ELEMENTARY GERMAN I

Prerequisites: No prior German.

German 1101 is a communicative language course for beginners, taught in German, in which students develop the four skills -listening, speaking, reading, and writing- and a basic understanding of German-speaking cultures. Emphasis is placed on acquiring the four language skills within a cultural context. Upon successful completion of the course, students will be able to understand, speak, read, and write German at a level enabling them to communicate with native speakers and provide basic information about their background, family, daily activities, student life, work, and living quarters. Completion of daily assignments, which align with class content, and consistent work are necessary in order to achieve basic communicative proficiency. If you have prior German, the placement exam is required.

• TRF 10:10 a.m.-11:25 a.m.
• MTR 11:40 a.m.-12:55 p.m.
• MWR 1:10 p.m.-2:25 p.m.
• TR 6:10 p.m.-8 p.m.
• Instructor: Isabel Blankfield
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• Instructor: Ethan G Fraenkel
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• Instructor: Jutta Schmiers-Heller
  CULPA: 19 Info
• Instructor: Young Na
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• 4 points

ELEMENTARY DUTCH II

Fundamentals of grammar, reading, speaking, and comprehension of the spoken language. During the spring term supplementary reading is selected according to students needs.

• TR 6:10 p.m.-8 p.m.
• MW 4:10 p.m.-6 p.m.
• Instructor: Wijnie de Groot
  CULPA: 11 Info
• Instructor: Ben de Witte de Witte
  Info
• 4 points

ELEMENTARY FINNISH II

Fundamentals of grammar and lexicon. Building proficiency in aural comprehension, reading, speaking, and writing. Linguistic structures in the cultural context.

• MW 4:10 p.m.-6 p.m.
• Instructor: Heli Sirvioe
  Info
• 4 points

ELEMENTARY GERMAN II

Prerequisites: GERM UN1101 or the equivalent. If you have prior German outside of Columbia’s language sequence, the placement exam is required. German 1102 is the continuation of Elementary German I (1101). It is a four-skill language course taught in German, in which students continue to develop listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills in German and an understanding of German-speaking cultures. Emphasis is placed on acquiring the four language skills--listening, speaking, reading and writing--within a cultural context. Students expand their communication skills to include travel, storytelling, personal well- being, basic economics, recent historical events, and working with movie segments. Completion of daily assignments, which align with class content, and consistent work are necessary in order to achieve basic communicative proficiency.

• MWR 10:10 a.m.-11:25 a.m.
• MWR 11:40 a.m.-12:55 p.m.
• MTR 2:40 p.m.-3:55 p.m.
• MTR 4:10 p.m.-5:25 p.m.
• TR 6:10 p.m.-8 p.m.
• Instructor: Xuxu Song
  Info
• 4 points

ELEMENTARY SWEDISH II

This course is a continuation of the introductory Swedish 101 course. It will introduce you to the Swedish language as it is used in Sweden today. You will also learn about aspects of contemporary Swedish culture, main events and figures in Swedens history, and Swedish traditions. Upon the completion of the course, students who have attended class regularly, have submitted all assignments and taken all tests and quizzes should be able to: talk about themselves, families, interests, likes and dislikes, daily activities, education, professional interests and future plans in some detail; understand and participate in a simple conversation on everyday topics such as educational choices, subjects, plans for the weekend and the holidays, places to live, transportation, etc read and fully comprehend edited texts on familiar topics understand the main ideas and identify the underlying themes in original texts such as literary fiction, film, and newspaper articles write short essays on a familiar topic using the relevant vocabulary understand and utilize the information in a variety of authentic texts (e.g. menus, signs, train schedules, websites) carry out simple linguistic tasks that require speaking on the phone (e.g. setting up an appointment, asking questions about an announcement, talking to a friend) fill in forms requesting information, write letters, e-mails, notes, post cards, or messages providing simple information; provide basic information about Sweden including: Swedens geography, its political system and political parties, educational system, etc. discuss and debate familiar topics recognize significant figures from Swedens history and literary history use and understand basic vocabulary related to important aspects of contemporary Swedish culture and Swedish traditions and contemporary lifestyles in Sweden. pronounce Swedish well enough and produce Swedish with enough grammatical accuracy to be comprehensible to a Swedish speaker with experience in speaking with non-natives. Methodology The class will be taught in a communicative way. It will be conducted primarily, but not exclusively in Swedish. In-class activities and homework assignments will focus on developing speaking, reading, writing, listening skills and a basic understanding of Swedish culture through interaction. Authentic materials will be used whenever possible.

• MW 10:10 a.m.-noon
• Instructor: Heli Sirvioe
  Info
• 4 points

ELEMENTARY YIDDISH II

This course offers an introduction to the language that has been spoken by the Ashkenazi Jews for more than a millennium, and an opportunity to discover a fabulous world of Yiddish literature, language and culture in a fun way. Using games, new media, and music, we will learn how to speak, read, listen and write in a language that is considered one of the richest languages in the world (in some aspects of vocabulary). We will also venture outside the classroom to explore the Yiddish world today: through field trips to Yiddish theater, Yiddish-speaking neighborhoods, Yiddish organizations, such as YIVO or Yiddish farm, and so on. We will also have Yiddish-speaking guests and do a few digital projects. At the end of the two-semester course, you will be able to converse in Yiddish on a variety of everyday topics and read most Yiddish literary and non-literary texts. Welcome to Yiddishland!

• MW 4:10 p.m.-6 p.m.
• Instructor: Eyshe Beirich
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• 4 points

INTERMEDIATE GERMAN I

Prerequisites: GERM UN2101 or the equivalent. If you have prior German outside of Columbia’s language sequence, the placement exam is required.

Intermediate German UN2102 is conducted entirely in German and emphasizes the four basic language skills, cultural awareness, and critical thinking. A wide range of topics (from politics and poetry to art) as well as authentic materials (texts, film, art, etc.) are used to improve the 4 skill. Practice in conversation aims at enlarging the vocabulary necessary for daily communication. Grammar is practiced in the context of the topics. Learning and evaluation are individualized (individual vocabulary lists, essays, oral presentations, final portfolio) and project-based (group work and final group project).

• MTR 11:40 a.m.-12:55 p.m.
• MWR 2:40 p.m.-3:55 p.m.
• Instructor: Simona C Vaidean
  CULPA: 5 Info
• Instructor: Xuxu Song
  Info
• 4 points

INTERMEDIATE DUTCH II

Prerequisites: DTCH UN1101-UN1102 or the equivalent. Continued practice in the four skills (aural comprehension, reading, speaking, and writing); review and refinement of basic grammar; vocabulary building. Readings in Dutch literature.

• TR 4:10 p.m.-6 p.m.
• MW 6:10 p.m.-8 p.m.
• Instructor: Wijnie de Groot
  CULPA: 11 Info
• Instructor: Faculty
  h-index: 37 Info
• 4 points

INTERMEDIATE GERMAN II

Prerequisites: GERM UN2101 or the equivalent.

Intermediate German UN2102 is conducted entirely in German and emphasizes the four basic language skills, cultural awareness, and critical thinking. A wide range of topics (from politics and poetry to art) as well as authentic materials (texts, film, art, etc.) are used to improve the 4 skill. Practice in conversation aims at enlarging the vocabulary necessary for daily communication. Grammar is practiced in the context of the topics. Learning and evaluation are individualized (individual vocabulary lists, essays, oral presentations, final portfolio) and project-based (group work and final group project).

• MTR 10:10 a.m.-11:25 a.m.
• MWR 11:40 a.m.-12:55 p.m.
• MWR 4:10 p.m.-5:25 p.m.
• Instructor: Patrick Woodard
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• Instructor: Leo Claussen
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• Instructor: Jutta Schmiers-Heller
  CULPA: 19 Info
• 4 points

INTERMEDIATE YIDDISH II

Prerequisites: YIDD UN1101-UN1102 or the instructor's permission. This year-long course is a continuation of Elementary Yiddish II. As part of the New Media in Jewish Studies Collaborative, this class will be using new media in order to explore and research the fabulous world of Yiddish literature, language, and culture, and to engage in project-oriented activities that will result in creating lasting multi-media online presentations. In addition to expanding the command of the language that has been spoken by the Ashkenazi Jews for more than a millennium, i.e. focusing on developing speaking, reading, writing and listening skills, and on the acquisition of more advanced grammatical concepts, students will also get some video and film editing training, and tutorials on archival research. The class will continue to read works of Yiddish literature in the original and will venture outside of the classroom to explore the Yiddish world today: through exciting field trips to Yiddish theater, Yiddish-speaking neighborhoods, YIVO, Yiddish Farm, and so on. And we will also have the Yiddish native-speaker guest series. Welcome back to Yiddishland!

• MW 10:10 a.m.-noon
• Instructor: Eve Jochnowitz
  Info
• 4 points

Intermediate Conversation

Prerequisite
: Completion of 1102 or equivalent. If you have prior German outside of Columbia's language sequence, the placement exam is required.

Desire to speak lots of German! Students in Intermediate Conversation should have completed the equivalent of two semester of college German or placed at the Intermediate level at Columbia. This conversation group is designed for students are either taking Intermediate German I or II and would like additional practice or who take only this class because they wish to maintain their spoken German.

The course is designed to improve your ability to speak and understand and manage German in everyday situations; to provide opportunities to participate in conversational situations on any topics you are interested in; to strengthen and acquire skills to understand German spoken at normal conversational speed; to expand active and passive vocabularies speaking skills; and to maintain a certain level of written German through short written activities. This is a 2-point course and does not count towards the language requirement.

• TR 10:10 a.m.-11:25 a.m.
• 2 points

ADVANCED DUTCH II

see department for details

• TR 1:15 p.m.-2:30 p.m.
• Instructor: Wijnie de Groot
  CULPA: 11 Info
• 3 points

ADVANCD CONVERSTN & COMPOSTN I

Prerequisites: GERM UN2102 or the equivalent. If you have prior German outside of Columbia’s language sequence, the placement exam is required.

Advanced Conversation and Composition is designed for students who have completed Intermediate German II (2102) or the equivalent. It is a content-based, two-point course designed to strengthen both oral and written communication and the ability to engage in critical analysis in German. Students will develop interpretative skills needed for communicating questions, ideas, and opinions; build vocabulary; interact comfortably with various forms of media; and communicate new skills through discussions, various writing assignments, and a presentation.

• MW 10:10 a.m.-11:25 a.m.
• Instructor: Varol Kahveci
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• 2 points

Medical Surreal: Doctor and Patient Narr

Medical Surreal: Doc Pat

Medicine is not just a science, but an art. In particular, the art of narrative has played a prominent role in both the production of medical knowledge, such as in the doctor’s case report, and in the ways patients convey their own sense and experience of illness. Even language itself has sometimes been the symptom of illness, and sometimes the means of cure. This course will explore narratives of illness, medical care, and deviance in German literature, with a few forays into writing from the Americas. Through encounters with a selection of novellas and short stories from the 19th through the 20th centuries, we will explore the ways in which authors have drawn from their medical experiences to produce novel forms of writing. We will pay particular attention to the role of the surreal, the uncanny, and the disorienting as thematic and textual strategies in the navigation of the complexities of medical care. We will question how narratives can both construct and subvert pathologized subjects, as well as develop our skills as critical readers of texts which challenge scientific and literary genres.

No prerequisites. All readings and course discussions are in English.

• W 2:10 p.m.-4 p.m.
• Instructor: Skye S Savage
  Info
• 3 points

READINGS IN JEWISH LITERATURE

THE BOOK OF GENESIS

As an onset of an ongoing investigation into the history and development of Jewish literature, we will focus on its very beginnings, as culturally understood – the Book of Genesis – and read it in light of millennia of Jewish literary commentary as lenses through which to examine currents, traditions, and trajectories of Jewish literary interpretation and history. By focusing on several distinct episodes and then tracking those episodes’ reception in the light of differing moments of interpretation, we will try to gain a sense of this seminal work’s changing role in Jewish history and culture. Familiarity with Biblical and rabbinic Hebrew not absolutely required, but strongly recommended.

• T 2:10 p.m.-4 p.m.
• Instructor: Jeremy Dauber
  CULPA: 21 Wikipedia Info
• 3 points

BERL/ISTANBUL:MIGRATN,CLTR,VAL

BERL/ISTANBUL:MIGRATNCLTRVAL

An intensive seminar analyzing questions of migration, identity, (self-) representation, and values with regard to the Turkish minority living in Germany today. Starting with a historical description of the „guest worker“ program that brought hundreds of thousands of Turkish nationals to Germany in the 1960s and 1970s, the course will focus on the experiences and cultural production of the second and third generations of Turkish Germans, whose presence has profoundly transformed German society and culture. Primary materials include diaries, autobiographies, legal and historical documents, but the course will also analyze poetry, novels, theater plays and films. In German.

• M 10:10 a.m.-noon
• Instructor: Mark M Anderson
  CULPA: 2 Info
• 3 points

Advanced Topics in German Literature

Verteufelt human?

"Advanced Topics in German Literature” is open to seniors and other advanced undergraduate students who have taken Intro to German Literature (GERM 3333) or an equivalent class. The seminar provides students the opportunity to closely examine a topic from a variety of perspectives and theoretical approaches. Readings and discussion in German. The course is repeatable for credit.

• T 12:10 p.m.-2 p.m.
• Instructor: Dorothea von Muecke
  Info
• 3 points

SPECIAL READING COURSE

SPEC READ COURSE: 17TH C TEXTS

See department for course description

• W 11:30 a.m.-12:45 p.m.
• Instructor: Wijnie de Groot
  CULPA: 11 Info
• 1 points

Learned Women from the Low Countries (an

Learned Women fr Low Coun

This weekly seminar course explores women’s historical involvement in the learned and literary world of Early Modern Europe. We will study contemporary debates on women’s intellectual capacities and their contributions to the intellectual field, with a specific focus on the Low Countries, as this course is organized as part of the Queen Wilhelmina Visiting Professorship of Dutch Studies.

In the past decades, historians from various disciplines have reassessed the contributions of women to early modern intellectual culture. Large-scale recovery projects, dictionaries of women writers, editions and anthologies of their works, and the rise of feminist bibliography have challenged the male-dominated historiographies and canons. The highly urbanized, literate, and cosmopolitan Low Countries proved to be a particularly interesting context, allowing women to participate in public life. By studying key players, crucial concepts and current as well as historical debates, connecting to a series of thematic and source-driven case studies, we will analyze the various ways in which women could leave their mark in the (patriarchal) world of learning, comprising the arts and sciences, as well as religious spheres.

After a general introduction to learned women in the early modern period, we delve deeper into various textual and visual representations of female learnedness. This analysis will be framed through theoretical concepts such as self-fashioning, posture and persona, alongside recent art-historical insights into the role of (authorial) portraits. Focusing on both well-known and lesser-known women, we will gain insights into women’s opportunities, hindrances, and experiences as evident from their works, in the broader social, cultural, political and economic contexts.

During the seminars, we will discuss and analyze primary sources and secondary literature from a variety of disciplinary perspectives, including literary history, art history and book history. The program includes working visits to the Rare Book and Manuscript Library of Butler Library and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The course is taught in English. All readings will be available in translation.

• R 12:10 p.m.-2 p.m.
• Instructor: Lieke Van Deinsen
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• 3 points

AESTHETICS & PHIL OF HIST(ENG)

This course offers an introduction to German intellectual history by focusing on the key texts from the 18th and 19th century concerned with the philosophy of art and the philosophy of history. Instead of providing a general survey, this thematic focus that isolates the relatively new philosophical subspecialties allows for a careful tracing of a number of key problematics. The texts chosen for discussion in many cases are engaged in lively exchanges and controversies. For instance, Winckelmann provides an entry into the debate on the ancients versus the moderns by making a claim for both the historical, cultural specificity of a particular kind of art, and by advertising the art of Greek antiquity as a model to be imitated by the modern artist. Lessings Laocoon counters Winckelmanns idealizing approach to Greek art with a media specific reflection. According to Lessing, the fact that the Laocoon priest from the classical sculpture doesnt scream has nothing to do with the nobility of the Greek soul but all with the fact that a screaming mouth hewn in stone would be ugly. Herders piece on sculpture offers yet another take on this debate, one that refines and radicalizes an aesthetics based on the careful examination of the different senses, especially touch and feeling versus sight.—The second set of texts in this class deals with key enlightenment concepts of a philosophical anthropology informing the then emerging philosophy of history. Two literary texts will serve to mark key epochal units: Goethes Prometheus, which will be used in the introductory meeting, will be examined in view of its basic humanist program, Kleists Earthquake in Chili will serve as a base for the discussion of what would be considered the end of the Enlightenment: be that the collapse of a belief in progress or the critique of the beautiful and the sublime. The last unit of the class focuses on Hegels sweeping supra-individualist approach to the philosophy of history and Nietzsches fierce critique of Hegel. Readings are apportioned such that students can be expected to fully familiarize themselves with the arguments of these texts and inhabit them.

• M 2:10 p.m.-4 p.m.
• Instructor: Dorothea von Muecke
  Info
• 3 points

WALTER BENJAMIN (ENG)

In 1936, the exiled German-Jewish thinker Walter Benjamin wrote, “A generation that had gone to school on a horse-drawn streetcar now stood under the open sky in a countryside in which nothing remained unchanged but the clouds, and beneath these clouds, in a field of force of destructive torrents and explosions, was the tiny, fragile human body.”

Few thinkers or writers have as poignantly articulated how human experience is formed by crisis. Early in his career, he conceptualized a sudden departure from 19th-century modes of experience—a departure brought on by World War I and other developments in early 20th century European history. Between philosophy and history, Benjamin charted a course toward a new mode of experience in the midst of a growing social and political crisis.

Benjamin’s methodology was critique, a specifically historical way of analyzing transformative events and experiences. We will read the texts in which Benjamin tests out formative, critical experiences such as a child’s perception of color, fate and character, the violence of the law, mourning, memory, new media such as film and radio, and his writings on authors such as Baudelaire, Proust, Brecht, and Kafka.

Our reading will proceed roughly chronologically, as Benjamin’s attention shifted from theorizing experience to reflecting on Marxism, Nazism, and other political and social trends. Given Benjamin’s important contributions to a vast number of fields, we will be reading texts in political theory, literary theory, art history, film, and media studies.

• R 2:10 p.m.-4 p.m.
• Instructor: Annie Pfeifer
  CULPA: 2 Info
• 3 points

Rumor and Media: Technologies, Circulati

Rumor & Media: Tech,Circ,

At various historical junctures, the introduction of new media technologies has increased the circulation of rumor and the credence gained by misinformation. This class will explore rumor, hearsay, disinformation, propaganda, and their interrelations to specific media formats and technologies. Often considered a purely oral medium, the spread of rumor is rendered possible not only by a mixture of fact and fabulation but also by a feedback loop across various media that spans from handwriting and print to radio and social media. In Homer’s
Odyssey
, “hearsay” is the only source of information about Odysseus’s fate for his son, but it also stands in for the oral tradition from which the written epic emerges. Later on, rumor is frequently connected to new media technologies and formats. During the French Revolution, pamphlets, flyers, and posters play a crucial role for the wide dissemination of scandalous and incorrect news that plays on real anxieties and grievances. Around the same time, Herder dismissively compares the printing press to the Roman goddess of “fama.” Before ending with social media, AI, and the proliferation of misinformation and propaganda today, the seminar will also explore the newspaper, propaganda, and the radio as powerful conduits of rumors and misinformation.

• W 10:10 a.m.-noon
• Instructor: Stefan Andriopoulos
  CULPA: 6 Wikipedia h-index: 12 Info
• 3 points

Writing of Marginalized Communities in G

Writing Margin Commun in

For the first time since the Second World War, the far right wins a regional election in Germany. All comes together with a rising number of Nazi attacks and pogroms, documented cases of police violence and racial profiling, political parties promoting the idea of a Fortress Europe, and more restrictions being imposed on asylum and migration, even by liberal political parties.

Taking this as a point of departure, the course investigates post-millennial literature by Black authors and authors of color in Germany. The course will focus on the entanglement of politics and aesthetics, as well as the emergence of new forms and narrative techniques as an intervention in contemporary Germany literature, with stories and plots becoming almost a prophecy of the political reality. We will also closely investigate how BPoC-authors write into and reshape German memory culture that is usually thought of as belonging to white majority society. How do racist killings infiltrate plots and change narrative structures? How is German collective remembrance being (re)shaped with stories by marginalized authors on the Holocaust, the history of German colonialism and other genocides? How is Europe being represented? Where does it end? What transnational alliances, networks, and solidarities are made im/possible? These are some of the many questions the course aims to tackle.

The course is taught in English. All readings are available in German and English.

• W 12:10 p.m.-2 p.m.
• Instructor: Maha El Hissy
  Info
• 4 points