readings and visits to institutions and organizations around Berlin. Examines the historical developments in the 20th century (failed democratization, National Socialism, Communism, postwar reconstruction, reunification) that have shaped today's Federal Republic. Germany's place within a united Europe will also be discussed. 

Sample Syllabus