Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey

Searchable Course Catalog

header image

GRMN3418A-L17

Germany's Stories Past&Present

Germany's Stories - Visions of Past & Present

This course introduces and analyzes experiences of migrants, asylum seekers, and refugees in German-speaking Europe. Beginning in the pre-World War II era, the course offers historical and current perspectives on expulsion, persecution, integration, assimilation, acculturation, and multiculturalism represented in major media outlets, audio-visual materials, feature films, and academic scholarship. By taking a chronological position the course traces displacement, flight, migration, and asylum beginning with the persecutions of Jews, the expulsion of ethnic Germans, and the effects of migrant labor movements. In particular, the course offers students starting points for inquiry by focusing on geo-political shifts, such as the fall of the Berlin Wall, the collapse of the Soviet Union, and the results of the Balkan Wars, and how these turns continue to shape perceptions of identity in Germany, Austria, and within the European Union. Thus, the course includes a critical treatment of current cultural and political debates in the media surrounding Syrian and African refugees in Germany. This course aims at developing advanced literacy by deepening strategies for summarizing, analyzing, interpreting, and presenting substantial arguments in professional and academic settings. In addition, the course incorporates the development of media literacy by critically engaging with authentic materials and thereby developing concise formulation of informed opinions.

Required Texts: The instructor will provide all required texts.
Course Reference Number (CRN):
60274
Subject Code:
GRMN
Course Number:
3418
Section Identifier:
A

Course

GRMN 3418

All Sections in Summer 2017 Language Schools, LS 7 Week Session

Summer 2017 Language Schools, LS 7 Week Session

GRMN3418A-L17 Lecture (Brenner, Levine)