Winter 2027 Class Schedule

• Winter 2027 Class Schedule
• Winter 2027 Course Descriptions

Winter 2027 Class Schedule

*101 and 102 courses will be 70 minutes long, even though they may be listed as 80 minutes on CAESAR. 

Winter 2027 course descriptions 

GER 101-1,2,3 : Beginning German 

This is the second quarter of the Beginning German sequence: a systematic introduction to basic German. All four language skills - speaking, listening comprehension, reading and writing - are stressed to insure that students acquire a basic command of German. Classes are conducted in German, with occasional use of English. Key feature of this quarter: Individual oral interviews at the end of the quarter.

Prerequisite in German for 101-1: None or one year of high-school German.
Prerequisite in German for 101-2: 101-1 or placement exam results.
Prerequisite in German for 101-3: 101-2 or placement exam results.

GER 102- 1,2,3 : Intermediate German

This is the second quarter of a three-quarter sequence of Intermediate German. The thematic focus this quarter is on contemporary Germany as a multi-ethnic society. As materials we will use the TV show Türkisch für Anfänger and articles from a variety of German magazines or newspapers. We will follow recent 21st-century German cultural and political questions. All language skills are practiced throughout the year, but each quarter focuses on different language areas. In the Winter quarter we focus on colloquial and idiomatic contemporary language. The Spring quarter will be devoted to excerpts from German literary works of varying genres and discussion arising from them. The fall quarter was dedicated to 20th-century German history and politics through a literary lens.

Prerequisite in German for 102-1: 101-3 or placement exam results
Prerequisite in German for 102-2: 102-1 or placement exam results.
Prerequisite in German for 102-3: 102-2 or placement exam results.

German 104 – First-Year Writing Seminar 

Small, writing and discussion-oriented course exploring a specific topic or theme, and focused on the fundamentals of effective, college-level written communication. Not eligible to be applied towards a WCAS major or minor except where specifically indicated.

In this course we will read with understanding and joyfully appreciate Friedrich Schleiermacher's classic defense of religion from 1799: On Religion: Speeches to its Culture Despisers.

German 115 – Beginning German through Musical Journeys in Vienna

The fascinating musical and cultural history of the metropolis Vienna serves as the basis for this
Intensive Beginning German course which provides musically interested students with the option to acquire German language skills through an intensive immersion in the topic in an interdisciplinary context. The goals of the course include the contextualized development of speaking, writing, reading, and listening skills in German and the acquisition of a basic general and musical vocabulary as well as a solid grammatical basis. Activities will draw on the lives and works of composers between 1750 and 1950 including Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven, Franz Schubert, Johann Strauß, and Alban Berg. Students will read short biographies, letters, poetry and prose, watch relevant films and videos, study paintings and maps of Vienna, learn about important institutions and historical facts about the city, and explore current cultural events.

Prerequisite in German: None or one year of high-school German.

German 201 – Focus Reading

 Course for students who would like to explore German texts in more depth. Examines contemporary German culture. May be repeated for credit with change of topic. (This course will not count for the language requirement but may be taken concurrently with GERMAN 102-3).

Prerequisite: GERMAN 102-2 or placement test results.

GERMAN 230 - Berlin and the Culture of Democracy

This class considers the history and culture of Berlin from 1900 to the present. Through a wide range of media (literature, film, photography, historical documents) we can see a series of transformative moments in German cultural history through the prism of Berlin. Students will engage with the varied historical, socio-political, and artistic changes in German culture throughout the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.

Prerequisite: None. May be repeated for credit with a different topic.

German 245 - Introduction to German Literature: 1766-2019

This course, designed for both majors and non-majors, presents an overview of modern German literary history from the late eighteenth century to the present day. Students will learn to examine representative texts in German-language literature through the ages, looking at works of poetry and prose with a special focus on the ever-changing connection between history and literature and the many cultural transformations that the German-speaking world has undergone over the past two and a half centuries. As a small seminar setting, there will also be ample opportunity to practice speaking and writing in German, and to devoting time to the close analysis of celebrated works of literature in a foreign language.

Prerequisite in German: One 200-level course in German or permission of the DUS.

German 309 - Business German: The German Market and Globalized Economy

This course will give you an overview of the German economy, its underlying structures, its current trends and some of the political and global issues it is facing today. You will also search and apply for a summer internship in Germany, Austria, or Switzerland. While the course is designed to introduce students to a variety of German economic and sociopolitical issues, you will also be able to delve deeper into one topic of your choice for your final project. Though content-driven, the course will also further develop your language skills: in-class activities will focus on how to present graphics, statistics, and how to lead informative discussions in a business setting.

Prerequisite: Two 200-level courses in German.

Advanced Expression

SoC Individual and Social Behavior Distro

German 328 - Prague: City of Cultures

This course examines Prague, one of the most beautiful and culturally vibrant cities in Europe. The city's magnificent streets and buildings both conceal and reveal a past full of multiethnic coexistence and interethnic conflict. The course follows the development of Prague over the past century from the interwar multicultural, democratic city to the postwar homogeneous, communist community, and ultimately to its present open and capitalist incarnation. The goal of our course will be to understand how Prague's various communities built the city and its culture(s) and how they struggled to control it. We will read and watch a range of literary and historical sources, including the story of the Golem and writings by Václav Havel, and Franz Kafka.
 
Global Perspectives on Power, Justice, and Equity

Literature and Arts Foundational Discipline

SoC Individual and Social Behavior Distro

GERMAN 408 – Critical Theory and Religion

This course explores the central place the concept of “religion” has occupied in the development of critical theory and, in turn, the role critical theory has played in reframing “religion” in modernity and in the contemporary geopolitical moment. We take up the question, “Is critique secular,” as we consider the contributions, potential and actual, of “religion” to social transformation.

GERMAN 441 – Studies in Communication and Culture: History of Aesthetics

This course provides an introduction to foundational texts in the history of modern Western aesthetics from the Enlightenment to the present. The course will simultaneously examine the specific problems raised by the course texts and consider the texts as historical documents, looking at the ways in which they respond both to one another and to the political and cultural tensions of their respective eras. We will also consider the ways in which these texts cross disciplinary boundaries or indeed are always already transdisciplinary, moving from the fields of artistic and literary criticism to the fields of ethics, epistemology, politics, and psychology and back again, always asking ourselves the questions: What are the historical and political conditions of the ways in which we make and/or think about works of art? And how do these historical and political conditions, in turn, shape the world that art is said to reflect?

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