Das Seminar führt in die Strukturen und Funktionen der EU ein. Es ist parallel zur Vorlesung 08-26-M4-1 „Einführung in das politische System der Europäischen Union” konzipiert. Während die Vorlesung einen generellen Überblick über EU-Institutionen und Politiken gibt, untersucht das Seminar diese Institutionen und Politiken anhand konkreter Beispiele. Während Sie in der Vorlesung vor allen Dingen zuhören und die Pflichtlektüre lesen müssen, werden Sie in dem Seminar selber aktiv, analysieren Texte im Unterricht, stellen Ihre Ergebnisse vor und diskutieren sie mit Ihren Kommilitonen. Natürlich kann das Seminar auch belegt werden, ohne die Vorlesung zu besuchen.
Jede Sitzung gliedert sich in drei Teile. Zunächst wird ganz kurz das Thema der Sitzung vorgestellt, also die EU-Institution, um die es geht oder das Politikfeld, das analysiert werden soll. Dann werten Sie einzeln oder in Gruppenarbeit ein EU-Dokument im Hinblick auf eine bestimmte Fragestellung aus. Schließlich tragen Sie Ihre Ergebnisse vor, vergleichen sie mit den Ergebnissen von anderen, und erörtern mögliche politische oder gesellschaftliche Folgen.

Literatur zur Vorbereitung/Preparatory Reading:

Peter Becker & Barbara Lippert (Hg.) 2020: Handbuch Europäische Union. Wiesbaden: Springer

Prüfungsleistungen und CP/Assignments and Credits:

6 CP
Anforderungen:
Regelmäßige Teilnahme
aktive Mitarbeit
drei Hausarbeiten von jeweils 1000 Worten

Das Seminar führt in die Strukturen und Funktionen der EU ein. Es ist parallel zur Vorlesung 08-26-M4-1 „Einführung in das politische System der Europäischen Union” konzipiert. Während die Vorlesung einen generellen Überblick über EU-Institutionen und Politiken gibt, untersucht das Seminar diese Institutionen und Politiken anhand konkreter Beispiele. Während Sie in der Vorlesung vor allen Dingen zuhören und die Pflichtlektüre lesen müssen, werden Sie in dem Seminar selber aktiv, analysieren Texte im Unterricht, stellen Ihre Ergebnisse vor und diskutieren sie mit Ihren Kommilitonen. Natürlich kann das Seminar auch belegt werden, ohne die Vorlesung zu besuchen.
Jede Sitzung gliedert sich in drei Teile. Zunächst wird ganz kurz das Thema der Sitzung vorgestellt, also die EU-Institution, um die es geht oder das Politikfeld, das analysiert werden soll. Dann werten Sie einzeln oder in Gruppenarbeit ein EU-Dokument im Hinblick auf eine bestimmte Fragestellung aus. Schließlich tragen Sie Ihre Ergebnisse vor, vergleichen sie mit den Ergebnissen von anderen, und erörtern mögliche politische oder gesellschaftliche Folgen.

Literatur zur Vorbereitung/Preparatory Reading:

Peter Becker & Barbara Lippert (Hg.) 2020: Handbuch Europäische Union. Wiesbaden: Springer

Prüfungsleistungen und CP/Assignments and Credits:

6 CP
Anforderungen:
Regelmäßige Teilnahme
aktive Mitarbeit
drei Hausarbeiten von jeweils 1000 Worten

This series of interconnected lectures serves as an introduction to social theory and cultural criticism. Themes include: definitions of culture, theories of identity; modernity and postmodernity; language, semiotics and (post)structuralism; cultural memory; psychoanalysis; race, ethnicity and imperial legacies; Marxist critiques; and study of culture in the age of globalization.

This is an interdisciplinary course bridging various fields of inquiry including anthropology, sociology, history, literary studies and linguistics. It is open to students from all departments and is intended to be useful for a wide range of potential academic paths.

Learning Outcomes:

By the end of the course, students should be able to:

• apply a range of theories and methods of analysis to works of literature, film, art, and other cultural phenomena;
• engage in informed discussions on the foundations of cultural theory, including ideas first voiced by Clifford Geertz, Antonio Gramsci, Roland Barthes, Sigmund Freud, Linda Hutcheon, Arjun Appadurai and others;
• critically discuss the concept(s) of culture as applied to terms such as “mass” culture, “high” culture”, “popular” culture and “national” cultures.

Teilnehmende/Participants:

Students taking Integrated European Studies (IES) Module M5c ("Einführung in die Theorien und Methoden der Kulturwissenschaft"; 12CPs) must complete this lecture course and the seminar "08-31-2-M5c-2: Gender Studies: Kultur und Gesellschaft".

Students from all faculties and exchange programmes are also welcome to participate. The lecture course is worth 6CPs/ECTS as a stand-alone course.

Prüfungsleistungen und CP/Assignments and Credits:

This course is normally assessed as part of the Module IES-M5c “Einführung in die Theorien und Methoden der Kulturwissenschaft”, in which second-semester Integrated European Studies (IES) students attend and complete assessments in different but related aspects of cultural theory.

The lecture course and the seminar will be weighted equally in the grading of the module as a whole (12 CPs in total).

Students are also invited to take the course as a stand-alone paper in General Studies and receive a GS-Schein (or e.g. Erasmus Credit Transfer for exchange students). In this case, the course is worth 6 CPs/ECTS. The assessment format for all students is the same, namely:

This course is assessed by written Examination (100%): a 90-minute question-and-answer based examination carried out in Week 14. Answers may be written in German or English (or a mixture).

Prüfungsleistungen und CP/Assignments and Credits:
6 CP

This is a research-based seminar dedicated to topical issues in (studies of) Central and Eastern Europe in light of contemporary polycrises: Russia’s war in Ukraine; authoritarian backlash in Russia, Belarus and elsewhere; democratic backsliding in a number of EU-member states; global climate breakdown; and others. It invites students to engage with contemporary debates on decolonization, gender and sexuality, nationalism and identity, memory, and environmental destruction – as seen through cultural practices including (but not restricted to) literature, film, visual arts, digital activism, and music.

No specific linguistic competences are required for participation: materials will be studied in translation (English and/or German, according to availability) or with subtitles.

In the course of the semester, students will formulate their own research topics to pursue in a limited and guided capacity, producing written and/or visual outputs in a flexible assessment format. The seminar will foreground a dialogic structure, encouraging students to contribute in multiple ways and collectively co-shape the direction and content. A number of special guest inputs are also planned.

Learning Outcomes:

By the end of the of the course, students should be able to:
• critically discuss selected cultural products and practices from central/eastern Europe, including in comparative perspective in relation to global processes and with reference to broader theoretical paradigms such as memory studies, de- and postcoloniality, theories of gender and sexuality, and others;
• develop their own research question in a self-selected area of cultural studies in an central/eastern European context, as well as adapt and apply appropriate theories to carry out the project within a given time frame;
• demonstrate advanced knowledge of contemporary cultural issues in central and eastern Europe in line with their own research interests and language skills, and identify areas in which they may wish to specialise in future research projects (e.g. the BA thesis).

This is a research-based seminar dedicated to topical issues in (studies of) Central and Eastern Europe in light of contemporary polycrises: Russia’s war in Ukraine; authoritarian backlash in Russia, Belarus and elsewhere; democratic backsliding in a number of EU-member states; global climate breakdown; and others. It invites students to engage with contemporary debates on decolonization, gender and sexuality, nationalism and identity, memory, and environmental destruction – as seen through cultural practices including (but not restricted to) literature, film, visual arts, digital activism, and music.

No specific linguistic competences are required for participation: materials will be studied in translation (English and/or German, according to availability) or with subtitles.

In the course of the semester, students will formulate their own research topics to pursue in a limited and guided capacity, producing written and/or visual outputs in a flexible assessment format. The seminar will foreground a dialogic structure, encouraging students to contribute in multiple ways and collectively co-shape the direction and content. A number of special guest inputs are also planned.

Learning Outcomes:

By the end of the of the course, students should be able to:
• critically discuss selected cultural products and practices from central/eastern Europe, including in comparative perspective in relation to global processes and with reference to broader theoretical paradigms such as memory studies, de- and postcoloniality, theories of gender and sexuality, and others;
• develop their own research question in a self-selected area of cultural studies in an central/eastern European context, as well as adapt and apply appropriate theories to carry out the project within a given time frame;
• demonstrate advanced knowledge of contemporary cultural issues in central and eastern Europe in line with their own research interests and language skills, and identify areas in which they may wish to specialise in future research projects (e.g. the BA thesis).

This course wants to enable students to run their own (quantitative) research project in R. In the process, they will learn basic data wrangling and data visualisation in R. Every student will choose a project that they want to conduct using publicly available data of their choosing (some examples will be provided) and will, in consultation with the course coordinator, work towards a project report at the end of the course that they will present to the other students. Students will analyse their data in the open-source programme R and will be encouraged to write their final reports in it, too. The course will be a mixture of lectures on practical issues and a project based working sessions in exchange with the course coordinator and other students to make use of peer-to-peer learning. The lecture will be tailored to the needs and levels of the participating students.

In this course students are encouraged to run their own small-scale analysis project using R from beginning to end: choosing a topic and research question they find interesting, selecting and downloading the relevant data, using simple (presumably mostly) descriptive statistics such as means, and writing a report about their findings. They will be encouraged to use Quarto/ Rmarkdown, the integrated tool within R-Studio, to write their final reports and export them into PDF to automatically integrate updated findings. Also, students will be encouraged to upload and maintain their project on git. This course teaches practical skills and combines it with theoretical grounding in reproducible science. Hence it can be used as a good foundation for quantitative bachelor or master theses, and to learn skills that can be used also outside of academia.

Literatur zur Vorbereitung/Preparatory Reading:

• Wickham, Hadley, Mine Çetinkaya-Rundel, and Garrett Grolemund. ‘Introduction’. In R for Data Science, 2nd Edition, Second edition. O’Reilley, https://r4ds.hadley.nz/intro.html.
• Munafò, Marcus R., Brian A. Nosek, Dorothy V. M. Bishop, et al. ‘A Manifesto for Reproducible Science’. Nature Human Behaviour 1, no. 1 (2017): 0021. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-016-0021.

Prüfungsleistungen und CP/Assignments and Credits:

Students can take the course for 3 CP or 6 CP. The final assessment will depend on the amount of CP students chose. Both assessments include the simple progress report every two weeks (just about one paragraph in an unstructured form, including reasons for no progress, which will always happen, is no problem and part of the process) and the final script of the project. Beyond that, the two different levels encompass the following two assessments:

3 CP:
• Short presentation (10 minutes)
• Short final research note with references (~5 pages, at least one high-quality graph)
6 CP:
• Long presentation (20 minutes)
• Long final research note with references (~10 pages, at least two high-quality graphs)

The class provides an introduction to core concepts of international relations theory. The focus is on what different theories consider to be the key drivers of international and transnational relations. global politics, focusing on key concepts and issues of theories of international relations: states, sovereignty, conflict, cooperation, international institutions, non-governmental organizations, delegation and (indirect) global governance. The course starts with a focus on classical, Western literatures but concludes with sessions on gender, race, colonialism and the end of the Western-dominated liberal international order. By the end of the course, students will be able to understand and apply the key concepts in their own research.

Literatur zur Vorbereitung/Preparatory Reading:

any textbook on IR

Prüfungsleistungen und CP/Assignments and Credits:

6 CP
Requirements

Attendance: Students are expected to be present and prepared for every class session. Active participation during seminar discussions is essential. If unavoidable circumstances arise which prevent attendance or preparation, the instructor should be advised in advance by email.

Reseearch paper:Each student submits a brief paper at the end of the seminar. The paper should engage with one of the readings of this class, summarize the main argument and comment on it. Grading will consider the rigor of the analysis, and the quality of writing. The word limit is 3000 words everything included. Each student presents his or her paper idea in a short presentation during the final session. .

Biologische Vielfalt ist die Grundlage gesunder Ökosysteme, nicht nur im tropischen Regenwald oder in den Polarregionen, sondern auch direkt vor unserer Haustür. Artenvielfalt sichert unsere Lebensgrundlagen, stabilisiert ökologische Kreisläufe und trägt zu Lebensqualität bei. Doch aktuell erleben wir weltweit und auch in Deutschland einen massiven Rückgang an Biodiversität. Ursachen sind unter anderem Lebensraumverlust durch Bebauung und Intensivlandwirtschaft, Umweltverschmutzung, Klimawandel und die Ausbreitung invasiver Arten. Aus diesen Entwicklungen erwachsen dringende Notwendigkeiten für Schutz- und Erhaltungsmaßnahmen – lokal wie global.
In diesem Projektseminar erkunden wir zentrale Orte urbaner Biodiversität in Bremen: von naturnah gestalteten Gärten über innerstädtische Naturschutzgebiete bis hin zu ökologisch wertvollen Brachflächen. In Zusammenarbeit mit Praxispartner*innen wie dem BUND, NABU, der Landesjägerschaft Bremen und weiteren Initiativen lernen die Studierenden die Rolle und Bedeutung dieser Orte kennen, diskutieren aktuelle Herausforderungen im Artenschutz und setzen sich mit konkreten Maßnahmen auseinander. Bei praktischen Pflegearbeiten und Forschungsaufgaben packen die Teilnehmenden selbst mit an und erfahren, wie Schutzstrategien vor Ort umgesetzt werden können.
Das Seminar verbindet fachliche Einblicke, Exkursionen und praxisorientiertes Lernen mit der Reflexion über die eigene Rolle im gesellschaftlichen Engagement für Biodiversität – und trägt so zum Erwerb zentraler Kompetenzen im Bereich Nachhaltigkeit bei.

Das Seminar führt in die Strukturen und Funktionen der EU ein. Es ist parallel zur Vorlesung 08-26-M4-1 „Einführung in das politische System der Europäischen Union” konzipiert. Während die Vorlesung einen generellen Überblick über EU-Institutionen und Politiken gibt, untersucht das Seminar diese Institutionen und Politiken anhand konkreter Beispiele. Während Sie in der Vorlesung vor allen Dingen zuhören und die Pflichtlektüre lesen müssen, werden Sie in dem Seminar selber aktiv, analysieren Texte im Unterricht, stellen Ihre Ergebnisse vor und diskutieren sie mit Ihren Kommilitonen. Natürlich kann das Seminar auch belegt werden, ohne die Vorlesung zu besuchen.
Jede Sitzung gliedert sich in drei Teile. Zunächst wird ganz kurz das Thema der Sitzung vorgestellt, also die EU-Institution, um die es geht oder das Politikfeld, das analysiert werden soll. Dann werten Sie einzeln oder in Gruppenarbeit ein EU-Dokument im Hinblick auf eine bestimmte Fragestellung aus. Schließlich tragen Sie Ihre Ergebnisse vor, vergleichen sie mit den Ergebnissen von anderen, und erörtern mögliche politische oder gesellschaftliche Folgen.

Literatur zur Vorbereitung/Preparatory Reading:

Peter Becker & Barbara Lippert (Hg.) 2020: Handbuch Europäische Union. Wiesbaden: Springer

Prüfungsleistungen und CP/Assignments and Credits:

6 CP
Anforderungen:
Regelmäßige Teilnahme
aktive Mitarbeit
drei Hausarbeiten von jeweils 1000 Worten

Das Seminar führt in die Strukturen und Funktionen der EU ein. Es ist parallel zur Vorlesung 08-26-M4-1 „Einführung in das politische System der Europäischen Union” konzipiert. Während die Vorlesung einen generellen Überblick über EU-Institutionen und Politiken gibt, untersucht das Seminar diese Institutionen und Politiken anhand konkreter Beispiele. Während Sie in der Vorlesung vor allen Dingen zuhören und die Pflichtlektüre lesen müssen, werden Sie in dem Seminar selber aktiv, analysieren Texte im Unterricht, stellen Ihre Ergebnisse vor und diskutieren sie mit Ihren Kommilitonen. Natürlich kann das Seminar auch belegt werden, ohne die Vorlesung zu besuchen.
Jede Sitzung gliedert sich in drei Teile. Zunächst wird ganz kurz das Thema der Sitzung vorgestellt, also die EU-Institution, um die es geht oder das Politikfeld, das analysiert werden soll. Dann werten Sie einzeln oder in Gruppenarbeit ein EU-Dokument im Hinblick auf eine bestimmte Fragestellung aus. Schließlich tragen Sie Ihre Ergebnisse vor, vergleichen sie mit den Ergebnissen von anderen, und erörtern mögliche politische oder gesellschaftliche Folgen.

Literatur zur Vorbereitung/Preparatory Reading:

Peter Becker & Barbara Lippert (Hg.) 2020: Handbuch Europäische Union. Wiesbaden: Springer

Prüfungsleistungen und CP/Assignments and Credits:

6 CP
Anforderungen:
Regelmäßige Teilnahme
aktive Mitarbeit
drei Hausarbeiten von jeweils 1000 Worten

This series of interconnected lectures serves as an introduction to social theory and cultural criticism. Themes include: definitions of culture, theories of identity; modernity and postmodernity; language, semiotics and (post)structuralism; cultural memory; psychoanalysis; race, ethnicity and imperial legacies; Marxist critiques; and study of culture in the age of globalization.

This is an interdisciplinary course bridging various fields of inquiry including anthropology, sociology, history, literary studies and linguistics. It is open to students from all departments and is intended to be useful for a wide range of potential academic paths.

Learning Outcomes:

By the end of the course, students should be able to:

• apply a range of theories and methods of analysis to works of literature, film, art, and other cultural phenomena;
• engage in informed discussions on the foundations of cultural theory, including ideas first voiced by Clifford Geertz, Antonio Gramsci, Roland Barthes, Sigmund Freud, Linda Hutcheon, Arjun Appadurai and others;
• critically discuss the concept(s) of culture as applied to terms such as “mass” culture, “high” culture”, “popular” culture and “national” cultures.

Teilnehmende/Participants:

Students taking Integrated European Studies (IES) Module M5c ("Einführung in die Theorien und Methoden der Kulturwissenschaft"; 12CPs) must complete this lecture course and the seminar "08-31-2-M5c-2: Gender Studies: Kultur und Gesellschaft".

Students from all faculties and exchange programmes are also welcome to participate. The lecture course is worth 6CPs/ECTS as a stand-alone course.

Prüfungsleistungen und CP/Assignments and Credits:

This course is normally assessed as part of the Module IES-M5c “Einführung in die Theorien und Methoden der Kulturwissenschaft”, in which second-semester Integrated European Studies (IES) students attend and complete assessments in different but related aspects of cultural theory.

The lecture course and the seminar will be weighted equally in the grading of the module as a whole (12 CPs in total).

Students are also invited to take the course as a stand-alone paper in General Studies and receive a GS-Schein (or e.g. Erasmus Credit Transfer for exchange students). In this case, the course is worth 6 CPs/ECTS. The assessment format for all students is the same, namely:

This course is assessed by written Examination (100%): a 90-minute question-and-answer based examination carried out in Week 14. Answers may be written in German or English (or a mixture).

Prüfungsleistungen und CP/Assignments and Credits:
6 CP

This is a research-based seminar dedicated to topical issues in (studies of) Central and Eastern Europe in light of contemporary polycrises: Russia’s war in Ukraine; authoritarian backlash in Russia, Belarus and elsewhere; democratic backsliding in a number of EU-member states; global climate breakdown; and others. It invites students to engage with contemporary debates on decolonization, gender and sexuality, nationalism and identity, memory, and environmental destruction – as seen through cultural practices including (but not restricted to) literature, film, visual arts, digital activism, and music.

No specific linguistic competences are required for participation: materials will be studied in translation (English and/or German, according to availability) or with subtitles.

In the course of the semester, students will formulate their own research topics to pursue in a limited and guided capacity, producing written and/or visual outputs in a flexible assessment format. The seminar will foreground a dialogic structure, encouraging students to contribute in multiple ways and collectively co-shape the direction and content. A number of special guest inputs are also planned.

Learning Outcomes:

By the end of the of the course, students should be able to:
• critically discuss selected cultural products and practices from central/eastern Europe, including in comparative perspective in relation to global processes and with reference to broader theoretical paradigms such as memory studies, de- and postcoloniality, theories of gender and sexuality, and others;
• develop their own research question in a self-selected area of cultural studies in an central/eastern European context, as well as adapt and apply appropriate theories to carry out the project within a given time frame;
• demonstrate advanced knowledge of contemporary cultural issues in central and eastern Europe in line with their own research interests and language skills, and identify areas in which they may wish to specialise in future research projects (e.g. the BA thesis).

This is a research-based seminar dedicated to topical issues in (studies of) Central and Eastern Europe in light of contemporary polycrises: Russia’s war in Ukraine; authoritarian backlash in Russia, Belarus and elsewhere; democratic backsliding in a number of EU-member states; global climate breakdown; and others. It invites students to engage with contemporary debates on decolonization, gender and sexuality, nationalism and identity, memory, and environmental destruction – as seen through cultural practices including (but not restricted to) literature, film, visual arts, digital activism, and music.

No specific linguistic competences are required for participation: materials will be studied in translation (English and/or German, according to availability) or with subtitles.

In the course of the semester, students will formulate their own research topics to pursue in a limited and guided capacity, producing written and/or visual outputs in a flexible assessment format. The seminar will foreground a dialogic structure, encouraging students to contribute in multiple ways and collectively co-shape the direction and content. A number of special guest inputs are also planned.

Learning Outcomes:

By the end of the of the course, students should be able to:
• critically discuss selected cultural products and practices from central/eastern Europe, including in comparative perspective in relation to global processes and with reference to broader theoretical paradigms such as memory studies, de- and postcoloniality, theories of gender and sexuality, and others;
• develop their own research question in a self-selected area of cultural studies in an central/eastern European context, as well as adapt and apply appropriate theories to carry out the project within a given time frame;
• demonstrate advanced knowledge of contemporary cultural issues in central and eastern Europe in line with their own research interests and language skills, and identify areas in which they may wish to specialise in future research projects (e.g. the BA thesis).

This course wants to enable students to run their own (quantitative) research project in R. In the process, they will learn basic data wrangling and data visualisation in R. Every student will choose a project that they want to conduct using publicly available data of their choosing (some examples will be provided) and will, in consultation with the course coordinator, work towards a project report at the end of the course that they will present to the other students. Students will analyse their data in the open-source programme R and will be encouraged to write their final reports in it, too. The course will be a mixture of lectures on practical issues and a project based working sessions in exchange with the course coordinator and other students to make use of peer-to-peer learning. The lecture will be tailored to the needs and levels of the participating students.

In this course students are encouraged to run their own small-scale analysis project using R from beginning to end: choosing a topic and research question they find interesting, selecting and downloading the relevant data, using simple (presumably mostly) descriptive statistics such as means, and writing a report about their findings. They will be encouraged to use Quarto/ Rmarkdown, the integrated tool within R-Studio, to write their final reports and export them into PDF to automatically integrate updated findings. Also, students will be encouraged to upload and maintain their project on git. This course teaches practical skills and combines it with theoretical grounding in reproducible science. Hence it can be used as a good foundation for quantitative bachelor or master theses, and to learn skills that can be used also outside of academia.

Literatur zur Vorbereitung/Preparatory Reading:

• Wickham, Hadley, Mine Çetinkaya-Rundel, and Garrett Grolemund. ‘Introduction’. In R for Data Science, 2nd Edition, Second edition. O’Reilley, https://r4ds.hadley.nz/intro.html.
• Munafò, Marcus R., Brian A. Nosek, Dorothy V. M. Bishop, et al. ‘A Manifesto for Reproducible Science’. Nature Human Behaviour 1, no. 1 (2017): 0021. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-016-0021.

Prüfungsleistungen und CP/Assignments and Credits:

Students can take the course for 3 CP or 6 CP. The final assessment will depend on the amount of CP students chose. Both assessments include the simple progress report every two weeks (just about one paragraph in an unstructured form, including reasons for no progress, which will always happen, is no problem and part of the process) and the final script of the project. Beyond that, the two different levels encompass the following two assessments:

3 CP:
• Short presentation (10 minutes)
• Short final research note with references (~5 pages, at least one high-quality graph)
6 CP:
• Long presentation (20 minutes)
• Long final research note with references (~10 pages, at least two high-quality graphs)

The class provides an introduction to core concepts of international relations theory. The focus is on what different theories consider to be the key drivers of international and transnational relations. global politics, focusing on key concepts and issues of theories of international relations: states, sovereignty, conflict, cooperation, international institutions, non-governmental organizations, delegation and (indirect) global governance. The course starts with a focus on classical, Western literatures but concludes with sessions on gender, race, colonialism and the end of the Western-dominated liberal international order. By the end of the course, students will be able to understand and apply the key concepts in their own research.

Literatur zur Vorbereitung/Preparatory Reading:

any textbook on IR

Prüfungsleistungen und CP/Assignments and Credits:

6 CP
Requirements

Attendance: Students are expected to be present and prepared for every class session. Active participation during seminar discussions is essential. If unavoidable circumstances arise which prevent attendance or preparation, the instructor should be advised in advance by email.

Reseearch paper:Each student submits a brief paper at the end of the seminar. The paper should engage with one of the readings of this class, summarize the main argument and comment on it. Grading will consider the rigor of the analysis, and the quality of writing. The word limit is 3000 words everything included. Each student presents his or her paper idea in a short presentation during the final session. .

Biologische Vielfalt ist die Grundlage gesunder Ökosysteme, nicht nur im tropischen Regenwald oder in den Polarregionen, sondern auch direkt vor unserer Haustür. Artenvielfalt sichert unsere Lebensgrundlagen, stabilisiert ökologische Kreisläufe und trägt zu Lebensqualität bei. Doch aktuell erleben wir weltweit und auch in Deutschland einen massiven Rückgang an Biodiversität. Ursachen sind unter anderem Lebensraumverlust durch Bebauung und Intensivlandwirtschaft, Umweltverschmutzung, Klimawandel und die Ausbreitung invasiver Arten. Aus diesen Entwicklungen erwachsen dringende Notwendigkeiten für Schutz- und Erhaltungsmaßnahmen – lokal wie global.
In diesem Projektseminar erkunden wir zentrale Orte urbaner Biodiversität in Bremen: von naturnah gestalteten Gärten über innerstädtische Naturschutzgebiete bis hin zu ökologisch wertvollen Brachflächen. In Zusammenarbeit mit Praxispartner*innen wie dem BUND, NABU, der Landesjägerschaft Bremen und weiteren Initiativen lernen die Studierenden die Rolle und Bedeutung dieser Orte kennen, diskutieren aktuelle Herausforderungen im Artenschutz und setzen sich mit konkreten Maßnahmen auseinander. Bei praktischen Pflegearbeiten und Forschungsaufgaben packen die Teilnehmenden selbst mit an und erfahren, wie Schutzstrategien vor Ort umgesetzt werden können.
Das Seminar verbindet fachliche Einblicke, Exkursionen und praxisorientiertes Lernen mit der Reflexion über die eigene Rolle im gesellschaftlichen Engagement für Biodiversität – und trägt so zum Erwerb zentraler Kompetenzen im Bereich Nachhaltigkeit bei.