Core area
The core area familiarizes students with the foundations and methods of cultural and European studies. All students must complete it. The content aims to convey foundational historical, theoretical, and methodological knowledge. The courses in the core area are complemented by two colloquia (Europaparlament I + II), in which practical questions about the program (for example in preparation for the semester abroad) as well as theoretical questions relating to students’ academic interests can be discussed with invited partners from in- and outside the program.
Components of the core area are:
Cultural Theory (lecture with tutorial, advanced seminar)
In this module, the European history of the concept of culture will be reviewed. At the same time, a focus lies on the critical stocktaking of current ideas that the cultural turn and postcolonial studies have brought into the humanities and social sciences.
“Culture” is a European term. Its roots reach back to Roman antiquity. The term found common use however especially in modern times: in the course of the European expansion and colonial politics, the confrontation with non-European languages, religions, and ways of life, and finally through the alienated perspective on all that was seen as self-evident at home.
The struggle for cultural power did not just unite Europe, it also divided it. Still today, the borders of Europe follow rifts that divide cultures. What counts as “culturally determined” is however in no way easily decided, but rather depends on many prejudices—which are themselves tied to culturally specific perspectives. The more the concept of culture should explain, the more important a theoretical basis of workable ideas of culture becomes.
Concepts of Europe in a Global Context (seminar)
In this module, various (self-)descriptions of Europeanness will be examined, (origin) myths reconstructed, and societal dynamics of transformation illuminated. The focus is on forms, narratives, and practices of European traditions, institutions, and identities.
Political institutions and social entities—democracy and empire, church and state, city, nation, and federation—as well as elementary cultural techniques that have been important for identity creation in Europe will be presented in their entangled history with models from outside Europe. Arts and sciences were decisive driving forces to satisfy claims to power, but increasingly also to critically reflect on and reject them.
These cultural developments have been accompanied and steered by stories large and small, which also helped secure traditions, establish successions, and foresee the future. Just as the origin of Europe has been lost in myth, later developments are also tied to myth: with imaginings of rebirths, translations, and departures into the unknown, of universalistic designs and unique paths, of catastrophes and apocalypses.
Europaparlament I + II (Colloquia)
The third module of the core area consists of the required “Europaparlament” colloquia for students and teaching staff, to be taken in the first and second semesters. The goal is a common understanding of content central to the program. The course also presents current discourse around Europe for discussion.
Additionally, it serves to clarify practical questions about the course of study, for example the preparation and follow-up work surrounding the time spent abroad. The colloquia aim to encourage theoretical reflection on the interdisciplinary program as much as they offer the opportunity to talk with guests who provide insight into their research projects. Visits to thematically relevant non-university events are also regularly on the program.