Barbara Laubenthal

What role do narratives of the past play in current politics and policies in Germany and the United States? This course addresses this question by engaging with key theoretical and empirical debates from the burgeoning research field of politics of the past. We will look at the role that memories play in German and US politics today from a comparative perspective, and with several case studies, we will ask questions such as:  how are transnational political events like the Second World War, the Cold War and historical immigration movements articulated and used in current political debates? How do narratives of the past reproduce or challenge contemporary power relations? To what extent do political actors and institutions construct particular historical narratives that serve their current interests? In answering these questions, the course will put a specific focus on the role of memory in German and US immigration politics.

The course aims to enable students to understand central theories and concepts of memory studies, and to apply them in an empirical case study. At the end of the course, students will have a thorough theoretical and empirical understanding on the ways in which memory and politics intersect both as research fields and as political practices in contemporary societies.

Readings

Assmann, Aleida/Conrad, Sebastian (eds.) (2010): Memory in a Global Age. Discourses, Practices and Trajectories. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

Halbwachs, Maurice (1980): The Collective Memory. New York: Harper and Row.

Kleist, Olaf/Glynn, Irial (eds.) (2012): History, Memory and Migration. Perceptions of the Past and the Politics of Incorporation, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

Nebow, Richard N./Kansteiner, Wulf/Fogu, Claudio (2006) (eds.): The Politics of Memory in Post-war Europe. Durham: Duke University Press.

Olick, Jeffrey (2007): The Politics of Regret. On Collective Memory and Historical Responsibility. London/New York: Routledge.

Torpey, John. 2006. Making Whole What Has Been Smashed: On Reparations Politics. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press. 

Wittlinger, Ruth (2011): The Merkel’s Government Politics of the Past, German Politics and Society 26 (4), 9-27.

Description:

This course has two central goals. The first is to introduce you to several core and controversial issues in contemporary Germany and the ways in which these topics are discussed there. To this end we will read and/or listen to a wide range of material (film, music, poetry, news reports, and print media) that relates to several major themes in post-wall German society, politics, and culture. The second goal of the course is to provide you the opportunity to improve your written and spoken German. Course assignments will help you to expand your active vocabulary, increase your grammatical accuracy in using basic structures, and use more advanced grammatical structures to increase the linguistic register at which you can produce German. We will practice these elements in writing and in informal interaction (dialogues, conversations, role-playing) before you use them in exams and formal presentations.

Objectives:
By the end of this semester you should be able to:
• compose short written essays in German with a high degree of grammatical accuracy, a varied vocabulary, and in a formal register;
• participate in day-to-day verbal interactions in German using colloquial phrasing and in more complex discussions with fluency and sophistication;
• understand and comment on primary sources about contemporary Germany; and demonstrate a solid grasp of issues central to current events.

Texts/Readings:
All required material is available online or via Canvas. Students will be expected to print out most completed assignment sheets and bring them to class. The grammar book for GER 328 (Handbuch zur deutschen Grammatik) is highly recommended.

Grading:
preparation, participation, quizzes,

and writing assignments                            15%

3 two-page essays (10% each)                30%

2 written tests (10% each)                         20%

oral presentation                                         10%

midterm oral test                                          10%

final oral test                                                 15%

COURSE DESCRIPTION

            Europe is home to a bewildering puzzle of many different histories, nations, cultures and languages, with more than 450 million people now living in the European Union - a Union that argues whether it can stay together as part of the "Eurozone" or even expand eastward to include supposedly "non-Christian" countries like Turkey.

            This course will start by introducing several earlier attempts to make a more united, and presumably more peaceful and prosperous, "Europe" out of the nation-states on the continent.  Each "imagined" Europe, as we shall see, was proposed to correct problems with the nation-states - to change politics and everyday lives in particular ways.

            A recent history of post-World-War-II Europe by Tony Judt will anchor the class' original work on Europe and its member nations. Judt tells the continent's story from the point of view of the era's global power politics, and then situates individual European states within them.  Judt's text, then, provides accounts of Europe from the top-down and points to moments when those official accounts diverge for particular states and when they place individuals and groups who do not fit the national stereotypes under pressure. 

            The historical account of Europe as seen from the point of view of world politics is an interesting counterpoint to the evolution of European government since World War II, as realized in the Council of Europe and the European Union.  This part of the course will introduce the structure of European governance and its institutions and will outline its central features and challenges.

            The largest section of the course is devoted to a workshop on issues in contemporary Europe. The class will address current European political and cultural issues such as immigration, education, language policies, European politics of memory and Europe’s role in the world. Students will get an overview on these topics from a European perspective and will carry out some small research projects on a particular country.  

The course will introduce students to the most important research materials for the study of Europe such as the central academic journals that focus on European issues, European survey tools, and research by European think tanks. The assignments of the course build on each other to help students acquire a body of skills and knowledge that will aid in their personal studies of Europe and in their major courses. This course is the introductory core course for a concentration or major in European Studies at UT, but it requires no prerequisites except for the willingness to work in collaboration with others and to engage in a discovery process rather than seeking "right" answers.

COURSE OBJECTIVES:

By the end of this course,

• You will have a profound knowledge of the main phases and events of Europe’s history after World War Two and of its central political project, the European Union.
• You will know the relevant empirical research literature and its main findings on current political and cultural issues in Europe such as immigration, education, language policies, cultural heritage and memory, and Europe’s role in the world.
• You will know the most important academic, policy-oriented and news sources for the study of European societies and politics.

ASSIGNMENTS AND GRADING:

• Chapter review = 20%
• Collecting information on a Webpage on one of the EU member states: 5 tasks = 10%
• Two one-hour online tests @ 10% each = 20%
• Response paper = 30%
• Final Evaluative Book Review of Postwar  = 20%

READINGS

Tony Judt.  Postwar:  A History of Europe Since 1945.  New York:  The Penguin Press, 2005.  

What characterizes immigration societies in the 21st century? What political, social and cultural questions does international mobility raise for both sending and receiving countries? And which new theories and concepts have been developed during the last years in order to understand new developments in the field of immigration? The course will address these questions by applying a comparative perspective and by focusing on Germany and the United States. During the last years, Germany has become the second most important immigration country after the US, and the two countries display some similarities regarding both their immigration policies and public debates about the “immigration problem”. However, they also differ in many historical, political and social aspects that have shaped their immigration models and the discourses surrounding them. In its first part, the course will address these issues on a theoretical level. We will look at approaches on how to conduct comparative research and we will analyze the concept of national research paradigms. We will then explore current theoretical debates in the field of immigration studies, putting a special emphasis on the second generation of immigration theories such as transnationalism, cumulative causation and network theories. The third part of the course will be devoted to an analysis of the most important current research fields such as highly-skilled migration, refugee migration, international retirement migration and the role of concepts of culture in today’s immigration societies. The course has a strong research component. After an introduction to qualitative methods and techniques of case study research each student will conduct an empirical case study using qualitative methodology.

What role do narratives of the past play in current politics and policies in Germany and the United States? This course addresses this question by engaging with key theoretical and empirical debates from the burgeoning research field of politics of the past. We will look at the role that memories play in German and US politics today from a comparative perspective, and with several case studies, we will ask questions such as:  how are transnational political events like the Second World War, the Cold War and historical immigration movements articulated and used in current political debates? How do narratives of the past reproduce or challenge contemporary power relations? To what extent do political actors and institutions construct particular historical narratives that serve their current interests? In answering these questions, the course will put a specific focus on the role of memory in German and US immigration politics.

The course aims to enable students to understand central theories and concepts of memory studies, and to apply them in an empirical case study. At the end of the course, students will have a thorough theoretical and empirical understanding on the ways in which memory and politics intersect both as research fields and as political practices in contemporary societies.

Readings

Assmann, Aleida/Conrad, Sebastian (eds.) (2010): Memory in a Global Age. Discourses, Practices and Trajectories. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

Halbwachs, Maurice (1980): The Collective Memory. New York: Harper and Row.

Kleist, Olaf/Glynn, Irial (eds.) (2012): History, Memory and Migration. Perceptions of the Past and the Politics of Incorporation, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

Nebow, Richard N./Kansteiner, Wulf/Fogu, Claudio (2006) (eds.): The Politics of Memory in Post-war Europe. Durham: Duke University Press.

Olick, Jeffrey (2007): The Politics of Regret. On Collective Memory and Historical Responsibility. London/New York: Routledge.

Torpey, John. 2006. Making Whole What Has Been Smashed: On Reparations Politics. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press. 

Wittlinger, Ruth (2011): The Merkel’s Government Politics of the Past, German Politics and Society 26 (4), 9-27.

Grading

Participation (10 %)

Two response papers (30 %)

Oral presentation (30 %)

Final paper (30 %)

COURSE DESCRIPTION

            Europe is home to a bewildering puzzle of many different histories, nations, cultures and languages, with more than 450 million people now living in the European Union - a Union that argues whether it can stay together as part of the "Eurozone" or even expand eastward to include supposedly "non-Christian" countries like Turkey.

            This course will start by introducing several earlier attempts to make a more united, and presumably more peaceful and prosperous, "Europe" out of the nation-states on the continent.  Each "imagined" Europe, as we shall see, was proposed to correct problems with the nation-states - to change politics and everyday lives in particular ways.

            A recent history of post-World-War-II Europe by Tony Judt will anchor the class' original work on Europe and its member nations. Judt tells the continent's story from the point of view of the era's global power politics, and then situates individual European states within them.  Judt's text, then, provides accounts of Europe from the top-down and points to moments when those official accounts diverge for particular states and when they place individuals and groups who do not fit the national stereotypes under pressure. 

            The historical account of Europe as seen from the point of view of world politics is an interesting counterpoint to the evolution of European government since World War II, as realized in the Council of Europe and the European Union.  This part of the course will introduce the structure of European governance and its institutions and will outline its central features and challenges.

            The largest section of the course is devoted to a workshop on issues in contemporary Europe. The class will address current European political and cultural issues such as immigration, education, language policies, European politics of memory and Europe’s role in the world. Students will get an overview on these topics from a European perspective and will carry out some small research projects on a particular country.  

The course will introduce students to the most important research materials for the study of Europe such as the central academic journals that focus on European issues, European survey tools, and research by European think tanks. The assignments of the course build on each other to help students acquire a body of skills and knowledge that will aid in their personal studies of Europe and in their major courses. This course is the introductory core course for a concentration or major in European Studies at UT, but it requires no prerequisites except for the willingness to work in collaboration with others and to engage in a discovery process rather than seeking "right" answers.

COURSE OBJECTIVES:

By the end of this course,

• You will have a profound knowledge of the main phases and events of Europe’s history after World War Two and of its central political project, the European Union.
• You will know the relevant empirical research literature and its main findings on current political and cultural issues in Europe such as immigration, education, language policies, cultural heritage and memory, and Europe’s role in the world.
• You will know the most important academic, policy-oriented and news sources for the study of European societies and politics.

ASSIGNMENTS AND GRADING:

• Chapter review = 20%
• Collecting information on a Webpage on one of the EU member states: 5 tasks = 10%
• Two one-hour online tests @ 10% each = 20%
• Response paper = 30%
• Final Evaluative Book Review of Postwar  = 20%

READINGS

Tony Judt.  Postwar:  A History of Europe Since 1945.  New York:  The Penguin Press, 2005.  

A massive influx of refugees, conflicts about cultural diversity and religion, debates on the lack of highly-skilled workers - immigration currently is at the top of the German public agenda. However, discussions on immigration are taking place in a political climate much different from twenty years ago. Until the year 2000, despite being a major destination for international migration, Germany defined itself as a non-immigration country and aimed at preventing permanent immigration. However, for some years now, the integration of migrants has become a central aim and in some fields the country even pursues a pro-active immigration policy. What factors have encouraged this change, and how has immigration changed German society and culture? These are the questions that the course will address. Applying a historical perspective and using central theories and concepts of contemporary migration research, we will analyze recent changes in the fields of labor migration, asylum and undocumented migration and the integration of migrants. We will ask how the changes that have taken place are reflected on a cultural level, looking at the (contested) incorporation of Islam in German society, the reflection of immigration in contemporary art, movies and novels, and regional and civil society initiatives to preserve the memory of immigration.

The course aims at providing students with a profound knowledge of the main characteristics of Germany as an immigration country and on the current central empirical research topics on immigration in Germany. It also aims at enabling students to understand and apply central theories and concepts of contemporary migration studies beyond the case of Germany. At the end of the course, students should also be able to understand and assess Germany’s profile as an immigration country in comparison to other immigration countries such as the United States.

Texts

• Borkert, Maren/Bosswick, Wolfgang (2011): The Case of Germany, in: Zincone, Giovanna/Penninx, Rinus/Borkert Maren (eds.): Migration Policymaking in Europe. The Dynamics of Actors and Contexts in Past and Present, Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 95-128.
• Bretell, Caroline/Hollifield, James F. (2006): Migration Theory. Talking across Disciplines (2nd edition). London: Routledge.
• Göktürk, Deniz/Gramling, David/Kaes, Anton (eds.) (2007): Germany in Transit. Nation and Migration, 1955-2005, Berkeley, CA: California University Press.
• Green, Simon (2013): “Germany. A changing country of immigration,” German Politics, 22 (3), 333-351

Grading

• 2 Writing Assignments (3 pages)   20 %
• Participation and Homework          20 %
• Oral Presentation                          20 %
• Final Paper                                   40 %

Description:

Sport and other forms of physical culture have played important political roles in German history over the past two centuries. The gymnastics movement of the early 19th century promoted an intense German nationalism based on racial/ethnic identity. The late-19th century gymnastics movement was both politically conservative and engaged in an unsuccessful struggle with the foreign “sport” culture that eventually conquered the world in the form of the Olympic Games and global soccer. The 1936 Berlin (“Nazi”) Olympics promoted Hitler’s foreign policy objectives by serving as a propaganda platform that persuaded much of the world that Nazi Germany would not go to war. An anti-Nazi boycott effort in the United States did not succeed. The next German dictatorship to adopt sport as a political strategy was East Germany (1949-1989), which produced huge numbers of internationally successful athletes by creating a system of early recruitment, expert coaching, and a secret doping program that fed anabolic steroids to thousands of young men and women, including children: criminal medicine in the service of sportive nationalism. In recent decades, democratic Germany has pursued a very successful program to become a world soccer power. The 2006 World Cup competition in Germany marked a turning point by producing a politically acceptable form of German nationalism. The German victory at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil has confirmed traditional stereotypes about German efficiency that reflect well on Germany’s political system. The inclusion of players of non-German origin on the national team serves as a symbol of German multicultural policy in an era of troubled race relations across the face of Europe.

Selected Readings:

Léon Poliakov, “Arndt, Jahn and the Germanomanes,” in The History of Anti-Semitism: From Voltaire to Wagner (New York: The Vanguard Press, 1975): 380-391.

John Hoberman, “The Origins of Socialist Sport: Marxist Sport Culture in the Years of Innocence,” in Sport and Political Ideology (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1984): 170-189.

John Hoberman, “Fascism and the Sportive Temperament,” “Nietzsche and the Authority of the Body,” “Fascist Style and Sportive Manhood,” in Sport and Political Ideology (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1984): 83-109.

 John M. Hoberman, “”Nazi Sport Theory: Racial Heroism and the Critique of Sport,” in Sport and Political Ideology (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1984): 162-169.

 Marcel Reinold and John Hoberman, “The Myth of the Nazi Steroid,” The International Journal of the History of Sport  (2014).

Allen Guttmann, “’The Nazi Olympics’,” in The Games Must Go On: Avery Brundage and the Olympic Movement (New York: Columbia University Press, 1984): 62-82.

Richard Mandell, The Nazi Olympics (1971).

Alan Tomlinson, “FIFA and the Men Who Made It,” Soccer & Society 1 (2000): 55-71.

Werner Krauss, “Football, Nation and Identity: German Miracles in the Post-War Era,” in Dyck, Noel and Eduardo P. Archetti, eds., Sport, Dance and Embodied Identities (Oxford and New York: Berg, 2003): 197-216.

John Hoberman, “The Politics of Doping in Germany,” “The German Sports Medical Establishment,” in Mortal Engines: The Science of Performance and the Dehumanization of Sport (New York: Free Press, 1992): 237-252, 252-265.

John Hoberman. "The Reunification of German Sports Medicine, 1989-1992," Quest 45 (1993): 277-285.

Werner W. Franke and Brigitte Berendonk, “Hormonal doping and androgenization of athletes: a secret doping program of the German Democratic Republic government,” Clinical Chemistry 43 (1997): 1262-1279.

Grading:

Examination #1 (25%)

Examination #2 (25%)

Quizzes (5 worth 5% apiece)

Term paper (25%)

COURSE DESCRIPTION

            Europe is home to a bewildering puzzle of many different histories, nations, cultures and languages, with more than 450 million people now living in the European Union - a Union that argues whether it can stay together as part of the "Eurozone" or even expand eastward to include supposedly "non-Christian" countries like Turkey.

            This course will start by introducing several earlier attempts to make a more united, and presumably more peaceful and prosperous, "Europe" out of the nation-states on the continent.  Each "imagined" Europe, as we shall see, was proposed to correct problems with the nation-states - to change politics and everyday lives in particular ways.

            A recent history of post-World-War-II Europe by Tony Judt will anchor the class' original work on Europe and its member nations. Judt tells the continent's story from the point of view of the era's global power politics, and then situates individual European states within them.  Judt's text, then, provides accounts of Europe from the top-down and points to moments when those official accounts diverge for particular states and when they place individuals and groups who do not fit the national stereotypes under pressure. 

            The historical account of Europe as seen from the point of view of world politics is an interesting counterpoint to the evolution of European government since World War II, as realized in the Council of Europe and the European Union.  This part of the course will introduce the structure of European governance and its institutions and will outline its central features and challenges.

            The largest section of the course is devoted to a workshop on issues in contemporary Europe. The class will address current European political and cultural issues such as immigration, education, language policies, European politics of memory and Europe’s role in the world. Students will get an overview on these topics from a European perspective and will carry out some small research projects on a particular country.  

The course will introduce students to the most important research materials for the study of Europe such as the central academic journals that focus on European issues, European survey tools, and research by European think tanks. The assignments of the course build on each other to help students acquire a body of skills and knowledge that will aid in their personal studies of Europe and in their major courses. This course is the introductory core course for a concentration or major in European Studies at UT, but it requires no prerequisites except for the willingness to work in collaboration with others and to engage in a discovery process rather than seeking "right" answers.

COURSE OBJECTIVES:

By the end of this course,

• You will have a profound knowledge of the main phases and events of Europe’s history after World War Two and of its central political project, the European Union.
• You will know the relevant empirical research literature and its main findings on current political and cultural issues in Europe such as immigration, education, language policies, cultural heritage and memory, and Europe’s role in the world.
• You will know the most important academic, policy-oriented and news sources for the study of European societies and politics.

ASSIGNMENTS AND GRADING:

• Chapter review = 20%
• Collecting information on a Webpage on one of the EU member states: 5 tasks = 10%
• Two one-hour online tests @ 10% each = 20%
• Response paper = 30%
• Final Evaluative Book Review of Postwar  = 20%

READINGS

Tony Judt.  Postwar:  A History of Europe Since 1945.  New York:  The Penguin Press, 2005.  

Please check back for updates.

Course Trailer: Memories of Migrations: Germany/U.S., GSD 360 (38190)/EUS 348 (36453) GC flag @UTEuroStudies @UTAustinCOLA @UT_IRG pic.twitter.com/DeLJfshhfL

— UT COLA Courses (@UTCOLA_Courses) October 13, 2016

A massive influx of refugees, conflicts about cultural diversity and religion, debates on the lack of highly-skilled workers - immigration currently is at the top of the German public agenda. However, discussions on immigration are taking place in a political climate much different from twenty years ago. Until the year 2000, despite being a major destination for international migration, Germany defined itself as a non-immigration country and aimed at preventing permanent immigration. However, for some years now, the integration of migrants has become a central aim and in some fields the country even pursues a pro-active immigration policy. What factors have encouraged this change, and how has immigration changed German society and culture? These are the questions that the course will address. Applying a historical perspective and using central theories and concepts of contemporary migration research, we will analyze recent changes in the fields of labor migration, asylum and undocumented migration and the integration of migrants. We will ask how the changes that have taken place are reflected on a cultural level, looking at the (contested) incorporation of Islam in German society, the reflection of immigration in contemporary art, movies and novels, and regional and civil society initiatives to preserve the memory of immigration.

The course aims at providing students with a profound knowledge of the main characteristics of Germany as an immigration country and on the current central empirical research topics on immigration in Germany. It also aims at enabling students to understand and apply central theories and concepts of contemporary migration studies beyond the case of Germany. At the end of the course, students should also be able to understand and assess Germany’s profile as an immigration country in comparison to other immigration countries such as the United States.

Texts

• Borkert, Maren/Bosswick, Wolfgang (2011): The Case of Germany, in: Zincone, Giovanna/Penninx, Rinus/Borkert Maren (eds.): Migration Policymaking in Europe. The Dynamics of Actors and Contexts in Past and Present, Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 95-128.
• Bretell, Caroline/Hollifield, James F. (2006): Migration Theory. Talking across Disciplines (2nd edition). London: Routledge.
• Göktürk, Deniz/Gramling, David/Kaes, Anton (eds.) (2007): Germany in Transit. Nation and Migration, 1955-2005, Berkeley, CA: California University Press.
• Green, Simon (2013): “Germany. A changing country of immigration,” German Politics, 22 (3), 333-351

Grading

• 2 Writing Assignments (3 pages)   20 %
• Participation and Homework          20 %
• Oral Presentation                          20 %
• Final Paper                                   40 %