Fall 2025 Courses
First-Year Writing Seminars
Offered fall or spring. 3 credits. No knowledge of German is expected. Letter grades only.
Course Coordinator for TA-taught FWS seminars: D. McBride
GERST 1121: WRITING BERLIN
Seminar 101: TR 10:10-11:25, C. Strateman
Berlin is a city that reinvents itself by rewriting itself. In this writing seminar, we’ll study a variety of literary, visual, and sonic texts to create a mythical map of the city from its emergence as modern metropolis in the 1920s, reduction to rubble in World War II, refuge for the disaffected in the 1980s, and rebirth in the 21st century. As we make our way through the linguistic, visual, and aural landscape of its ever-changing topography, we’ll create our own stories of a mythical Berlin in dialogue with texts written by the displaced persons who breached its walls and navigated its illicit economies. We’ll also become more critical readers and viewers, as well as better writers.
GERST 1122: LOVE AND DEATH IN VIENNA
Seminar 101: TR 8:40-9:55, A. Reynders
Seminar 102: MWF 10:10-11:00, D. McBride
Singing boys. Dancing horses. Waltzing debutantes. Those fortunate enough to live in a city where each day begins with a pastry and ends with a two-liter bottle of wine must live a charmed existence! Not according to Freud. After decades of treating the morbid Viennese, he concluded that human nature must be torn between two warring forces: a love instinct and a death drive. In this FWS we'll explore both sides of Vienna's enigmatic character, its life-affirming hedonism and its self-destructive nihilism, through the lens of narrative fiction on page and on screen. Along the way, we'll learn to read and view more critically by writing our way through the best literature and cinema of the multi-ethnic metropolis on the Danube.
GERST 1126: PHILOSOPHIES OF VIOLENCE
Seminar 101: TR 10:10-11:25, S. Thomas
Violence is a complex concept with a nuanced history. Beginning with Kant and progressing through the discourses of Engels, Benjamin, Arendt, and others, this seminar will employ close readings of philosophical texts to problematize violence’s conceptual history. Through in-class discussions you will learn how violence’s various conceptualizations have shaped the political, religious, and scientific landscapes of modern life. In addition to learning this discrete body of knowledge, you will use weekly writing activities and assigned essays to develop your own critical voice. By semester’s end you will have gained a critical eye towards the institutional dilemmas of contemporary life, and through those eyes you will be empowered with the voice to change it.
GERST 1127: WRITING SPORTS: BEAUTY, POLITICS, COLLECTIVITY
Seminar 101: TR 11:40-12:55, N. Spadoni
Why do sports fascinate and inspire us? How and to what extent can this sports fascination shape politics, identity, and collective experience? How have we expressed this fascination through writing and media, and are there lost or forgotten ways to do it? Rather than a superfluous pastime, sports acquired, over the last century, a central role of intensity and influence in our global society, and in this sense this seminar will explore the many ways in which sports rose to a prominent object of writing— lyrically, philosophically, journalistically, academically. Students will develop analytical and creative writing skills through a series of scaffolded, process-writing exercises to produce five academically viable essays in a variety of styles and genres.
GERST 1128: CATASTROPHE
Seminar 101: MW 8:40-9:25, K. Nousek
From nuclear accidents to glacial melt, literature and the arts can capture anxieties about global catastrophes beyond comprehension and register seemingly invisible traces of radical changes to landscapes. In what ways do cultural forms grasp, question, and creatively transform world-negating events? How can creative texts use cultural memories to reinvigorate worlds with meaning after traumatic disasters? Using texts about impacted and disappearing places in central and eastern Europe, East Asia, Latin America, and Antarctica, we will investigate global catastrophes through intercultural lenses to explore the strategies and solidarities that arise in response. Scaffolded essay assignments with guided drafting and peer reviews will help students identify complex, interconnected impacts on local and global communities.
GERST 1129: PHONINESS AND AWKWARDNESS
Seminar 101: TR 1:25-2:40, W. Wang
What does being “genuine to oneself” mean? Can one really know what is authentic, or is all self-presentation a form of pretense? This course delves into the tension between phoniness and awkwardness as it appears in narrative fiction. If one rejects phoniness, one may appear awkward or out of sync with social norms. Yet embracing pretense erodes authenticity. What is the “self” to which one is genuine? Writing in this class is inseparable from critical reading. Assignments include weekly short responses and five 5-page essays. From sentimentalism to satire, readings include presentations of “phoniness”, e.g. Goethe’s “The Sorrows of Young Werther” and Nabokov’s “Pnin”. We will explore how phoniness implicates aesthetic, moral, and economic values.
GERST 1170: MARX, NIETZSCHE, FREUD
Seminar 101: MW 11:40-12:55, M. Villalobos
A basic understanding of Marx, Nietzsche, and Freud is a prerequisite for participating in critical debates in the humanities and social sciences. Our seminar will explore key terms in the revolutionary models of critical analysis these thinkers pioneered: historical materialism, post-metaphysical philosophy, and psychoanalysis. This will mean articulating points of contrast as well as convergence. Discussions and writing exercises will focus on texts that created the discursive framework for critiquing society and culture today. Our method will proceed from the premise that critical reading, thinking, and writing are inseparable moments in the same operation of critique. The question that guides that method will be: Do alternative ways of thinking exist in opposition to the ones we view as natural, inevitable, or universal?
Undergraduate Courses (Offered in German)
GERST 1210: EXPLORING GERMAN CONTEXTS I
4 credits. Student option grading. Intended for students with no prior experience in German or based on German Placement test result. Course Coordinator: G. Lischke
Seminar 101: MTWF 9:05-9:55, B. Beese
Seminar 102: MTWF 10:10-11:00, S. Walkinshaw
Seminar 103: MTWF 11:15-12:05, G. Lischke
Seminar 104: MTWF 12:20-1:10, R. Thakore
Students develop basic abilities in listening, reading, writing and speaking German in meaningful contexts through interaction in small group activities. Course material including videos, short articles, poems, and songs provides students with varied perspectives on German language, culture and society.
GERST 1220: EXPLORING GERMAN CONTEXTS II
4 credits. Student option grading. Prerequisite: GERST 1210 or based on German Placement test result. Course Coordinator: G. Matthias Phelps
Seminar 101: MTWF 10:10-11:00, B. Brady
Seminar 102: MTWF 11:15-12:05, G. Matthias Phelps
Students build on their basic knowledge of German by engaging in intense and more sustained interaction in the language. Students learn more advanced language structures allowing them to express more complex ideas in German. Discussions, videos and group activities address topics of relevance to the contemporary German-speaking world.
GERST 1230: EXPANDING THE GERMAN DOSSIER
3 credits. Introductory + level. Student option grading. Prerequisite: Limited to students who have previously studied German and based on German Placement test result. Successful completion of GERST 1210, GERST 1220, and GERST 1230 satisfies Option 2 of the language requirement. Course Coordinator: G. Matthias Phelps
MWF 12:20-1:10, G. Matthias Phelps
Students continue to develop their language skills by discussing a variety of cultural topics and themes in the German-speaking world. The focus of the course is on expanding vocabulary, reviewing major grammar topics, developing effective reading strategies, improving listening comprehension, and working on writing skills. Work in small groups increases each student’s opportunity to speak in German and provides for greater feedback and individual help.
GERST 2000: GERMANY: INTERCULTURAL CONTEXT
3 credits. Student option grading. Prerequisite: GERST 1220 + placement result or 1230. Satisfies Option 1. A content-based language course on the intermediate level. Course Coordinator: G. Matthias Phelps
Seminar 101: MWF 10:10-11:00, G. Matthias Phelps
Seminar 102: MWF 11:15-12:05, A. Necker
Students examine important aspects of present-day German culture while expanding and strengthening their reading, writing and speaking skills in German. Materials for each topic are selected from a variety of sources (fiction, newspapers, magazines, and the Internet). Units address a variety of topics including studying at a German university, modern literature, Germany online, and Germany at the turn of the century. Oral and written work, individual and group presentations emphasize accurate and idiomatic expression in German. Successful completion of the course enables students to continue with more advanced courses in language, literature and culture.
GERST 2020: LITERARY TEXTS AND CONTEXTS
3 credits. Student option grading. Prerequisite: GERST 2000, or equivalent, or placement by examination. Taught in German for B1+ level. Can be used in partial fulfillment of the humanities distribution requirement. Students must take one of the following courses as a prerequisite for Study Abroad in a German-speaking country: GERST 2020, GERST 2040, or GERST 2060. This course counts toward the German Studies Minor.
Seminar 101: MWF 1:25-2:15, D. McBride
Babylon Berlin is the most expensive and elaborate television series in German history. The neo-noir police procedural set in a mythical Berlin of 1929 was already a global hit when it entered its current, fifth season of production. This fourth-semester course is designed to improve your linguistic proficiency and cultural competency by investigating the innovative media that gave birth to the myth of Berlin as metaphorical Babylon: pulp fiction, the New Objectivity in art, sound film, and the distinctly German genre of pop music that conquered the cabarets and dance halls: the Schlager.
GERST 2040: PERSPECTIVES ON GERMAN CULTURE
3 credits. Student option grading. Prerequisite: GERST 2000, or placement by examination (placement score and CASE). Satisfies Option 1. Students must take one of the following courses as a prerequisite for Study Abroad in a German-speaking country: GERST 2020, GERST 2040, or GERST 2060. Course Coordinator: G. Lischke
MWF 11:15-12:05, S. Hadley
This course aims at sharpening your awareness of personal and cultural subjectivity by examining texts in a variety of media against the backdrop of cultural, political, and historical contexts. We will focus on improving your oral and written expression of idiomatic German by giving attention to more sophisticated aspects of using enriched vocabulary in a variety of conversational contexts and written genres. Materials will include readings in contemporary prose, newscasts, research at the Johnson Art Museum, and interviews with native speakers on a topic of contemporary cultural relevance.
GERST 3025: MAKING FUTURES
3 credits. Letter grades only. Taught in German. Satisfies Option 1. Prerequisite: one German course at the 2010-2499 level or equivalent. This course may be counted towards the requirement for 3000-3209 level language in the major.
MW 1:25-2:40, K. Nousek
What forms can and should the future take? How do futures emerge in thought and action, and what is the role of reflection on past events for imagining future horizons? How can art and fiction disrupt habits of thought to bring alternative futures into view? This course will investigate seemingly disparate tools for imagining possible worlds: technology, poetic language, and cultural difference. By looking closely and critically at futurity (or its absence) in science fiction, magical realism, visual art, and new media, students will explore how historical ruptures and social violence test imaginations, and the creative forms that push back.
Viewings and readings may include Akomfrah, Arendt, Benjamin, Berlant, Bloch, Edelman, Gaiman, Haraway, Kafka, Kaléko, Kant, Klee, Lubinetzki, Nietzsche, Sebald, and others.
GERST 3350: KAFKA IN CONTEXT: TRIALS OF MODERNITY
3 credits. Student option grading. Taught in German. Satisfies Option 1. Prerequisite: one course at the GERST 3000-3209 level or equivalent. Readings and discussion in German.
TR 1:25-2:40, A. Schwarz
Focus on Kafka’s literary, theatrical, political, historical, religious, personal and intellectual environment and its impact on his literary productions. Topics of discussion include: the individual versus hierarchical systems (state, law, bureaucracy); the individual and the arts (music, theater, literature); writing between life and death; finding a home in language; the animal in the human; the body between pain and pleasure; writing between wars. Seminar will also explore Kafka’s enormous impact on modern film, drama and literature. Readings include his short stories and one novel.
GERST 4100: THE SEMINAR: MANIFESTOS
4 credits. Letter grades only. Satisfies Option 1. Prerequisite: any German course at the 3210-3499-level or equivalent. Taught in German. The Seminar is a requirement of the German Studies major, but is open to all students who have met the prerequisites. The course has a research component, including poster presentations of all final projects, and is taught each fall by a faculty member in the Department of German Studies on a topic of their expertise. Students must enroll in GERST 4100 SEMINAR 101 and PRJ 601.
Seminar 101: TR 10:10-11:25, M. Jarris
PRJ 601
Topic: Manifestos
Manifestos provoke, estrange, condemn, inspire, and mobilize. In this seminar, we will examine the manifesto as a genre at the intersection of politics and aesthetics. From revolutionary manifestos (communist, anarchist, antifascist) to avant-garde manifestos (Dada, Futurist, Surrealist, Symbolist, Situationist) and contemporary feminist and ecological manifestos, we will consider: how are collective identities forged through the construction of “us” vs. “them”? How does the manifesto combine visual, textual, and aural elements? What do manifestos tell us about the context in which they emerged? We will explore the manifesto from multiple perspectives throughout the semester, including as a historical document, political intervention, artistic innovation, utopian vision, and speech act. Students will gain experience reading and performing manifestos. The seminar concludes with a research project and poster presentation.
Undergraduate Courses (Offered in English)
GERST 2567: HOLOCAUST IN HISTORY AND MEMORY (Combined with HIST 2567, JWST 2467)
3 credits.
MW 2:55-4:10, J. Burzlaff
This course explores the history of the Holocaust during which the Nazis murdered six million Jews. Topics covered in this class include the history of antisemitism in Europe and twentieth-century Germany, the origins and rule of the Nazis, the politics of World War II, the Final Solution and extermination camps, Jewish literary responses to the Holocaust, among other topics.
GERST 2700: INTRODUCTION TO GERMAN CULTURE AND THOUGHT
3 credits. Student option grading. Enrollment limited to18 1st-semester-freshmen. Readings and discussions in English. All interested students are invited to apply online or in writing to the instructor, 183 Goldwin Smith Hall. Taught in English.
TR 10:10-11:25, A. Schwarz
Big names, Big ideas, and Big events are associated with German culture and thought: Luther, Faust, Marx, Nietzsche, Freud, Mozart, Beethoven, Kant, Hegel, Goethe, Einstein, Kafka and Thomas Mann; Enlightenment; World Wars and Reunification; European Union, and Migration and Refugees: In this course, we shall cover the broad spectrum of both the long tradition of German culture and thought, and examine the wide range of political, literary, sociological, and artistic topics, themes, and questions that are of urgent contemporary concern for Germany, Europe, and beyond. Guest lecturers will introduce you to the wide and exciting field of German Studies. Topics include: the age of enlightenment; literatures of migration and minorities; avant-garde art; philosophy, aesthetics, and critical theory; Weimar and War; Holocaust and its Aftermath; film and media; genres of literature: novel, novella, short story, lyric poetry, anecdote, autobiography; literature and politics; literature and the environment; digital humanities and literatures/fictions of cyber space. In addition, this course will introduce you to the techniques of critical analysis and writing. Authors include among many others: Goethe, Kant, Hegel, Nietzsche, Adorno, Freud, Kafka, Kluge, Marx, Thomas Mann, Kracauer, Benjamin.
GERST 3513: INTRODUCTION TO TRAUMA STUDIES (Combined with COML 3050, ENGL 3051)
3 credits. Student option grading. Taught in English.
MW 1:25-2:40, C. Caruth
This course provides an introduction to the theory of trauma, along with literary, artistic and clinical works that engage with traumatic experience. We will explore the enigmatic notion of an experience of catastrophe that is both deferred and repeated, that escapes immediate comprehension but insists on testimonial recognition. How does trauma require us to rethink our notions of history, memory, subjectivity, and language? Who speaks from the site of trauma, and how can we learn to listen its new forms of address? We begin with Freud's foundational studies and their reception across the 20th and 21st centuries, then examine a range of global responses reformulating individual and collective trauma in its social, historical and political contexts. Materials include theoretical, artistic, testimonial expression in various media.
GERST 3545: IMAGINING THE MIDDLE AGES: FILMS, GAMES, AND MEDIA (Combined with COML 3113, MEDVL 3545, PMA 3545, VISST 3545)
3 credits. Student option grading. Taught in English.
MW 10:10-11:25, E. Born
Today, the legacy of the Middle Ages can be found everywhere, from the game of chess to Game of Thrones, the parliament to the university, the Crusades to the Vikings, the nostalgia for tradition to the very concept of modernity. This course explores the function of the medieval past through the lens of modern visual culture, as part of an emerging field known as “Medievalism.” Along with readings of classic theories of Medievalism (Huizinga, Balázs, Panofsky, Bazin, McLuhan, Eco), screenings will put auteur films (Dreyer’s Passion of Joan of Arc, Bergman’s Seventh Seal, Kurosawa’s Ran) in dialogue with popular culture (from Monthy Python to A Knight’s Tale) in order to raise the question of a Global Middle Ages.
GERST 3555: COMICS AS A MEDIUM (Combined with FGSS 3555, LGBT 3555, PMA 3555, SHUM 3555, VISST 3555)
3 credits. Letter Grades only. Taught in English.
TR 10:10-11:25, L. Schoppelrei
What is a comic? How might comics attend to complex historical, social, and political topics? How do comics facilitate a coming to terms with the past or function as an activist medium—spurring on political and cultural shifts?
Given this great variety of comics from Germanophone locales this course engages with comics as a key literary form and one that provides a deep engagement with histories, cultures, activisms, and representations thereof. Our readings will include queer/trans comics and zines, early text/image works preceding the comic form, and webcomics on decolonization projects and fantastical places. We will also read comics scholarship and historical texts that will provide a solid foundation from which to approach these literary works. As a way of immersing ourselves into the world of comics, each student will create their own comic over the course of our class—building upon the formal components we locate in class texts. (Drawing skills are not required! Come as you are.) As comics have their own medium-specific vocabulary for visual and textual analysis, we will also spend time building the skills and vocabulary necessary for analyzing the comics we read.
GERST 3580: NINETEENTH CENTURY PHILOSOPHY (Combined with PHIL 3250)
3 credits.
W 2:00-4:30, K. Hubner
Survey of nineteenth century philosophy.
GERST 3620: INTRODUCTION TO CRITICAL THEORY (Combined with COML3541, ENGL 3920, GOVT 3636, SHUM 3636)
3 credits. Student option grading. Taught in English.
TR 1:25-2:40, P. Fleming
Shortly after the 2016 election, The New Yorker published an article entitled “The Frankfurt School Knew Trump was Coming.” This course examines what the Frankfurt School knew by introducing students to Critical Theory, juxtaposing its roots in the 19th century (i.e., Kant, Hegel, Marx, and Freud) with its most prominent manifestation in the 20th century, the Frankfurt School (e.g., Kracauer, Adorno, Benjamin, Marcuse) alongside disparate voices (Arendt) and radical continuations (Davis, Zuboff, Weeks) as they engage with politics, society, culture, and literature (e.g. Brecht and Kafka). Established in 1920s and continued in exile in the US during WWII, the interdisciplinary circle of scholars comprising the Frankfurt School played a pivotal role in the intellectual developments of post-war American and European social, political, and aesthetic theory: from analyses of authoritarianism and democracy to critiques of capitalism, the entertainment industry, commodity fetishism, and mass society. This introduction to Critical Theory explores both the prescience of these diverse thinkers for today’s world (“what they knew”) as well as what they perhaps could not anticipate in the 21st century (e.g., developments in technology, economy, political orders), and thus how to critically address these changes today.
GERST 4210: EXISTENTIALISM (Combined with COML 4251, GOVT 4015, ROMS 4210)
3 credits. Student option grading. Taught in English.
MW 10:10-11:25, G. Waite
The most intense public encounter between Existentialism and Marxism occurred in immediate post-WWII Europe, its structure remaining alive internationally. Existentialist questions have been traced from pre-Socratic thinkers through Dante, Shakespeare, and Cervantes onward; just as roots of modern materialism extend to Epicurus and Lucretius, or Leopardi. This course will focus on differing theories and concomitant practices concerned with “alienation,” “anxiety,” “crisis,” “death of God,” “nihilism,” “rebellion or revolution.” Crucial are possible relations between fiction and non-fiction; also among philosophy, theology, psychoanalysis, and political theory. Other authors may include: Althusser, de Beauvoir, Beckett, Büchner, Camus, Che, Dostoevsky, Fanon, Genet, Gide, Gramsci, O. Gross, Hamsun, Heidegger, Husserl, Jaspers, C.L.R. James, Kafka, Kierkegaard, Lagerkvist, Lacan, Lenin, Marx, Merleau-Ponty, Mishima, G. Novack, Nietzsche, Ortega, Pirandello, W. Reich, Sartre, Shestov, Tillich, Unamuno. There is also cinema.
GERST 4224: WRITING FOR THE PUBLIC: ADAPTING ACADEMIC WORK FOR A GENERAL AUDIENCE (Combined with COML 4224, ROMS 4324, COML 6224, GERST 6224, ROMS 6324)
3 credits. Student option grading. Taught in English.
T 2:00-4:30, S. Pinkham
This workshop-style course will address the question of how to draw on academic research and expertise to write for a non-specialist audience. We will discuss the benefits of public-facing writing; how to select a publication to pitch; how to pitch an article; and how to draft and revise an article once a pitch has been accepted. These skills will be developed through practice. Students will develop real pitch ideas to use as a basis for articles that will be drafted and revised over the course of the semester. We will discuss questions such as selecting appropriate venues, adapting to a new writing style, sourcing, citation practices, and communicating with editors.
GERST 4510: INDEPENDENT STUDY
(CU-UGR) 1-4 credits each term. Permission of instructor required. To apply for independent study, please complete the on-line form at https://data.arts.cornell.edu/as-stus/indep_study_intro.cfm.
Hours to be arranged. Staff.
Undergraduate student and faculty advisor to determine course of study and credit hours.
GERST 4530: HONORS RESEARCH
(CU-UGR) 4 credits. Permission of department required. Multi-semester course. Multi-term course: R grade only (in progress).
Hours to be arranged. Staff.
The Reading Course is administered by the director of the honors thesis. It carries 4 hours credit, and may be counted towards the work required for the German Major. The reading concentrates on a pre-determined topic or area. Students meet with their honors advisor about every two weeks throughout the term. Substantial reading assignments are given, and occasional short essays are written.
GERST 4540: HONORS THESIS
(CU-UGR) 4 credits. Letter grades only. Prerequisite: GERST 4530. Permission of department required.
Hours to be arranged. Staff.
The thesis is to be written on a subject related to the work done in GERST 4530. A suggested length for the thesis is 50-60 pages.
Graduate Courses
GERST 5070: TEACHING GERMAN AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE: PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICES
3 credits. Student option grading. Intended primarily for: graduate students preparing to teach German and undergraduate students interested in deeper understanding of language study and teaching. Taught in German. Readings are in English and German.
TBA, G. Lischke
Designed to familiarize students with current thought and approaches in the field of applied linguistics and language pedagogy. Introduces different models of foreign language approaches and discusses various practices for the foreign language classroom. Special consideration is given to topics such as language acquisition progression, planning syllabi, creating tasks and projects, designing classroom tests, and evaluating students’ performance. Participants conduct an action research project.
GERST 6224: WRITING FOR THE PUBLIC: ADAPTING ACADEMIC WORK FOR A GENERAL AUDIENCE (Combined with COML 6224, ROMS 6324, COML 4224, GERST 4224, ROMS 4324)
3 credits.
T 2:00-4:30, S. Pinkham
This workshop-style course will address the question of how to draw on academic research and expertise to write for a non-specialist audience. We will discuss the benefits of public-facing writing; how to select a publication to pitch; how to pitch an article; and how to draft and revise an article once a pitch has been accepted. These skills will be developed through practice. Students will develop real pitch ideas to use as a basis for articles that will be drafted and revised over the course of the semester. We will discuss questions such as selecting appropriate venues, adapting to a new writing style, sourcing, citation practices, and communicating with editors.
GERST 6310: READING ACADEMIC GERMAN I
3 credits. Student option grading. Intended for graduate students with no prior experience in German.
MWF 9:05-9:55, W. Groundwater-Schuldt
This course emphasizes the acquisition of reading skills in German, using a variety of prepared and authentic texts. The follow-up course, GERST 6320 Reading Academic German II, is offered in the spring.
GERST 6365: MARXISM, ANARCHISM, FEMINISM (Combined with COML 6364, FGSS 6365, GOVT 6465)
3 credits. Student option grading. Taught in English.
T 2:00-4:30, M. Jarris
In this seminar, we will draw connections between radical theories and movements from the nineteenth century to the present. Rather than identifying isolated trajectories of “Marxism” “anarchism” and “feminism,” or distinct national traditions, we will focus on key concepts within internationalist thought: from the commune, the state, and the family to empire, colonization, revolution, and the strike. Focusing on the period before and after the 1917 Russian Revolution, we will witness Karl Marx and Mikhail Bakunin debate the role of the state, Emma Goldman and Rosa Luxemburg consider the benefits and limitations of reform, Vladimir Lenin and W.E.B. Du Bois address the function of the strike, and Silvia Federici, Cedric Robinson, and Andreas Malm interrogate the racialized, gendered, and extractive foundations of capital.
GERST 6600: VISUAL IDEOLOGY (Combined with ARTH 6060, COML 6600)
3 credits. Student option grading. Taught in English.
W 2:00-4:30, G. Waite
Some of the most powerful approaches to visual practices have come from outside or from the peripheries of the institution of art history and criticism. This seminar will analyze the interactions between academically sanctioned disciplines (such as iconography and connoisseurship) and innovations coming from philosophy, psychoanalysis, historiography, sociology, literary theory, mass media criticism, feminism, and Marxism. We will try especially to develop: (1) a general theory of "visual ideology" (the gender, social, racial, and class determinations on the production, consumption, and appropriation of visual artifacts under modern and postmodern conditions); and (2) contemporary theoretical practices that articulate these determinations. Examples will be drawn from the history of oil painting, architecture, city planning, photography, film, and other mass media.
GERST 6655: MEDIA PHILOSOPHY (Combined with PMA 6655)
3 credits. Student option grading. Taught in English.
M 2:00-4:30, E. Born
What is (not) a medium? How have various cultural techniques and media technologies historically informed philosophers and philosophical traditions? To what extent might the very existence of media in the world shape our possibilities of thinking? This seminar introduces the key concepts and scholarly debates around the emergent field of “media philosophy.” We will read and discuss continental philosophers whose thinking about media presents new insights into their work, while also doing rigorous conceptual work on the meanings of “media,” “aesthetics,” “messages,” “intelligence,” “nature,” “technology,” “environments,” “surroundings,” “epistemology,” “ontology,” and “philosophy.”
GERST 6920: HEGEL’S AESTHETICS: ON THE IDEAL, HISTORY, AND SYSTEM OF THE ARTS (Combined with ARTH 6920, COML 6922)
3 credits. Student option grading. Taught in English.
R 2:00-4:30, P. Gilgen
This course offers a systematic in-depth study of Hegel’s Aesthetics, one of the towering monuments in the development of the discipline. In addition to Hegel’s voluminous lectures, we will also consider more recent reactions to and critiques of it.
GERST 7530: INDEPENDENT STUDY
1-4 credits each term. Student option grading. Permission of instructor required. Enrollment limited to graduate students.
Hours to be arranged. Staff.
Graduate student and faculty advisor to determine course of study and credit hours.
GERST 7531: COLLOQUIUM
2 credits. Student option grading.
F 2:30-4:25, P. Gilgen
The course consists of a bi-weekly workshop series focusing on a range of interdisciplinary topics and sponsored by the Institute for German Cultural Studies (IGCS). Speakers include prominent scholars in the field of German Studies (understood in a wide, interdisciplinary sense) and advanced graduate students, who discuss their work-in-progress based on pre-circulated papers. Besides attending the workshops, course participants meet with the instructor for two additional sessions devoted to pursuing the ties between the topics and disciplinary fields showcased by the speakers and the students’ own work. The course is thus intended both as a survey of disciplinary approaches in German and Humanities Studies and as a framework that allows graduate students to hone professional skills (presenter and panel respondent, newsletter contributor, etc).
Please direct any questions regarding our Fall 2025 course offerings to Anne Chen at aac262@cornell.edu.