Undergraduate Courses

Fall 2022

Language Courses

GER 100Y full year Introduction to German

GER 100Y full year Introduction to German
GER 101H fall sem. Introduction to German

Section Time Room Instructor
L0101
-online-		 MW 9-11  N/A S. Gargova/L. Lackner
L0201 MW 11-1 CR 404 F
CR403 S		 H.S. Kim
L0301 MW1-3 CR405 F
CR103 S		 A. Klee/S. Bein
L0401 TR 8-10 CR103 S. Jordan/M. Harutyunyan
L0501 TR 10-12 CR404 F
CR103 S		 M. Harutyunyan/V. Shewfelt
L0601 TR 1-3 TF200 F
CR103 S		 F. Röessler/S. Mostafa
L5101 MW 6-8 CR405 F
CR103 S		 J. Evjen
L5201
-online-		 TR6-8 N/A E. Lange/V.Curran

This introductory German course is for students with no prior knowledge of the language. It is a year course divided into two sections. Based on a communicative and task-based approach, it is designed to develop proficiency in oral and written communication skills while providing students with knowledge and understanding of the societies and cultures of German-speaking countries. Students will develop their listening, speaking, reading and writing skills through a variety of stimulating off- and on-line activities, both during live meetings and on the reliable online platform accompanying the textbook. Topics cover areas such as introducing and talking about oneself, shopping, telling time and recounting a day, family life, describing and renting an apartment, travel, health and fitness or studying abroad. Vocabulary will be presented in the context of culturally significant issues. Additionally, the course will provide students with a foundation in a number of basic grammatical structures and concepts. Live online sessions will be devoted mostly to communicative and interactive exercises. In addition to preparation at home, regularly participating in and attending the online sessions is paramount in order to successfully complete the course.

GER 200Y1/*201H (GER) Intermediate German I

GER 200Y full year Intermediate German
GER 201H fall sem. Intermediate German 1

Section Time Room Instructor
L0101 MW 10-12 CR405 R. Laszlo
L0201 WF 8-10 CR103 V. Curran
L5101
-online-		 MW 6-8 N/A L. Cote-Pitre/S. Gargova

This intermediate German language course builds on skills acquired in beginner’s German. It is a year course divided into two sections and is designed to provide students with genuine communication experiences while reviewing and further developing participants’ linguistic and cultural competencies. Students will have a chance to practice and enhance their German speaking, listening, reading, and writing skills by engaging with a variety of texts and media during live classes, as well as on the reliable online platform accompanying the textbook. The themes in the textbook provide a springboard for various online activities, assignments, and vocabulary building tasks. All class readings, videos, projects, and presentations will explore historical, social, political, and popular topics while aspects of Germanic and North American cultures are being compared. Learning strategies and self-assessment are part of every chapter, allowing for differentiation among various types of learners. Students will further practice grammatical structures and acquire vocabulary that will allow them to express opinions, agreements, and disagreements in communicative situations encountered in work, school, and travel. By learning about German, Austrian, and Swiss cities featured in the textbook and supporting materials, students will get to explore regional differences in German-speaking countries. Regular online meetings will be devoted mostly to communicative and interactive exercises and group work. In order to successfully participate in these activities, independent work and preparation are paramount.

GER 300Y1/*301H (GER) Intermediate German II

GER 300Y full year Intermediate German 2
GER 301H fall sem. Intermediate German 2

Section Time Room Instructor
L0101 MW 10-12 CR406 F
TF102 S		 E. Lange
L0201 TR 8-10 AH302 F
OI4426 S		 A.Flicker/N. Sachdeva
L5101 TR 6-8 TF200 F. Müeller

This intermediate German language course builds on GER200Y. It is a year course divided into two sections and focuses on effective oral and written expression, hearing and reading comprehension, in-depth review of grammar as well as the study of more complex structures. Through engagement with a variety of readings, videos, and films on important historical, cultural, social, and political topics in German-speaking countries, students will have the opportunity to practice grammar and vocabulary in embedded and culturally relevant contexts. The aim of this course is to equip students with the skills to understand extended speech, to read articles on contemporary problems, to describe personal experiences and to explain viewpoints on topical issues in speech and in writing. The textbook offers engaging culture topics, authentic readings, contextualized grammar and a reliable online platform. Regular online meetings will be devoted to communicative and interactive exercises and group work. In order to successfully participate in these activities, independent work and preparation are paramount.

GER 400H (GER) Advanced German I

Section Time Room Instructor
L0101 MW 10-12 AH302 A. Flicker

This course is aimed at students with a high level of competence in German. Building on material covered in GER 100/200/300, it offers advanced studies of German language, including text-based analysis and with a focus on improving communication skills. It includes a systematic review and expansion of grammar and stylistics, and additional emphasis lies on vocabulary building. The course is partly based on newspaper articles, literary texts, films and websites.

GER 260Y1 (YID) Elementary Yiddish

GER 260Y full year Beginner’s Yiddish 

Section Time Room Instructor
L0101 MWF 12-1 AH108 E. Jani/S. Edelhart

This course is an introduction to the Yiddish language and culture of Ashkenazic Jews. It will begin to prepare you to be able to express yourself in Yiddish, acquire strategies to learn Yiddish independently by developing your ability to understand the structure of the language and to cue in on the features of spoken and written Yiddish.

GER 360Y fall sem. Intermediate Yiddish 

Section Time Room Instructor
L0101 W 12-1/F 12-2 AH402 M. Schwartz

Topic Courses

GER 275H fall sem. (ENG) Marx, Nietzsche, Freud

Section Time Room Instructor
L0101 W 2-4
Tut: R 12-1		 AH100
TF101		 W. Goetschel

This is an introductory course to the thought of Karl Marx, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Sigmund Freud and their pioneering contributions to the understanding of the individual and society in modernity. Readings include selections from writings of the early Marx, the Communist Manifesto, and Capital, Nietzsche’s critique of culture, academe, and nationalism, and Freud’s theory of culture, his views on the psychopathology of everyday life, on the meaning of dreams, symptoms, the return of the repressed, and what it might mean to live in a free society.

NOTE: Taught in English, open to students across disciplines.

GER194HF (ENG) Our Vampires, Ourselves
*FYF (First-Year-Foundation) seminars exclusively for first-year students*

Section Time Room Instructor
L0101 F 10-12 SK100 E. Boran

Vampires are among the most fascinating figures of popular culture. Since Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1897) – and, in fact, well before that – they have been haunting the human imagination in various shapes and forms. But, of course, vampires have existed much longer than that – first in folktales and later, well before Stoker’s ominous Count, in German poetry. This course examines the figure of the vampire as a potent cultural metaphor showing how every age embraces the vampires it needs and gets the vampires it deserves. The goal is to teach students to reflect critically and independently on issues of self and society and to develop a structured approach to critical thinking in general. While focusing on what may be called the “Stoker paradigm”, we will go far beyond the portrayal of vampires as the absolute other. Students will have the opportunity to research individual topics to be presented in class.

195H fall sem. Cities – Real and Imagined
*FYF (First-Year-Foundation) seminars exclusively for first-year students*

Section Time Room Instructor
L0101 R 10-12 AH103 H.-S. Kim

Cities have been described as places of desire and places of fear. They pulse with life, bringing together people from different class, gender, and ethnic backgrounds, simultaneously giving rise to a sense of freedom and oppression, a sense of belonging and alienation. This course will explore the city as a physical reality that shapes our lives, but is also a projection of our deepest imaginings. Through readings of philosophical and sociological texts by influential theorists of the city, we will consider various ancient and modern conceptions of urban space and subjectivity. Alongside these theoretical readings, we will also examine literary and filmic representations of the city as a space of desire, memory and power.

GER 305H (GER) German Literature II

Section Time Room Instructor
L0101 M 1-3 / W 1-2 TF102 J. Noyes

PREREQUISITE: GER 205H

Building on GER 205H, this course provides an introduction to German literature and culture from the 18th to the 21st century. Within a chronological and thematic framework, we will read and analyze excerpts from representative works of major German writers. Students learn to read critically and to consider the literary qualities of the German language. The course is required for majors and specialists; it should be taken as soon after GER 205 as possible.

NOTES: Required course for majors and specialists. / Prerequisite for 400-level topic courses in German.

GER 410H fall sem. (ENG) German Intellectual History 

Section Time Room Instructor
L0101 T 2-4 CR103 J. Noyes

PREREQUISITE: Permission of department.

German intellectual history has provided some of the most important statements of Western culture from Kant to Luhmann, Hegel to Heidegger, Marx, Freud and Nietzsche, etc. In this course, we will examine select aspects of German intellectual history in detail. The content of the course will vary, please check back here for details or ask us!

GER 370H fall sem. (GER) German Business Culture 1

Section Time Room Instructor
L0101 TR 12-2 CR405 S. Gargova

PREREQUISITE: GER 200H

This course provides students with a working knowledge of German business culture that allows them to navigate the German workplace. The main focus is to deepen students’ knowledge of business concepts.

NOTES: Required course for the Business German minor. / GER 270H and 272H alternate with GER 370H and 372H and are only offered every other year.

GER 350H fall sem. (GER) German Visual Cultures  

Section Time Room Instructor
L0101 F 10-2 CR103 A. Sharifi

PREREQUISITE: GER 205H

An overview of select writings on the emerging role of visual cultures within mass media across the 20th-century. Theorists may include Walter Benjamin, Siegfried Kracauer, Bela Balazs, Jürgen Habermas, Friedrich Kittler, Niklas Luhmann and secondary scholarly articles. Texts are read in conjunction with weekly screenings from the German film canon that illustrate the concepts under study. We also review basic principles of film analysis and integrate vocabulary specific to the study of German visual texts.

GER 334H fall sem. (GER) Turkish-German Intersections

Section Time Room Instructor
L0101 R 10-12 TF101 E. Boran

PREREQUISITE: GER 205H

Identities in Process, Writing Outside the Nation, The Turkish Turn in Contemporary German Literature – the titles of recent studies emphasize that German literature has long since left the national corner. Specific topics of this course may vary, but broadly speaking the focus of this course is on minor(ity) perspectives and on voices from the ‘off’ of the past 40 years (i.e. the literary works that arose from post-war migration).

GER 322H fall sem. Kafka in Context

Section Time Room Instructor
L0101 T 10-12 CR403 E. Boran

PREREQUISITE: GER 205H

How do we know how to live life in the modern world, when none of our points of reference seem to hold any reliability or stability? How can we even be sure that we are human, and not some strange, deformed animal with consciousness? For Kafka, the German-Jewish-Czech writer who lived most of his life in Prague, the only way to answer such troubling questions was to make them the basis of his writing. His works offer a unique model for thinking about human life in the modern world, about consciousness, the body, dreaming and waking, the nature of the social world, and many similar issues. And embedded in his writing is a set of unique ideas about how to read literature.