Curriculum
We offer a variety of courses during our summer program from May 24th to July 4th. Students can choose 2 or 3 courses from the list below.
In order to earn 12 ECTS studnets must
- pass 2 courses (presentation, written/oral exam)
- participate in one excursion
Please note that you can take an Advanced German Course (120 contact hours) or an Advanced Polish Course (120 contact hours) within the program!
All courses below equal 6/9 ECTS, each includes around 30 contact hours. Excursions and team presentations with other students add to the seminars and enhance the international atmosphere.
Course syllabi will be available in December 2014.
Courses
| Literature and Linguistics/Communication Studies | |
| Social Studies | |
| Political Science | |
| Business Administration and Economics | |
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Language Courses |
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Guest Lectures |
Language Contact in Central Europe
Małgorzata Szajbel-Keck, M.A.
While languages have arguably been in contact with each other for as long as linguistic interaction has been a part of human sociality, the linguistic effects of world politics, globalization and migrations make studies of Language Contact relevant for contemporary linguistics and social theory. These studies consider how language structure bears witness to the contact situations, inter-cultural interactions, and multilingual practices that shaped the ways the contributing languages changed through time. This course will begin with a survey of historical, social, and political settings of language contact in the Central European context. We will consider multilingualism and code switching practices. We will study how the beliefs, behavior and attitudes of speakers can influence the linguistic outcomes of language contact situations. This background discussion will lead us to a more detailed examination of case-studies of contact-induced language change mostly involving borrowing of vocabulary and/or transfer of grammatical features from one language to another. Language: mainly Polish, some English
Jewish Literary Culture in Central Europe
Dr. Andree Michaelis
Since the late 18th Century and its emancipation movement, one of the most influential and versatile cultural legacies in Central Europe was created by Jewish authors. As an introduction into the field, this course will introduce and discuss a selection of canonic readings by authors ranging from Moses Mendelssohn to Paul Celan and Hanna Krall, thus giving an extensive overview of European-Jewish literary culture since the late 18th Century. A particular focus with will lie on the intercultural dimensions of this culture, especially in the German speaking territories. The periods and authors covered will include, among others: Jewish emancipation and assimilation around 1800 (M. Mendelssohn, R. Varnhagen, H. Heine), the rise of Anti-Semitism and the birth of Jewish nationalism (Th. Herzl, M. Goldstein), esthetic innovations and Jewish traditions in the early 20th Century (F. Kafka, J. Roth, B. Schulz), the Shoah and its aftermath (Th. W. Adorno, H. Arendt, P. Celan, H. Krall). The class will also include a field trip to Berlin’s Jewish Museum. Language: English
Russisches und Polnisches Berlin
Dr. Erik Martin
Berlin war für polnische und russische Schriftsteller, Intellektuelle und andere Kulturschaffende ein starker Anziehungspunkt. Für Mickiewicz und Chopin war Berlin die erste Station ihrer Reisen nach Deutschland, für andere Polen war Berlin untrennbar mit ihrem Werk verbunden wie für Przybyszewski und Gombrowicz. Für russischen Schriftsteller und Künstler wurde Berlin vor allem nach 1917 zu einem Zentrum der Emigration; allein 1923 suchten 360.000 Russen in Berlin Asyl, und aus Charlottenburg wurde „Šarlottengrad“. In dem Seminar werden wir uns mit Texten von Autoren und Autorinnen des „russischen und polnischen Berlin“ befassen: Marina Cvetaeva, Boris Pasternak, Aleksej Remizov, Andrej Belyj, Viktor Šklovskij, Ilja Ėrenburg und Vladimir Nabokov sind nur einige Namen, für die Berlin in den 1920er Jahren eine Durchgangsstation war. Exkursion nach Berlin: Auf der Suche nach Spuren von Migrationsschriftstellern“ . Sprache: Deutsch
Crossing European Borders in the 19th and 20th Centuries
Travelers, Migrants, Specialists, and Commodities
Dr. Jan Musekamp
The course will focus on the movement of people and goods across European state borders in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. An emphasis will be on the Polish lands, being at the center of these movements. In a first step we will discuss the changing relevance of political borders for political, economic and social exchange. In the following we will examine the subsequent cases: 1) Leisure travelers as part of an emerging European tourist class crisscrossing the continent. 2) Emigrants mainly from the Russian Empire crossing Poland and the German lands to gain ships bound for the Americas. 3) Regional and local cross-border movements between the three partitions of Poland, fostering economic and political unity of the country. 4) Economic exchange between Eastern and Western Europe, dependent on the customs policies of the relevant states. 5) Emerging international expert networks developing by means of study trips, international organizations, conferences, and world expositions. In the last section we will identify major changes in the longue durée and have an outlook on the situation in contemporary Europe. Language: English.
Social exclusion and the Roma in Central Europe
Dr. Ondřej Klípa
The course explores mechanisms of social exclusion of the Roma in the EU Member States of Central Europe (Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Bulgaria, and Romania). We will examine the topic from different perspectives: historical, political, and sociological. Roots of social exclusion will be studied from the Middle Age to the present day. Particular attention will be paid to the Communist period and the political and economic transformation in the 1990s. Within the context of social exclusion, we will look at racism theory as well as specific features of the traditional Roma culture. We will study all main fields of social exclusion (housing, labor market, education) and its consequences (criminality, prostitution, drug abuse, gambling addiction, indebtedness, poor health etc.). Possible ways of social inclusion will be identified. The course will present disputes over these solutions both in academia (the culture of poverty v. multiculturalism) and in the field of practical policies (socio-economic/ civic approach v. identity policy). An important segment of the course will be given to considering both common and different features of the situation of Roma population in the States in focus. Finally, anti-Roma policies and social exclusion of the Roma as pan-European problems will be discussed. Language: English.
Comparative Politics in Europe Today: Convergence between West and East?
Prof. Dr. Michael Minkenberg
Between World War II and today, European democracies have developed in different sequences and in different types, in particular with regard to the 40 years of division into a Western and an Eastern “bloc” from 1949 – 1989. This seminar is devoted to the analysis of democratic development and processes in selected European democracies in West and East, with specific attention paid to the country cases of Great Britain, France, and Germany in the West, Poland and Hungary in the East. The seminar first addresses analytical tools and central topics of comparative politics, including the political culture and functioning of democracy and its institutions, parties and party systems, and decision making and public policies. The last section of the seminar is dedicated to the topics of immigration, minority politics, xenophobia and the radical right. The overarching question to be settled at the end is to what extent East and West are converging in the functioning and outputs of their democracies. Language: English
Inventing Europe: Economic and Technological Exchange in Modern Europe
Prof. Dr. Dagmara Jajeśniak-Quast
The history of economic and technological innovation reveals Europe’s interconnectedness in ways that no other field does. Whether in times of war or peace, politicians, intellectuals and particularly scientists have maintained close contact to ensure at least a minimum degree of equilibrium between parties is maintained. Traditional (national, cultural, economic) histories focus on single actors and units, showing how--for example--single countries advanced politically through technological change and economic growth. In this seminar, we will disrupt commonplace narratives and show how networks of individuals were at least as important as major political forces. We will show how important contact was to developing our modern world. Language: Polish, English, or German.
Intercultural Management Training
Ninja Natalie Senf, Prof. Dr. Jochen Koch
The aim of the seminar is to raise awareness for potential problems of intercultural management and to provide options for solving them. In a highly interactive format, students will be enabled to experience critical intercultural situations through the use of simulations, case studies and group exercises. This helps to not only understand issues of intercultural management, but to actually feel them. After every exercise, the experiences will be discussed and analyzed on a theoretical level, generating long-lasting insights through self-reflection. Language: English
Economics of Climate Change
Prof. Dr. Reimund Schwarze
This integrated seminar (seminar with lecture elements) provides an introduction into management strategies to tackle global climate change. The course’s objective is to understand business opportunities and risks in a changing climate. This course provides an introduction into management strategies to respond to global climate change. Special attention is given to newly emerging businesses and innovation-oriented strategies of business conduct and how they are applied in Europe. We are also rethinking the efficiency of international climate agreements, climate and energy policies in Germany and Poland. Language: English
Intermediate/Advanced Polish Course
Intermediate/Advanced German Course
Within the program, we offer intensive Polish and German courses (min. 92 contact hours + 28 academic hours) on the intermediate/advanced level. They are an inherent part of the Summer Program, meant to improve your linguistic ability to actively participate in other Summer Program's courses and activities. We highly recommed that you take one language course. The courses meet four days a week MTWT, and their meeting times do not conflict with other courses and activities of the Summer Program. They are taught by experienced langugage instructors. We intend to keep the groups small to allow instructors to address individual needs of the students.
Guest Lectures
June 4th 2015, 6 p.m.
Contact Zones in Urban Environments
Dr. Torsten Lorenz, Charles University in Prague
June 11th 2015, 6 p.m.
The Linguistic Legacy of Contact: A Comparison of West Slavic and Germanic Languages
Prof. Dr. Bernhard Brehmer, Ernst-Moritz-Arendt University of Greifswald
June 18th 2015, 6 p.m.
Geopolitics in the forest: border of wilderness
Jakub Grygar, Ph.D., Charles University in Prague
Based on ethnographic sketches from Bialowieza National Park (Poland, Belarus), I ask for character of the EU external border in this region. The lecture shows mutual interconnection of the Europeanization of Poland and its eastern border, othering of Belarus, and exotization of local population. Belarus with its political regime creates juxtaposition with the Bialowieza’s last European natural forest. On the one hand, in the eyes and practices of visitors of the Bialowieza National Park, the forest stands not only as a witness to the original state of nature, but also emerging as a relic of the recent political history of Poland. On the other hand, the juxtaposition is also actively used by local population for subversion of the state. I point out the various ways in which international borders are established. Bialowieza National Park and its politics of entry, material barriers, EU standards, both global and local arguments about how to protect the nature, political tensions between Poland and Belarus, and political interests, all this in different situations refers to and are linked to each other. These references and links are directly involved in the global, national, and local politics of borders creation or its reduction.
June 24th 2015, 6 p.m.
Introducing Polish Slang
Prof. Maciej Widawski, University of Warsawa
Slang is the most informal, expressive and unconventional type of lexicon. It takes up at least 10% of all vocabulary known by the average person, and can be found in all languages. Linguistically interesting and socioculturally revealing, it deserves academic attention just like any other part of language, although is often neglected in studies by professional linguists. Slang is also an important part of Polish lexicon and is strongly linked with Polish culture and society. Knowing at least some slang offers a valuable insight into the nuances of Polish language and culture.
The lecture is designed to be a short linguistic introduction to Polish slang. It presents an overview of patterns of meanings, forms, themes, functions and users of Polish slang. All generalizations are illustrated by dozens of real-life contextual examples from a sizable database of citations from various contemporary sources such as press, film, television, and conversations with native speakers. The lecture will be of interest to students of linguistics, especially those interested in language variation and its sociocultural context, and to students of Slavic studies, especially those interested in the Polish language.
Professor Widawski is a leading Polish sociolinguist and lexicographer, and one of the few scholars worldwide specializing in slang. He has studied Polish, Yiddish and English slang since the early 1990’s at such centers as the University of California at Berkeley and Stanford University. Currently, he is Professor of Linguistics at Spoleczna Akademia Nauk (University of Social Sciences) in Warsaw. His numerous book publications include The Polish-English Dictionary of Slang (Hippocrene New York, 1998), Yinglish (Gdansk University Press, 2013), andAfrican American Slang: A Linguistic Description (Cambridge University Press, 2015).
June 25th 2015, 6 p.m.
Wir Unsichbaren. Geschichte der Polen in Deutschland.
Dr. Peter Oliver Loew, DPI Darmstadt
Dobristroh oder Freienhufen, Horka oder Wehrkirch? Umbenennungen von Ortschaften in der NS-Zeit und ihr Schicksal in der SBZ/DDR
Dr. Gero Lietz, European University Viadrina