German Courses Fall 2020

(4 credits)

• Section 001: MTWRF 9:55-10:45 am
• Section 002: MTWRF 11:00-11:50 am
• Section 003: MTWRF 12:05-12:55 pm
• Section 004: ONLINE (MTWRF 1:20-2:10 pm)          Instructor: Melissa Sheedy
• Section 005: MWR 3:30-4:50 pm

Course Description: Presumes no knowledge of the German language. In the course students learn basic vocabulary around topics such as classroom objects, daily routines, descriptions of people and objects, simple narration in present time, etc. German 101 covers material presented in the textbook Vorsprung from Kapitel 1 to Kapitel 5. Students read and discuss “real” texts (written by and for native) speakers from the start. Grammar is explained using examples from these texts as well as from a graphic novel, told in installments, that traces the journey of an American exchange student, Anna Adler, to the university in Tübingen as well as her adventures once there. The course also offers basic cultural insights and comparisons that are further elaborated on in second-year courses. Testing is done in increments of chapter quizzes; there is no mid-term and no traditional final exam. Students also complete writing & reading assignments as well as matching assessments, all with a take-home component. There are two oral projects. Class participation is encouraged and an attendance policy is in place. This course cannot be audited.

Prerequisites: None.

(This course is also offered to graduate students for 3 credits as GERMAN 401.)

(4 credits)

• Section 001: ONLINE (MTWRF 12:05-12:55 pm)
• Section 002: MWR 3:30-4:50 pm

Course Description: Continuation of German 101. Students learn to narrate using past time markers, to express wishes and conditional ideas, to expand on their ability to describe, and to understand and produce extended texts on everyday topics. German 102 covers material presented in the textbook Vorsprung from Kapitel 6 to Kapitel 10. Students read and discuss “real” texts (written by and for native) speakers from the start. Grammar is explained using examples from these texts as well as from a graphic novel, told in installments, that traces the journey of an American exchange student, Anna Adler, to the university in Tübingen as well as her adventures once there. The course also offers basic cultural insights and comparisons that are further elaborated on in second-year courses. Testing is done in increments of chapter quizzes; there is no mid-term and no traditional final exam. Students also complete writing & reading assignments as well as matching assessments, all with a take-home component. There are two oral projects. Class participation is encouraged and an attendance policy is in place. This course cannot be audited.

Prerequisites: GERMAN 101 or appropriate score on the placement exam. Open to first-year students.

(This course is also offered to graduate students for 3 credits as GERMAN 402.)

(4 credits)

• MTWR 9:55-10:45 am

Course Description: One of the advantages of studying at the UW is being able to take courses in Dutch. Although the study of Dutch linguistics and literature has steadily expanded at major American universities in recent years, many universities do not offer this language. Since Dutch is a Germanic language—linguistically related to both German and English—and since the Dutch have always had close ties, Dutch is a logical choice as an additional language for American students from a range of majors or areas of interest.

Prerequisites: None

(This course is also offered to graduate students for 3 credits as GERMAN 311.)

(4 credits)

• Section 001: MTWR 9:55-10:45 am                                  Instructor: Hannah Eldridge
• Section 002: ONLINE (MTWR 11:00-11:50 am)
• Section 003: MTWR 12:05-12:55 pm                               Instructor: Hannah Eldridge
• Section 004: MW 3:30-5:10 pm

Course Description: German 203 reviews German grammar but (a) prior knowledge of these concepts is assumed and (b) the sequence of grammar forms to be reviewed differs from that of first-year curricula (in other words, the grammar focused on in 203 is not identical to that dealt with in 101). The primary objective of the course is to give students the opportunity to explore language as it is embedded in the culture. Students will explore mostly contemporary but also historical aspects of the cultures of the German-speaking countries through a journey through the Stationen (stations) of which each stands for a major city in Austria, Germany, or Switzerland and the region that it represents. Testing is done in increments, with chapter quizzes instead of mid-terms or a traditional final exam. Students complete writing and reading assessments, all with a take-home component. There are two oral projects (not traditional exams). During the second half of the semester students will have the opportunity to sign up for a mini seminar of their choice. These weeklong seminars substitute for regular class meetings and permit students to explore specific interests in German language, linguistics, literature, and culture/history. This course cannot be audited.

Prerequisites: GERMAN 102 or appropriate score on the placement exam. Open to First-Year Students.

(This course is also offered to graduate students for 3 credits as GERMAN 403.)

(4 credits)

• Section 001: ONLINE (MTWR 11:00-11:50 am)
• Section 002: MW 3:30-5:10 pm

Course Description: German 204 (like German 203) reviews German grammar but (a) prior knowledge of these concepts is assumed and (b) the sequence of grammar forms to be reviewed differs from that of first-year curricula (in other words, the grammar focused on 204 is not identical to that dealt with in 102). The primary objective of the course is to give students the opportunity to explore language as it is embedded in the culture. Students will explore mostly contemporary but also historical aspects of the cultures of the German-speaking countries through a journey through the Stationen (stations) of which each stands for a major city in Austria, Germany, or Switzerland and the region that it represents. Testing is done in increments, with chapter quizzes instead of mid-terms or a traditional final exam. Students complete writing and reading assessments, all with a take-home component. There are two oral projects (not traditional exams). During the second half of the semester students will have the opportunity to sign up for a mini seminar of their choice. These weeklong seminars substitute for regular class meetings and permit students to explore specific interests in German language, linguistics, literature, and culture/history. This course cannot be audited.

Prerequisites: GERMAN 203 or appropriate score on placement exam. Open to First-Year Students.

(This course is also offered to graduate students for 3 credits as GERMAN 404.)

(4 credits)

• ONLINE (MTWR 12:05-12:55 pm)

Course Description: One of the advantages of studying at the UW is being able to take courses in Dutch. Although the study of Dutch linguistics and literature has steadily expanded at major American universities in recent years, many universities do not offer this language. Since Dutch is a Germanic language—linguistically related to both German and English—and since the Dutch have always had close ties, Dutch is a logical choice as an additional language for American students from a range of majors or areas of interest.

Prerequisites: GERMAN 112 or appropriate score on placement exam. Open to First-Year Students.

(This course is also offered for graduate students as GERMAN 313.)

(3 credits)

• ONLINE (TR 11:00 am-12:15 pm)          Instructor: B Venkat Mani

Course Description: A low-enrollment course developing skills in critical reading, logical thinking, use of evidence, and use of library resources. Emphasis on writing in the conventions of specific fields.

Prerequisites: Successful completion of or exemption from Comm A requirement.

(3 credits)

• ONLINE (TR 1:00-2:15 pm)          Instructor: Jolanda Vanderwal Taylor

Course Description: The Low Countries are famous for their close relationship with the water: windmills, dikes, and Hans Brinker’s silver skates are among the most persistent popular symbols of this “edge” of Europe–at least since “Hollandmania.” This course will provide a thorough introduction to the Low Countries, their history and their contemporary culture, by focusing on their love/hate relationship to the water. The water means danger, and thus dikes (and—famously—the need to cooperate), but also trade, opportunity, beauty, and a resolute openness to the world. We will discuss what terps and polders are –but also the recent idea of the “polder model,” and which aspects of Dutch culture it has come to honor and criticize. We will look at the meaning of water in Dutch history and geography; at its effects on economic, military, and political life; at its treatment in art and literature; its times of greatest damage (floods, including 1953) and Dutch responses (polders, windmills, the Delta plan, environmentalism). We will discuss the Hanseatic cities of the Netherlands, 17th Century art, water as defense strategy, the V.O.C. (Dutch East-India Company), land reclamation, the Eleven-Cities skating race, (photos of) contemporary landscapes, and Dutch views of what all these mean.

Most importantly, this is a course in the tradition of liberal education. This course particularly encourages students to expand their knowledge of human cultures and the physical and natural world. In acquiring this knowledge, we will practice a range of 21st-century skills, including: inquiry and analysis; critical and creative thinking; written and oral communication; intercultural knowledge and competence; and ethical reasoning and action.

Prerequisites: None

(3 credits)

• Section 001: ONLINE (MWF 8:50-9:40 am)              Instructor: Weijia Li
• Section 002: MWF 11:00-11:50 am                                Instructor: Melissa Sheedy
• Section 003: MWF 1:20-2:10 pm                                    Instructor: Julie Larson-Guenette

Prerequisites: GERMAN 204 or appropriate score on placement exam or consent of the course supervisor. This course can be taken subsequent to, prior to, or concurrent with GERMAN 262, GERMAN 258, and GERMAN 285. Open to first-year students.

(3 credits)

• Section 001: ONLINE (MWF 11:00-11:50 am)           Instructor: Julie Larson-Guenette
• Section 002: MWF 12:05-12:55 pm                               Instructor: Julie Larson-Guenette

Course Description: This course is designed to acquaint students with German literary, cultural, and historical texts and provide an overview of cultural developments in German-speaking countries. An important goal of this course is to offer explicit instruction on reading strategies to help students improve their comprehension of a range of texts.

Learning Goals:

• Recognize different genres, reading styles, and strategies.
• Implement critical reading skills for reading and comprehending different types of texts.
  • Demonstrate the ability to read autonomously.
• Identify, define, and implement vocabulary related to the topics covered in class.

Prerequisites: GERMAN 204 or consent of instructor. This course can be taken subsequent to, prior to, or concurrent with GERMAN 249 and GERMAN 262. Open to First-year Students.

(3 credits)

• Section 001: ONLINE (TR 9:30-10:45 am)            Instructor: Melissa Sheedy
• Section 002: TR 11:00-12:15 pm                                Instructor: Monika Chavez
• Section 003: TR 1:00-2:15 pm                                    Instructor: Salvatore Calomino

Prerequisites: GERMAN 204 or appropriate score on placement exam or consent of instructor. This course can be taken subsequent to, prior to, or concurrent with GERMAN 249 and GERMAN 258.

(3 credits/4 credits with discussion)

• Section 001: ONLINE
• Section 002: ONLINE
  • DIS 301: ONLINE (W 1:20-2:10 pm)
  • DIS 302: ONLINE (F 1:20-2:10 pm)

Prerequisites: None

(3 credits)

• ONLINE (TR 4:00-5:15 pm)          Instructor: Oksana Stoychuk

Course Description: Upon completion of the course, students:

1. will have acquired a basic knowledge of the history migration to (West) Berlin from 1960s
2. will have explored the phenomenon of the transcultural Berlin literature
3. will have understood the social, political and cultural transformations of the German capital
4. will have developed and enhanced their skills of textual analysis
5. will have improved their academic writing skills.

Prerequisites: None

(3 credits)

• ONLINE (TR 2:30-3:45 pm)          Instructor: Jolanda Vanderwal Taylor
  • DIS 301: ONLINE (W 12:05-12:55 pm)

Course Description: Anne Frank is one of the most widely read writers in recent world literature, and yet some wonder whether she should be called a writer, or a diarist. Her work is widely loved. It has been the inspiration for many other cultural expressions and institutions: films, plays, works of fiction and non-fiction, and (auto-)biographies, and different editions of her Diaries. Her book has also launched scholarly research in literary -, cultural -, historical fields, and in the various sciences of manuscript authentication; exhibitions, museums, and foundations. In this course, we will study the context in which the Diaries were written, and consider the various ways in which they were received. We will consider how people have responded to the Diaries and toAnne Frank: how her work has been read, interpreted, used, and argued about. We will engage in critical thinking, asking not just: what? but also: why? Most importantly of all, we will take Anne seriously as a writer by reading her works attentively. And then we will also think about the nature of literature: is what Ms. Frank wrote literature? Why, or why not?We will also consider films based on the Diaries.

Learning outcomes: In this course, you will be invited to read, think, and discuss. You will learn about the history of Jewish communities in the Netherlands, and about the Frank family in particular; you will become familiar with Anne Frank’s writings and different ways that people have read and received her work, and you will reflect on the features that distinguish “literature” from non-literary texts. You will also learn about the Holocaust, WWII, the Nazi occupation, and Netherlands, especially in the 1930s and 1940. In the process, you will have an opportunity to work on further acquiring intellectual skills that prepare you for twenty-first century challenges including: skills of inquiry and analysis, critical and creative thinking, written and oral communication, cross-cultural and intercultural knowledge and ethical reasoning (and action), and knowledge of human cultures.

Prerequisites: None

(3 credits)

• TR 2:30-3:45 pm          Instructor: Sabine Mödersheim

Course Description: GERMAN 337 will summarize, synthesize, and build upon the content and skills from previous German coursework with specific aims to enhance and improve students’ speaking, listening, reading, and writing of German. Course content will cover a range of topics related to contemporary German society and culture along with grammar review.

In GERMAN 337 students will:

• Implement strategies for enhanced listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills.
• Identify and develop elements of grammar needed to improve accuracy in speaking and writing.
• Differentiate and apply vocabulary for discussion of topics spanning across genres and registers.
• Examine and analyze cultural perspectives and products of the German-speaking areas.

Prerequisites: GERMAN 249, GERMAN 258, and GERMAN 262.

(3 credits)

• MWF 1:20-2:10 pm          Instructor: Mark Louden

Course Description: In this course you will learn to analyze how sounds, words, and sentences are formed in German and how these structures vary regionally. The focus in the first half of the course will be mainly on the sounds of German: how they are produced and how we transcribe them. We then consider how these sounds have changed over the history of German as reflected in both the standard language and modern dialects. This section will wrap up with a discussion of where German personal, family, and place names come from.

In the second half of the course we will look at a number of productive processes involved with forming German words. Many of the examples we will consider are words that have entered the language in the last twenty years. We will then look at how words are combined to form phrases and sentences in German. The course will conclude by examining topics broadly dealing with contact between the German and English languages, including youth speech, what is popularly known as “Denglisch“ (English-influenced German), and German varieties spoken in the United States.

Learning Outcomes

• To introduce to the main subfields of linguistic analysis on the example of German.
• To deepen your understanding of how the spoken German language is structured.
• To improve your German proficiency in the four major skills, speaking, listening, reading, and writing.

Prerequisites: GERMAN 249, GERMAN 258, and GERMAN 262.

(3 credits)

• TR 4:00-5:15 pm          Instructor: Sabine Mödersheim

Course Description: Utopien sind Gedankenexperimente, aber auch kritische Spiegelbilder historischer Realität. Wie stellen wir uns eine alternative Welt oder eine Zukunft vor? Wird alles besser oder steuern wir in die Katastrophe? In der deutschsprachigen Literatur finden sich utopische Entwürfe in vielen verschiedenen literarischen Formen: als utopische und satirische Romane, Reisebeschreibungen zu imaginären Orten, Beschreibungen von fiktiven Gesellschaften, Manifesten von Geheimgesellschaften bis hin zu Reformkonzepten undökologischen Ideal-oder Katastrophenbeschreibungen, z.B. auch als Comic/Graphic Novel.

In diesem Seminar lesen wir spannende Texte aus mehreren Jahrhunderten, lernen historische Entwicklungen und verschiedene Genres kennen, z.B. Science Fiction, Cyberpunk, Steampunk, Solarpunk. Alle Texte und Materialien werden auf Canvas bereitgestellt.

Studierende halten ein Kurzreferat zu einem der Themen, AutorInnen oder Texte, die im Kurs behandelt werden, und schreiben eine Seminararbeit oder einen kreativen Text.

Dieser Kurs kann als Honors Seminar belegt werden (Bitte schreiben Sie sich dazu für German 385 ein). Honors-Studierendeführen selbständig ein Forschungsprojekt oder ein kreatives Projekt durch.

Prerequisites: GERMAN 249, GERMAN 258, and GERMAN 262.

(3 credits)

• Section 001: MWF 9:55-10:45 am          Instructor: Jeanne Schueller

Course Description: The primary goal of this course is to broaden your knowledge of German culture through the analysis and interpretation of film. We will consider the historical and cultural contexts of each film and read thematically related fiction and non-fiction texts. Film-specific terminology will be introduced to facilitate our discussion and analysis of the films. The films also provide ample authentic language to help you improve your comprehension of spoken German in various contexts and registers.

Upon completion of this course, students will be able to:

1. Recognize, recall, and summarize details and filmic elements of films and texts
2. Identify and describe themes associated with the films.
3. Describe, discuss, interpret, and critique films.
4. Support ideas and opinions in speaking and writing with level-appropriate fluency and accuracy.

Prerequisites: GERMAN 249, GERMAN 258, and GERMAN 262.

(3 credits)

• Section 002: TR 1:00-2:15 pm                 Instructor: Monika Chavez

Course Description: As the title suggests, students in this course will explore, push, and transcend cross-linguistic and cross-cultural boundaries.Course participants will examine linguistic and cultural correspondences and divergences between English-speaking (especially, American) and German-speaking contexts. Students with linguistic and/or cultural backgrounds outside of English/the US are encouraged to bring their specific experiences and knowledge to bear. Similarly, students will have the opportunity to use their professional expertise (such as it relates to academic majors outside of German).

While the focus is on German-pertinent issues, thecourse will also invite students to reflect on linguistic and cultural practices in their first (native) language & culture. In addition to comparison and ‘translation’ in the narrow sense, we will also look at & work with hybridity.

Course objectives include:

• To increase accuracy in word choice and grammar.
• To gain facility with electronic translation and language-use tools and understand their limits.
• To develop a deeper and more comprehensive appreciation of similarities & differences between German and English in terms of linguistic, social, and cultural practices.
• To improve your ability to appreciate life in a multilingual world and yourself as a multilingual individual.
• To adopt inside & outside & transitional perspectives on the German language, society, and associated cultures.
• To connect language-use practices with attached perspectives.
• To understand hybridity and multilingualism as resources of self-expression & other-appreciation.

Prerequisites: GERMAN 249, GERMAN 258, and GERMAN 262.

(3 credits)

• TR 4:00-5:15 pm                 Instructor: Sabine Mödersheim

Course Description: Utopien sind Gedankenexperimente, aber auch kritische Spiegelbilder historischer Realität. Wie stellen wir uns eine alternative Welt oder eine Zukunft vor? Wird alles besser oder steuern wir in die Katastrophe? In der deutschsprachigen Literatur finden sich utopische Entwürfe in vielen verschiedenen literarischen Formen: als utopische und satirische Romane, Reisebeschreibungen zu imaginären Orten, Beschreibungen von fiktiven Gesellschaften, Manifesten von Geheimgesellschaften bis hin zu Reformkonzepten undökologischen Ideal-oder Katastrophenbeschreibungen, z.B. auch als Comic/Graphic Novel.

In diesem Seminar lesen wir spannende Texte aus mehreren Jahrhunderten, lernen historische Entwicklungen und verschiedene Genres kennen, z.B. Science Fiction, Cyberpunk, Steampunk, Solarpunk. Alle Texte und Materialien werden auf Canvas bereitgestellt.

Studierende halten ein Kurzreferat zu einem der Themen, AutorInnen oder Texte, die im Kurs behandelt werden, und schreiben eine Seminararbeit oder einen kreativen Text.

Dieser Kurs kann als Honors Seminar belegt werden (Bitte schreiben Sie sich dazu für German 385 ein). Honors-Studierendeführen selbständig ein Forschungsprojekt oder ein kreatives Projekt durch.

Prerequisites: GERMAN 249, GERMAN 258, and GERMAN 262.

(3 credits)

• TR 11:00 am-12:15 pm            Instructor: Salvatore Calomino

Course Description: This course is intended for those who wish to develop primarily reading skills in German. A thorough presentation of German grammar will be coupled, from the start, with regular practice in reading and translation. Various levels of academic prose will be covered with a twofold goal: participants will develop skills at comprehension in reading expository German in general; individuals will have the opportunity to begin reading German in their own research areas as well. No previous knowledge of German required. Open to graduate students and advanced undergraduates. Taught in English.

Prerequisites: None.

(4 credits)

• ONLINE (TR 1:00-2:15 pm)          Instructor: Jolanda Vanderwal Taylor
  • DIS 301: ONLINE (W 1:20-2:10 pm)

Course Description: The Low Countries are famous for their close relationship with the water: windmills, dikes, and Hans Brinker’s silver skates are among the most persistent popular symbols of this “edge” of Europe–at least since “Hollandmania.” This course will provide a thorough introduction to the Low Countries, their history and their contemporary culture, by focusing on their love/hate relationship to the water. The water means danger, and thus dikes (and—famously—the need to cooperate), but also trade, opportunity, beauty, and a resolute openness to the world. We will discuss what terps and polders are –but also the recent idea of the “polder model,” and which aspects of Dutch culture it has come to honor and criticize. We will look at the meaning of water in Dutch history and geography; at its effects on economic, military, and political life; at its treatment in art and literature; its times of greatest damage (floods, including 1953) and Dutch responses (polders, windmills, the Delta plan, environmentalism). We will discuss the Hanseatic cities of the Netherlands, 17th Century art, water as defense strategy, the V.O.C. (Dutch East-India Company), land reclamation, the Eleven-Cities skating race, (photos of) contemporary landscapes, and Dutch views of what all these mean.

Most importantly, this is a course in the tradition of liberal education. This course particularly encourages students to expand their knowledge of human cultures and the physical and natural world. In acquiring this knowledge, we will practice a range of 21st-century skills, including: inquiry and analysis; critical and creative thinking; written and oral communication; intercultural knowledge and competence; and ethical reasoning and action.

Prerequisites: None.

(4 credits)

• ONLINE (TR 2:30-3:45 pm)          Instructor: Jolanda Vanderwal Taylor
  • DIS 301: ONLINE (W 12:05-12:55 pm)

Prerequisites: None.

(4 credits)

• ONLINE (TR 1:00-2:15 pm)          Instructor: Jolanda Vanderwal Taylor
  • DIS 301: ONLINE (W 1:20-2:10 pm)

Course Description: The Low Countries are famous for their close relationship with the water: windmills, dikes, and Hans Brinker’s silver skates are among the most persistent popular symbols of this “edge” of Europe–at least since “Hollandmania.” This course will provide a thorough introduction to the Low Countries, their history and their contemporary culture, by focusing on their love/hate relationship to the water. The water means danger, and thus dikes (and—famously—the need to cooperate), but also trade, opportunity, beauty, and a resolute openness to the world. We will discuss what terps and polders are –but also the recent idea of the “polder model,” and which aspects of Dutch culture it has come to honor and criticize. We will look at the meaning of water in Dutch history and geography; at its effects on economic, military, and political life; at its treatment in art and literature; its times of greatest damage (floods, including 1953) and Dutch responses (polders, windmills, the Delta plan, environmentalism). We will discuss the Hanseatic cities of the Netherlands, 17th Century art, water as defense strategy, the V.O.C. (Dutch East-India Company), land reclamation, the Eleven-Cities skating race, (photos of) contemporary landscapes, and Dutch views of what all these mean.

Most importantly, this is a course in the tradition of liberal education. This course particularly encourages students to expand their knowledge of human cultures and the physical and natural world. In acquiring this knowledge, we will practice a range of 21st-century skills, including: inquiry and analysis; critical and creative thinking; written and oral communication; intercultural knowledge and competence; and ethical reasoning and action.

Prerequisites: None.

(3 credits)

• ONLINE (T 3:30-6:00 pm)          Instructor: B. Venkat Mani

Prerequisites: None.

(3 credits)

• ONLINE (T 3:30-6:00 pm)            Instructor: B. Venkat Mani

Prerequisites: Declared in honors program.

(1 credits)

• ONLINE (F 12:05-12:55 pm)          Instructor: Jeanne Schueller

Course Description: This course works in tandem with German 722 by providing a forum for discussing German-language specific instruction. Praxis-oriented tasks build on assignments and projects assigned in German 722. Emphasis is on teaching German and developing your identity as a language instructor.

Prerequisites: Graduate or professional student.

(2 credits)

• MWF 12:05-12:55 pm          Instructor: Jeanne Schueller

Course Description: This course offers an introduction to principles and theories of second language acquisition as well as foreign language pedagogy. It is intended for instructors of beginning –and intermediate-level collegiate German, Nordic, and Slavic courses. The goal is to help you understand key concepts of communicative, literacy-oriented language teaching and related techniques for classroom instruction. This course will provide the foundation for success in teaching language courses. Course participants will demonstrate understanding of key concepts of communicative, literacy-oriented language teaching and classroom techniques for communicative, literacy-oriented language teaching; how to design instructional materials, lessons, and assessment tools related to communicative, literacy-oriented language teaching; and the ability to engage in pedagogical discourse on collegiate language teaching and learning. You will be encouraged to explore yourself as a teacher, to get to know the UW-Madison language programs, and to familiarize yourself with the profession at large. The course will be assignment-and project-rather than exam-based.

The overall theoretical nature of the course is complemented by practice-oriented work.

Prerequisites: Graduate or professional student.

(3 credits)

• ONLINE (TR 2:30-3:45 pm)          Instructor: Katerina Somers

Course Description: In this course we will study the varieties that fall under the umbrella of Old Saxon and early Old High German. The former is primarily attested in the ninth-century Hêliand, the latter in a set of diverse texts mostly, though not entirely, from the ninth century. Collectively these texts are the first monuments of the German language. Engaging with them from a linguistic point of view is an essential foundation for further research in the history of German or historical Germanic linguistics. Analyzing these early medieval texts as cultural and historical artefacts is an integral—if sadly often overlooked—part of German medieval studies. In this course we aim for aholistic approach and consider how the linguistic, the cultural and the historical are interrelated. Thus, we will not just contend with linguistic structures on the page, but also imagine the people who wrote them and reconstruct the cultural forces that shaped the linguistic choices they made.

Learning outcomes:
1. Read the first attestations of the German language, that is, Old Saxon and early Old High German texts, and translate them into English.
2. Describe and compare grammatical and dialectal variation across the ninth-century corpus.
3. Examine the ways in which the oral tradition and Latinate culture of literacy influences how ninth-century German is represented on the page.
4. Assess the cultural significance of the major ninth-century texts within Carolingian Europe.

Prerequisites: Graduate or professional student.

(3 credits)

• ONLINE (T 4:00-6:30 pm)          Instructor: Adam Stern

Course Description: This will be a reading intensive class devoted to the historical and theoretical links between capitalism and religion. The course will begin with some major moments in Marx, before turning to Max Weber’s classic study, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (1905), and other important contributions from the first half of the twentieth century (e.g., Walter Benjamin, Roger Tawney, E.P. Thompson, etc.). In the remainder of the semester, we will consider more recent trends. Possible topics include liberation theology (e.g., Gustavo Gutierrez, James Cone), Subaltern Studies (e.g. Gayatri Spivak, Ranajit Guha), Wall Street (e.g., Kathryn Lofton), economic theology (e.g., Giorgio Agamben), evangelicalism (e.g., William Connoly), the corporation (e.g., Amanda Porterfield), Islamic charity (e.g., Amira Mittermaier) and enchantment (e.g., Eugene McCarraher). Students will be encouraged to pursue relevant research related to their own areas of study.

Prerequisites: Graduate or professional student.

(3 credits)

• M 4:00-6:30 pm          Instructor: Sonja Klocke

Course Description: From the late nineteenth century until today, Berlin and Berlin life have been at the center of German literature, film, art, and photography. In this graduate class, we will focus on portrayals ofBerlin in the time period between the end of World War II and the present. We will analyze how the city’s postwar identity as Frontstadt developed, how East and West Berlin changed during the Cold War, and how this Cold War identity as Frontstadt quickly dismantled after November 1989. In Berlin, more than in any other city in Germany, one could observe unification unfold, and the new capital emerged as the party city in Europe, a Spielzone for young people from across the world–yet a city that also still stressed the individual identities of its discrete Kieze. We will discern a variety of fictional responses to a constantly changing Berlin, and analyze the aesthetic and political stakes as well as Berlin history that serves as the discursive and artistic background in a range of depictions of life in the city.Students will have the opportunity to closely work with Max Kade Writer in Residence, Tanja Dückers, who will co-teach several class sessions with the instructor. A number of Dückers’ works (e.g. Spielzone; Mein Westberlin) will be among the texts discussed.

Prerequisites: Graduate or professional student.