Courses – Autumn 2025
German Scandinavian / Swedish Yiddish
Please note that this webpage will be updated as information becomes available
For additional info about our GE course offerings, please check out our General Education Webpage.
Undergraduate courses and Graduate courses - German, Scandinavian, Swedish, Yiddish
German 2254.02 • Grimms' Fairy Tales and their Afterlives
Frazier | 3 credit units | Autumn Semester 2025
Working to understand the meaning and the enduring appeal of one of Germany's greatest successes in the realm of cultural exportation - the Grimms' fairy tales, a book whose circulation figures are exceeded in Western culture only by those of the Bible. To explore their reach, we will also compare them to their adaptations in literature and film, from dark to Disney.
Taught in English. DL course.
German 2350 • Introduction to German Studies
Taleghani-Nikazm | 3 credit units | Autumn Semester 2025
GE Foundation: Historical and Cultural Studies
This course provides a broad introduction to German history and culture and to the field of German Studies. Taught in English, it is an ideal course for students considering a major or minor in German, or for those with a general interest in German-language history and culture.
The course will have four components
- lectures on history (social, cultural, political, and linguistic)
- lectures on contemporary German-language society and culture
- discussion about works of literature, film, philosophy, art, music, etc.
- introductions to methods for studying language and culture
In the end, students will have a broad overview of German-language history and culture and a catalog of questions that will include tools for analyzing everything from medieval sagas to television shows, political speeches to the words they use.
Taught in English.
Required books (in recommended English editions):
Das Niebelungenlied: The Lay of the Niebelungs. Oxford Classics, ISBN 978-0199238545
The Sorrows of Young Werther. Oxford Classics, ISBN: 978-0199583027
These books are also available as open-access editions, or contact instructor for information about German or German-English editions.
Recommended book:
Mary Fulbrook, A Concise History of Germany, ISBN: 978-0521540711
German 3250 • Citizenship in the Age of Technology: Exploring Social Justice through Science Fiction in Germany
Richards | 3 credit units | Autumn Semester 2025
GE Theme: Citizenship for a Diverse & Just World
Investigating the promises & pitfalls that technologies once confined to the pages of science fiction pose to our relationships, our communities, and our world, with a specific focus on the challenges they will bring to our concept of citizenship. Recent German science fiction will illuminate the debate on the future of democracy as it unfolds in Germany, the USA & in a broader global context.
Taught in English. DL course.
German 3252.02 • The Holocaust in Literature and Film
Beringer | 3 credit units | Autumn Semester 2025
GE Theme: Citizenship for a Diverse & Just World
Why, faced with a historical catastrophe of unimaginable proportions, would we devote a class to film and literature about it, rather than to “the facts”?
HOW YOU SAY THINGS MATTERS
Come find out why.
Taught in English. DL course.
Prereq: Not open to students with credit for 3252.01 or Yiddish 3399.
German 3254H • Representations and Memory of the Holocaust in Film
Davis | 3 credit units | Autumn Semester 2025
Taught in English / GE Theme: Citizenship for a Diverse & Just World, Honors Course
Students will view, discuss, and examine major filmic representations of the Holocaust from several countries from the 1940s through the 1990s. Students will learn how these films have contributed to our understanding of a complex phenomenon of WWII and how the directors have coped with the thorny issues of representing something that many people consider to be unrepresentable.
Taught in English.
Prereq: Honors, and Soph, Jr, or Sr standing, or permission of instructor.
German 3351 • Democracy, Fascism and German Culture
Davidson | 3 credit units | Autumn Semester 2025
Taught in English / GE Theme: Citizenship for a Diverse & Just World,
Explore the history of the Weimar Republic and of Nazi Germany through the literature, film, music, visual arts and design produced between 1918 and 1945. We will be uncovering the roots of fascism and looking also at its echoes in works created in post-Nazi Germany. What can the cultural products tell us that the history books can’t? Were the 1920s really the golden age of German cinema? How did the arts change after the Nazis came to power in 1933? Why did the Nazis burn books and call certain artistic styles “degenerate”?
Taught in English. Meets Film Studies' Pre-1950s requirement.
German 3434 • Bad Science
Aupiais | 3 credit units | Autumn Semester 2025
GE taught in English!
THEME: Traditions, Cultures, and Transformations.
Developments in science and technology raise key political questions and often reveal global fault lines ? recent debates around AI, climate change, pandemics and public health show this. This course delves into the sometimes-toxic cultural politics of science historically, surveying key case studies (in biology, linguistics, medicine and more) from German history between 1780 and 1940.
German 3689 • Words Across the World
Taleghani-Nikazm | 3 credit units | Autumn Semester 2025
GE Theme: Lived Environments
Language, at the heart of our social life, drives much of what humans do: converse, convey beliefs & views, label, categorize, include & exclude people. We'll critically examine how we use language to interact with our lived environments (LE) & analyze & discover ways in which words are used & manipulated to impact our LE & how changes & developments in our LE can have a direct effect on language.
Prereq: Not open to students with credit for NELC 3689 or Spanish 3689. GE theme lived environments course. Cross-listed in NELC and Spanish.
Yiddish 3399 • The Holocaust in Yiddish Writing and Film
Sobul | 4 credit units | Autumn Semester 2025
4 credit course; GE Theme – Citizenship for a Just and Diverse World; Integrative Practice: Research and Creative Inquiry
Meets in-person 3x/week, 220 minutes total (two 80-minute sessions and one 60-minute session per week)
About six million Jews were murdered by the Nazis and their collaborators during World War II in a series of events that came to be known as the Holocaust or, in Yiddish, as the “khurbn” (“destruction”). Yiddish was the first language of millions of the victims, but the contributions of speakers of this language to the documentation and representation of the Holocaust have often been overlooked or effaced.
In this course, while we will learn about the systematic destruction of Yiddish culture and society, we will also consider how Yiddish-language writers, artists, intellectuals, and filmmakers documented and resisted that destruction. In class discussions and assignments, we will analyze texts, films, and other media produced during and after the Holocaust and consider how these materials, written in or incorporating a language that was itself victimized, open up different perspectives on a seemingly well-known history. We will also consider how these materials participate in ongoing debates about citizenship and minority rights, justice and restitution, the representation of violence, and cultural memory. In addition to providing an introduction to the academic study of the Holocaust and Yiddish culture, this course will familiarize students with cutting-edge research methods and techniques in the humanities and interpretive social sciences (e.g., close reading, archival research, oral history, etc.).
All readings and discussion in English. No knowledge of Yiddish is required.
German 1101.01 • German I
4 credit units | Autumn Semester 2025
GE World Languages
Unlock a world of opportunities with our German 1101 course! Dive into the language and culture of the German-speaking world, mastering essential communication skills in a fun and interactive way. Whether you're aiming to work with global companies, travel, or simply expand your horizons, this course offers a solid foundation at CEFR Level A1. Join us to gain confidence in speaking, understand cultural nuances, and stand out in the job market. Enroll now and start your journey with expert instructors and a vibrant learning community! Not open to native speakers of this language through regular course enrollment or to students with 3 or more years of high school German. Students with 1+ years of high school German must take the MultiCAT German placement exam. For more information about German Placement exams, contact the CLLC.
Text: Impuls Deutsch 1
German 1102.01 • German II
4 credit units | Autumn Semester 2025
GE World Languages
Take your German skills to the next level with our German 1102 course! Build on your foundation with a focus on more complex language structures, sustained interactions, and enhanced reading and writing abilities. This course is designed to deepen your cultural knowledge and improve your communication skills, ensuring you are ready for any professional or personal scenario. Perfect for learners at CEFR Levels A1/A2, join us to continue your journey with expert guidance and a supportive community. Enroll now and elevate your German proficiency!
Text: Impuls Deutsch 1
Prereq: 1101.01, 1101.02 or 4 sem cr hrs of 1101.51
German 1103.01 • German III
4 credit units | Autumn Semester 2025
GE World Languages
Elevate your German proficiency with our German 1103 course, designed for independent language use! Engage in dynamic discussions, presentations, writing, and listening/viewing activities that delve into contemporary topics of the German-speaking world. Perfect for learners at CEFR Level A2, this course will enhance your ability to communicate effectively and confidently in various professional and personal contexts. Join us to continue your language journey with expert instructors and a vibrant community. Enroll now and take your German skills to new heights!
Text: Impuls Deutsch 2
Prereq: 1102.01, 1102.02 or 4 sem cr hrs of 1102.51
For more information about German Placement exams, contact the CLLC.
German 1101.02 • 1102.02 • 1103.02
Distance Learning option
GE World Languages
4 credit units | Autumn Semester 2025
For more information about German Placement exams, contact the CLLC.
German 2101 • Texts and Contexts I: Contemporary German Language, Culture and Society
Heck | 3 credit units | Autumn Semester 2025
Heck | 3 credit units | Autumn Semester 2025
Development of communication skills and knowledge about recent social, cultural, and political developments in German speaking countries through texts, media and film; CEFR level A2/B1. Closed to native speakers of this language.
Prereq: 1103.01, 1103.02, or 4 sem cr hrs of 1103.51, or equiv, or permission of instructor. No audit.
German 2102 • Texts and Contexts II: 20th-Century German Language, History and Culture
Heck | 3 credit units | Autumn Semester 2025
Continued development of communication skills; gain an understanding of major social and cultural developments in 20th century German history through texts, media, film. CEFR level B1/B2. Closed to native speakers of this language.
Prereq: 2101 or equiv, or permission of instructor. FL Admis Cond course.
German 3101 • Texts and Contexts III: Historical Perspectives
Grotans | 3 credit units | Autumn Semester 2025
Development of intermediate/advanced communication skills; broadening of cultural and historical knowledge through interaction with literary and non-literary materials informed by historical perspective; CEFR level B2. Closed to to native speakers of this language.
Prereq: 2102 or equiv, or permission of instructor.
German 3102 • News and Views
Aupiais | 3 credit units | Autumn Semester 2025
This course aims to improve your German reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills through an engagement with current affairs in the German-speaking world. The course will hone your ability to interpret, paraphrase, summarize, and critically analyze German-language media content in different communicative contexts.
Prereq: 2102 or equiv, or permission of instructor.
German 3300 • German Music - Topics in German Culture Studies, Social and Intellectual History
Birkhold | 3 credit units | Autumn Semester 2025
In this course, we’ll study music in German-speaking Europe from Bach’s cantatas to German-Turkish rap. In addition to famous figures like Mozart and Nena, we will consider celebrated music events and competitions, like Eurovision. Among various genres, we’ll investigate classical music, Volksmusik, yodeling, Klezmer, Schlager, children’s songs, 80s rock, contemporary pop music and the historical and political events that influenced their creation.
Taught in German.
Prereq: 2102 or equiv, or permission of instructor.
German 3510 • Advanced Language Institute (ALI):
German for the Professions
Uskokovic / 3 unit credits / MW 12:45-2:05 / Autumn Semester 2025
Discover the dynamic world of German business!
This immersive course offers a virtual education abroad experience, featuring virtual reality tours of top German companies, live interactions with German professionals, and collaborative projects with students from Karlsruhe University of Applied Sciences, and native speakers from the German-speaking countries via TalkAbroad. Enhance your professional German language skills, explore intercultural communication, and delve into sustainability practices within the German-speaking business world. Join us to gain invaluable insights and prepare for a successful career in international business!
Prereq: 2101 and Soph, Jr, or Sr standing, or permission of instructor.
Swedish 1101 • Swedish I
Ahlqvist | 4 credit units | Autumn Semester 2025
-- GE World Languages
Introduction to language and culture of Sweden with emphasis on the acquisition of basic communication skills in a cultural context. Closed to native speakers of this language.
Prereq: Not open to students with 2 or more years of study in this language in high school, except by permission of dept.
GE for lang course.
Text: Althén, Anette. Mål 1 Lärobok (textbook with CD); Althén, Anette. Mål Övningsbok (workbook). Both Stockholm: Natur och Kultur (2007 edition).
Swedish 1103 • Swedish III
Risko| 4 credit units | Autumn Semester 2025
-- GE World Languages
Development of skills necessary for the independent use of Swedish. Discussions, presentations, writing and listening/viewing activities address topics of contemporary Sweden.
Prereq: Grade of C- or better in 1102.
Text: Althén, Anette. Mål 2 Lärobok (textbook with CD); Althén, Anette. Mål Övningsbok (workbook). Both Stockholm: Natur och Kultur (2007 edition).
note:
Yiddish 1101 & Yiddish 1103 will be offered via CourseShare.
Yiddish 1103 • Yiddish 3
BTAA CourseShare | 4 credit units | Autumn Semester 2025
GE World Languages
Yiddish 2241 • Yiddish Culture
cancelled | 3 credit units | Autumn Semester 2025
GE Foundation: Historical and Cultural Studies
Taught in English.
An introduction to Yiddish culture and society, this course will equip students with the methodological tools to study culture and media more broadly.
No knowledge of German or Yiddish required.
Cross-listed in Jewish Studies.
GE Foundation: Historical and Cultural Studies
Yiddish 3399 • The Holocaust in Yiddish Writing and Film
Sobul | 4 credit units | Autumn Semester 2025
4 credit course; GE Theme – Citizenship for a Just and Diverse World; Integrative Practice: Research and Creative Inquiry
Meets in-person 3x/week, 220 minutes total (two 80-minute sessions and one 60-minute session per week)
About six million Jews were murdered by the Nazis and their collaborators during World War II in a series of events that came to be known as the Holocaust or, in Yiddish, as the “khurbn” (“destruction”). Yiddish was the first language of millions of the victims, but the contributions of speakers of this language to the documentation and representation of the Holocaust have often been overlooked or effaced.
In this course, while we will learn about the systematic destruction of Yiddish culture and society, we will also consider how Yiddish-language writers, artists, intellectuals, and filmmakers documented and resisted that destruction. In class discussions and assignments, we will analyze texts, films, and other media produced during and after the Holocaust and consider how these materials, written in or incorporating a language that was itself victimized, open up different perspectives on a seemingly well-known history. We will also consider how these materials participate in ongoing debates about citizenship and minority rights, justice and restitution, the representation of violence, and cultural memory. In addition to providing an introduction to the academic study of the Holocaust and Yiddish culture, this course will familiarize students with cutting-edge research methods and techniques in the humanities and interpretive social sciences (e.g., close reading, archival research, oral history, etc.).
All readings and discussion in English. No knowledge of Yiddish is required.
German 6601 • Teaching Practicum
Uskokovic | 1 credit unit | ARR - Autumn Semester 2025
This course is for GTAs who are teaching a 1000-level German language class. The course provides graduate students with instruction and practice in designing and implementing instructional materials for their undergraduate classes. It offers best practices in creating tests, developing speaking portfolios, designing culture components, and becoming reflective practitioners.
Prereq: Grad standing, and permission of instructor. Repeatable to a maximum of 10 cr hrs. This course is graded S/U.
German 7600 • Teaching World Languages at the College Level
W. Wong | 3 credit units | Autumn Semester 2025
This course examines theory and research that underlie contemporary approaches to communicative language teaching and includes work with the development of materials and activities for the classroom. We will consider and discuss a range of aspects of second language acquisition (SLA) theory and research that have implications for the L2 classroom. It will provide the graduate student with a theoretical and practical foundation.
cross-listed with FRIT 7600
German 8200 • Narrative as Social Action - Seminar in Literature and Literary Culture
Byram | 3 credit units | W 9:10 -11:55 | Autumn Semester 2025
This course will consider the relationship between literature and its social context and, in the conclusion of the course, of narrative in public settings. It will combine readings in classic and contemporary narrative theory with readings of literary texts, testing out the theoretical ideas against the literary works. Literary test cases will be from the German-language tradition and will be chosen according to student interests and previous reading histories.
Prereq: Grad standing, or permission of instructor.
German 8200 • Law Stories - Seminar in Literature and Literary Culture
Birkhold | 3 credit units | M 12:45 -3:30 in 351 Drinko Hall | Autumn Semester 2025
This course explores the intricate relationship between law and literature, examining how both fields construct and interpret stories. Because stories are not mere representations of events, but actively shape how we perceive those events, law stories directly influence our understanding of justice, authority, and truth. Through close readings of texts by Sophocles, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Franz Kafka, and Herta Müller, we will analyze how literary techniques illuminate, critique, and inform legal reasoning. We will also investigate how the law deploys narrative devices to craft judgments by analyzing landmark cases in constitutional law, criminal law, evidence, and property. Theoretical perspectives from Freud, Barthes, and Derrida will provide a framework for identifying the rhetoric, form, and narrative logic of legal decisions. By the end of the course, students will be equipped to critically evaluate the narrative strategies that underpin both legal and literary stories.
Cross-listed with Law 8896.11
Prereq: Grad standing, or permission of instructor.
German 8400 • The Topical Twentieth Century - Seminar in German Cinema (taught in English)
Davidson| 3 credit units | Thursdays 9:10-11:55 | Autumn Semester 2025
The “Topical Twentieth Century” is structured to provide both an overview of German cinema and opportunities for more specialized investigations. It will be useful for those seeking a broad understanding of twentieth-century German film in context, introducing themselves to film analysis, preparing for the German MA assessment, or seeking content to integrate into their teaching (whether in German-language or -culture courses or in European and/or World cinema). It assumes no knowledge of German language or film culture. For those who come in with some familiarity in cinema studies, there will be opportunities both to strengthen your grounding and pursue specialized projects.
Prereq: Grad standing, or permission of instructor.
German 8500 • Doctoral Colloquium
Byram | 1 credit unit | ARR - Autumn Semester 2025
Regular student-driven discussions of ongoing dissertations, current topics in the professional field, and new research approaches to Germanic Studies.
Prereq: Successful completion of Ph.D. candidacy exams or permission from Director of Graduate Studies and instructor. Repeatable to a maximum of 9 cr hrs. This course is graded S/U. Admis Cond course.