Spring 2022

Prerequisite: GERM-UA 9001: Elementary German I or equivalent or qualifying placement score.

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.

Elementary German II - 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.

Intensive Elementary German - 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.

Intermediate German I is the first part of a two-semester-long intermediate sequence. You will continue to study grammar, vocabulary and other aspects of language. The class is almost entirely taught in German and emphasizes the language skills necessary to communicate effectively in a foreign language – speaking, reading, viewing, writing, and listening. During this course, you will engage with a large variety of topical subjects from German culture, lifestyle and history.

This course intends to create a balance between working with intellectually stimulating subjects and practicing the skills needed to communicate in a foreign language. Learning another language requires a great deal of commitment, diligence, discipline, and effort on the part of the student.

Intermediate German I - 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.

Intermediate German II - Sample Syllabus

Prerequisite: GERM-UA 2/9002, GERM-UA 10/9010 (or equivalent courses) or qualifying placement test score.  

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.

Intensive Intermediate German - Sample Syllabus

Conducted in German. Postintermediate - 100 level.
Prerequisites: GERM-UA 20, GERM-UA 9020, GERM-UA 4, or GERM-UA 9004 (or equivalent courses), or qualifying placement test score.

Conversation & Composition is designed for post-Intermediate students of German with a solid grasp of German grammar and vocabulary, who wish to extend their knowledge of the German language, history, and culture through reading, watching films, discussion, and writing. Conversation & Composition is a reading and writing intensive course. Emphasis will be placed on refining written expression and developing the ability to express, discuss, and argue opinions.
This course will give you an overview of recent German political, social and cultural history after 1945 and of the present. Focuses will be on the variant developments in East and West Germany until the fall of the wall and on life in Berlin today. What are the important incidents and changes in German culture and society after 1945? How has the city of Berlin developed since the fall of the wall? These, and similar questions, will accompany us throughout the semester. During the course of the semester, we will explore narratives, which are related to our topics from a variety of genres: narrative prose, newspaper/magazine article, TV/radio documentary, music, film, photo, and other visual material. The class is entirely taught in German and emphasizes the language skills necessary to communicate effectively in a foreign language – speaking, reading, viewing, writing, and listening.

German Conversation and Composition - Sample Syllabus

Conducted in German. Postintermediate - 100 level.

Prerequisites: GERM-UA 4 Intermediate German II or GERM-UA 20 Intensive Intermediate German (or equivalent courses), or qualifying placement test score.

Recommended Prerequisites: GERM-UA 111 or 9111 Conversation and Composition (or equivalent courses).

Der Kurs führt in die Geschichte der deutschen Literatur vom 18. Jahrhundert bis in die Gegenwart ein. Anhand repräsentativer Werke vermittelt er einen Überblick über die verschiedenen Epochen und Gattungen, erste literaturwissenschaftliche Fachbegriffe werden erläutert. Kontinuitäten und Brüche, die als signifikante Entwicklungslinien oder Zäsuren die Literaturgeschichte markieren, werden im historischen und gesellschaftlichen Zusammenhang diskutiert. Der Kurs wird durchgängig in deutscher Sprache unterrichtet.
Es ist das Ziel, in gemeinsamen close readings a) ein Verständnis für die jeweiligen Texte und ihre politischen, kulturellen und sozialen Kontexte zu erarbeiten und b) die Fähigkeit zur wissenschaftlichen Diskussion zu entwickeln. Gefördert wird dies auch durch kleinere spielerische Einheiten, in denen wir die Texte in die Gegenwart transferieren und so nach der Aktualität der Werke fragen.

The course provides an introduction into the history of German Literature from the 18th century until today. By reading representative texts, the student will receive an overview of various epochs and genres. In addition, basic terminology of literary studies will be explained. Continuities and disruptions, which influence the history of literature in significant ways, are discussed in their historical and social contexts. The class is taught entirely in German.
The course objectives are a) to develop an understanding of the texts and their political, cultural, and social contexts and b) to develop an ability of critical discussion through a close reading of literary works. This is also fostered by some playful teaching units, in which we transfer the texts into the present and investigate their current relevance.

Introduction to German Literature - Sample Syllabus

Conducted in German. Postintermediate - 300 Level

Prerequisite: Completion of GERM-UA 152: Introduction to German Literature or equivalent.

This advanced topics course in German Literature varies by semester. A description and sample syllabus will be made available closer to the start of each term.

20th and 21st Century German Prose - Sample Syllabus

How do social movements form in response to environmental concerns? What makes them effective or ineffective? This course analyses the various social movements that organized in response to environmental concerns. Both historical and sociological dimensions of environmental movements are covered, with particular attention given to how issues of environmental protection and social justice intersect. At NYU Berlin, the course includes American (I), European, and in particular German (II), as well as global movements (III).

Environmental Social Movements  - 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.

Global Connections: Berlin Spaces - Sample Syllabus

This course proposes to look at migration from a contemporary perspective and to examine how it reconfigures identity and citizenship. It looks at the present situation through a historical perspective, taking the current ‘refugee crisis’ as a point of departure, and placing it in a European and global context. The course is intentionally multidisciplinary and incorporates debates from history, sociology, anthropology, political science, geography as well as cultural and urban studies. This will permit students from different backgrounds to approach the subject from their own vantage point and with their chosen methodological instruments. The course starts from observation and media analysis to lead students to theoretical approaches, instead of using a more common deductive approach.

Transnational Migration, Identity, and Citizenship - Sample Syllabus

The contemporary art world is a convoluted interplay of aesthetics and economics; ego and idealism. How can an emerging artist navigate its layers and idiosyncracies? Through readings of theory and criticism, lectures, discussions, site visits, guest speakers, and student responses in the form of multimedia projects and art writing, this course explores contemporary art’s mechanisms and current discourse, always keeping Berlin’s local context in mind.

Art & Ideas: The Art World Today - 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 course is a mixture of classroom discussions and field trips (in conjunction with discussions in rooms provided by the National Museums of Berlin) to different museums in Berlin, with a focus on the five major museums on the Museum Island, which have been build over a period of 100 years (1830-1930). We will also talk about the newest addition to the Museumsinsel, the Humboldt Forum scheduled to open its doors in the reconstructed city palace on the Schlossplatz in 2019. 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, until the era of global migration. Other topics include museums architecture, museum and identity, museum and education, museum and the 21st century. Previous knowledge of art history, architecture, or German history is not required, but useful.

Shaping an Educational Landscape: Museum Island - 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 is a unique modern Metropolis, its alternating history with often-drastic changes offers a comprehensive background to explore and investigate the nature of architecture in correlation to the various development processes of urban culture and life. Architecture is embedded in the urban fabric for which place and time serve as main threads, constantly changing their multifaceted and layered relationships. This urban fabric provides the fertile soil for urban culture and life, which literally takes place in various scales between the public and the private realm, two more threads intertwined to the urban fabric. Experiencing the city through walking, is essential for learning how to observe, see and read, "Place, Building and Time" in Berlin. Tours will alternate with classroom discussions and workshops.

Place - Building - Time: The Architecture of Berlin - Sample Syllabus

How do social movements form in response to environmental concerns? What makes them effective or ineffective? This course analyses the various social movements that organized in response to environmental concerns. Both historical and sociological dimensions of environmental movements are covered, with particular attention given to how issues of environmental protection and social justice intersect. At NYU Berlin, the course includes American (I), European, and in particular German (II), as well as global movements (III).

Environmental Social Movements  - Sample Syllabus

This course proposes to look at migration from a contemporary perspective and to examine how it reconfigures identity and citizenship. It looks at the present situation through a historical perspective, taking the current ‘refugee crisis’ as a point of departure, and placing it in a European and global context. The course is intentionally multidisciplinary and incorporates debates from history, sociology, anthropology, political science, geography as well as cultural and urban studies. This will permit students from different backgrounds to approach the subject from their own vantage point and with their chosen methodological instruments. The course starts from observation and media analysis to lead students to theoretical approaches, instead of using a more common deductive approach.

Transnational Migration, Identity, and Citizenship - Sample Syllabus

Enrollment by permission only. Application required.

Course is currently under development.

This 4 credit course includes a weekly seminar and 12 -15 hours fieldwork per week. Internship placements are made by Cultural Vistas, an organization partnering with NYU. Cultural Vistas provides internship placements in a wide range of organizations. Industry sectors include:

Arts and Museums
Public Policy & Government
Communication and Public Relations
Education
Non-Profits & Civic Engagement
Environment & Sustainability
STEM

The seminar portion of the course explores many different aspects of your internship site. The goal is to finish the semester with an in-depth understanding of the company or organization, including its approach, its policies, and the context in which it operates. We will also discuss more generally the state of the contemporary workplace and ourselves as workers. Finally, you will use the seminar to reflect critically and analytically on the internship experience and as a way to refine your own personal and professional goals.

Please note, students must have language proficiency of at least Intermediate II German to be eligible for this internship program. For more information on the application process and deadlines, please visit the NYU Berlin Internship website.

Experiential Learning Seminar - Sample Syllabus

Power and culture are intimately interwoven in the social history and the material substance of modern Berlin. This interdisciplinary course explores the changing historical contours of the keywords of Kultur (culture), Geist (spirit), Technik (technology), Bildung (education), Arbeit (work) and Macht (power) and contestations over their meanings. Through applying an interdisciplinary approach that integrates literature, film, art, architecture, and philosophy, we interrogate how meaning is made individually and collectively. We will look at how relationships between individual identities, state power, and social norms were shaped in the context of recurrent political and economic crisis and rupture and ask how changing local, national, supranational, and global contexts influence how meanings are made. Paying attention to possibilities and constraints for negotiating the terms of everyday life and for conforming or resisting, we will trace how Berliners made and make sense of their lives and the world they participate in shaping.

Berlin's Modern History & Culture: A European Perspective - Sample Syllabus

Enrollment by permission only. Application required.

Course is currently under development.

This 4 credit course includes a weekly seminar and 12 -15 hours fieldwork per week. Internship placements are made by Cultural Vistas, an organization partnering with NYU. Cultural Vistas provides internship placements in a wide range of organizations. Industry sectors include:

Arts and Museums
Public Policy & Government
Communication and Public Relations
Education
Non-Profits & Civic Engagement
Environment & Sustainability
STEM

The seminar portion of the course explores many different aspects of your internship site. The goal is to finish the semester with an in-depth understanding of the company or organization, including its approach, its policies, and the context in which it operates. We will also discuss more generally the state of the contemporary workplace and ourselves as workers. Finally, you will use the seminar to reflect critically and analytically on the internship experience and as a way to refine your own personal and professional goals.

Please note, students must have language proficiency of at least Intermediate II German to be eligible for this internship program. For more information on the application process and deadlines, please visit the NYU Berlin Internship website.

Experiential Learning Seminar - Sample Syllabus

Power and culture are intimately interwoven in the social history and the material substance of modern Berlin. This interdisciplinary course explores the changing historical contours of the keywords of Kultur (culture), Geist (spirit), Technik (technology), Bildung (education), Arbeit (work) and Macht (power) and contestations over their meanings. Through applying an interdisciplinary approach that integrates literature, film, art, architecture, and philosophy, we interrogate how meaning is made individually and collectively. We will look at how relationships between individual identities, state power, and social norms were shaped in the context of recurrent political and economic crisis and rupture and ask how changing local, national, supranational, and global contexts influence how meanings are made. Paying attention to possibilities and constraints for negotiating the terms of everyday life and for conforming or resisting, we will trace how Berliners made and make sense of their lives and the world they participate in shaping.

Berlin's Modern History & Culture: A European Perspective - Sample Syllabus

This course proposes to look at migration from a contemporary perspective and to examine how it reconfigures identity and citizenship. It looks at the present situation through a historical perspective, taking the current ‘refugee crisis’ as a point of departure, and placing it in a European and global context. The course is intentionally multidisciplinary and incorporates debates from history, sociology, anthropology, political science, geography as well as cultural and urban studies. This will permit students from different backgrounds to approach the subject from their own vantage point and with their chosen methodological instruments. The course starts from observation and media analysis to lead students to theoretical approaches, instead of using a more common deductive approach.

Transnational Migration, Identity, and Citizenship - Sample Syllabus

The history of Germany in the twentieth century offers rich material to explore various approaches to organizing modern society. Beginning with Imperial Germany in 1900 and moving forward to today’s reunited Germany, we will look at different ways in which the relationship between the state and the individual, and relationship between politics, economy, and society developed over five different political systems. We will interrogate how these institutional arrangements were envisioned and structured and how they were experienced in everyday negotiations. In this course, principle narratives and events will be situated in a European and global context, allowing us to place the concept of German modernity in a comparative framework. Lectures will provide an overview of Germany in the twentieth century; readings and in-class discussions will explore different approaches to analyzing German history and society. During museum visits and walking tours, we will analyze contestations over the various attempts to integrate – both in concerted efforts to memorialize as well as to forget and erase – Germany’s oft-problematic pasts within the narrative of Germany’s present.

Comparative Modern Societies: Politics and Society in 20th Century Germany - Sample Syllabus

Power and culture are intimately interwoven in the social history and the material substance of modern Berlin. This interdisciplinary course explores the changing historical contours of the keywords of Kultur (culture), Geist (spirit), Technik (technology), Bildung (education), Arbeit (work) and Macht (power) and contestations over their meanings. Through applying an interdisciplinary approach that integrates literature, film, art, architecture, and philosophy, we interrogate how meaning is made individually and collectively. We will look at how relationships between individual identities, state power, and social norms were shaped in the context of recurrent political and economic crisis and rupture and ask how changing local, national, supranational, and global contexts influence how meanings are made. Paying attention to possibilities and constraints for negotiating the terms of everyday life and for conforming or resisting, we will trace how Berliners made and make sense of their lives and the world they participate in shaping.

Berlin's Modern History & Culture: A European Perspective - 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.

Global Connections: Berlin Spaces - Sample Syllabus

The history of Germany in the twentieth century offers rich material to explore various approaches to organizing modern society. Beginning with Imperial Germany in 1900 and moving forward to today’s reunited Germany, we will look at different ways in which the relationship between the state and the individual, and relationship between politics, economy, and society developed over five different political systems. We will interrogate how these institutional arrangements were envisioned and structured and how they were experienced in everyday negotiations. In this course, principle narratives and events will be situated in a European and global context, allowing us to place the concept of German modernity in a comparative framework. Lectures will provide an overview of Germany in the twentieth century; readings and in-class discussions will explore different approaches to analyzing German history and society. During museum visits and walking tours, we will analyze contestations over the various attempts to integrate – both in concerted efforts to memorialize as well as to forget and erase – Germany’s oft-problematic pasts within the narrative of Germany’s present.

Comparative Modern Societies: Politics and Society in 20th Century Germany - Sample Syllabus

Prerequisite: PSYCH-UA 1 Introduction to Psychology or Equivalent.

The science of social psychology is concerned with understanding how others – be they actual or imagined – influence our affects, cognitions, and behavior. In this class we will learn about social psychology as a science, its methods, core concepts, current problems, and challenges. We will do so by covering theories and research in the broad range of topics social psychology has to offer. These include how people perceive themselves and others, as well as how people explain their own and others’ behavior. We will learn about the role of emotions in our social life and relationships, how we develop our attitudes and how they relate to our behavior. We will learn about how people influence and persuade each other – for example by using media – and when and why they become attracted to each other. We will also discuss groups, their dynamics, decisions, and leadership in groups, as well as when and why we become aggressive, act altruistically, help, and cooperate.

Another important topic will be the nature and consequences of stereotypes and prejudice in situations in which more than one social group is present and salient. Finally, we will explore how stereotypes and prejudice can be overcome in applied contexts, i.e., schools, universities, and other professional environments.

Social Psychology - Sample Syllabus

Prerequisite: PSYCH-UA 1 Introduction to Psychology or Equivalent.

Provides students with a broad understanding of the foundations of Cognitive Neuroscience including dominant theories of the neural underpinnings of a variety of cognitive processes and the research that has led to those theories. In doing so, students also learn about the goals of cognitive neuroscience research and the methods that are being employed to reach these goals. 

Cognitive Neuroscience - Sample Syllabus

Note. This course is only open to students participating in the Clive Davis Institute X Berlin: Future Pop Music Studies program at NYU Berlin.

Pre-requisite: REMU-UT 1218 The Business of Music (in-development). This course will count towards required Business core for ReMu majors.

With sales of more than 1.3 billion, the German recorded music market is the third largest in the world: it is larger than the UK music market and behind only the USA and Japan. Beyond just numbers, the Berlin music business is unique: it’s home to hundreds of powerful independent and D.I.Y. record labels; it’s historically been ground zero for innovative electronic and dance music; and it’s a burgeoning tech hub for innovative software/hardware companies like Native Instruments, Ableton and Soundcloud. In this colloquium series, students will meet and hear each week from key creative entrepreneurial figures and innovators in the German and European music business.

This course has several purposes. First, students will consider how ongoing economic and technological changes might be impacting the worldwide music business, as speakers discuss controversial trends like the rise of cryptocurrency, block chain and cashless systems, customization technologies like 3D printing and developments in robotics, and radical, disruptive approaches to copyright. Second, students will develop a greater understanding of the chief similarities and differences between the traditional European and US music business operations, particularly with regard to label operations, publishing and copyright, touring and festivals, and nightlife promotion.

Third, students will become more informed about the D.I.Y. music business in Berlin itself, as they hear from speakers about the promises and challenges one faces in launching innovative music start ups in Germany. And finally, students will get to meet and network with key movers and shakers in the Berlin scene, past and present. In anticipation for a guest class visit, students may be required to investigate websites, read biographical or contextual material, or attend events outside of class time. Students will be expected to ask informed questions of the guests and to develop responses throughout the course of the class.

Students should leave the class with a greater understanding of how the European and German music businesses work and how they themselves might make a business or sales impact on a global scale.

Conversations in the Global Music Business - Sample Syllabus 

There is no pre-requisite for this course. This course will count towards required Technology electives for ReMu majors.

After its reunifaction, Berlin gained a well-deserved reputation as an ‘anything-goes’ cultural playground. But just as radical cultural experimentation was leading to the city’s techno Renaissance, the same urban frontier was quietly transforming into a hotbed for new business ideas around tech. Companies like Ableton, Native Instruments, and SoundCloud started in the city and grew from headquarters there into leaders in the field of music technology. They join other world leaders in music tech around Europe, like Spotify, Deezer, Mixcloud, Focusrite/Novation, and Propellerhead. Berlin is quickly becoming known as a world-class hub for inovative tech start-ups and progressive developments in emergent media.

This class, open to all students, shines a light on key Berlin-based entrepreneurial figures and innovators in music technology, with a focus on those successful individuals who have launched recognized or profitable music-focused startups. The idea is for students, many of whom are aspiring entrepreneurs, to hear directly from, and ask questions directly to, established Berlin based tech entrepeneurs, in moderated conversation.

In anticipation for a guest class visit, students may be required to investigate websites, read biographical or contextual material, or attend events outside of class time. Students will be expected to ask informed questions of the guests and to develop responses throughout the course of the class. All events and speakers are subject to change.  

The Berlin Music Tech Start Up Scene - Sample Syllabus 

Note. This course is only open to students participating in the Clive Davis Institute X Berlin: Future Pop Music Studies program at NYU Berlin.

Contemporary sound production is often based on pre-designed workflows in virtual software environments that merely provide standardized results. Moreover, while aiming for the perfect acoustic image, many commercial producers tend to treat sound as if it were a stable art form. The purpose of this advanced production course is to deconstruct the art of record producing and to expose students to radical musical and studio experimentation, especially given Germany’s role in radicalizing music and sound in the 20^th century. Students will get a glimpse into the history and present of experimental composing, recording and performance. 

Students will learn how accidents can be the foundation of new musical genres. They will learn about the history of renaissance experiments in spatial music (which, in a way, mark the beginnings of modern artistic play on perspective). If time permits, students will be given an introduction to experimental approaches to hacking, instrument building and software abuse, as well as learn how everyday experimentation can be essential to their recording and performance routines. An array of analogue gear and microphones will be incorporated into in-class sessions, and the class will collectively jam using electronic and other sound devices to understand how individual expression can be essential to the creativity of the group as a whole.

As the idea of recorded musical products must be much more flexible and fluid in the age of streaming and other dephysicalized technologies, we will work toward the aforementioned idea that sound is an unstable art form. The product is the merchandise, but the idea is the original — this has held true for the history of recorded music in the 20^th and 21^st centuries. Throughout the course, students will have to continually ask themselves the following questions: Where does my music fit in? What is its context? Which ecosystem do I want to be a part of and how can I contribute to its discourse?

Experiments in the Future of Producing - Sample Syllabus

How do social movements form in response to environmental concerns? What makes them effective or ineffective? This course analyses the various social movements that organized in response to environmental concerns. Both historical and sociological dimensions of environmental movements are covered, with particular attention given to how issues of environmental protection and social justice intersect. At NYU Berlin, the course includes American (I), European, and in particular German (II), as well as global movements (III).

Environmental Social Movements  - 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 course is a mixture of classroom discussions and field trips (in conjunction with discussions in rooms provided by the National Museums of Berlin) to different museums in Berlin, with a focus on the five major museums on the Museum Island, which have been build over a period of 100 years (1830-1930). We will also talk about the newest addition to the Museumsinsel, the Humboldt Forum scheduled to open its doors in the reconstructed city palace on the Schlossplatz in 2019. 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, until the era of global migration. Other topics include museums architecture, museum and identity, museum and education, museum and the 21st century. Previous knowledge of art history, architecture, or German history is not required, but useful.

Shaping an Educational Landscape: Museum Island - Sample Syllabus

The history of Germany in the twentieth century offers rich material to explore various approaches to organizing modern society. Beginning with Imperial Germany in 1900 and moving forward to today’s reunited Germany, we will look at different ways in which the relationship between the state and the individual, and relationship between politics, economy, and society developed over five different political systems. We will interrogate how these institutional arrangements were envisioned and structured and how they were experienced in everyday negotiations. In this course, principle narratives and events will be situated in a European and global context, allowing us to place the concept of German modernity in a comparative framework. Lectures will provide an overview of Germany in the twentieth century; readings and in-class discussions will explore different approaches to analyzing German history and society. During museum visits and walking tours, we will analyze contestations over the various attempts to integrate – both in concerted efforts to memorialize as well as to forget and erase – Germany’s oft-problematic pasts within the narrative of Germany’s present.

Comparative Modern Societies: Politics and Society in 20th Century Germany - 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 is a unique modern Metropolis, its alternating history with often-drastic changes offers a comprehensive background to explore and investigate the nature of architecture in correlation to the various development processes of urban culture and life. Architecture is embedded in the urban fabric for which place and time serve as main threads, constantly changing their multifaceted and layered relationships. This urban fabric provides the fertile soil for urban culture and life, which literally takes place in various scales between the public and the private realm, two more threads intertwined to the urban fabric. Experiencing the city through walking, is essential for learning how to observe, see and read, "Place, Building and Time" in Berlin. Tours will alternate with classroom discussions and workshops.

Place - Building - Time: The Architecture of Berlin - Sample Syllabus

This course proposes to look at migration from a contemporary perspective and to examine how it reconfigures identity and citizenship. It looks at the present situation through a historical perspective, taking the current ‘refugee crisis’ as a point of departure, and placing it in a European and global context. The course is intentionally multidisciplinary and incorporates debates from history, sociology, anthropology, political science, geography as well as cultural and urban studies. This will permit students from different backgrounds to approach the subject from their own vantage point and with their chosen methodological instruments. The course starts from observation and media analysis to lead students to theoretical approaches, instead of using a more common deductive approach.

Transnational Migration, Identity, and Citizenship - Sample Syllabus

This is a one-semester program in theater and actor training for advanced drama students offered by NYU Berlin in conjunction with the Tisch Department of Drama and in affiliation with faculty from the Ernst Busch Academy of Dramatic Arts, The Berlin University of the Arts, and the Berlin Schaubühne.  

The curriculum will focus on the study and practical application of aspects of German theater that have made and are continuing to make a significant contribution to international theater practice. It includes the integration of the Russian based Stanislavsky Method of Physical Actions with Brecht’s Epic Theater, Advanced Realistic scene study, Real Time Acting, Brecht scene study, Devised Theater, Postdramatic Theater, movement, voice, and rigorous actor-oriented dramaturgical research. The program will culminate with workshop performances of several short plays by Brecht.  

Students will also participate in the international F.I.N.D. Festival hosted by Thomas Ostermeier and the Berlin Schaubühne. Designed to foster international artistic exchange, this festival brings together a select group of international theater students for ten days. They attend several contemporary professional productions, meet with the directors, and participate in a series of master classes led by an international team of major teaching artists.  

Spring Only: This course is required for the Tisch Acting program.  Students must enroll in this 8 credit course as well as German.

Stanislavsky, Brecht and Beyond: An Integrated Approach to Contemporary Actor Training THEA-UT 9455 - Sample Syllabus