Global Arc

The production and reception of art in the Federal Republic of Germany from c. 1960 to now, situating episodes in the history of painting, sculpture, and photography in relation to developments in literature and cinema. Topics include the problem of coming to terms with the past (Vergangenheitsbewältigung); the West German economic miracle (Wirtschaftswunder) and the functions and meanings of art in consumer society; violence, politics, and representation; abstraction and figuration in painting, sculpture, and photography; history, memory, and artistic tradition; art as a vehicle of socio-political critique. Two 80-minute classes. In English.

This seminar explores the significance of works of art, and of practices of writing about art, for three great writers of the early 20th century: poet Rainer Maria Rilke, psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud, and critic and philosopher Walter Benjamin. Readings include: lyric poetry, experimental prose, psychoanalytic theory, cultural analysis, and aesthetic theory. Topics include: the situation of the work of art in modernity; art and the unconscious; the work of art and the historical transmission of culture in modern Europe. Course taught in English. Readings also available in German for those who wish to work with texts in the original language.

Exemplary encounters between photography and literature in the 20th century. After providing students with a basis in the theory of photography, the course focuses on intersections between literary and photographic forms, producers, and movements. Topics will include modernism in New York (Williams, Strand, and Sheeler) and Mexico City (Lawrence, Bravo, Weston, Modotti), the New Photography and the photo essay in Germany (Benjamin, Moholy-Nagy, Renger-Patzsch, Sander), social criticism (Evans and Agee), surrealism (Breton), and the American road (Kerouac and Frank). Two 90-minute seminars.

Surveillance has long provoked a wide range of social responses, from the embrace of promises of security to a rejection of a threat to civil liberties. Why can some countries impose such social control while others cannot? Does this dynamic change when the monitoring is instead trans-national, be it in the form of more systemic logics of "surveillance capitalism" or of the new global tracking imperatives provoked by the current pandemic? This team-taught seminar in comparative surveillance studies will examine the complex cultural, political and techno-historical dimensions of new forms of social control in the Americas, Europe and Asia.

"I fear God if I keep silent, I fear uncomprehending people if I write," wrote Mechthild of Magdeburg (d. 1282) on assuming the role of author, anticipating the words of Sigrid Weigel: "The language of women is [...] not simply a given, nor something to be construed, but rather a movement pursuing a constantly shifting perspective" (1987). Seminar examines the female "I" in a range of German texts. Questions to be considered: What roles have been available? How has gender enabled/constrained humans identifying as women from becoming writers? What challenges the reader of a female voice when the author identifies as a man? See sample list.

Informed by recent German media theory on 'cultural techniques'--from the operation of doors to embodied acts of writing and image-making-- this seminar will explore the relations between performance and media, from interactions between performance practices and modern/new media to implications of performance for theorizing media in general. Topics will include shared concerns in media studies and performance studies (such as embodiment, (im)mediacy, practice, and the archive), relations/tensions between performance and text, movement and inscription, and thinking media through the lens of practice as well as practice as the basis of theory.

The aim of this course is to track and understand the structural and architectural engineering leadership of Italy in the context of social-political-economic circumstances. The course studies various structure of Italy in three distinct time frames: creativity in structural and architectural engineering during the classical and medieval period, vaulted reinforced concrete structures of the 1900s, and modern times of lightweight structures and advanced technologies. In all parts of the course, calculations are made to examine the structural integrity. The course is open to all majors, no prerequisites.

This course traces the birth and spread of the ghetto as a social form and as an idea throughout world history. We begin with the first Jewish residential zone in a European city, the Jewish quarter of pre-Christian Rome, and end with what some prominent observers are calling a paradigmatic ghetto of the 21st century: Gaza. As we trace the spread and evolution of the ghetto concept, we explore how the social form emerged in different historical moments and what people inside and outside have made of the experience.

This course will study language and history through the lens of a regional collection of fairy tales, and will allow students to develop a working knowledge of the richly collaborative process through which musical theater is created. We'll learn how artists interpret, adapt, and create work, as well as give feedback to the creative development process. By working closely with professionals, students will also gain valuable experience in the craft of musical theater writing - learning some of the basic principles of form we well as how to shape songs and musicalized scenes for maximum storytelling clarity and effectiveness.

This course explores the drama of ancient Athens through reading, performance, and observation. Students will confront the interpretative and performative challenges the plays of Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, and Aristophanes offer, culminating in a performance of student-generated scenes. Students will attend performances as well as participate in workshops and conversations with actors, directors, and designers. The seminar investigates the connection between the ancient world and Greece's complex multicultural present though trips to ancient sites and the modern city. The seminar features community service and classes in Modern Greek.