Module coordinator: Dr. Jana Nittel
Lecturers: Katalina Kopka and Dr. Jana Nittel
Introduction to English Literatures [Part 2] (3 CP)
Online course in the summer term 2020 – Due to the COVID 19 pandemic we will not meet in class – please ignore the time slots listed above.

This introductory course will attempt to offer students access to literary studies at university level and try to balance scholarly considerations with aesthetic enjoyment. As this is a continuation of the foundation module course “Introduction to English Literatures, Part I”, students will be asked to review the methodology of poetry, drama and narrative analysis. Having gathered historical and textual skills in dealing with various genres, this course will explore theoretical key concepts in literary and cultural studies.
Please register on Stud. IP and explore the sections “Information” and “Schedule” on Stud. IP. for further details.
Requirements:

• work through the weekly self-study units;
• in-depth knowledge of the selected reading material and course materials,
• final exam: Portfolio.

This course continues the general introduction to English Linguistics from last semester, focusing on how to do empirical work in linguistics. Students will be introduced to the different ways, methods and tools to obtain, process and analyze linguistic data. The following topics will be covered: research methodology and design, types of data collection, experiments, corpus linguistics, online dictionaries, transcription, and basic statistics.

Coursework and assessment:
You are expected to read and prepare selected texts for each session. The coursework will focus on real-life linguistic data and exercises which are designed to help you apply the methods and tools and critically discuss their usefulness. Participants are required to submit a portfolio comprising different data-based tasks ("worksheets") and other assignments that will be worked on in the course of the semester.

Basic introductory textbooks
Sealey, A. (2010), Researching English Language. A resource book for students. London: Routledge.
Wray, A. & A. Bloomer (2012), Projects in Linguistics and Language Studies. 3rd edition. London: Hodder Education.

This course continues the general introduction to English Linguistics from last semester, focusing on how to do empirical work in linguistics. Students will be introduced to the different ways, methods and tools to obtain, process and analyze linguistic data. The following topics will be covered: research methodology and design, types of data collection, experiments, corpus linguistics, online dictionaries, transcription, and quantitative approaches to data analysis.

Coursework and assessment

You are expected to read and prepare selected texts for each session. The coursework will focus on real-life linguistic data and exercises which are designed to help you apply selected methods and tools and critically discuss their usefulness. You are required to submit a portfolio comprising different data-based tasks ("worksheets") and other assignments that will be worked on in the course of the semester.


Basic introductory textbooks

Sealey, A. (2010), Researching English Language. A resource book for students. London: Routledge.
Wray, A. & A. Bloomer (2012), Projects in Linguistics and Language Studies. 3rd edition. London: Hodder Education.
E-book at http://lib.myilibrary.com/Open.aspx?id=368803

This course continues the general introduction to English Linguistics from last semester, focusing on how to do empirical work in linguistics. Students will be introduced to the different ways, methods and tools to obtain, process and analyze linguistic data. The following topics will be covered: research methodology and design, types of data collection, experiments, corpus linguistics, online dictionaries, transcription, and basic statistics.

Coursework and assessment:
You are expected to read and prepare selected texts for each session. The coursework will focus on real-life linguistic data and exercises which are designed to help you apply the methods and tools and critically discuss their usefulness. Participants are required to submit a portfolio comprising different data-based tasks ("worksheets") and other assignments that will be worked on in the course of the semester.

Basic introductory textbooks
Sealey, A. (2010), Researching English Language. A resource book for students. London: Routledge.
Wray, A. & A. Bloomer (2012), Projects in Linguistics and Language Studies. 3rd edition. London: Hodder Education.

Further literature will be announced and provided in class.

In this seminar, students get an introduction to the history of English, i.e. Old English, Middle English and Early Modern English. In the second half of the seminar, we study the major varieties of British and North American English as well as other world varieties with a focus on their structural and phonological features. We will follow the debates about English as a cause of language death, and talk about the place of English in language policies and language planning.

In this seminar, students get an introduction to the history of English, i.e. Old English, Middle English and Early Modern English. In the second half of the seminar, we study the major varieties of British and North American English as well as other world varieties with a focus on their structural and phonological features. We will follow the debates about English as a cause of language death, and talk about the place of English in language policies and language planning.

The English language is more than 1.500 years old. What began in the 5th century as the language spoken by Germanic invaders on the British Isles has developed into a truly global language: English is now spoken as a first and second language in numerous regional contexts, and learned as a foreign language around the globe, by an estimated 1.5bio people. During its eventful history, the English language has changed considerably, shaped by internal and external forces; so much so that Old English is virtually unintelligible to modern speakers. Today, as a result of its history and global spread, English has become so multifaceted and exists in so many different forms that linguists even speak of 'Englishes', rather than a single, uniform language. This seminar will introduce you to the key moments in the fascinating 'biography' of the English language.

In the first half of the seminar, we will trace the history of English, from its beginnings on the British Isles in the 5th century to its modern-day status as a world language. Working in chronological order, we will progress through all major stages of the history of English, from Old English through Middle English and Early Modern English. At each stage, we'll discuss the historical and sociocultural circumstances of its speakers, the major influences on the language, as well as the most important linguistic features of each stage of the English language.

In the second half of the seminar, we will focus on the diversity of Englishes that exists in the world today. We will take a closer look at how English is spoken in some regions of the world (e.g. North America, the Southern Hemisphere, etc.). We will gain a general overview of which linguistic features are shared, and which features diverge across different Englishes (phonology, grammar, lexicon). In a final session, we will discuss English as a possible cause of language death, and talk about the place of English in contemporary issues of language policy and language planning.

The topics in detail:

• Old English I
• Old English II
• Middle English
• Early Modern English I
• Early Modern English II
• Inner, outer and expanding circles
• English on the British Isles
• English in North America
• English in the Southern Hemisphere
• English as Global Language

Apart from basic knowledge in linguistics (e.g. the Introduction to English Linguistics I), no prior knowledge in English historical linguistics or English variational linguistics is required for participation in this course. The working language of the seminar is English.

University Language Skills 2 (ULS 2) is a four-hour class with TWO parts. You have to attend both parts (a and b). It is the second half of the SP-1 module. As such it builds on the basic knowledge of academic writing established in ULS 1.
While the focus during the winter semester is on the basic structure of an academic essay, during the summer semester you will be introduced to key rhetorical strategies. These strategies include essays of argumentation, exemplification, cause & effect as well as comparison & contrast. Furthermore, grammatical structures need for writing (e.g. syntax, passive voice, conditionals) will be part of the course’s syllabus.

Required literature: Students have to obtain a copy of the following book:
Meyers, Alan. Longman Academic Writing Series 5. Pearson: 2014.

Requirements:
• Regular and active participation in class
• Thorough preparation of each session
• Written assignments (approx. 2000 words)
• Short presentation (10 minutes)

University Language Skills 2 is the second part of the SP1 module. Our class will meet once a week for a total of 6CPs. It is a four-hour class with two time slots, both of which MUST be attended. You also need to REGISTER for both classes (both a and b for the same course).
Course description
The following seminar will build on skills already acquired in ULS1. We will review and further develop writing skills with regard to the significance of the different phases in writing, essay structure and good writing style. In addition, we will examine and expand on different writing strategies only touched on in ULS 1 (problem and solution, argumentation, cause and effect, comparison and contrast).
Emphasis will be placed on the ability to recognize individual errors, self-correct and work on personally challenging aspects. You will therefore continue to work on functional grammar at an individual, needs-based level and will be given self-study material on which to work independently according to your requirements outside of the classroom. This is essential in developing an autonomous learning style enabling you to critically assess your own work.
Reader focus and readability will be of central importance when writing and planning your written texts. Extensive work will be done on both sentence construction as well as cohesion and coherence in order to develop a deeper understanding of how writing can be made more comprehensible to the reader, resulting in a better sense of flow and a reduction in L1 interference.
Assessment requirements
Students will be required to hand in 2 assignments counting 1500-2000 words in total based on two of the writing strategies dealt with. Detailed feedback will provide a basis upon which to identify and improve on individual areas of difficulty. These assignments will be graded and constitute the grade for the SP1 module.

University Language Skills 2 is the second part of the SP1 module. Our class will meet once a week for a total of 6CPs. It is a four-hour class with two time slots, both of which MUST be attended. You also need to REGISTER for both classes (both a and b for the same course).
Course description
The following seminar will build on skills already acquired in ULS1. We will review and further develop writing skills with regard to the significance of the different phases in writing, essay structure and good writing style. In addition, we will examine and expand on different writing strategies only touched on in ULS 1 (problem and solution, argumentation, cause and effect, comparison and contrast).
Emphasis will be placed on the ability to recognize individual errors, self-correct and work on personally challenging aspects. You will therefore continue to work on functional grammar at an individual, needs-based level and will be given self-study material on which to work independently according to your requirements outside of the classroom. This is essential in developing an autonomous learning style enabling you to critically assess your own work.
Reader focus and readability will be of central importance when writing and planning your written texts. Extensive work will be done on both sentence construction as well as cohesion and coherence in order to develop a deeper understanding of how writing can be made more comprehensible to the reader, resulting in a better sense of flow and a reduction in L1 interference.
Assessment requirements
Students will be required to hand in 2 assignments counting 1500-2000 words in total based on two of the writing strategies dealt with. Detailed feedback will provide a basis upon which to identify and improve on individual areas of difficulty. These assignments will be graded and constitute the grade for the SP1 module.

University Language Skills 2 (ULS 2) is a four-hour class with TWO parts. You have to attend both parts (a and b). It is the second half of the SP-1 module. As such it builds on the basic knowledge of academic writing established in ULS 1.
While the focus during the winter semester is on the basic structure of an academic essay, during the summer semester you will be introduced to key rhetorical strategies. These strategies include essays of argumentation, exemplification, cause & effect as well as comparison & contrast. Furthermore, grammatical structures need for writing (e.g. syntax, passive voice, conditionals) will be part of the course’s syllabus.

Required literature: Students have to obtain a copy of the following book:
Meyers, Alan. Longman Academic Writing Series 5. Pearson: 2014.

Requirements:
• Regular and active participation in class
• Thorough preparation of each session
• Written assignments (approx. 2000 words)
• Short presentation (10 minutes)

University Language Skills 2 (ULS 2) is a four-hour class with TWO parts. You have to attend both parts (a and b). It is the second half of the SP-1 module. As such it builds on the basic knowledge of academic writing established in ULS 1.
While the focus during the winter semester is on the basic structure of an academic essay, during the summer semester you will be introduced to key rhetorical strategies. These strategies include essays of argumentation, exemplification, cause & effect as well as comparison & contrast. Furthermore, grammatical structures need for writing (e.g. syntax, passive voice, conditionals) will be part of the course’s syllabus.

Required literature: Students have to obtain a copy of the following book:
Meyers, Alan. Longman Academic Writing Series 5. Pearson: 2014.

Requirements:
• Regular and active participation in class
• Thorough preparation of each session
• Written assignments (approx. 2000 words)
• Short presentation (10 minutes)

University Language Skills 2 (ULS 2) is a four-hour class with TWO parts. You have to attend both parts (a and b). It is the second half of the SP-1 module. As such it builds on the basic knowledge of academic writing established in ULS 1.
While the focus during the winter semester is on the basic structure of an academic essay, during the summer semester you will be introduced to key rhetorical strategies. These strategies include essays of argumentation, exemplification, cause & effect as well as comparison & contrast. Furthermore, grammatical structures need for writing (e.g. syntax, passive voice, conditionals) will be part of the course’s syllabus.

Required literature: Students have to obtain a copy of the following book:
Meyers, Alan. Longman Academic Writing Series 5. Pearson: 2014.

Requirements:
• Regular and active participation in class
• Thorough preparation of each session
• Written assignments (approx. 2000 words)
• Short presentation (10 minutes)

Course description
ULS 2 is the second part of the 'SP1 Basismodul Sprachpraxis'

PLEASE NOTE: ULS 2 is a FOUR hour class (4 SWS; 6 CP for ULS 2 - 7a AND 7b) with TWO time slots each week. Consequently, you are required to attend both the “a” AND “b” class of a respective group.
For ULS 2 -7a/b this means that you are required to participate in BOTH sections 7a AND 7b.
Please be advised: It is not permissible to take part in group 7a and combine it with any group OTHER than 7b. A combination of, for example. 1a with 7b is NOT possible.

Participation
The class is not recommended for transfer students, students who for whatever reason have not yet attended ULS 1 or ERASMUS/Exchange students with a level below C1 (GER, CEFR) and no experience in academic writing.
ERASMUS/Exchange students WITH experience in academic writing and on a level below C1 but above B2 wishing to attend ULS 2-7a/b need to contact Katja Müller before joining a class. (kamueller(at)uni-bremen.de)

REGISTRATION for ULS 2-7(a AND b) course
Please register for this ULS 2-7 course via the University Language Skills 2-7"A" section in Stud.IP.

Coursework
Having practiced the planning and structuring of academic essays in “ULS 1” last semester, you will now be moving on to explore different key writing strategies. Starting with the yet familiar descriptive writing, you will then familiarise yourself with other strategies, for example exemplification, cause & effect, comparison & contrast and argumentation. Analysing a wide variety of texts will improve your reading skills, while applying the key strategies to your own texts will help you practice and develop your own academic style in writing.
Additionally, mini-group peer review will give you (and your readers) the opportunity to evaluate and improve your reading and listening skills in terms of audience-focus and reader-friendliness.

Required Literature:
Meyers, Alan Longman, Academic Writing Series (level 5) - Essays to Research Papers. Pearson: 2014. (copy available in the library for reference)

Additional hand-out material will be made available via StudIP (in the 'a' section of the ULS 2 class)

Recommended literature for further language work
McCarthy, Michael & Felicity O’Dell Academic vocabulary in Use
Cornell, Alan & Geoff Parkes What’s the Difference? Englang Books (online quizzes available)
Use the latest edition of either the Langenscheidt/Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English or the Cornelsen/Oxford University Press Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, including the electronic version (CD or DVD as appropriate) or a comparable learner's dictionary.

Course requirements:

• regular (80%) and active participation in class
• thorough preparation of each class session
• a portfolio comprised of several written assignments (all in all ca. 1500-2000 words; graded)
• short presentation in class

To earn credit for the SP-1 MODULE (9 CP in total), you are required to earn 60% or more on written assignments given in both ULS 1 (800-1000 words; 3 CP) and ULS 2 (1500-2000 words; 6 CP) respectively.

NB: To have the graded course requirements (Prüfungsleistung) for the SP-1 module (ULS 1 + ULS 2) recognised, you are required to register on PABO in the semester in which you intend to successfully complete the module.

The module description for the SP-1 module (BA 2011/15) is available for download here: http://www.fb10.uni-bremen.de/anglistik/ba2/module.aspx

Students are required to participate in both parts of the class (University Language Skills 7a AND 7b). Please enroll for this course by registration for University Language Skills 7A.

Course description
ULS 2 is the second part of the 'SP1 Basismodul Sprachpraxis'

PLEASE NOTE: ULS 2 is a FOUR hour class (4 SWS; 6 CP for ULS 2 - 8a AND 8b) with TWO time slots each week. Consequently, you are required to attend both the “a” AND “b” class of a respective group.
For ULS 2 -8a/b this means that you are required to participate in BOTH sections 8a AND 8b.
Please be advised: It is not permissible to take part in group 8a and combine it with any group OTHER than 8b. A combination of, for example. 1a with 8b is NOT possible.

Participation
The class is not recommended for transfer students, students who for whatever reason have not yet attended ULS 1 or ERASMUS/Exchange students with a level below C1 (GER, CEFR) and no experience in academic writing.
ERASMUS/Exchange students WITH experience in academic writing and on a level below C1 but above B2 wishing to attend ULS 2-8a/b need to contact Katja Müller before joining a class. (kamueller(at)uni-bremen.de)

REGISTRATION for ULS 2-8 (a AND b) course
Please register for this ULS 2-8 course via the University Language Skills 2-8"A" section in Stud.IP.

Coursework
Having practiced the planning and structuring of academic essays in “ULS 1” last semester, you will now be moving on to explore different key writing strategies. Starting with the yet familiar descriptive writing, you will then familiarise yourself with other strategies, for example exemplification, cause & effect, comparison & contrast and argumentation. Analysing a wide variety of texts will improve your reading skills, while applying the key strategies to your own texts will help you practice and develop your own academic style in writing.
Additionally, mini-group peer review will give you (and your readers) the opportunity to evaluate and improve your reading and listening skills in terms of audience-focus and reader-friendliness.

Required Literature:
Meyers, Alan Longman, Academic Writing Series (level 5) - Essays to Research Papers. Pearson: 2014. (copy available in the library for reference)

Additional hand-out material will be made available via StudIP (in the 'a' section of the ULS 2 class)

Recommended literature for further language work
McCarthy, Michael & Felicity O’Dell Academic Vocabulary in Use
Cornell, Alan & Geoff Parkes What’s the Difference? Englang Books (online quizzes available)
Use the latest edition of either the Langenscheidt/Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English or the Cornelsen/Oxford University Press Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, including the electronic version (CD or DVD as appropriate) or a comparable learner's dictionary.

Course requirements:

• regular (80%) and active participation in class
• thorough preparation of each class session
• a portfolio comprised of several written assignments (1500-2000 words; graded)
• short presentation in class

To earn credit for the SP-1 MODULE (9 CP in total), you are required to submit assignments for ULS 1 (800-1000 words) and to earn 60% or more on written assignments given in ULS 2 (1500-2000 words; 6 CP).

NB: To have the graded course requirements (Prüfungsleistung) for the SP-1 module (ULS 1 + ULS 2) recognised, you are required to register on PABO in the semester in which you intend to successfully complete the module.

The module description for the SP-1 module (BA 2011/15) is available for download here: http://www.fb10.uni-bremen.de/anglistik/ba2/module.aspx

Students are required to participate in both parts of the class (University Language Skills 8a AND 8b). Please enroll for this course by registration for University Language Skills 8A.

This seminar will close-read Toni Morrison's Nobel prize winning novel BELOVED. Our address of the literary text will be contextualized by a recourse to the critique of transatlantic enslavement by way of selected texts ( t.b.a. here on stud ip in due course).
Please make sure you have the novel in hand at the beginning of the semester, and check in on stud ip regularly for suggestions/requirements of additional reading material.

Your first requirement will be to study the following excellent website by Prof. Brycchan Carey on transatlantic enslavement which offers a timeline of the longue durée, and the global reach of slavery:

https://brycchancarey.com/slavery/chrono1.htm

One of the tasks to obtain SL, and PL in this class will involve thorough knowledge of this timeline.

In this course we will look at different concepts that can help us to better understand racial formations in contemporary societies. We will read a variety of texts to gain an understanding how whiteness as a historical construct and white privilege as an institution engender social positions of dominance and suppression.

Essential readings will be available for download on Stud-IP. You should also consult the ‘Semesterapparat’ (SuUB) for further readings.
Requirements:
• regular attendance and oral participation
• in-depth knowledge of the reading material
• oral presentation and handout
• final paper (if needed)

‘The horror!’ is how the protagonist in Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness sums up his colonial experience in the darkest heart of Africa. For Conrad, Gothic horror seems the most appropriate mode to figure the imperialists’ confrontation with and eventual descent into what they perceive as savagery, to express the meaningless noises of the jungle, to signify irreducible otherness, and the ultimate void at the heart of the colonial project. The Gothic is the medium in which both Conrad and Kipling (yes, there’s a dark streak in the author of the jolly old Jungle Book) explore the break-down of Western categories of knowledge. Horror and terror, referencing as much as inducing dread and fear, make tangible the anxieties in imperial discourse: of miscegenation, of atavistic regression, of the reversal of the direction of invasion, of the fundamental incommensurability between the Other and our tools of cognition.
We shall explore these questions, braving the encounter with evil and uncanny forces, in a range of examples from literary and visual culture, acquiring knowledge about the British Empire and some of its most prominent writers on the way.

Text to be purchased (this print edition, please):

• Conrad, Joseph. Heart of Darkness. Ed. Paul B. Armstrong (Fifth Norton Critical Edition). New York: W.W.Norton, 2016. Print.

Other reading material will be made available on StudIP.

Course requirements will be adapted to the altered distant learning format:
# brief written assignments for each weekly session are obligatory (graded in WD-2b)
# for a grade in D-2a: an additional term paper of 12-15 pp.

While gender difference is one of the basic binary opposites by which we construct cultural meaning, the hierarchisation of this difference, the subordination of women to men, is at the core of patriarchal ideology. This course aims to reverse the more usual direction of inquiry by looking at what patriarchal ideology assumes as the norm, and therefore tends to keep from critical view - at masculinity. We shall take a broad historical approach, surveying a wide range of conceptualisations of manhood, covering the transmutations of the gentleman ideal and the decline of working-class masculinity, Dandies and boy-scouts, homosociality in the British education system and on the adventure playgrounds of the Empire, and the dissolution of gender stereotypes in consumer cultures and queer cultures. Examples will mainly be taken from British literary and visual culture, both high and popular, and may include Henry VIII, James Bond and David Beckham. Our investigations will be supported by theories of gender from, among others, Aristotle, Laqueur, Freud, Kimmel, and R.W.Connell.
"It's a tough job but somebody's gotta do it!"

Reading material will be made available on Stud.IP.

Requirements will be adapted to the changed distant learning format:
# Written assignments for each weekly session are obligatory,
# plus an analysis of an exemplary representation of masculinity (Power Point presentation or similar formats) to be shared with the seminar group (both graded in WD-2b).
# for a grade in D-2a: an additional term paper of 12-15 pp.

The course will introduce students to the field of Postcolonial Studies and will lay the foundation for further explorations on postcolonial literatures, films, media and others. Through a rather dense reading program and films, the class will focus on colonial histories, neocolonial relations in the globalized world, and the fundamental theroies and approaches in Postcolonial Studies. We will read (in excerpts) the writings of the foremost thinkers of postcolonial theories, including but not limited to Frantz Fanon, Edouard Glissant, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Stuart Hall, Homi Bhabha, Walter Mignolo, Edward Said, Bill Ashcroft, and Gareth Griffiths, and Helen Tiffin. 

All texts will be provided electronically or in a reader. Prior enrollment via Stud.IP is mandatory.

Shakespeare's Filmic Lives

In the course of this seminar we shall analyse four contemporary films and TV productions which highlight diverse aspects of the (imagined) life of William Shakespeare (1564-1616). In Shakespeare in Love (1998), directed by John Madden, a specific biographical reading is offered that locates the phenomenon of greatness in progress in an intricate web of a romantic love narrative. Barbara Willis Sweete's TV-production Elizabeth Rex (2002), which foregrounds Elizabeth I and her Bard, features some lively debates about masculinities and femininities as well as about literary and royal power. Anonymous (2011), a film directed by Roland Emmerich, questions the authorship of William Shakespeare, while Kenneth Branagh's All is True (2018) focuses on Shakespeare's final days in his hometown Stratford.

The aim of this seminar is to have a close look at the way in which each film or TV production ventures on a biographical reconstruction of the playwright William Shakespeare. And it will be interesting to see how his image is being refashioned by means of the multimodal quality of the corpus under scrutiny.

requirements:
• active participation
• oral presentation (handout) or
• research in progress and final paper

Please note that this course is a cell phone, WhatsApp, and email free zone. Prior enrolment via Stud.IP is mandatory. The enrolment period ends on March 15. The number of participants is limited to 20 students.

In this class we will first learn about approaches and tools to literary analysis before we look at how we read texts specifically from a postcolonial perspective. We will then read and discuss two postcolonial novels: 1. The Caribbean text Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys (here the Norton Critical Edition) and the Nigerian text Oil on Water by Helon Habila. Please purchase and read both texts, they are available at Thalia for just under 10 € (see links below). All other texts are provided via StudIP.
Class requirements are regular attendance and active class discussion (due to the Corona pandemic probably through an online platform) as well as in-depth knowledge of reading and viewing material. Reading the texts and watching the films is mandatory. Please note that prior enrollment through StudIP is mandatory. Maximum number of participants: 15.
(https://www.thalia.de/shop/home/artikeldetails/ID4281156.htmlhttps://www.thalia.de/shop/home/artikeldetails/ID29100962.html?ProvID=10907022&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI1_7Xuay66AIVioeyCh0JegMqEAAYASAAEgJHz_D_BwE)

This seminar provides a basic introduction to the field of sociolinguistics. In presenting key concepts and terminologies from variationist sociolinguistics as well as from interactional sociolinguistics, students will be given an overview of different approaches in these fields and their underlying research paradigms.
We will work together on groundbreaking studies as well as newer approaches in order to become acquainted with specific methods of data collection and analysis, their benefits and their limitations, respectively. In line with the subject, the seminar not only encompasses a focus on the social relevance of language in society, but also discusses its implications for social life with reference to contemporary social theory.

Applied linguistics involves „the theoretical and empirical investigation of real-world problems in which language is a central issue“ (Brumfit 1995: 27). In this class, we start with an overview of fields of applied linguistics, and then focus on three of these fields: critical applied linguistics, where we study gossip and teacher talk; the usefulness (or not) of corpora in language teaching; and finally forensic linguistics, the use of language by criminals, in police investigations and in court.
You will get to know the basic theoretical concepts of (critical) applied linguistics. You will test different methods for analyzing language, e.g. manual and automatic analyses of small or large amounts of text. Finally, you will practice your skills as researchers by conducting a study of your own favourite real-world language problem.
Requirements
Homework assignments (reading 10-30 pages each week; possibly some exercises).
Regular and active participation in all class work

BA ESC D 1a Portfolio (unbenotete Studienleistung, 3 CP)
BA ESC D 1c Term paper (benotete Prüfungsleistung, 3 CP)

Recommended literature (no need to buy any)
Coffin, Caroline & Theresa Lillis & Kieran O’Halloran. 2010. Applied Linguistics Methods: A Reader. London; New York: Routledge.
Loewen, Shawn & Luke Plonsky. 2016. An A-Z of Applied Linguistics Research Methods. London; New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

E-books:
Capelle, Carol. 2013. The Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics. Wiley.
Davies, Alan. 2004. The Handbook of Applied Linguistics. Blackwell.

This course explores linguistic change in World Englishes. Students will learn about different theories on language change grounded in the different approaches to language. All linguistic levels, i.e. phonological, morphological, syntactic, and lexical, will be systematically examined using examples from different varieties of English, while the emphasis is put on morphosyntactic change. References are made to grammaticalization and language contact. We will discuss universal, typological trends in linguistic change as well as the non-linguistic, social circumstances that frame them. Students will carry out small-scale empirical research projects and thus gain hands-on research experience.

The seminar provides students with a general introduction to the study of language change in all its facets.

Pragmatics in International Contexts

Language in context has traditionally been studied within the context of one culture such as British or US-American English. Speech Act Theory, Politeness Theory, Conversation Analysis principles meanwhile have been applied to global speech communities and a previously ethnocentric perspective has made way for research that demonstrates different communicative strategies in different cultures. On this background, we will move on to multimodal interaction and take non-verbal discourse strategies into account. Hence, we expand the traditional concepts and analyze how they are realized multimodally. First, students will learn the major analytical frameworks that are applied in pragmatics. Second, we will look at the state of art in multimodal research in intercultural communication.

Learning Outcomes
• You will be familiar with the major methodological frameworks in Pragmatics (CA; DA; CDA, MMI)
• You will be able to defend different methodological standpoints in Interactional Linguistics
• You will conduct research projects, choose a transcription method and a develop a relevant research question
• You will acquire expert knowledge and relate different perspectives and theories to each other
• You will be able to relate intercultural pragmatic communication conventions to each other

Online course in the summer term 2020 – Due to the COVID 19 pandemic we will not meet in class – please ignore the time slot listed above.
This course welcomes students who wish to complete the following modules:
B.A. E-SC “Key Topics in Literature”- D2-c; WD-2a and WD-2b

This seminar focuses predominantly on novels exemplifying the predominance of fictional prose in the Victoria era. We will explore fictional and non-fictional writings by the Scottish novelist and travel writer Robert Louis Stevenson (1850 – 1894), in particular Treasure Island (1883), The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886) and South Sea Tales (1893). Using text-centred and contextual approaches, this course wishes to enable students to explore language, form, genre, and style of the selected stories and novels, as well as to engage critically with themes, issues, and key concerns of Stevenson’s writing and corresponding contemporary adaptions. We will also touch upon key developments in the history of nineteen-century novels as well as selected historical and literary contexts of the period.
Please register on Stud. IP and explore the sections “Information” and “Schedule” on Stud. IP. for further details.
Requirements:

• work through the weekly self-study units;
• in-depth knowledge of the selected reading material and course materials,
• final exam according to module choice.

Reading materials
Stevenson, Robert Louis. Treasure Island, 1883 - https://www.gutenberg.org/files/120/120-h/120-h.htm
Stevenson, Robert Louis. The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, 1886 - https://www.gutenberg.org/files/43/43-h/43-h.htm
Stevenson, Robert Louis. South Sea Tales, Oxford Univ. Press, 1893, 2008. (Excerpts available on Stud. IP)

This seminar will close-read Toni Morrison's Nobel prize winning novel BELOVED. Our address of the literary text will be contextualized by a recourse to the critique of transatlantic enslavement by way of selected texts ( t.b.a. here on stud ip in due course).
Please make sure you have the novel in hand at the beginning of the semester, and check in on stud ip regularly for suggestions/requirements of additional reading material.

Your first requirement will be to study the following excellent website by Prof. Brycchan Carey on transatlantic enslavement which offers a timeline of the longue durée, and the global reach of slavery:

https://brycchancarey.com/slavery/chrono1.htm

One of the tasks to obtain SL, and PL in this class will involve thorough knowledge of this timeline.

For more than 400 years, Shakespeare’s plays have not only been performed, read, and interpreted, but have been revised, reimagined, and rewritten for new audiences and media. In this seminar we will read and discuss William Shakespeare's most famous play Romeo and Juliet and watch two of its contemporary film adaptations: Franco Zeffirelli's Romeo and Juliet (1986) and Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet (1996). Students who participate in this class will not only attain an understanding of who Shakespeare was and what his world was like but of how his plays have been received and are reinterpreted today in order to comment on contemporary issues.

Due to the current situation this class will take place as an online course.

A detailed handout with information on the syllabus, course requirements, and exam regulations will be uploaded in Stud.IP shortly before the lecture period begins.

This course is open to students of the modules D2c, WD2 a and b.

If you wish to do a Prüfungsleistung in this seminar, please note that due to the fact that my job contract with the university will be running out this July, I will not be able to read and grade any papers (D2c) or portfolios (WD2a) that are handed in later than June 30th, 2020. If you have any questions or concerns regarding this, please contact me BEFORE the lecture period begins. !!!

Prior enrollment via Stud.IP is mandatory.

• Please note this course is booked beyond capacity. No more students will be accepted. -

The United States has both the largest number of prisoners, and the highest rate of incarceration, of any country in the world today. One source for understanding the functions and influences of incarceration in American society is through the writing of the (formerly) imprisoned. Even though American prison literature has drawn increasing attention in recent years, it remains far from being a well-known literary genre. Reasons for this oversight are manifold. Among other things, prison literature has often been relegated to the less appreciated genre of popular culture, and its style and political purpose as well as the disparity and diversity of the literature have posed challenges to longstanding aesthetic expectations and literary approaches. This seminar will familiarize students with a selection of narratives by (formerly) imprisoned writers and the concept of confinement as a focal point in American literature and culture where history and politics are reflected and race, class, and gender intersect. Using text-centered and contextual approaches, students will explore the language, form, and style of prison narratives as well as engage critically with key concerns surrounding the history of racialized mass incarceration in the United States.
Please note that prior enrolment via Stud.IP is mandatory. Please check Stud.IP regularly for a list of required primary and secondary readings.

Requirements
• active participation,
• in-depth knowledge of the reading material,
• presentation and/or research paper.

Online course in the summer term 2020 – Due to the COVID 19 pandemic, we will not meet in class – please ignore the time slots listed above.

This course welcomes students who wish to complete the following modules:
M.A. E-SC ExMo 2 - Extension Module 2
M.A. TnL Profilmodul I: Literatur and M.A. TnL Vertiefungsmodul
B.A. E-SC “Key Topics in Literature”- D2-c; WD-2a and WD-2b
This course seeks to familiarise students with a number of selected authors, poets and writers, in general, who have held lifelong connections with London, may it be historic or contemporary. We will aim to discuss their continued engagement with the city by exploring a selections of excerpts clustered around six major topic choices: Queer London; Women Writers and London; London’s Imperial Past and Postcolonial Present; London Theatreland and the Shakespearean Stage; London and Crime, and London and the Long Eighteenth Century. By virtually tracing forgotten as well as prominent landmarks of the urban centre, we seek to connect the literary representations of the city with historical and cultural developments, present and past.
Please register on Stud. IP and explore the sections “Information” and “Schedule” on Stud. IP. for further details.
Requirements:

• work through the weekly self-study units;
• in-depth knowledge of the selected reading material and course materials,
• final exam according to module choice.

Online course in the summer term 2020 – Due to the COVID 19 pandemic we will not meet in class – please ignore the time slot listed above.

This course welcomes students who wish to complete the following modules:
M.A. E-SC ExMo 2 - Extension Module 2
M.A. TnL Profilmodul I: Literatur and M.A. TnL Vertiefungsmodul
B.A. E-SC “Key Topics in Literature”- D2-c; WD-2a and WD-2b

Crime Fiction is overwhelmingly popular and yet, much of the narrative literature that involves crime of some kind or another is often not regarded as ‘literature’ at all. This course is designed to familiarise students with the contemporary critical and theoretical arguments concerning popular fiction and genre studies, as well as to enable all participants of this course to relate to the genre’s wider social, historical and political contexts while discussing the individual narratives in terms of form, language and imagery.
Seeking to promote an analytical, creative and imaginative engagement with the complexities of literary and cultural discourses, we will focus on excerpts of both detective- or transgressor-centred narratives from the second half of the 20th Century onwards. These narratives include examples of the police novel (e.g. Ian Rankin); of female detectives and the feminist appropriations of the hard-boiled story (e.g. Sara Paretsky); of the psychothriller (e.g. Patricia Highsmith), of Afro-American crime fiction, here the examination of literary representations and other cultural manifestations of the Black Diaspora, discussing the relevance of this form of genre fiction to the Black experience of American Life (e.g. Walter Mosley), of Indigenous crime fiction (e.g. Thomas King), of the postmodern mystery (e.g. Paul Auster), and of representations of disability in crime fiction (e.g. Jeffrey Deaver’s Lincoln Rhyme series).

Please register on Stud. IP and explore the sections “Information” and “Schedule” on Stud. IP. for further details.
Requirements:

• work through the weekly self-study units;
• in-depth knowledge of the selected reading material and course materials,
• final exam according to module choice.

Reading materials (we will read excerpts of these novels but you are welcome to read these novels in full especially when planning a research project):
Auster, Paul. The New York Trilogy, Faber and Faber, 1987.
Deaver, Jeffrey. The Bone Collector, Hodder and Stoughton, 1997.
Highsmith, Patricia. Strangers on a Train, Vintage, 1999, 1950.
King, Thomas. The Red Power Murders: A DreadfulWater Mystery, Harper Perennial, 2006.
Mosley, Walter. Devil in a Blue Dress, Serpent's Tail, 2001, 1991.
Paretsky, Sara. Blacklist: A V.I. Warshawski Novel, Signet Book, 2004.
Rankin, Ian. Knots & Crosses: Inspector Rebus Novel, Orion, 2005, 1998.

The framework of this course is the analysis of defining moments in the history of English-speaking countries. The students will be given the opportunity to explore said moments and events to see in what they were influential.

Students will be required to think critically and research a topic of their own choice in detail in order to structure a 10-minute presentation during which they will explain how this moment has been defining. They will also work on presentation skills and familiarise themselves with the situation of speaking in front of others.

The framework of this course is the analysis of defining moments in the history of English-speaking countries. The students will be given the opportunity to explore said moments and events to see in what they were influential.

Students will be required to think critically and research a topic of their own choice in detail in order to structure a 10-minute presentation during which they will explain how this moment has been defining. They will also work on presentation skills and familiarise themselves with the situation of speaking in front of others.

Critical Thinking – and Defining Moments in History

The main focus of this Culture & Communication course is to prepare you for your 15-minute SP-2 'Sprachpraxis Aufbaumodul' module proficiency exam. We will start by going back-to-the-basics regarding pronunciation, intonation, and transition signals.

In addition to these language skills, you will also expand your speaking skills for the exam with regard to audience-focus. You will then apply your skills to several mini-group presentations on given topics before delivering your own chosen topic. You are required to critically analyse your topic, to shed light on the breadth and depth of your topic and to demonstrate accuracy, precision, and cautious language in your fifteen-minute exam.

The topic you choose, will focus on one defining moment in the history of the English-speaking world. You are invited to explore historical, social, cultural or other reasons for why a specific event happend to turn into his/her/ourstory. You may wish to compare, exemplify, list, critically analyse discourse or classify the information you can compile by researching your topic.


General information
This class is open for ERASMUS/exchange students with a level of English ranging B2 - C1 (GER, CEFR). ERASMUS students on a level below C1 but above B2 wishing to attend this class need to contact the lecturer before joining this class.

Defining Moments
The aim of the Culture and Communication classes is to help you to prepare for the final SP2 module oral exam taken when you have completed the SP2 module. This particular class will look at different moments which have greatly influenced events within the English-speaking world. We will investigate the processes which led to a particular event, define the event itself and explore the long-term and short-term implications that came about as a consequence. You will be required to think critically and research a topic of your own in detail in order to structure a 10-minute presentation during which you will explain how this moment has been defining. You will also work on presentation skills and familiarise yourselves with the situation of speaking in front of others.

This course has a closer look at how first and second languages are learned in order for future English Language Teachers to evaluate the effectiveness of their own language teaching. We will deal with the following questions:
• In which way has English Language Teaching developed in history?
• How do children acquire a first language?
• To what extent can theories of first language acquisition be applied to second language learning?
• Can individual learner characteristics affect success in second language learning?
• How do learners learn a foreign language at school - and what are the consequences for teaching them?
There will be a special emphasis on primary education in some sessions in this class.

When teaching a foreign language class, teachers have to decide which materials, resources and activities to use in a specific context, i.e. within a specific school, with specific students, within a specific class dynamic etc. They need to be able to act autonomously in that regard as they should be the expert for their respective context. In this class we will first take a look at available teaching materials, analyze them, and discuss their structure and layout. Second, we are striving to evaluate these materials when put into practice in how well they served their in-tended purpose within a specific classroom (e.g. with regard to fostering speaking skills). For that reason, we are also going to look at action research studies and methodologies which might be used as starting points for students' own projects. All this is designed to help students become reflective and autonomous practitioners.

There will be a focus on primary materials, activities and resources in this class.

This course has a closer look at how first and second languages are learned in order for future English Language Teachers to evaluate the effectiveness of their own language teaching. We will deal with the following questions:
• In which way has English Language Teaching developed in history?
• How do children acquire a first language?
• To what extent can theories of first language acquisition be applied to second language learning?
• Can individual learner characteristics affect success in second language learning?
• How do learners learn a foreign language at school - and what are the consequences for teaching them?

When teaching a foreign language class, teachers have to decide which materials, resources and activities to use in a specific context, i.e. within a specific school, with specific students, within a specific class dynamic etc. They need to be able to act autonomously in that regard as they should be the expert for their respective context. In this class we will first take a look at available teaching materials, analyze them, and discuss their structure and layout. Second, we are striving to evaluate these materials when put into practice in how well they served their in-tended purpose within a specific classroom (e.g. with regard to fostering speaking skills). For that reason, we are also going to look at action research studies and methodologies which might be used as starting points for students' own projects. All this is designed to help students become reflective and autonomous practitioners.

When teaching a foreign language class, teachers have to decide which materials, resources and activities to use in a specific context, i.e. within a specific school, with specific students, within a specific class dynamic etc. They need to be able to act autonomously in that regard as they should be the expert for their respective context. In this class we will first take a look at available teaching materials, analyze them, and discuss their structure and layout. Second, we are striving to evaluate these materials when put into practice in how well they served their in-tended purpose within a specific classroom (e.g. with regard to fostering speaking skills). For that reason, we are also going to look at action research studies and methodologies which might be used as starting points for students' own projects. All this is designed to help students become reflective and autonomous practitioners.

There will be a focus on CLIL materials, activities and resources in this class.

When teaching a foreign language class, teachers have to decide which materials, resources and activities to use in a specific context, i.e. within a specific school, with specific students, within a specific class dynamic etc. They need to be able to act autonomously in that regard as they should be the expert for their respective context. In this class we will first take a look at available teaching materials, analyze them, and discuss their structure and layout. Second, we are striving to evaluate these materials when put into practice in how well they served their in-tended purpose within a specific classroom (e.g. with regard to fostering speaking skills). For that reason, we are also going to look at action research studies and methodologies which might be used as starting points for students' own projects. All this is designed to help students become reflective and autonomous practitioners.

Online course in the summer term 2020 – Due to the COVID 19 pandemic we will not meet in class – please ignore the time slot listed above.
This course welcomes students who wish to complete the following modules:
B.A. E-SC “Key Topics in Literature”- D2-c; WD-2a and WD-2b

This seminar focuses predominantly on novels exemplifying the predominance of fictional prose in the Victoria era. We will explore fictional and non-fictional writings by the Scottish novelist and travel writer Robert Louis Stevenson (1850 – 1894), in particular Treasure Island (1883), The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886) and South Sea Tales (1893). Using text-centred and contextual approaches, this course wishes to enable students to explore language, form, genre, and style of the selected stories and novels, as well as to engage critically with themes, issues, and key concerns of Stevenson’s writing and corresponding contemporary adaptions. We will also touch upon key developments in the history of nineteen-century novels as well as selected historical and literary contexts of the period.
Please register on Stud. IP and explore the sections “Information” and “Schedule” on Stud. IP. for further details.
Requirements:

• work through the weekly self-study units;
• in-depth knowledge of the selected reading material and course materials,
• final exam according to module choice.

Reading materials
Stevenson, Robert Louis. Treasure Island, 1883 - https://www.gutenberg.org/files/120/120-h/120-h.htm
Stevenson, Robert Louis. The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, 1886 - https://www.gutenberg.org/files/43/43-h/43-h.htm
Stevenson, Robert Louis. South Sea Tales, Oxford Univ. Press, 1893, 2008. (Excerpts available on Stud. IP)

This seminar will close-read Toni Morrison's Nobel prize winning novel BELOVED. Our address of the literary text will be contextualized by a recourse to the critique of transatlantic enslavement by way of selected texts ( t.b.a. here on stud ip in due course).
Please make sure you have the novel in hand at the beginning of the semester, and check in on stud ip regularly for suggestions/requirements of additional reading material.

Your first requirement will be to study the following excellent website by Prof. Brycchan Carey on transatlantic enslavement which offers a timeline of the longue durée, and the global reach of slavery:

https://brycchancarey.com/slavery/chrono1.htm

One of the tasks to obtain SL, and PL in this class will involve thorough knowledge of this timeline.

For more than 400 years, Shakespeare’s plays have not only been performed, read, and interpreted, but have been revised, reimagined, and rewritten for new audiences and media. In this seminar we will read and discuss William Shakespeare's most famous play Romeo and Juliet and watch two of its contemporary film adaptations: Franco Zeffirelli's Romeo and Juliet (1986) and Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet (1996). Students who participate in this class will not only attain an understanding of who Shakespeare was and what his world was like but of how his plays have been received and are reinterpreted today in order to comment on contemporary issues.

Due to the current situation this class will take place as an online course.

A detailed handout with information on the syllabus, course requirements, and exam regulations will be uploaded in Stud.IP shortly before the lecture period begins.

This course is open to students of the modules D2c, WD2 a and b.

If you wish to do a Prüfungsleistung in this seminar, please note that due to the fact that my job contract with the university will be running out this July, I will not be able to read and grade any papers (D2c) or portfolios (WD2a) that are handed in later than June 30th, 2020. If you have any questions or concerns regarding this, please contact me BEFORE the lecture period begins. !!!

Prior enrollment via Stud.IP is mandatory.

• Please note this course is booked beyond capacity. No more students will be accepted. -

The United States has both the largest number of prisoners, and the highest rate of incarceration, of any country in the world today. One source for understanding the functions and influences of incarceration in American society is through the writing of the (formerly) imprisoned. Even though American prison literature has drawn increasing attention in recent years, it remains far from being a well-known literary genre. Reasons for this oversight are manifold. Among other things, prison literature has often been relegated to the less appreciated genre of popular culture, and its style and political purpose as well as the disparity and diversity of the literature have posed challenges to longstanding aesthetic expectations and literary approaches. This seminar will familiarize students with a selection of narratives by (formerly) imprisoned writers and the concept of confinement as a focal point in American literature and culture where history and politics are reflected and race, class, and gender intersect. Using text-centered and contextual approaches, students will explore the language, form, and style of prison narratives as well as engage critically with key concerns surrounding the history of racialized mass incarceration in the United States.
Please note that prior enrolment via Stud.IP is mandatory. Please check Stud.IP regularly for a list of required primary and secondary readings.

Requirements
• active participation,
• in-depth knowledge of the reading material,
• presentation and/or research paper.

From “Winter is coming” (Game of Thrones) to “Oh…My…God” (Friends) and “Don’t look at me with that tone of voice” (iZombie): In this seminar, we will look at different types of language employed in TV series, such as intradiegetic dialogue, extradiegetic voice-over and subtitles, as well as various functions of language in TV series. In doing so, we will multimodally analyse examples from contemporary TV series as well as work with corpora of movie language.
Coursework and assessment:
You are expected to read and prepare selected texts for each session as well as choose your own small research project which will be presented at the end of the semester.

Bednarek, M. (2012[2010]). The Language of Fictional Television: Drama and Identity. London, New York: continuum.
Bednarek, M. (2018) Language and Television Series. A Linguistic Approach to TV Dialogue. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Further literature will be announced and provided in class.

What do you have to know if you want to master a language? Your gut feeling might tell you that, at least, you need to know the words and the rules about how to combine these words in a grammatical and meaningful way. Traditional grammarians may say the same, but Construction Grammar (or CxG, for short) is a rebel! It rejects the traditional “dictionary-and-grammar model” and claims that the only thing you need to know is constructions. Essentially, a construction is an extension of the Saussurean sign (i.e. a conventionalized pairing of form and meaning), including morphemes, words, phrases and clausal patterns. CxG thus provides a holistic picture of grammar.
In this class, we will deepen your understanding of English constructions. We will define key concepts in CxG (session 2) and revise empirical evidence for CxG (session 3). We will then take a look at particular English constructions and their relations, running the gamut from clausal (session 4 and 5), to morphemic (session 7) and pragmatic (session 8), to discourse-level constructions (session 9). During the last couple of sessions, you will be given the opportunity to do small-scale research on a construction of your choice.

Course requirements
Module WD2 – 3CP (SL): Poster
Module WD2 – 3CP (PL): Poster + written assignment (~5 pages)
Module MMII – 6CP (PL): Poster + written assignment (~10 pages)

Online course in the summer term 2020 – Due to the COVID 19 pandemic, we will not meet in class – please ignore the time slots listed above.

This course welcomes students who wish to complete the following modules:
M.A. E-SC ExMo 2 - Extension Module 2
M.A. TnL Profilmodul I: Literatur and M.A. TnL Vertiefungsmodul
B.A. E-SC “Key Topics in Literature”- D2-c; WD-2a and WD-2b
This course seeks to familiarise students with a number of selected authors, poets and writers, in general, who have held lifelong connections with London, may it be historic or contemporary. We will aim to discuss their continued engagement with the city by exploring a selections of excerpts clustered around six major topic choices: Queer London; Women Writers and London; London’s Imperial Past and Postcolonial Present; London Theatreland and the Shakespearean Stage; London and Crime, and London and the Long Eighteenth Century. By virtually tracing forgotten as well as prominent landmarks of the urban centre, we seek to connect the literary representations of the city with historical and cultural developments, present and past.
Please register on Stud. IP and explore the sections “Information” and “Schedule” on Stud. IP. for further details.
Requirements:

• work through the weekly self-study units;
• in-depth knowledge of the selected reading material and course materials,
• final exam according to module choice.

Online course in the summer term 2020 – Due to the COVID 19 pandemic we will not meet in class – please ignore the time slot listed above.

This course welcomes students who wish to complete the following modules:
M.A. E-SC ExMo 2 - Extension Module 2
M.A. TnL Profilmodul I: Literatur and M.A. TnL Vertiefungsmodul
B.A. E-SC “Key Topics in Literature”- D2-c; WD-2a and WD-2b

Crime Fiction is overwhelmingly popular and yet, much of the narrative literature that involves crime of some kind or another is often not regarded as ‘literature’ at all. This course is designed to familiarise students with the contemporary critical and theoretical arguments concerning popular fiction and genre studies, as well as to enable all participants of this course to relate to the genre’s wider social, historical and political contexts while discussing the individual narratives in terms of form, language and imagery.
Seeking to promote an analytical, creative and imaginative engagement with the complexities of literary and cultural discourses, we will focus on excerpts of both detective- or transgressor-centred narratives from the second half of the 20th Century onwards. These narratives include examples of the police novel (e.g. Ian Rankin); of female detectives and the feminist appropriations of the hard-boiled story (e.g. Sara Paretsky); of the psychothriller (e.g. Patricia Highsmith), of Afro-American crime fiction, here the examination of literary representations and other cultural manifestations of the Black Diaspora, discussing the relevance of this form of genre fiction to the Black experience of American Life (e.g. Walter Mosley), of Indigenous crime fiction (e.g. Thomas King), of the postmodern mystery (e.g. Paul Auster), and of representations of disability in crime fiction (e.g. Jeffrey Deaver’s Lincoln Rhyme series).

Please register on Stud. IP and explore the sections “Information” and “Schedule” on Stud. IP. for further details.
Requirements:

• work through the weekly self-study units;
• in-depth knowledge of the selected reading material and course materials,
• final exam according to module choice.

Reading materials (we will read excerpts of these novels but you are welcome to read these novels in full especially when planning a research project):
Auster, Paul. The New York Trilogy, Faber and Faber, 1987.
Deaver, Jeffrey. The Bone Collector, Hodder and Stoughton, 1997.
Highsmith, Patricia. Strangers on a Train, Vintage, 1999, 1950.
King, Thomas. The Red Power Murders: A DreadfulWater Mystery, Harper Perennial, 2006.
Mosley, Walter. Devil in a Blue Dress, Serpent's Tail, 2001, 1991.
Paretsky, Sara. Blacklist: A V.I. Warshawski Novel, Signet Book, 2004.
Rankin, Ian. Knots & Crosses: Inspector Rebus Novel, Orion, 2005, 1998.

Online course in the summer term 2020 – Due to the COVID 19 pandemic we will not meet in class – please ignore the time slot listed above.
This course welcomes students who wish to complete the following modules:
B.A. E-SC “Key Topics in Literature”- D2-c; WD-2a and WD-2b

This seminar focuses predominantly on novels exemplifying the predominance of fictional prose in the Victoria era. We will explore fictional and non-fictional writings by the Scottish novelist and travel writer Robert Louis Stevenson (1850 – 1894), in particular Treasure Island (1883), The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886) and South Sea Tales (1893). Using text-centred and contextual approaches, this course wishes to enable students to explore language, form, genre, and style of the selected stories and novels, as well as to engage critically with themes, issues, and key concerns of Stevenson’s writing and corresponding contemporary adaptions. We will also touch upon key developments in the history of nineteen-century novels as well as selected historical and literary contexts of the period.
Please register on Stud. IP and explore the sections “Information” and “Schedule” on Stud. IP. for further details.
Requirements:

• work through the weekly self-study units;
• in-depth knowledge of the selected reading material and course materials,
• final exam according to module choice.

Reading materials
Stevenson, Robert Louis. Treasure Island, 1883 - https://www.gutenberg.org/files/120/120-h/120-h.htm
Stevenson, Robert Louis. The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, 1886 - https://www.gutenberg.org/files/43/43-h/43-h.htm
Stevenson, Robert Louis. South Sea Tales, Oxford Univ. Press, 1893, 2008. (Excerpts available on Stud. IP)

This seminar will close-read Toni Morrison's Nobel prize winning novel BELOVED. Our address of the literary text will be contextualized by a recourse to the critique of transatlantic enslavement by way of selected texts ( t.b.a. here on stud ip in due course).
Please make sure you have the novel in hand at the beginning of the semester, and check in on stud ip regularly for suggestions/requirements of additional reading material.

Your first requirement will be to study the following excellent website by Prof. Brycchan Carey on transatlantic enslavement which offers a timeline of the longue durée, and the global reach of slavery:

https://brycchancarey.com/slavery/chrono1.htm

One of the tasks to obtain SL, and PL in this class will involve thorough knowledge of this timeline.

For more than 400 years, Shakespeare’s plays have not only been performed, read, and interpreted, but have been revised, reimagined, and rewritten for new audiences and media. In this seminar we will read and discuss William Shakespeare's most famous play Romeo and Juliet and watch two of its contemporary film adaptations: Franco Zeffirelli's Romeo and Juliet (1986) and Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet (1996). Students who participate in this class will not only attain an understanding of who Shakespeare was and what his world was like but of how his plays have been received and are reinterpreted today in order to comment on contemporary issues.

Due to the current situation this class will take place as an online course.

A detailed handout with information on the syllabus, course requirements, and exam regulations will be uploaded in Stud.IP shortly before the lecture period begins.

This course is open to students of the modules D2c, WD2 a and b.

If you wish to do a Prüfungsleistung in this seminar, please note that due to the fact that my job contract with the university will be running out this July, I will not be able to read and grade any papers (D2c) or portfolios (WD2a) that are handed in later than June 30th, 2020. If you have any questions or concerns regarding this, please contact me BEFORE the lecture period begins. !!!

Prior enrollment via Stud.IP is mandatory.

• Please note this course is booked beyond capacity. No more students will be accepted. -

The United States has both the largest number of prisoners, and the highest rate of incarceration, of any country in the world today. One source for understanding the functions and influences of incarceration in American society is through the writing of the (formerly) imprisoned. Even though American prison literature has drawn increasing attention in recent years, it remains far from being a well-known literary genre. Reasons for this oversight are manifold. Among other things, prison literature has often been relegated to the less appreciated genre of popular culture, and its style and political purpose as well as the disparity and diversity of the literature have posed challenges to longstanding aesthetic expectations and literary approaches. This seminar will familiarize students with a selection of narratives by (formerly) imprisoned writers and the concept of confinement as a focal point in American literature and culture where history and politics are reflected and race, class, and gender intersect. Using text-centered and contextual approaches, students will explore the language, form, and style of prison narratives as well as engage critically with key concerns surrounding the history of racialized mass incarceration in the United States.
Please note that prior enrolment via Stud.IP is mandatory. Please check Stud.IP regularly for a list of required primary and secondary readings.

Requirements
• active participation,
• in-depth knowledge of the reading material,
• presentation and/or research paper.

In this course we will look at different concepts that can help us to better understand racial formations in contemporary societies. We will read a variety of texts to gain an understanding how whiteness as a historical construct and white privilege as an institution engender social positions of dominance and suppression.

Essential readings will be available for download on Stud-IP. You should also consult the ‘Semesterapparat’ (SuUB) for further readings.
Requirements:
• regular attendance and oral participation
• in-depth knowledge of the reading material
• oral presentation and handout
• final paper (if needed)

‘The horror!’ is how the protagonist in Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness sums up his colonial experience in the darkest heart of Africa. For Conrad, Gothic horror seems the most appropriate mode to figure the imperialists’ confrontation with and eventual descent into what they perceive as savagery, to express the meaningless noises of the jungle, to signify irreducible otherness, and the ultimate void at the heart of the colonial project. The Gothic is the medium in which both Conrad and Kipling (yes, there’s a dark streak in the author of the jolly old Jungle Book) explore the break-down of Western categories of knowledge. Horror and terror, referencing as much as inducing dread and fear, make tangible the anxieties in imperial discourse: of miscegenation, of atavistic regression, of the reversal of the direction of invasion, of the fundamental incommensurability between the Other and our tools of cognition.
We shall explore these questions, braving the encounter with evil and uncanny forces, in a range of examples from literary and visual culture, acquiring knowledge about the British Empire and some of its most prominent writers on the way.

Text to be purchased (this print edition, please):

• Conrad, Joseph. Heart of Darkness. Ed. Paul B. Armstrong (Fifth Norton Critical Edition). New York: W.W.Norton, 2016. Print.

Other reading material will be made available on StudIP.

Course requirements will be adapted to the altered distant learning format:
# brief written assignments for each weekly session are obligatory (graded in WD-2b)
# for a grade in D-2a: an additional term paper of 12-15 pp.

While gender difference is one of the basic binary opposites by which we construct cultural meaning, the hierarchisation of this difference, the subordination of women to men, is at the core of patriarchal ideology. This course aims to reverse the more usual direction of inquiry by looking at what patriarchal ideology assumes as the norm, and therefore tends to keep from critical view - at masculinity. We shall take a broad historical approach, surveying a wide range of conceptualisations of manhood, covering the transmutations of the gentleman ideal and the decline of working-class masculinity, Dandies and boy-scouts, homosociality in the British education system and on the adventure playgrounds of the Empire, and the dissolution of gender stereotypes in consumer cultures and queer cultures. Examples will mainly be taken from British literary and visual culture, both high and popular, and may include Henry VIII, James Bond and David Beckham. Our investigations will be supported by theories of gender from, among others, Aristotle, Laqueur, Freud, Kimmel, and R.W.Connell.
"It's a tough job but somebody's gotta do it!"

Reading material will be made available on Stud.IP.

Requirements will be adapted to the changed distant learning format:
# Written assignments for each weekly session are obligatory,
# plus an analysis of an exemplary representation of masculinity (Power Point presentation or similar formats) to be shared with the seminar group (both graded in WD-2b).
# for a grade in D-2a: an additional term paper of 12-15 pp.

The course will introduce students to the field of Postcolonial Studies and will lay the foundation for further explorations on postcolonial literatures, films, media and others. Through a rather dense reading program and films, the class will focus on colonial histories, neocolonial relations in the globalized world, and the fundamental theroies and approaches in Postcolonial Studies. We will read (in excerpts) the writings of the foremost thinkers of postcolonial theories, including but not limited to Frantz Fanon, Edouard Glissant, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Stuart Hall, Homi Bhabha, Walter Mignolo, Edward Said, Bill Ashcroft, and Gareth Griffiths, and Helen Tiffin. 

All texts will be provided electronically or in a reader. Prior enrollment via Stud.IP is mandatory.

Shakespeare's Filmic Lives

In the course of this seminar we shall analyse four contemporary films and TV productions which highlight diverse aspects of the (imagined) life of William Shakespeare (1564-1616). In Shakespeare in Love (1998), directed by John Madden, a specific biographical reading is offered that locates the phenomenon of greatness in progress in an intricate web of a romantic love narrative. Barbara Willis Sweete's TV-production Elizabeth Rex (2002), which foregrounds Elizabeth I and her Bard, features some lively debates about masculinities and femininities as well as about literary and royal power. Anonymous (2011), a film directed by Roland Emmerich, questions the authorship of William Shakespeare, while Kenneth Branagh's All is True (2018) focuses on Shakespeare's final days in his hometown Stratford.

The aim of this seminar is to have a close look at the way in which each film or TV production ventures on a biographical reconstruction of the playwright William Shakespeare. And it will be interesting to see how his image is being refashioned by means of the multimodal quality of the corpus under scrutiny.

requirements:
• active participation
• oral presentation (handout) or
• research in progress and final paper

Please note that this course is a cell phone, WhatsApp, and email free zone. Prior enrolment via Stud.IP is mandatory. The enrolment period ends on March 15. The number of participants is limited to 20 students.

Online course in the summer term 2020 – Due to the COVID 19 pandemic, we will not meet in class – please ignore the time slots listed above.

This course welcomes students who wish to complete the following modules:
M.A. E-SC ExMo 2 - Extension Module 2
M.A. TnL Profilmodul I: Literatur and M.A. TnL Vertiefungsmodul
B.A. E-SC “Key Topics in Literature”- D2-c; WD-2a and WD-2b
This course seeks to familiarise students with a number of selected authors, poets and writers, in general, who have held lifelong connections with London, may it be historic or contemporary. We will aim to discuss their continued engagement with the city by exploring a selections of excerpts clustered around six major topic choices: Queer London; Women Writers and London; London’s Imperial Past and Postcolonial Present; London Theatreland and the Shakespearean Stage; London and Crime, and London and the Long Eighteenth Century. By virtually tracing forgotten as well as prominent landmarks of the urban centre, we seek to connect the literary representations of the city with historical and cultural developments, present and past.
Please register on Stud. IP and explore the sections “Information” and “Schedule” on Stud. IP. for further details.
Requirements:

• work through the weekly self-study units;
• in-depth knowledge of the selected reading material and course materials,
• final exam according to module choice.

In this class we will first learn about approaches and tools to literary analysis before we look at how we read texts specifically from a postcolonial perspective. We will then read and discuss two postcolonial novels: 1. The Caribbean text Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys (here the Norton Critical Edition) and the Nigerian text Oil on Water by Helon Habila. Please purchase and read both texts, they are available at Thalia for just under 10 € (see links below). All other texts are provided via StudIP.
Class requirements are regular attendance and active class discussion (due to the Corona pandemic probably through an online platform) as well as in-depth knowledge of reading and viewing material. Reading the texts and watching the films is mandatory. Please note that prior enrollment through StudIP is mandatory. Maximum number of participants: 15.
(https://www.thalia.de/shop/home/artikeldetails/ID4281156.htmlhttps://www.thalia.de/shop/home/artikeldetails/ID29100962.html?ProvID=10907022&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI1_7Xuay66AIVioeyCh0JegMqEAAYASAAEgJHz_D_BwE)

Online course in the summer term 2020 – Due to the COVID 19 pandemic we will not meet in class – please ignore the time slot listed above.

This course welcomes students who wish to complete the following modules:
M.A. E-SC ExMo 2 - Extension Module 2
M.A. TnL Profilmodul I: Literatur and M.A. TnL Vertiefungsmodul
B.A. E-SC “Key Topics in Literature”- D2-c; WD-2a and WD-2b

Crime Fiction is overwhelmingly popular and yet, much of the narrative literature that involves crime of some kind or another is often not regarded as ‘literature’ at all. This course is designed to familiarise students with the contemporary critical and theoretical arguments concerning popular fiction and genre studies, as well as to enable all participants of this course to relate to the genre’s wider social, historical and political contexts while discussing the individual narratives in terms of form, language and imagery.
Seeking to promote an analytical, creative and imaginative engagement with the complexities of literary and cultural discourses, we will focus on excerpts of both detective- or transgressor-centred narratives from the second half of the 20th Century onwards. These narratives include examples of the police novel (e.g. Ian Rankin); of female detectives and the feminist appropriations of the hard-boiled story (e.g. Sara Paretsky); of the psychothriller (e.g. Patricia Highsmith), of Afro-American crime fiction, here the examination of literary representations and other cultural manifestations of the Black Diaspora, discussing the relevance of this form of genre fiction to the Black experience of American Life (e.g. Walter Mosley), of Indigenous crime fiction (e.g. Thomas King), of the postmodern mystery (e.g. Paul Auster), and of representations of disability in crime fiction (e.g. Jeffrey Deaver’s Lincoln Rhyme series).

Please register on Stud. IP and explore the sections “Information” and “Schedule” on Stud. IP. for further details.
Requirements:

• work through the weekly self-study units;
• in-depth knowledge of the selected reading material and course materials,
• final exam according to module choice.

Reading materials (we will read excerpts of these novels but you are welcome to read these novels in full especially when planning a research project):
Auster, Paul. The New York Trilogy, Faber and Faber, 1987.
Deaver, Jeffrey. The Bone Collector, Hodder and Stoughton, 1997.
Highsmith, Patricia. Strangers on a Train, Vintage, 1999, 1950.
King, Thomas. The Red Power Murders: A DreadfulWater Mystery, Harper Perennial, 2006.
Mosley, Walter. Devil in a Blue Dress, Serpent's Tail, 2001, 1991.
Paretsky, Sara. Blacklist: A V.I. Warshawski Novel, Signet Book, 2004.
Rankin, Ian. Knots & Crosses: Inspector Rebus Novel, Orion, 2005, 1998.

This seminar will close-read Toni Morrison's Nobel prize winning novel BELOVED. Our address of the literary text will be contextualized by a recourse to the critique of transatlantic enslavement by way of selected texts ( t.b.a. here on stud ip in due course).
Please make sure you have the novel in hand at the beginning of the semester, and check in on stud ip regularly for suggestions/requirements of additional reading material.

Your first requirement will be to study the following excellent website by Prof. Brycchan Carey on transatlantic enslavement which offers a timeline of the longue durée, and the global reach of slavery:

https://brycchancarey.com/slavery/chrono1.htm

One of the tasks to obtain SL, and PL in this class will involve thorough knowledge of this timeline.

In this course we will look at different concepts that can help us to better understand racial formations in contemporary societies. We will read a variety of texts to gain an understanding how whiteness as a historical construct and white privilege as an institution engender social positions of dominance and suppression.

Essential readings will be available for download on Stud-IP. You should also consult the ‘Semesterapparat’ (SuUB) for further readings.
Requirements:
• regular attendance and oral participation
• in-depth knowledge of the reading material
• oral presentation and handout
• final paper (if needed)

‘The horror!’ is how the protagonist in Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness sums up his colonial experience in the darkest heart of Africa. For Conrad, Gothic horror seems the most appropriate mode to figure the imperialists’ confrontation with and eventual descent into what they perceive as savagery, to express the meaningless noises of the jungle, to signify irreducible otherness, and the ultimate void at the heart of the colonial project. The Gothic is the medium in which both Conrad and Kipling (yes, there’s a dark streak in the author of the jolly old Jungle Book) explore the break-down of Western categories of knowledge. Horror and terror, referencing as much as inducing dread and fear, make tangible the anxieties in imperial discourse: of miscegenation, of atavistic regression, of the reversal of the direction of invasion, of the fundamental incommensurability between the Other and our tools of cognition.
We shall explore these questions, braving the encounter with evil and uncanny forces, in a range of examples from literary and visual culture, acquiring knowledge about the British Empire and some of its most prominent writers on the way.

Text to be purchased (this print edition, please):

• Conrad, Joseph. Heart of Darkness. Ed. Paul B. Armstrong (Fifth Norton Critical Edition). New York: W.W.Norton, 2016. Print.

Other reading material will be made available on StudIP.

Course requirements will be adapted to the altered distant learning format:
# brief written assignments for each weekly session are obligatory (graded in WD-2b)
# for a grade in D-2a: an additional term paper of 12-15 pp.

While gender difference is one of the basic binary opposites by which we construct cultural meaning, the hierarchisation of this difference, the subordination of women to men, is at the core of patriarchal ideology. This course aims to reverse the more usual direction of inquiry by looking at what patriarchal ideology assumes as the norm, and therefore tends to keep from critical view - at masculinity. We shall take a broad historical approach, surveying a wide range of conceptualisations of manhood, covering the transmutations of the gentleman ideal and the decline of working-class masculinity, Dandies and boy-scouts, homosociality in the British education system and on the adventure playgrounds of the Empire, and the dissolution of gender stereotypes in consumer cultures and queer cultures. Examples will mainly be taken from British literary and visual culture, both high and popular, and may include Henry VIII, James Bond and David Beckham. Our investigations will be supported by theories of gender from, among others, Aristotle, Laqueur, Freud, Kimmel, and R.W.Connell.
"It's a tough job but somebody's gotta do it!"

Reading material will be made available on Stud.IP.

Requirements will be adapted to the changed distant learning format:
# Written assignments for each weekly session are obligatory,
# plus an analysis of an exemplary representation of masculinity (Power Point presentation or similar formats) to be shared with the seminar group (both graded in WD-2b).
# for a grade in D-2a: an additional term paper of 12-15 pp.

The course will introduce students to the field of Postcolonial Studies and will lay the foundation for further explorations on postcolonial literatures, films, media and others. Through a rather dense reading program and films, the class will focus on colonial histories, neocolonial relations in the globalized world, and the fundamental theroies and approaches in Postcolonial Studies. We will read (in excerpts) the writings of the foremost thinkers of postcolonial theories, including but not limited to Frantz Fanon, Edouard Glissant, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Stuart Hall, Homi Bhabha, Walter Mignolo, Edward Said, Bill Ashcroft, and Gareth Griffiths, and Helen Tiffin. 

All texts will be provided electronically or in a reader. Prior enrollment via Stud.IP is mandatory.

From “Winter is coming” (Game of Thrones) to “Oh…My…God” (Friends) and “Don’t look at me with that tone of voice” (iZombie): In this seminar, we will look at different types of language employed in TV series, such as intradiegetic dialogue, extradiegetic voice-over and subtitles, as well as various functions of language in TV series. In doing so, we will multimodally analyse examples from contemporary TV series as well as work with corpora of movie language.
Coursework and assessment:
You are expected to read and prepare selected texts for each session as well as choose your own small research project which will be presented at the end of the semester.

Bednarek, M. (2012[2010]). The Language of Fictional Television: Drama and Identity. London, New York: continuum.
Bednarek, M. (2018) Language and Television Series. A Linguistic Approach to TV Dialogue. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Further literature will be announced and provided in class.

What do you have to know if you want to master a language? Your gut feeling might tell you that, at least, you need to know the words and the rules about how to combine these words in a grammatical and meaningful way. Traditional grammarians may say the same, but Construction Grammar (or CxG, for short) is a rebel! It rejects the traditional “dictionary-and-grammar model” and claims that the only thing you need to know is constructions. Essentially, a construction is an extension of the Saussurean sign (i.e. a conventionalized pairing of form and meaning), including morphemes, words, phrases and clausal patterns. CxG thus provides a holistic picture of grammar.
In this class, we will deepen your understanding of English constructions. We will define key concepts in CxG (session 2) and revise empirical evidence for CxG (session 3). We will then take a look at particular English constructions and their relations, running the gamut from clausal (session 4 and 5), to morphemic (session 7) and pragmatic (session 8), to discourse-level constructions (session 9). During the last couple of sessions, you will be given the opportunity to do small-scale research on a construction of your choice.

Course requirements
Module WD2 – 3CP (SL): Poster
Module WD2 – 3CP (PL): Poster + written assignment (~5 pages)
Module MMII – 6CP (PL): Poster + written assignment (~10 pages)

Shakespeare's Filmic Lives

In the course of this seminar we shall analyse four contemporary films and TV productions which highlight diverse aspects of the (imagined) life of William Shakespeare (1564-1616). In Shakespeare in Love (1998), directed by John Madden, a specific biographical reading is offered that locates the phenomenon of greatness in progress in an intricate web of a romantic love narrative. Barbara Willis Sweete's TV-production Elizabeth Rex (2002), which foregrounds Elizabeth I and her Bard, features some lively debates about masculinities and femininities as well as about literary and royal power. Anonymous (2011), a film directed by Roland Emmerich, questions the authorship of William Shakespeare, while Kenneth Branagh's All is True (2018) focuses on Shakespeare's final days in his hometown Stratford.

The aim of this seminar is to have a close look at the way in which each film or TV production ventures on a biographical reconstruction of the playwright William Shakespeare. And it will be interesting to see how his image is being refashioned by means of the multimodal quality of the corpus under scrutiny.

requirements:
• active participation
• oral presentation (handout) or
• research in progress and final paper

Please note that this course is a cell phone, WhatsApp, and email free zone. Prior enrolment via Stud.IP is mandatory. The enrolment period ends on March 15. The number of participants is limited to 20 students.

In this class we will first learn about approaches and tools to literary analysis before we look at how we read texts specifically from a postcolonial perspective. We will then read and discuss two postcolonial novels: 1. The Caribbean text Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys (here the Norton Critical Edition) and the Nigerian text Oil on Water by Helon Habila. Please purchase and read both texts, they are available at Thalia for just under 10 € (see links below). All other texts are provided via StudIP.
Class requirements are regular attendance and active class discussion (due to the Corona pandemic probably through an online platform) as well as in-depth knowledge of reading and viewing material. Reading the texts and watching the films is mandatory. Please note that prior enrollment through StudIP is mandatory. Maximum number of participants: 15.
(https://www.thalia.de/shop/home/artikeldetails/ID4281156.htmlhttps://www.thalia.de/shop/home/artikeldetails/ID29100962.html?ProvID=10907022&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI1_7Xuay66AIVioeyCh0JegMqEAAYASAAEgJHz_D_BwE)

Registration for this University Language Skills 1 (BIPEB): SEE BELOW

Participation
1) This class is open to students studying under the BiPEb 'Großes Fach' regulations, 4th semester and BiPEb 'Kleines Fach' students in their 2nd semester.
2) ERASMUS or other exchange students can participate in this class if they can provide me with proof of a C1 level (GER, CEFR) in English. Exchange students wishing to participate who have a level below C1, but above B2 need to contact Katja Müller before joining a class. (kamueller(at)uni-bremen.de)


BiPEb 'Großes Fach' will also have to take 'Classroom discourse', offered this semester.

Coursework
This (BiPEb) 'University Language Skills 1' class offers you the opportunity to analyse and evaluate your own language skills in English to enable you to choose areas in which you see room for improvement. Starting from there, we will move on to cover some basic and, nonetheless, grammatically challenging areas, to introduce you to different rhetorical writing strategies and essay planning structures. Last but not least, we will focus on sentence structure and try out several strategies to further improve your writing style.

REGISTRATION
Online registration by 15th March is manadatory.
ERASMUS or other exchange students please send me an email to register for this class (kamueller@uni-bremen.de)

Registration for Classroom Discourse: SEE BELOW

Participation
1) This class is open to students studying under the BiPEb 'Großes Fach' regulations, 4th semester
BiPEb 'Großes Fach' will also have to take "University Language Skills 1 (BiPEb)", offered this semester.
2) BiPEb 'Kleines Fach', GTW and FaBiWi students interested in taking an additional class with focus on teaching language are very welcome to join in.
3) This class is not recommended for Erasmus or other exchange students, unless they have an English language level ranging from B2 - C1/C2 (GER, CEFR) AND are studying English to become a teacher. Any exchange student with a level below C1 but above B2 wishing to attend Classroom Discourse needs to contact Katja Müller before joining a class. (kamueller(at)uni-bremen.de).

This class is designed to foster your communicative skills in the classroom - here at university and in any school you might be teaching, now or in the future. The focus will be on how to communicate effectively. On the one hand you will be working on expanding your own knowledge of the English language, working on sentence construction, grammar in general, or improving your vocabulary; on the other hand you will be planning to speak and teach "simple" English in class. For future teachers in a primary school this could mean to paraphrase a difficult word, give synonyms to improve the pupils' vocabulary, or to show/draw/mimic situations/actions/people or animals.
Trying out games is also part of the plan, introducing a fun factor to the classroom while at the same time testing the pupils' listening and speaking skills, ensuring that pupils understand instructions, and can communicate appropiately in English themselves, for example when exchanging information or ideas.

REGISTRATION
Online registration by 15th March is manadatory. ERASMUS or other exchange students please send me an email to register for this class (kamueller@uni-bremen.de)

Registration for this University Language Skills 1 (BIPEB): SEE BELOW

Participation
1) This class is open to students studying under the BiPEb 'Großes Fach' regulations, 4th semester and BiPEb 'Kleines Fach' students in their 2nd semester.
2) ERASMUS or other exchange students can participate in this class if they can provide me with proof of a C1 level (GER, CEFR) in English. Exchange students wishing to participate who have a level below C1, but above B2 need to contact Katja Müller before joining a class. (kamueller(at)uni-bremen.de)


BiPEb 'Großes Fach' will also have to take 'Classroom discourse', offered this semester.

Coursework
This (BiPEb) 'University Language Skills 1' class offers you the opportunity to analyse and evaluate your own language skills in English to enable you to choose areas in which you see room for improvement. Starting from there, we will move on to cover some basic and, nonetheless, grammatically challenging areas, to introduce you to different rhetorical writing strategies and essay planning structures. Last but not least, we will focus on sentence structure and try out several strategies to further improve your writing style.

REGISTRATION
Online registration by 15th March is manadatory.
ERASMUS or other exchange students please send me an email to register for this class (kamueller@uni-bremen.de)

This colloquium is designed for Bachelor students planning to write their BA-thesis in the field of cultural history. We will discuss theoretical and methodological approaches, develop outlines and structures as well as strong thesis statements in order to focus your search for information, to tackle your subject and to specify your argument. Students will be expected to present and discuss their project in various stages of progression both in class as well as in individual monitoring sessions.
We will follow the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, eighth edition.

This colloquium is for all students who plan to write their BA thesis in Linguistics in the summer term. Together we will find a topic for you and go through all the steps towards your final thesis: search for literature in the library catalogue and linguistic databases, find or collect the data for the analysis, choose an appropriate methodology, and do the actual research. You will learn how to plan your time realistically (and stick to the plan), how to structure your BA thesis, and you will write your thesis in less than one semester.

Recommended literature:
Cottrell, Stella. 2008/2013. The Study Skills Handbook. Palgrave Macmillan. 3rd or 4th ed.
Frank, Andrea & Stefanie Haacke & Swantje Lahm. 2013. Schlüsselkompetenzen: Schreiben in Studium und Beruf. 2. Auflage. Stuttgart: Metzler.
Rothstein, Björn. 2011. Wissenschaftliches Arbeiten für Linguisten. Tübingen: Narr.

This colloquium is designed for Bachelor, Masters and early doctoral students planning to write their thesis in the field of multimodal linguistics and its application to treatments of mixed media artefacts or performances: for example, film, comics, graphic novels, advertisements and so on. Particularly focused are areas where language (spoken or written) works together with visual representations of any kind or even where language takes a subordinate role. We will discuss theoretical and methodological approaches for characterising combinations of language and visual and other information, develop outlines and structures of the thesis, and consider how to construct strong thesis statements in order to focus your search for information, to tackle your subject and to construct your argument. Students will be expected to present and discuss their projects in various stages of progression both in class as well as in individual monitoring sessions as well as to give input to others. Standard styles of presenting work within linguistics will be discussed as well as ways of addressing and analysing data and showing that analyses are adequate.

This module is one of the colloquia designed for Bachelor and Master students writing their thesis in the field of literature or film studies. We shall look at a number of strategies for planning, structuring and producing longer pieces of work, and this programme will also include formal issues such as format and layout of the final assignment. At some point during the semester, you will be expected to present a structure of your thesis project and a selected part of it to the whole group.
In view of my expertise, I can offer to supervise BA- and MA-theses in the following areas:

British theatre and drama, including the work of William Shakespeare,
the literature of the 20th and 21st century,
and film.

Prior enrolment via Stud.IP is mandatory. Since no more than 10 students can participate in the final course, early registration is strongly recommended.


Requirements:
Regular attendance and oral participation
Oral presentation and handout

Please note that this course is a cell phone, WhatsApp and email free zone. Prior enrolment via Stud.IP is mandatory. The enrolment period ends on March 15. The number of participants is limited to 10 students.

This course is one of the specific colloquia designed for Bachelor students writing their BA-thesis (PO 2011) in the field of literary studies. We shall address issues of planning, structuring and writing longer pieces of work.

This class will offer supervision and mentorship to students with interests in the following areas of research:
• American Literature
• Postcolonial Theory
• Gender Studies and Gender Theory /Intersectionality
• Black Studies

Please follow the link to explore the department's website “Literatures in English” http://www.fb10.uni-bremen.de/anglistik/literaturwissenschaft/default.aspx and the department’s guidelines on BA dissertations: http://www.fb10.uni-bremen.de/anglistik/ba2/bachelorarbeit.aspx

Online course in the summer term 2020 – Due to the COVID 19 pandemic we will not meet in class – please ignore the time slot listed above.
This course is one of the specific colloquia designed for students planning their final dissertation either on undergraduate or graduate level in the field of literary studies (Module choices: Bachelor thesis module P or Master thesis module MA The). We shall look at a number of strategies for planning, structuring and writing longer pieces of work and this programme will also include formal issues such as format and layout of the final assignment. Please register on Stud. IP and explore the sections “Information” and “Schedule” on Stud. IP. for further details.
All students, who are planning to write their final dissertations in the field of literary studies, are welcome to join my course. In addition, I am happy to take on the role of a supervisor or co-supervisor for projects that correspond to my research and teaching focus, in other words, students who have a supervisor or co-supervisor that is not me are also welcome to join this course.

In diesem Modul erarbeiten die Studierenden spezifische Inhalte der Fremdsprachendidaktik, sowohl unter unterrichtsbezogenen Gesichtspunkten als auch unter forschungsbezogenen Aspekten mit Fokus auf gegenwärtige Entwicklungen und zukünftige Perspektiven. Die Inhalte des Kolloquiums fokussieren unterschiedliche schul- bzw. unterrichtsrelevante Themenbereiche. Bei Wahl der B.A.-Thesis in der Fachdidaktik Englisch können hier auch themenspezifische Fragestellungen erörtert werden.
Die Studierenden sollen in diesem Modul neben den fachlichen Inhalten ihre grundlegenden Vermittlungs- und Reflexionskompetenzen vertiefen und spezifizieren. Im Rahmen dieser Kompetenzen sollen die Studierenden insbesondere ihre bisherigen Praxiserfahrungen einbringen, kritisch reflektieren und themenspezifisch modifizieren.

Bachelorarbeiten (B.A.-Theses) in der Fremdsprachendidaktik Englisch können nur bei Besuch dieses Kolloquiums betreut werden. BA-Themen sollten möglichst frühzeitig im Rahmen einer Sprechstunde vorbesprochen werden. Bitte beachten Sie folgende Informationen: http://www.fb10.uni-bremen.de/anglistik/ba2/bachelorarbeit.aspx

This course is designed as a colloquium for young researchers writing their MA, PhD or postdoctoral thesis. Depending on particpants and their research topics, we will read theoretical texts suggested by the participants. Participants are invited to present their research topic, proposal, table of contents and/or written chapters and get constructive feedback in plenum discussions.
Pls register online through StudIP. MAx number of participants: 15
Due to the corona pandemic, this course will propably take place as an online course.

This course is designed to refresh and extend the students' knowledge of grammatical phenomena. We will look at the essential structures (tenses, modal auxiliaries, passive voice etc.) and discuss their use in different contexts.

Requirements: Regular attendance, active participation, presentations, written assignments

Online course in the summer term 2020 – Due to the COVID 19 pandemic we will not meet in class – please ignore the time slot listed above.
This course is one of the specific colloquia designed for students planning their final dissertation either on undergraduate or graduate level in the field of literary studies (Module choices: Bachelor thesis module P or Master thesis module MA The). We shall look at a number of strategies for planning, structuring and writing longer pieces of work and this programme will also include formal issues such as format and layout of the final assignment. Please register on Stud. IP and explore the sections “Information” and “Schedule” on Stud. IP. for further details.
All students, who are planning to write their final dissertations in the field of literary studies, are welcome to join my course. In addition, I am happy to take on the role of a supervisor or co-supervisor for projects that correspond to my research and teaching focus, in other words, students who have a supervisor or co-supervisor that is not me are also welcome to join this course.

This theatre workshop is based on our introductory work during the semester. Requirement is previous participation in the theatre workshop or some basic experience with improvisational theatre. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact me.