This course welcomes students who wish to complete the following modules:
M.A. E-SC: OrMO (Orientierungsmodul 1. Semester)
Zertifikatsstudium Grundlagen Digitaler Medien in pädagogischen Kontexten > Digitale Medien in Lernumgebungen

We are thoroughly surrounded by media on a daily basis, living, so to speak, in a “mediatized” society (Voigts-Virchow, 2005: 5), where the majority of information and knowledge is not perceived through a first-hand experience, i.e. somatically, but information that came to us via a medium, in other words, symbolically (Ott and Mack, 2010: 1). According to a number of critical textbooks in Media studies in English, a course on media aesthetics can supply the basis for media literacy by examining the meaning of visual images for use in film and electronic media.

Delineating from a quintessential understanding of media aesthetics as a study in sensory perception, as a study in value, and a study in the stylistic and formal properties of artistic products, the course will maintain a more philosophically minded orientation in the first half of the course by providing students with an extensive overview of the field of old, new and hybrid forms of media (print, painting, and photography, broadcast, radio play, TV, film, graphic novels and digital art). The sessions on film analysis (narratological and dramatic composition) will however incorporate some aspects of applied media aesthetics by exploring major aesthetic image elements including light, colour and sound in greater detail.

We will meet in weekly online ZOOM seminar sessions, but students will also have access to weekly study units. Since some of the participants are required to submit a research-based term paper, we will use parts of our seminar discussions to the development of topics, the formulation of a thesis statement, as well as considerations about the methodological approaches of writing such a paper. A reader with selected secondary text materials will be made available for download on Stud. IP. You will need access to Stud.IP and a laptop or tablet with sound and audio capabilities.

You may wish to check the sections "Information" and "Schedule" further details such as requirements, weekly schedule, select bibliography and modes of assessment.
Requirements and Assessment
• Interest in the topic discussed and ideally a regular attendance and informed participation in class discussion (not part of your formal assessment);
• in-depth knowledge of the selected reading material,
• homework assignments,
• Portfolio presentation or research-based term paper.
The requirements as formulated above may vary depending on your module choices and your overall degree program.

This class will introduce students to the field of postcolonial studies and will lay the basis for classes with topics relating to postcolonial phenomena, literatures, films, and media. Students who wish to continue their studies in the field of postcolonial anglophone literatures and cultures are strongly advised to take this class.
Through a rather dense reading program and some documentary films we will learn about colonial histories, neocolonial relations in the globalized world, and key concepts in Postcolonial Studies, such as alterity, hybridity, transculturality, manicheanism, dichotomy, colonial discourse, colonized mind, creolization, hegemony, exoticism, orientalism, essentialism, and syncretism. We will read the writings of the foremost thinkers of postcolonial and transcultural theories, including Edward Said, Frantz Fanon, Edouard Glissant, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Stuart Hall, Homi Bhabha, Walter Mignolo, Edward Said, Wolfgang Welsh, Bill Ashcroft, Gareth Griffiths, and Helen Tiffin.
The class will be held in English. All texts will be provided electronically or through Stud IP. Requirements are regular attendance, participation in discussions, and in-depth knowledge of reading materials. Please note that prior enrollment via Stud.IP is mandatory.

This lecture series provides a topic-related overview over the disciplinary approaches adopted in the three profile areas of the master programme (British, North American and Postcolonial Literatures; Linguistics: Varieties, Medialities, Applications; British, North American and Postcolonial Cultural History) by addressing the three interrelated areas of language, text, and media. In the lectures we will also illustrate individual objects of analysis and highlight research topics and methods that feature prominently in the work currently being pursued by the members of the department participating in the programme.

In the last decades, the research paradigm of World Englishes has experienced a proliferation of detailed studies of different aspects of Englishes across the world. These descriptions have largely focused on phonological, lexical, morphosyntactic, and, more recently, also pragmatic and cultural-cognitive aspects of World Englishes. In this seminar we will review recent trends and current research topics and methods in the field (e.g. model formation, lexico-grammatical variation and innovation, pragmatics, and metaphor and idioms). Students will then develop and work on corpus-based empirical research projects in which they examine selected aspects of World Englishes.

In the course a detailed overview of the growing field of multimodality will be given, examining how different expressive resources (text, pictures, diagrams, layout, movement, sound, ...) combine productively for effective communication, and how problems and failures of communication can be analysed. The course will be example driven, looking at particular kinds of multimodal communication in order to introduce some of the basic theoretical and practical methods developed for state of the art multimodality research. The course is a prerequisite for taking up further more advanced studies of mixed mode communication forms later in the MA programme. Participants will engage with analytic methods from film theory, design theory, comics and sequential art, psychological approaches, rhetoric, advertising and more, all critically reassessed and extended through modern multimodality theory and method. A broad interdisciplinary textbook introducing the field is Bateman/Wildfeuer/Hiippala (2017, de Gruyter) "Multimodality: foundations, research and analysis. a problem-oriented introduction", available from the university library.

Intercultural communication is based in several academic disciplines. These are psychology, anthropology and linguistics. We will discuss all approaches but focus on language in intercultural contexts.
Language in context has traditionally been studied within the context of one culture, i.e. British or US American English. Variation on the sociopragmatic level, e.g. Speech Act Theory, Politeness Theory, Conversation Analysis principles, has been applied to speech communities all over the world, and a previously ethnocentric perspective has made way for research that demonstrates different communicative strategies in different English speaking cultures. First, this class introduces the major analytical frameworks that are applied in pragmatics. Second, we will look at selected studies which cover the variation in Englishes around the world.

This course takes place ONLINE.

This four-hour course is designed to give students an insight into academic writing at a professional level. We will not only discuss the fundamental aspects of academic writing (e.g. thesis statements, paragraphing etc.), but also look at various text types used in academia (abstract, summary, essay etc.). Apart from structural devices, we will furthermore focus on how to apply critical thinking/writing within the boundaries given by the text types. In addition, we will focus on the needed language skills to communicate the complex concepts that permeate academic writing in preparation for the MA dissertation.

This four-hour course will take place on campus.
The course is designed to develop academic writing skills at a professional level. We will review the fundamental aspects of academic writing at the structural level, including thesis statements, paragraphing, developing cohesion etc. as we explore different text types that you will be expected to use in your academic studies. In addition, emphasis will be placed on further developing the language skills necessary to express complex concepts in both written and spoken form as you move forward in developing critical thinking and writing skills.

Note: This course takes place on campus!

Generally speaking, this course deals with the practical side of film enthusiasm. Students will not only watch the films, but they will also learn how to write about the films. In order to so, the following text types are analysed and reproduced: review, summary and blog entry. The goal of the course is to put together a film blog with texts about a broad range of films.

Students are graded on 2 written assignments. All materials are provided via StudIP. Please note that this course takes place in English.

Roll the dice! E-SC welcomes newcomers and veterans alike, to its role playing-club!
From beloved games like Dungeons&Dragons, to lesser known tabletop-games like the AlienRPG or The Last Airbender - we invite everyone to follow along these exciting journeys with us!
No need to bring any prior experience, nor equipment - we’ve got you covered! And if you’re already a pro, all the better. Attending the on-campus sessions, playing along, and keeping the group’s journal up to date (among one or two other required assignments) will grant you up to 3 CP - while stepping forward to lead a group as a DM (dungeon-master) through your own journey, will get you 3 CP as well!
Please register in StudIP and if you have any questions, get in touch with the tutors.

Ever wanted to just talk about your favourite movies? E-SC presents to you our filmclub! Be it critically acclaimed prize-contenders, trashy B-movies, or superhero flicks - we want to offer you a place to critically discuss pictures. The course does, however, come with a tiny prerequisite: you need to be able to watch movies on either Netflix, Prime, etc.
The Filmclub meetings will take place on campus on Friday 2-4 pm every second week.
For questions please reach out to the tutors.

The End is here!
Melting polar caps, heatwaves and wildfires - our planet is dying and nothing is done. 7 years until it’s all over; awareness seems to not be helping, as it’s the most powerful on Earth that are ignoring and/or straight-up opposing the change.
The apocalypse hasn’t happened yet, because it is happening right now.

In this seminar we will look at the end in books, film and video games. Why has Godzilla been described as the perfect symbol for climate change? What role does climate change play in Blade Runner 2049? And why does the climate change always seem to play second fiddle in stories?

Books, movies and games will be chosen partly by you, partly by us tutors. You’re encouraged to read, watch and play the various media offered - this does, however, come with the prerequisite that you’ll need to buy (rent or borrow) the discussed books, movies or games. (Fret not, though, we don’t expect you all to play through an entire video-game during the semester - watching Let’s plays, streams or videos on them will suffice!).

You’ll be able to gain up to 2CP for General Studies (or the supplementary module for E-SC master

Do you like books and reading? If you do, the English-Speaking Cultures Bookclub is what you are looking for. Each month we will read a book in English, dealing with a specific topic (example: Black History Month). Those monthly choices are entirely up to you as long as they fit the theme. Once a semester we also do a Bookclub Buddy Read. You can gain up to two credit points by actively participating in group discussions and presenting your monthly read. Whether your favourite genre is fantasy, crime fiction or something else, all readers are welcome. The theme for October 2022 will be “Scientific article”.

Meetings of the book club take place on Tuesdays and Thursdays, 4-6 pm every second week. Please register for the book club beforehand on Stud.IP and select one of the groups (either Tuesday or Thursday). Please get in touch with one of the tutors if you require more information.

The practice of creative writing techniques is by no means reserved for future poets and novelists; it also enhances our reading and understanding of how literary texts work and improves general vocational writing skills. The ability to give productive feedback in a respectful way, and in turn integrate this into our own writing, is of the essence.

This class is designed for a maximum of twelve students who want to take the plunge.

You need have no previous experience of creative writing, but you must bring with you both an interest in writing short fiction or poetry and the courage to read your texts in front of the workshop group. Among the approaches used will be re-writing techniques and the practice of specific literary forms which lead to better appreciation of these in existing writers. We will also try out some of the basic elements of poetry (rhyme, rhythm, image) and of narrative technique (i.e. how a story is told).

The bulk of the written work will be done in class as responses to themes or forms set by the teacher. Active participation in the form of regular written contributions will be expected from all who take part.

1922 stands out as one of the most remarkable years in literary history. With works like James Joyce’s Ulysses (1922), T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land (1922), and of course the infamous fourth volume of Marcel Proust’s La recherche du temps perdu (1913-1927) being published that year, 1922 marks most certainly the peak of modernist literary production. But what is it exactly that engenders such a prolific moment for high modernism? What lies at the core of these texts? Can we read this literary revolution as an imaginary resolution of real social contradictions, hence as an ideological act contrasting the political revolution in the newly founded Soviet Union (the first socialist state on a global scale)? Or does modernism or more precisely modernist poetry resist or even struggle against the tendencies of their historic moment leaving an opening for the new?

100 Years have passed since the annus mirabilis of high modernism and the answer to these question surely isn’t an easy one. Yet, prominent topics such as the problematic of gender binaries, arguably taking up a centre role in Proust and T.S. Eliot, have regained the public interest. From this perspective these texts might even teach us something about our own time.

In this seminar we will read three of the most salient poets of High Modernism from a transnational perspective. T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land, Paul Valéry’s collection Charmes (1922), and César Vallejo’s work Trilce (1922) which revolutionised the Peruvian Avant-guard will form the centre of our seminar. However, to grasp the high modernist revolution in poetry, we will trace the development of modern poetic production from the works of E.A. Poe and Charles Baudelaire to French symbolism and Latin American modernismo.

You will be provided with the texts during the course of our semester. It is, however, always recommendable to get familiar with the authors before the start of the semester

This class will be completely taught in presence and is open to PhD students and MA students from the E-SC Master Program at U Bremen, who plan to write their MA Thesis in the Summer Semester 2023. All reading and information material will be made available through the U Bremen teaching and learning platform Stud.IP; hence prior enrollment via Stud.IP is mandatory.

In this class students will learn how to develop a research topic, collect bibliographical material, develop a theoretical background and formulate research questions. They will then individually develop the research topic for their master’s thesis. Finally, students will write research proposals and individually present these in class for peer-review.
Class requirements are regular attendance, developing theoretical and historical backgrounds of topic, reading secondary sources at home, and active class participation.

This research module is one of the colloquia designed for Master students writing their thesis in the field of literary or film studies. This module will assist you in preparing your MA thesis in terms of both content and methodological approach. This includes identifying a research topic, formulating research questions, and providing the theoretical background for the thesis. The major objective of this colloquium is to plan and design the MA thesis by means of completing a research proposal that includes the underlying theoretical insights, a literature review, a methodological design, and a bibliography.

In view of my expertise, I can offer to supervise MA-theses in the following areas:

• British theatre and drama, including the work of William Shakespeare,
• the literature of the 20th and 21st century,
• Australian literature,
• climate change novels,
• and film.

Prior enrolment via Stud.IP is mandatory.

This is a research colloquium for MA and PhD students who are planning on writing or are currently working on their final theses in the fields of (applied) English linguistics, World Englishes or SLA.

This course is for all Master's students (as well as advanced BA and doctoral candidates) who are planning a research project in the general area of multimodality. This includes all media, film, TV, comics, dance, music, spoken language, social media and combinations, as well as particularly experimental or corpus-based methods. Basic research methods will be reviewed, corpus-techniques and methods for evaluating data will be discussed. Attendees will be expected to develop their own ideas for projects and to explore the methods and literature relevant, reporting back regularly to the group as a whole for maximal synergies. The result of participation should be a detailed workplan that can then be carried out for the final MA thesis.

Colloquium: by invitation only: Colloquium for PhD / MA students who are currently pursuing their thesis with me (in Englisch) - Brief information

This class will introduce students to the field of postcolonial studies and will lay the basis for classes with topics relating to postcolonial phenomena, literatures, films, and media. Students who wish to continue their studies in the field of postcolonial anglophone literatures and cultures are strongly advised to take this class.
Through a rather dense reading program and some documentary films we will learn about colonial histories, neocolonial relations in the globalized world, and key concepts in Postcolonial Studies, such as alterity, hybridity, transculturality, manicheanism, dichotomy, colonial discourse, colonized mind, creolization, hegemony, exoticism, orientalism, essentialism, and syncretism. We will read the writings of the foremost thinkers of postcolonial and transcultural theories, including Edward Said, Frantz Fanon, Edouard Glissant, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Stuart Hall, Homi Bhabha, Walter Mignolo, Edward Said, Wolfgang Welsh, Bill Ashcroft, Gareth Griffiths, and Helen Tiffin.
The class will be held in English. All texts will be provided electronically or through Stud IP. Requirements are regular attendance, participation in discussions, and in-depth knowledge of reading materials. Please note that prior enrollment via Stud.IP is mandatory.

Current research in the field of English corpus linguistics challenges the traditional division between foreign language / learner varieties of English (EFL) and institutionalized second-language varieties of English (ESL) (the so-called “paradigm-gap”). Despite the manifold differences between EFL and ESL, and although the two types of varieties have traditionally been examined in different research paradigms (EFL in Second Language Acquisition research, ESL in research on World Englishes), there are a number of similarities that warrant a comparative perspective. Both are ‘non-native’ varieties, are acquired in institutionalised settings as foreign or second languages in language contact situations, and, most importantly for the present context, have been assumed to be subject to similar cognitive processes of language acquisition and production.

In this seminar we will review the current research literature in the field and then design corpus-based empirical research projects in which the student will compare selected EFL and ESL varietes to examine similarities and differences between them.

Obligatory reading (available as a .pdf file in the course module after registration):

Gilquin, G. (2015). At the interface of contact linguistics and second language acquisition research. New Englishes and Learner Englishes compared. English World-Wide 36(1), 90-123.

In this seminar, we'll look at and discuss (multimodal) cohesion from a variety of perspectives and in different media. Thematically, the course is split into five different blocks which always start with some theoretical input, move on to a discussion of a number of different examples before concluding with hands-on analysis.
In the introductory block, we'll discuss multimodality in general and multimodal cohesion in particular as well as notions of (multimodal) texts and affordances of different modes and media. The general idea here is to outline all topics and concerns which we'll discuss and track throughout the rest of the semester.
In the second thematic block, we'll focus on page-based media, covering examples which are distributed on paper as well as on digital 'pages'. Here, we'll discuss affordances in more details, talk about different layout concerns and, of course, methodological and theoretical approaches as well as analytical tools.
In the third thematic block, we'll move from page-based media to screen-based examples. A general discussion of (multimodal) cohesion in audio-visual media is followed by film examples.
In the fourth block, we'll stay with audio-visual media but add an interactive aspect by focusing on video game analysis.
The fifth and final thematic block consists of project work which will be the main part of your assessment.

As this is planned as a rather interactive seminar, seminar participants will have the opportunity to influence the choice of analytical examples: In September, we'll pick one franchise which includes graphic novel(s), film(s) and video game(s) which will serve as key example throughout the semester. The basic idea is to take one franchise and analyse its different parts in the respective thematic blocks. Suggestions will be accepted until September 20, the poll will go online afterwards.

All reading will be available online.

Please note that you will need a laptop for this class. If this poses an issue, don't hesitate to get in touch before class starts so we can discuss options!

Communication is more than exchanging information. When people talk to one another, they mean more than what they say. This extra meaning can be their epistemic or attitudinal stance towards what is said or their emotions. The course „Talking bodies“ is concerned with the embodied repertoire people use to construct stance and emotions in verbal interactions.

Learning objective
In this course, you will
• Familiarize yourselves with the terms stance and emotion
• Get an overview on the state-of-the-art
• Get to know qualitative methods of analyzing stance and emotions
• Do some research yourselves
• Learn to work in international and heterogenous groups.

Credits
English-Speaking Cultures > SpecMo > graded (6CP): Portfolio
English-Speaking Cultures > SpecMo > ungraded (6CP): Presentation

This seminar will give you an understanding of the sociolinguistic situation in pidgin and creole-speaking countries and then give you a comprehensive introduction into West African Pidgin English - one of the major languages spoken in Africa. In the course of the semester, we will discuss and analyse authentic data produced in English-based pidgins and creoles.

Multimodality is a stage of disciplinary development, i.e. one through which many fields naturally pass (Bateman, 2022). Indeed, linguistics is one of those disciplines that have entered into what Bateman calls “multimodal phases.” As observed by this scholar, “those expansions are beneficial for the respective field because they show how principles and explanations uncovered have broader application than originally believed” (p. 4). The term 'language' is extended to include, not just words and sentences, but all forms of symbolic interaction (gesture, sign language, art, architecture, dance, music, etc.). How do we produce and interpret multimodal language? By human brains. This means that for any enterprise that enhances human comprehension and knowledge, what goes on inside individuals’ heads must also be a prime concern.

In this course, we will draw on sights and tools from cognitive science and cognitive psychology to explore the links between multimodal language and cognitive, social and political action. Among the topics we will discuss are multimodal metaphor theory, multimodal blending, multimodal mental models, relevance theory, the discourse-knowledge interface, systems of the human mind, categorization, moral-political reasoning, cognitive grammar, contextualization, discourse (language use) and gender, power abuse and manipulation, and identity construction.

References
Abdel-Raheem, Ahmed. 2019. Pictorial framing in moral politics: A corpus-based experimental studies. London: Routledge.
Bateman, John. 2022. Multimodality, where next? Some meta-methodological considerations. Multimodality and Society 2(1): 41-63.

This course welcomes students who wish to complete the following modules:
M.A. E-SC SpecMo (Spezialisierungsmodul 3. Semester);
M.A. TnL Vertiefungsmodul und Profilmodul Literatur
Academic Exchange students

Narratives of Travel and Mobility have a long-standing history and are increasingly popular in terms of text production and commercial success, encompassing a fascinating diversity of literary forms, modes and itineraries. As a repository for factual and fictional accounts of mobility and cross-cultural exchange, however, these narratives have long been underestimated for their potential to contribute to a broad range of cultural, political and historical debates that seek to reassess the role of travel writing as a "vehicle for geographic, ethnographic and sociological knowledge." (Thompson 4). This seminar discusses diverse themes and characteristics of historic and contemporary travel narratives, including narratives of pilgrimage and refugee writings,and thus aims to map contemporary critical concepts regarding transnational and postcolonial perspectives in weekly readings of excerpts of selected travel narratives.

Since some of the participants are required to submit a research paper, we will use parts of our seminar discussions to the development of topics, the formulation of a thesis statement, as well as considerations about the methodological approaches of writing such a paper. A reader with selected secondary text materials will be made available for download on Stud. IP. You may wish to check the sections "Information" and "Schedule" further details such as requirements, weekly schedule, select bibliography and modes of assessment.
Requirements and Assessment
• Interest in the topic discussed and ideally a regular attendance and informed participation in class discussion (not part of your formal assessment);
• in-depth knowledge of the selected reading material,
• homework assignments,
• group projects and presentation of research paper proposals;
• research-based term paper.
The requirements as formulated above may vary depending on your overall degree program.
Copies of selected travel narratives can be purchased at the bookstore on our campus (Universitätsbuchhandlung Bremen: www.unibuch-bremen.de)

In this seminar we will learn about Indigenous history, issues, problems, and identities through watching documentaries and other films dealing with Indigenous topics in North America. We will cooperate with the 'Indianer Inuit Filmfestival' in Stuttgart and will watch a selection of the films that will be shown there in February 2023. We will also transcribe, translate and provide the German subtitles for a small selection of films that will run at the festival in Stuttgart. As a highlight, a selection of students will go to the festival (we will get free festival passes) and participate in all showings and events and help with moderation of film slots.
The class will be held in English and in presence. All texts will be provided electronically or through Stud IP. Requirements are regular attendance, participation in discussions, and in-depth knowledge of reading materials as well as a written exam at the end of the semester. Please note that prior enrollment via Stud.IP is mandatory.

This colloquium is designed for all students who are writing their thesis in the fields of (i) multimodal linguistics and its application to treatments of mixed media artefacts or performances and (ii) for critical discourse analysis, particularly empirically based studies. The course functions as an accompaniment to the activity of actual thesis writing and so is appropriate for both MA and BA students. Examples of media that might be targetted include: film, comics, graphic novels, advertisements and so on. Particularly of interest will be areas where language (spoken or written) works together with visual representations of any kind. Problems that participants may encounter will be treated, drawing on any additional theoretical and methodological approaches for characterising combinations of language and visual information as necessary, and consider ingpractical methods for corpus work (particularly involving mixed media and statistical evaluations, but not only). In the course we will work on how to construct strong thesis arguments. 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 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.