Course Overview:
Imagine standing amid the shimmering sands of the Middle East, where ancient caravan trails now rumble with oil rigs and the echoes of empires—especially Britain and the U.S.—roar through the dunes. This isn’t just a region—it’s the beating heart of a global machine, where Western greed clashes with fragile ecosystems, pumping out the petrochemical lifeblood of our modern world. What happens if it stops? Europe and beyond could evaporate in a heartbeat, and the future hangs in the balance. Ready to unravel how capitalism and ecological conquest, scripted by London and Washington, have locked us into this high-stakes drama?

Course Description:
Buckle up for a wild ride through a century of chaos and cash in the Middle East. This course dives headfirst into the collision of capitalism and ecological imperialism, with Britain and the U.S. as the ringmasters of oil-fueled domination. We’ll dig into the gritty truth: how British colonial blueprints and American muscle turned deserts into profit pits, spilling oil into ecosystems, choking cities with sanctions, and staining rivers red with war. Today, that legacy powers a new world order hooked on a long list of petrochemical goodies—plastics, fertilizers, fuels—and if the Middle East stalls, Europe and the rest could vanish in a puff of smoke. This isn’t just history—it’s the fuse for tomorrow’s crises and showdowns.

Central Questions:
• How did Britain and the U.S. mastermind the heist of the Middle East’s oil and soul?
• What happens when war, sanctions, and dying ecosystems threaten the petro-pipeline?
• How is this imperial-ecological mess rewriting our future—and could it grind the world to a halt?
Methodological Approach:
We’re not just flipping through dusty textbooks. You’ll crack open historical archives—like secret British oil deals or U.S. war memos—wrestle with bold ideas from environmental and postcolonial thinkers, and dissect jaw-dropping case studies that show how the Middle East’s pulse keeps our petrochemical world ticking. Bring your curiosity; we’ll supply the tools to expose the imperial playbook.
Learning Objectives:
By the finish line, you’ll:
• Decode the twisted love story between capitalism and ecology, with Britain and the U.S. at the helm.
• Spot the puppet strings of Anglo-American power behind the petro-junkie world.
• Connect the dots from desert oil wells to a future where Europe could evaporate if the taps run dry.
• Arm yourself with razor-sharp frameworks to tackle tomorrow’s wildest challenges.

Why This Matters Now:
Climate change is slamming the Middle East like a sandstorm on steroids, with Britain and the U.S.’s oil-stained fingerprints driving a legacy that’s frying our planet and chaining us to petrochemicals—think everything from your phone to your food supply. If the Middle East falters, the new world order collapses, and Europe’s lights go out first. This imperialist-ecology mashup isn’t just history—it’s the crucible where our future is forged, from rising seas to a petro-fueled reckoning. Want to fight for sustainability, decode global power plays, or shape the world you’ll inherit? This course isn’t just a class—it’s your ticket to the front lines of a planet on the brink.

As humans, we’re creatures of the (planet) earth—or are we? This seminar engages projects of human life on Mars and beyond. We pay special attention to the recent uptick in efforts to colonize or settle Mars, but we consider other interplanetary and intergalactic projects as well. A key question for our conversations: do efforts to imagine life on other planets make for something new in being human, or are they merely another chapter in a story we already know too well?

Suggested reading for week 1:
Hannah Arendt, Prologue, The Human Condition (Chicago, 1998 [1958]), 1-6.
--OR the prologue to Arendt’s own German translation of the same text Vita Activa oder Vom tätigen Leben

4 SWS

This seminar is part of series of seminars jointly developed with the University of Rojava since 2021. The aim is to enable conversations among students of the Universities of Bremen and Rojava.
The autonomous University of Rojava is based in Qamishlo in North-Eastern Syria (NES)– also often referred to as Rojava. This region has suffered heavily under the war, especially through the attacks from the so-called Islamic State (ISIS) and the ongoing bombardment by Turkey. In response to violent politics of nationalism, assimilation and violence, the autonomous region of North and Eastern Syria (NES) has become the site of one of the most interesting current attempts to establish a new form of living together beyond the idea of a nation-state. Despite the hardship, the people in NES are trying to build a society which positively acknowledges its multilingual, multireligious and multicultural character and is based on ideas of grassroots democracy, women's liberation, ecologically sustainability as well as on a model of autonomy which strives to be an alternative to the nation-state. In this way, it provides a possible model not only for the Middle East, but also the world beyond.
At the same time, in Germany, we are currently witnessing a rise of the far-right, which is pushing an anti-pluralist, racist, misogynist and homophobic agenda and committing severe acts of violence. Its ideas of white supremacy and fears of 'replacement' feed into fantasies of a homogeneous, pure nation and deporting those you do not fit. It seems Germany has not learnt from its fascist history.
The idea of the seminar is to collectively engage with questions of state and statelessness, nationalism, racism and violence. What can we learn from the situations in each of our contexts? How can we counter these (ethno)nationalist and racist logics and what are alternative ways of living together in difference.
The seminar will include a couple of biweekly preparation sessions (only Bremen students) in April and May; two (perhaps three) one-day symposiums with experts and scholars, plus six joint sessions en-bloc with the students in Rojava (two weekends end of June). Check the details for more information on the dates.

Today, there is widespread consensus that liberal democracy is facing a crisis. However, the term "democracy" itself remains rather elusive. It is often invoked by a range of actors, each with radically different interpretations of what democracy is and should be. While democracy is typically understood as the "rule of the people," multiple questions remain: What does "rule" mean, and what does it entail? Who exactly are "the people"? Rather than reducing democracy to a set of formal institutional procedures (Paley, 2002), this seminar will explore the diverse conceptions of democracy within specific social, political, material, and local contexts (Mitchell, 2023). Co-taught with Dr. Lipin Ram, this course will be conducted primarily in English. Drawing on both anthropological perspectives and political theory, we will treat democracy as a "materially entangled phenomenon" (Birkbak & Papazu, 2022), with a strong focus on the public sphere, democratic infrastructures, and practices.

In this seminar we investigate the question, how intercultural competence is understood and trained in different fields and perspectives. Which means or tools are helpful, how are competences defined and which is a good way to get hold of them?

Kommentar:

Kommentar: https://www.uni-bremen.de/fileadmin/user_upload/fachbereiche/fb9/zemki/docs/comments/comments_SoSe2025/KMW7_1_Redeker.pdf

Erasmus+
Blended-intensive programm (BIP)
Vor Ort in Salerno, Italien

Kommentar: https://www.uni-bremen.de/fileadmin/user_upload/fachbereiche/fb9/zemki/docs/comments/comments_SoSe2025/KMW7_4_Puschmann.pdf
Erasmus+
Blended-intensive programm (BIP)

Kommentar:

Kommentar:

Kommentar: https://www.uni-bremen.de/fileadmin/user_upload/fachbereiche/fb9/zemki/docs/comments/comments_SoSe2025/KMW7_2_Kuznetsova.pdf

Kommentar:

Kommentar: https://www.uni-bremen.de/fileadmin/user_upload/fachbereiche/fb9/zemki/docs/comments/comments_SoSe2025/KMW7_1_Redeker.pdf

Erasmus+
Blended-intensive programm (BIP)
Vor Ort in Salerno, Italien

Kommentar: https://www.uni-bremen.de/fileadmin/user_upload/fachbereiche/fb9/zemki/docs/comments/comments_SoSe2025/KMW7_4_Puschmann.pdf
Erasmus+
Blended-intensive programm (BIP)

Kommentar:

Kommentar:

Kommentar: https://www.uni-bremen.de/fileadmin/user_upload/fachbereiche/fb9/zemki/docs/comments/comments_SoSe2025/KMW7_2_Kuznetsova.pdf

4 SWS

This seminar is part of series of seminars jointly developed with the University of Rojava since 2021. The aim is to enable conversations among students of the Universities of Bremen and Rojava.
The autonomous University of Rojava is based in Qamishlo in North-Eastern Syria (NES)– also often referred to as Rojava. This region has suffered heavily under the war, especially through the attacks from the so-called Islamic State (ISIS) and the ongoing bombardment by Turkey. In response to violent politics of nationalism, assimilation and violence, the autonomous region of North and Eastern Syria (NES) has become the site of one of the most interesting current attempts to establish a new form of living together beyond the idea of a nation-state. Despite the hardship, the people in NES are trying to build a society which positively acknowledges its multilingual, multireligious and multicultural character and is based on ideas of grassroots democracy, women's liberation, ecologically sustainability as well as on a model of autonomy which strives to be an alternative to the nation-state. In this way, it provides a possible model not only for the Middle East, but also the world beyond.
At the same time, in Germany, we are currently witnessing a rise of the far-right, which is pushing an anti-pluralist, racist, misogynist and homophobic agenda and committing severe acts of violence. Its ideas of white supremacy and fears of 'replacement' feed into fantasies of a homogeneous, pure nation and deporting those you do not fit. It seems Germany has not learnt from its fascist history.
The idea of the seminar is to collectively engage with questions of state and statelessness, nationalism, racism and violence. What can we learn from the situations in each of our contexts? How can we counter these (ethno)nationalist and racist logics and what are alternative ways of living together in difference.
The seminar will include a couple of biweekly preparation sessions (only Bremen students) in April and May; two (perhaps three) one-day symposiums with experts and scholars, plus six joint sessions en-bloc with the students in Rojava (two weekends end of June). Check the details for more information on the dates.

Today, there is widespread consensus that liberal democracy is facing a crisis. However, the term "democracy" itself remains rather elusive. It is often invoked by a range of actors, each with radically different interpretations of what democracy is and should be. While democracy is typically understood as the "rule of the people," multiple questions remain: What does "rule" mean, and what does it entail? Who exactly are "the people"? Rather than reducing democracy to a set of formal institutional procedures (Paley, 2002), this seminar will explore the diverse conceptions of democracy within specific social, political, material, and local contexts (Mitchell, 2023). Co-taught with Dr. Lipin Ram, this course will be conducted primarily in English. Drawing on both anthropological perspectives and political theory, we will treat democracy as a "materially entangled phenomenon" (Birkbak & Papazu, 2022), with a strong focus on the public sphere, democratic infrastructures, and practices.

In this seminar we investigate the question, how intercultural competence is understood and trained in different fields and perspectives. Which means or tools are helpful, how are competences defined and which is a good way to get hold of them?

Kommentar:

Kommentar: https://www.uni-bremen.de/fileadmin/user_upload/fachbereiche/fb9/zemki/docs/comments/comments_SoSe2025/KMW7_1_Redeker.pdf

Erasmus+
Blended-intensive programm (BIP)
Vor Ort in Salerno, Italien

Kommentar: https://www.uni-bremen.de/fileadmin/user_upload/fachbereiche/fb9/zemki/docs/comments/comments_SoSe2025/KMW7_4_Puschmann.pdf
Erasmus+
Blended-intensive programm (BIP)

Kommentar:

Kommentar:

Kommentar: https://www.uni-bremen.de/fileadmin/user_upload/fachbereiche/fb9/zemki/docs/comments/comments_SoSe2025/KMW7_2_Kuznetsova.pdf

Kommentar:

Kommentar: https://www.uni-bremen.de/fileadmin/user_upload/fachbereiche/fb9/zemki/docs/comments/comments_SoSe2025/KMW7_1_Redeker.pdf

Erasmus+
Blended-intensive programm (BIP)
Vor Ort in Salerno, Italien

Kommentar: https://www.uni-bremen.de/fileadmin/user_upload/fachbereiche/fb9/zemki/docs/comments/comments_SoSe2025/KMW7_4_Puschmann.pdf
Erasmus+
Blended-intensive programm (BIP)

Kommentar:

Kommentar:

Kommentar: https://www.uni-bremen.de/fileadmin/user_upload/fachbereiche/fb9/zemki/docs/comments/comments_SoSe2025/KMW7_2_Kuznetsova.pdf

Dear friend of Off University,

As a self-organization of politically persecuted scholars, we seek new strategies to uphold academic life and knowledge threatened by anti-democratic and authoritarian regimes.

Since 2018, we have offered 80 online and hybrid courses with more than 5000 participants, provided financial relief and opportunities for teaching and research for more than 200 scholars at risk from 16 countries, and collaborated with many German universities and NGOs, forming a virtual network.

Off University’s 2025 Summer Semester is starting soon!

In this semester, we will offer an online course and a conversation series from a multidisciplinary perspective: Caste on Screen: Hindi Cinema and the Making of Contemporary India by Reyazul Haque and Nadja-Christina Schneider, History and Memory in Contemporary Russia by Alexandra Kolesnik and Aleksandr Rusanov, Myanmar in the World by two scholars from Myanmar and Othering, Social Taboo, and Ethnicity: Representations of the Margin in Arab Contemporary Fiction by Adel Dashela and Safwan Yahya Al-Showaiter.

Find more about Off University on https://offuniversity.org and join our courses on our e-learning platform, https://moodle.offuniversity.org where your digital security is a priority.

As always, participation is FREE and OPEN TO EVERYONE.
Registration for all courses is now open!

We thought that our courses are of interest for you or students and activists in your network. Would you help us spread the news by sharing this e-mail with your colleagues, students and your network?

Please sign-up for our newsletter to receive information about our courses regularly.

Thank you very much for your support,
Off University Team.


Adel Dashela and Safwan Yahya Al-Showaiter will come together to analyse othering, social taboos, and ethnicity in contemporary Arab fiction, focusing on how marginalised ethnic communities are represented in novels. They will employ an interdisciplinary approach from various perspectives, such as anthropology, sociology, history, psychology, and cultural studies.

This course is organised in collaboration with Off University: https://offuniversity.org/current-courses/

Off University creates online educational spaces where everyone can feel safe to participate and organises the courses on Off University Moodle: https://moodle.offuniversity.org/

Please create your account and enrol yourself to the course on Off University Moodle to access live sessions, reading materials, and other resources provided by the instructors. Once you created your Moodle account, you can directly write to Bengi Aslan via the Moodle chat about your further questions.

2 SWS
3 CP