This class will be conducted within the theme teaching year on SUSTAINABILITY and within the research area Blue Humanities. Blue Humanities studies oceans, rivers, and coastal areas in terms of (colonial) histories, migration and travel, sustainability and ecological issues, circulation of people and ideas, marine and Indigenous knowledges, literature and cultures, new geographies, extractivism, energy and economic issues, among others.

Please note that the course will be conducted in connection with a lecture series in the Blue Humanities, which takes place Wednesdays 18.15-19.45 at the Cartesium on campus. You are cordially invited to come and listen to all lectures; however 4 lectures are mandatory for you to attend, which ones will be specified at the start of the course, the first one on 25 Oct.

As well, on 26 October we will do a short study excursion to the MARKK Museum in Hamburg and their exhibition “Wasserbotschaften” with a guided tour: https://markk-hamburg.de/veranstaltungen/wasser-botschaften-9/.
We will leave on a train around 11.30 and have the guided tour in the afternoon. After that you can explore the museum on your own. You will use your semester ticket to use regional trains to go to Hamburg and back for free. This study excursion is not mandatory. And yet all students are invited to join us; there is limited capacity for the tour. Those who wish to go to Hamburg, pls register on the Etherpad here on StudIP with your full name and email address by 3 October.

After discussing sustainability and the sustainable development goals of the UN in the class, we will read and discuss short stories from the collection The Imperiled Ocean: Human Stories from a Changing Sea by Laura Trethewey and the novel People of the Whale by Linda Hogan. The novel is ready for purchase at the University bookstore at the beginning of the semester: People of the Whale (17,50 €). The short story and other texts will be uploaded on StudIP.
Pls note that regular attendance and class participation and preparation are mandatory. You must register on StudIP for this class.

This class will be conducted within the theme teaching year on SUSTAINABILITY and within the research area Blue Humanities. Blue Humanities studies oceans, rivers, and coastal areas in terms of (colonial) histories, migration and travel, sustainability and ecological issues, circulation of people and ideas, marine and Indigenous knowledges, literature and cultures, new geographies, extractivism, energy and economic issues, among others.

Please note that the course will be conducted in connection with a lecture series in the Blue Humanities, which takes place Wednesdays 18.15-19.45 at the Cartesium on campus. You are cordially invited to come and listen to all lectures; however 4 lectures are mandatory for you to attend, which ones will be specified at the start of the course, the first one on 25 Oct.

As well, on 26 October we will do a short study excursion to the MARKK Museum in Hamburg and their exhibition “Wasserbotschaften” with a guided tour: https://markk-hamburg.de/veranstaltungen/wasser-botschaften-9/.
We will leave on a train around 11.30 and have the guided tour in the afternoon. After that you can explore the museum on your own. You will use your semester ticket to use regional trains to go to Hamburg and back for free. This study excursion is not mandatory. And yet all students are invited to join us; there is limited capacity for the tour. Those who wish to go to Hamburg, pls register on the Etherpad here on StudIP with your full name and email address by 3 October.

After discussing sustainability and the sustainable development goals of the UN in the class, we will read and discuss short stories from the collection The Imperiled Ocean: Human Stories from a Changing Sea by Laura Trethewey and the novel People of the Whale by Linda Hogan. The novel is ready for purchase at the University bookstore at the beginning of the semester: People of the Whale (17,50 €). The short story and other texts will be uploaded on StudIP.
Pls note that regular attendance and class participation and preparation are mandatory. You must register on StudIP for this class.

This class will be conducted within the theme teaching year on SUSTAINABILITY and within the research area Blue Humanities. Blue Humanities studies oceans, rivers, and coastal areas in terms of (colonial) histories, migration and travel, sustainability and ecological issues, circulation of people and ideas, marine and Indigenous knowledges, literature and cultures, new geographies, extractivism, energy and economic issues, among others.

Please note that the course will be conducted in connection with a lecture series in the Blue Humanities, which takes place Wednesdays 18.15-19.45 at the Cartesium on campus. You are cordially invited to come and listen to all lectures; however 4 lectures are mandatory for you to attend, which ones will be specified at the start of the course, the first one on 25 Oct.

As well, as part of the first class on 26 October, we will do a short study excursion to the MARKK Museum in Hamburg and their exhibition “Wasserbotschaften” with a guided tour. https://markk-hamburg.de/veranstaltungen/wasser-botschaften-9/
We will leave on a train around 11.30 after our first class and have the guided tour in the afternoon. After that you can explore the museum on your own. You will use your semester ticket to use regional trains to go to Hamburg and back for free. This study excursion is not mandatory. And yet all students are invited to join us; there is limited capacity for the tour. Those who wish to go to Hamburg, pls register on the Etherpad here on StudIP with your full name and email address by 3 October.

After discussing sustainability and the sustainable development goals of the UN in the class, we will read and discuss the two novels The Hungry Tide by Amitav Ghosh and People of the Whale by Linda Hogan. The novels are ready for purchase at the University bookstore at the beginning of the semester: The Hungry Tide (13 €) and People of the Whale (17,50 €). Other texts will be uploaded on StudIP.
Pls note that regular attendance and class participation and preparation are mandatory. You must register on StudIP for this class.

In this course we will engage in critical debates on popular culture, discuss various ways and methods of analyzing it and carry out intersectional investigations of selected cases. Employing a cultural historical perspective we will focus on categories of difference such as race, class, gender, sexuality. Students will improve their critical reading skills that can be applied to academic as well as to popular texts. Moreover, we will develop ideas how to productively use popular culture in schools.
Essential readings will be available for download on Stud-IP.
Requirements:
• regular attendance and oral participation
• in-depth knowledge of the reading material
• oral presentation and handout
• term paper

More than a hundred years after Horace Walpole established horror tropes in his Gothic novel The Castle of Otranto (1764), the genre flourished and diversified in the nineteenth century. In the late Victorian age, three chilling tales particularly captured the public imagination: J. Sheridan Le Fanu’s serialized novella Carmilla (1872), a lesbian vampire romp that was essential in popularizing the vampire as a staple in horror fiction; Oscar Wilde’s aestheticist fancy The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890), a novel about forbidden desire so scandalous that it was used as evidence in a trial to send Wilde to jail; and Bram Stoker’s infamous vampire classic Dracula (1897), a novel that arguably became the best-known vampire tale of all time and spawned countless imitations. In the prim and proper Victorian era, these shocking texts dared to explore the ugly underbelly of human nature which slumbers just beneath the polished surface of civilization: violence, corruption, carnal desire, and (literal) blood thirst.

In this course, we will examine these influential horror texts as well their contexts. What can they tell us about Victorian attititudes towards gender, sexuality, race, and class? Which roles do religion, science, and art play on a textual as well as contextual level? Does the fact that all three authors were born in Ireland affect the content or reception of their novels? And which contemporary anxieties are reflected in the tales of bloodsucking aristocrats and immortal dandies? To investigate these and other questions, we will combine a thorough historical contextualization with close readings of the selected texts. Taken together, this will allow us to explore the novels’ impact on contemporary Victorian readers and public discourses, as well as their lasting impact on the horror genre at large.

Primary texts:

Le Fanu, J. Sheridan. Carmilla. Pushkin Press, 2021.
Stoker, Bram. Dracula. Second edition. Edited by John Edgar Browning and David J. Skal. W.W. Norton Company, 2021.
Wilde, Oscar. The Picture of Dorian Gray. Third edition. Edited by Michael Patrick Gillespie. W.W. Norton Company, 2019.

Please obtain a copy of these novels prior to the start of class. Try to get the exact edition listed above (previous editions work as well). I will inform the university book shop on campus to keep a few copies in store, as they usually offer excellent deals on English-language books. Support your local bookstore! That said, feel free to use another edition if you already have one at home or buy second-hand.

Requirements:
• Regular attendance
• Active participation in class
• In-depth knowledge of the reading materials
• Final assessment according to module choice

Please note that prior enrollment via Stud. IP is mandatory.

This specialized course responds to the United Nations' emphasis on sustainable development, revealing that sustainability encompasses various dimensions beyond the environment, notably gender equality. It recognizes the need for equitable, inclusive societies and the elimination of gender disparities, aligning these goals with the literary realm of Arab-American fiction. We explore narratives authored by Arab-American women, who play a pivotal role in offering unique perspectives on the intersection of gender, culture, identity, and environmental issues. By focusing on these diverse voices, the course delves into rich portrayals of women's experiences and resilience, emphasizing the importance of diversity within the global dialogue on sustainability and gender equality.

This class will be conducted within the theme teaching year on SUSTAINABILITY and within the research area Blue Humanities. Blue Humanities studies oceans, rivers, and coastal areas in terms of (colonial) histories, migration and travel, sustainability and ecological issues, circulation of people and ideas, marine and Indigenous knowledges, literature and cultures, new geographies, extractivism, energy and economic issues, among others.

Please note that the course will be conducted in connection with a lecture series in the Blue Humanities, which takes place Wednesdays 18.15-19.45 at the Cartesium on campus. You are cordially invited to come and listen to all lectures; however 4 lectures are mandatory for you to attend, which ones will be specified at the start of the course, the first one on 25 Oct.

As well, on 26 October we will do a short study excursion to the MARKK Museum in Hamburg and their exhibition “Wasserbotschaften” with a guided tour: https://markk-hamburg.de/veranstaltungen/wasser-botschaften-9/.
We will leave on a train around 11.30 and have the guided tour in the afternoon. After that you can explore the museum on your own. You will use your semester ticket to use regional trains to go to Hamburg and back for free. This study excursion is not mandatory. And yet all students are invited to join us; there is limited capacity for the tour. Those who wish to go to Hamburg, pls register on the Etherpad here on StudIP with your full name and email address by 3 October.

After discussing sustainability and the sustainable development goals of the UN in the class, we will read and discuss short stories from the collection The Imperiled Ocean: Human Stories from a Changing Sea by Laura Trethewey and the novel People of the Whale by Linda Hogan. The novel is ready for purchase at the University bookstore at the beginning of the semester: People of the Whale (17,50 €). The short story and other texts will be uploaded on StudIP.
Pls note that regular attendance and class participation and preparation are mandatory. You must register on StudIP for this class.