Fachbereich 05: Sprache, Literatur, Kultur - Anglistik - Lehramstudiengang (L3) ab Wintersemester 2023/24

This introductory lecture aims to familiarize participants with the field of Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL). It addresses a wide variety of issues and questions, ranging from ‘what does it mean to ‘become’ a professional English language teacher?’ to ‘what competencies and skills will I have to acquire?’ In conjunction with the lecture, (mandatory) weekly tutorials will be made available.

Prerequisites:
None. This course is accompanied by the obligatory Tutorium TEFL I A2.

Required Reading:
A digital reader will be available at the beginning of the semester.

Credit:
Graded: Regular attendance, active participation in class, homework assignments and written exam (Klausur).

Exam period:
Written exam: tba

Registration: Flex-Now

This course focuses on the development of the students' general language skills. The aim is to work on language development and awareness with the focus on the four skills (Reading, Writing, Speaking, Listening), both in an integrated way but also separately. There will also be considerable work done and emphasis placed on the sub-skill of Vocabulary and also some work done on Grammar. With the ultimate goal of advanced communication, students will have to deal with different levels of texts and other media, through which various aspects of the language will be highlighted.

This course focuses on the development of the students' general language skills. The aim is to work on language development and awareness with the focus on the four skills (Reading, Writing, Speaking, Listening), both in an integrated way but also separately. There will also be considerable work done and emphasis placed on the sub-skill of Vocabulary and also some work done on Grammar. With the ultimate goal of advanced communication, students will have to deal with different levels of texts and other media, through which various aspects of the language will be highlighted.

This course focuses on the development of the students' general language skills. The aim is to work on language development and awareness with the focus on the four skills (Reading, Writing, Speaking, Listening), both in an integrated way but also separately. There will also be considerable work done and emphasis placed on the sub-skill of Vocabulary and also some work done on Grammar. With the ultimate goal of advanced communication, students will have to deal with different levels of texts and other media, through which various aspects of the language will be highlighted.

This course focuses on the development of the students' general language skills. The aim is to work on language development and awareness with the focus on the four skills (Reading, Writing, Speaking, Listening), both in an integrated way but also separately. There will also be considerable work done and emphasis placed on the sub-skill of Vocabulary and also some work done on Grammar. With the ultimate goal of advanced communication, students will have to deal with different levels of texts and other media, through which various aspects of the language will be highlighted.

This course focuses on the development of the students' general language skills. The aim is to work on language development and awareness with the focus on the four skills (Reading, Writing, Speaking, Listening), both in an integrated way but also separately. There will also be considerable work done and emphasis placed on the sub-skill of Vocabulary and also some work done on Grammar. With the ultimate goal of advanced communication, students will have to deal with different levels of texts and other media, through which various aspects of the language will be highlighted.

This course focuses on the development of the students' general language skills. The aim is to work on language development and awareness with the focus on the four skills (Reading, Writing, Speaking, Listening), both in an integrated way but also separately. There will also be considerable work done and emphasis placed on the sub-skill of Vocabulary and also some work done on Grammar. With the ultimate goal of advanced communication, students will have to deal with different levels of texts and other media, through which various aspects of the language will be highlighted.

This course focuses on the development of the students' general language skills. The aim is to work on language development and awareness with the focus on the four skills (Reading, Writing, Speaking, Listening), both in an integrated way but also separately. There will also be considerable work done and emphasis placed on the sub-skill of Vocabulary and also some work done on Grammar. With the ultimate goal of advanced communication, students will have to deal with different levels of texts and other media, through which various aspects of the language will be highlighted.

This course focuses on the development of the students' general language skills. The aim is to work on language development and awareness with the focus on the four skills (Reading, Writing, Speaking, Listening), both in an integrated way but also separately. There will also be considerable work done and emphasis placed on the sub-skill of Vocabulary and also some work done on Grammar. With the ultimate goal of advanced communication, students will have to deal with different levels of texts and other media, through which various aspects of the language will be highlighted.

This course focuses on the development of the students' general language skills. The aim is to work on language development and awareness with the focus on the four skills (Reading, Writing, Speaking, Listening), both in an integrated way but also separately. There will also be considerable work done and emphasis placed on the sub-skill of Vocabulary and also some work done on Grammar. With the ultimate goal of advanced communication, students will have to deal with different levels of texts and other media, through which various aspects of the language will be highlighted.

This course focuses on the development of the students' general language skills. The aim is to work on language development and awareness with the focus on the four skills (Reading, Writing, Speaking, Listening), both in an integrated way but also separately. There will also be considerable work done and emphasis placed on the sub-skill of Vocabulary and also some work done on Grammar. With the ultimate goal of advanced communication, students will have to deal with different levels of texts and other media, through which various aspects of the language will be highlighted.

This course focuses on the development of the students' general language skills. The aim is to work on language development and awareness with the focus on the four skills (Reading, Writing, Speaking, Listening), both in an integrated way but also separately. There will also be considerable work done and emphasis placed on the sub-skill of Vocabulary and also some work done on Grammar. With the ultimate goal of advanced communication, students will have to deal with different levels of texts and other media, through which various aspects of the language will be highlighted.

This course focuses on the development of the students' general language skills. The aim is to work on language development and awareness with the focus on the four skills (Reading, Writing, Speaking, Listening), both in an integrated way but also separately. There will also be considerable work done and emphasis placed on the sub-skill of Vocabulary and also some work done on Grammar. With the ultimate goal of advanced communication, students will have to deal with different levels of texts and other media, through which various aspects of the language will be highlighted.

This course focuses on the development of the students' general language skills. The aim is to work on language development and awareness with the focus on the four skills (Reading, Writing, Speaking, Listening), both in an integrated way but also separately. There will also be considerable work done and emphasis placed on the sub-skill of Vocabulary and also some work done on Grammar. With the ultimate goal of advanced communication, students will have to deal with different levels of texts and other media, through which various aspects of the language will be highlighted.

This lecture provides an overview of British literary history, one novel at a time. We will begin in the 18th century with Daniel Defoe, who is often credited with writing the first English novel, and end in the 21st century with Bernardine Evaristo, the first ever Black writer to have received the most prestigious British literary prize, the Booker. In between these two authors, we will move through the most important literary epochs and movements, from Romanticism, the Victorian Age, Modernism, Postmodernism and what lies beyond, to look at famous literary works and Britain’s most important authors. This approach also allows us to touch on questions of canon formation, and to think about the selection processes in the literary field that, still today, shape the reading lists of schools and universities. As the title suggests, we won’t read only books written by dead white men, but they will be prominently represented. The lecture will also touch on important approaches of literary studies, key concepts and literary theories that have shaped our understanding of the discussed novels. Take this lecture if you want to get an overview of British literary history, and idea of how the style of writing changed throughout the centuries, and to hear a little bit about the prominent cultural, social, and political concerns that provide the backgrounds of the different novels.
Among the texts discussed in this lecture are Daniel Defoe, Moll Flanders (1722), Mary Shelley, Frankenstein (1818), Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre (1847), Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness (1899), Virginia Woolf, Mrs Dalloway (1925), Julian Barnes, England, England (1998), and Bernardine Evaristo, Girl, Woman, Other (2019).

This course aims at familiarizing students with approaches to the study of human language in general and to the study of the English language in particular. Attention will be paid to important concepts and terminology from the core areas of theoretical linguistics (phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics) and to their relevance to the fields of applied linguistics, such as language acquisition, sociolinguistics and cognitive linguistics.

Exam / Modulabschlussprüfung (MAP): To be announced at the beginning of the semester

This course aims at familiarizing students with approaches to the study of human language in general and to the study of the English language in particular. Attention will be paid to important concepts and terminology from the core areas of theoretical linguistics (phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics) and to their relevance to the fields of applied linguistics, such as language acquisition, sociolinguistics and cognitive linguistics.

Exam / Modulabschlussprüfung (MAP): To be announced at the beginning of the semester

This course aims at familiarizing students with approaches to the study of human language in general and to the study of the English language in particular. Attention will be paid to important concepts and terminology from the core areas of theoretical linguistics (phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics) and to their relevance to the fields of applied linguistics, such as language acquisition, sociolinguistics and cognitive linguistics.

Exam / Modulabschlussprüfung (MAP): To be announced at the beginning of the semester

This course aims at familiarizing students with approaches to the study of human language in general and to English in particular. Attention will be paid to important concepts and terms of core areas of theoretical linguistics (phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics) and to their relevance to the fields of applied linguistics, such as language acquisition, sociolinguistics and computational linguistics.

Reading: Bernd Kortmann, English Linguistics: Essentials (Berlin: Cornelsen, 2020).
Registration: FlexNow
Graded credit: Regular attendance, active participation, a mini presentation and a pass in the Modulabschlussprüfung at the end of the lecture period.

This course aims at familiarizing students with approaches to the study of human language in general and to the study of the English language in particular. Attention will be paid to important concepts and terminology from the core areas of theoretical linguistics (phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics) and to their relevance to the fields of applied linguistics, such as language acquisition, sociolinguistics and cognitive linguistics.

Exam / Modulabschlussprüfung (MAP): To be announced at the beginning of the semester

The study of the history of the English language offers highly relevant insights into how the language has changed over the course of the centuries and into how the English language is structured and functions all around the world today. Therefore, we will pay particular attention to the different periods in the history of the English language, i.e. Old English, Middle English, Early Modern English, Late Modern English and Present-day English, in order to follow the structural changes on the levels of phonology, lexis, syntax and semantics that have led to the English language as we use it today.

Exam / Modulabschlussprüfung (MAP): To be announced at the beginning of the semester

The study of the history of the English language offers highly relevant insights into how the language has changed over the course of the centuries and into how the English language is structured and functions all around the world today. Therefore, we will pay particular attention to the different periods in the history of the English language, i.e. Old English, Middle English, Early Modern English, Late Modern English and Present-day English, in order to follow the structural changes on the levels of phonology, lexis, syntax and semantics that have led to the English language as we use it today.

Exam / Modulabschlussprüfung (MAP): To be announced at the beginning of the semester

This lecture course surveys the sounds of English, primarily those of American and British accents. The lecture focuses on the characteristic articulation of English sounds (esp. speech organs, sound classes, places and manners of articulation) as well as the systems used for the phonetic description of vowels and consonants. We will also have a look at phonemes and allophonic distribution, phonological processes and connected speech phenomena such as word stress and intonation. Attention is also paid to those areas of articulation that tend to be problematic for German speakers. Students will also learn to read and broadly transcribe English sounds using International Phonetic Association (IPA) transcription.

Course book:
Lorenz, Frank. 2013. Basics of phonetics and English phonology. With IPA transcription. 2nd. ed. Berlin: Logos Verlag. (available as e-book through universitay library)

Registration:
FlexNow.

Credit:
Graded: Final exam 100%

Final exam:
- ICB and Anglophone Studies (MAP): last week of lecture period, dates tba.
- all others: 11.02.2025

This lecture course surveys the sounds of English, primarily those of American and British accents. The lecture focuses on the characteristic articulation of English sounds (esp. speech organs, sound classes, places and manners of articulation) as well as the systems used for the phonetic description of vowels and consonants. We will also have a look at phonemes and allophonic distribution, phonological processes and connected speech phenomena such as word stress and intonation. Attention is also paid to those areas of articulation that tend to be problematic for German speakers. Students will also learn to read and broadly transcribe English sounds using International Phonetic Association (IPA) transcription.

Course book:
Lorenz, Frank. 2013. Basics of phonetics and English phonology. With IPA transcription. 2nd. ed. Berlin: Logos Verlag. (available as e-book through universitay library)

Registration:
FlexNow.

Credit:
Graded: Final exam 100%

Final exam:
- ICB and Anglophone Studies (MAP): last week of lecture period, dates tba.
- all others: 13.02.2025

This course offers an introduction into the qualitative and quantitative methods for analyzing English language structures on the various levels of linguistic description. We will not only provide an overview of these methods, but will also make sure that you have ample opportunities to practice their application to small-scale studies (with the help of data analysis software and simple statistical measures). We will also place an emphasis on how to discuss and present empirical findings.

Modulabschlussprüfung (MAP): To be announced at the beginning of the semester

This course will act as an introduction to cognitive linguistics – a field of linguistic study concerned with the relationship between cognition and language. We will first discuss some of the main assumptions, concepts and commitments that characterize cognitive linguistic study. From there, we will focus on the two main frameworks: 1) cognitive semantics (with a special emphasis on conceptual metaphor and 2) cognitive approaches to grammar.

Prerequisites: Successful completion of the ?Introduction to English Linguistics? course.

Reading: Reading material will be made available for download via Stud.IP.

Registration: Please register with FlexNow.

Ungraded credit: Regular attendance, completion of reading and homework assignments, active participation in class and comprehension quizzes on Ilias.

Graded credit: A final exam or a term paper.

Exam Date: Feb. 13, 2025
Term Paper Deadline: March 31, 2025

In this course, we will explore the fascinating intersection of language and the digital world, focusing on how the internet reshapes the way we communicate and share information.

We will look into the dynamics of online discourse, exploring how language is used in different social media contexts, such as the informal, fast-paced exchanges on Twitter/X, the visually driven communication on Instagram, and the community-oriented discussions on Reddit.

Registration: Please register with FlexNow.

This class will be devoted to exploring the English language from the perspective of language change. In doing so, it will take a diachronic approach to studying the English language. Along with a review of the structural changes occurring throughout the periods of English (from Old English to Present-Day English), we will also put emphasis on various theories, major concepts, socio-historical conditions and various other areas of study that go into a linguistic account of how language changes.

Prerequisites: Successful completion of the ?Introduction to English Linguistics? course.

Reading: Reading material will be made available for download via Stud.IP.

Registration: Please register with FlexNow.

Ungraded credit: Regular attendance, completion of reading and homework assignments, active participation in class and comprehension quizzes on Ilias.

Graded credit: A final exam or a term paper.

Exam Date: Feb. 12, 2025
Term Paper Deadline: March 31, 2025

IMPORTANT: PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS COURSE ONLY STARTS IN THE THIRD WEEK OF THE SEMESTER, I.E., ON 29 OCTOBER 2024.

Sociolinguistics is the study of the relationship between language (use) and society. By examining how different people use language in different social circumstances, sociolinguists can learn about how language works, how social relationships work in a community, and how social identities can be conveyed and constructed through language use. In this seminar, students will learn about the factors that determine the different forms of a language by zooming in on regional, social, and functional variation of English.

Reading: Reading material will be made available for download via Stud.IP [students receive access code during the first seminar session].

Registration: Please register with FlexNow.

Ungraded credit: Regular attendance, active participation in class, completion of weekly reading and/or exercise assignments, oral presentation.

Graded credit: In addition to the above, a final exam or a term paper.

Exam period: Final exam on 11 February 2025; deadline for term paper submission on 15 March 2025.

The English language has spread globally since British overseas expansions started in the 17th century, which has given rise to a range of different varieties all around the world. In this seminar, we will start our journey around the world (and its Englishes) on the British Isles and move on to North America, the Caribbean, Australasia, South East Asia, South Asia and Africa. In the course of this seminar, we will engage with theory and research on the evolution and expansion of world Englishes. We will focus on different first language, second language and learner varieties of English in the above-mentioned regions and outline similarities and differences between these varieties on various linguistic levels by also taking into account the social and historical circumstances under which the language varieties emerged.

Credit: Exam (13 February 2025) or portfolio
Registration: Please register with FlexNow

Prerequisite: Successful completion of module TEFL I

Expectations: Regular attendance, active participation, presentation/micro teaching unit and submission of a term paper.

Credit: The term paper has to be handed in by March 15, 2025.

Registration: via Flex-now.

Description:
Taking over responsibility for the (globalised) world we live in is one of the main challenges of our times. In this scenario, schools play an important role in order to inform and prepare the upcoming generations for this challenge.
In this course, students will create units and projects to introduce EF learners of all age groups to some of the 17 global goals (also known as Sustainable Development Goals) of the UN in an intercultural context. The course also comprises the promotion of 21st century skills, such as critical thinking, communication, collaboration and creativity, both for the students and their prospective learners.

Prerequisite: Successful completion of module TEFL I

Expectations: Regular attendance, active participation, presentation/micro teaching unit and submission of a term paper.

Exam Period: The term paper has to be handed in by March 15, 2025.

Registration: via Flex-now.

Explore the integration of digital literacy into English instruction with this seminar. Participants
will examine how digital tools can enhance the teaching of grammar, vocabulary, reading, and
writing.
The seminar provides a comprehensive overview of various digital resources and their
applications in the classroom. Through practical sessions, students will engage with interactive
tools, develop innovative lesson plans, and learn strategies for incorporating technology into
their teaching practices.
In addition, participants will contribute to a collaborative eBook, showcasing their developed
lesson plans and new expertise. This seminar aims to equip students with effective methods for
integrating digital literacy into English instruction and enhancing their overall teaching
approach.

Prerequisite: Successful completion of module TEFL I

Expectations: Regular attendance, active participation and submission of a term paper.

Credit: The term paper has to be handed in by March 15, 2025.

Registration: via Flex-now.

Prerequisite: Successful completion of module TEFL I

Expectations: Regular attendance, active participation, presentation/micro teaching unit and submission of a term paper.

Credit: The term paper has to be handed in by March 15, 2025.

Registration: via Flex-now.

Prerequisite: Successful completion of module TEFL I

Expectations: Regular attendance, active participation, presentation/micro teaching unit and submission of a term paper.

Credit: The term paper has to be handed in by March 15, 2025.

Registration: via Flex-now.

Prerequisite: Successful completion of module TEFL I

Expectations: Regular attendance, active participation, presentation/micro teaching unit and submission of a term paper.

Credit: The term paper has to be handed in by March 15, 2025.

Registration: via Flex-now.

Description:

Prerequisite: Successful completion of module TEFL I

Expectations: Regular attendance, active participation, presentation/micro teaching unit and submission of a term paper.

Credit: The term paper has to be handed in by March 15, 2025.

Registration: via Flex-now.

Literature – defined in a broad way – can foster several competencies of our young adult EFL learners; it provides them with crucial aspects of language acquisition, intercultural learning competence and the ability to change perspectives, critical thinking and creativity, as well as communicative competence in general. In this course, students will examine the potential of young adult literature for the EFLC, gain knowledge about the use of it in different contexts and conclusively create concrete motivating learning arrangements.

Prerequisite: Successful completion of module TEFL I

Expectations: Regular attendance, active participation, presentation/micro teaching unit and submission of a term paper.

Exam Period: The term paper has to be handed in by March 15, 2025.

Registration: via Flex-now.

This seminar aims to explore how mental health and identity are represented in graphic novels and picture books. To this end, we will familiarize ourselves with basic narrative techniques and stylistic devices in the graphic novel before further diving into media analysis.

As this seminar centers on the discussion of graphic novels and picture books and their representation of mental health and the search for identity, participants are expected to be willing to purchase at least one graphic novel of their choosing for analysis. While the lecturer will bring several texts to the sessions in order to provide students with some initial examples, students may be asked to either find examples at the university library or purchase primary texts of their choosing to prepare the unconference as well as an abstract for their term papers. At the same time, any necessary secondary literature will be made available digitally via Stud.IP.

With this course being taught in four sessions, students are expected to fulfill regular course attendance, active in-class participation, and submission of assignments in preparation for the respective session. Additionally, participants are asked to ensure access to a copy of a graphic novel or picture book of their choice for individual work sessions and in-class group assignments (digital copies are accepted).

Some of the graphic novels and picture books we will be discussing include but are not limited to Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home (2006), Grayson Lee White’s Dotson (2023), Debbie Tung’s Everything is Okay (2022), and Zoe Thorogood’s It’s Lonely at the Centre of the Earth (2023). Additional secondary literature will include Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics. The Invisible Art (1994) as well as Julia Abel and Christian Klein's (Eds.) Comics und Graphic Novels. Eine Einführung (2016).

This seminar aims to explore how mental health and identity are represented in graphic novels and picture books. To this end, we will familiarize ourselves with basic narrative techniques and stylistic devices in the graphic novel before further diving into media analysis.

As this seminar centers on the discussion of graphic novels and picture books and their representation of mental health and the search for identity, participants are expected to be willing to purchase at least one graphic novel of their choosing for analysis. While the lecturer will bring several texts to the sessions in order to provide students with some initial examples, students may be asked to either find examples at the university library or purchase primary texts of their choosing to prepare the unconference as well as an abstract for their term papers. At the same time, any necessary secondary literature will be made available digitally via Stud.IP.

With this course being taught in four sessions, students are expected to fulfill regular course attendance, active in-class participation, and submission of assignments in preparation for the respective session. Additionally, participants are asked to ensure access to a copy of a graphic novel or picture book of their choice for individual work sessions and in-class group assignments (digital copies are accepted).

Some of the graphic novels and picture books we will be discussing include but are not limited to Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home (2006), Grayson Lee White’s Dotson (2023), Debbie Tung’s Everything is Okay (2022), and Zoe Thorogood’s It’s Lonely at the Centre of the Earth (2023). Additional secondary literature will include Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics. The Invisible Art (1994) as well as Julia Abel and Christian Klein's (Eds.) Comics und Graphic Novels. Eine Einführung (2016).

This seminar aims to explore how mental health and identity are represented in graphic novels and picture books. To this end, we will familiarize ourselves with basic narrative techniques and stylistic devices in the graphic novel before further diving into media analysis.

As this seminar centers on the discussion of graphic novels and picture books and their representation of mental health and the search for identity, participants are expected to be willing to purchase at least one graphic novel of their choosing for analysis. While the lecturer will bring several texts to the sessions in order to provide students with some initial examples, students may be asked to either find examples at the university library or purchase primary texts of their choosing to prepare the unconference as well as an abstract for their term papers. At the same time, any necessary secondary literature will be made available digitally via Stud.IP.

With this course being taught in four sessions, students are expected to fulfill regular course attendance, active in-class participation, and submission of assignments in preparation for the respective session. Additionally, participants are asked to ensure access to a copy of a graphic novel or picture book of their choice for individual work sessions and in-class group assignments (digital copies are accepted).

Some of the graphic novels and picture books we will be discussing include but are not limited to Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home (2006), Grayson Lee White’s Dotson (2023), Debbie Tung’s Everything is Okay (2022), and Zoe Thorogood’s It’s Lonely at the Centre of the Earth (2023). Additional secondary literature will include Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics. The Invisible Art (1994) as well as Julia Abel and Christian Klein's (Eds.) Comics und Graphic Novels. Eine Einführung (2016).

From political discourse to the stories we tell about ourselves, the skepticism regarding truth, facts, and authenticity made prominent by post-structuralist and post-modernist thought appears to be of unprecedented relevance online. Theorists have been attempting to come to terms with these issues with a constantly expanding range of concepts, be it the diagnosis of a post-truth era (McIntyre 2018) or the assessment that we are dealing with bullshit (Frankfurt 2005), to only name two examples. Whatever might be the case, we seem to be witnessing a veritable paradigm shift in how facts are constructed, circulated, and contested that calls for critical study and reflection.

In this seminar, we will
- Engage with some of the theoretical foundations for why the line between fact and fiction seems to be becoming increasingly blurred;
- survey some of the complementary notions in which what is untrue can be conceptualized (fake news, inauthenticity, mis- and disinformation, bullshit, alternative facts, clickbait and engagement farming, etc.)
- theorize and model how platform ecologies and economies might be contributing to the proliferation of content that is at the very least indifferent to truth;
- investigate some of the realms in which contested facts have wide-reaching consequences (from political pundits to influencers shaping our political participation and consumption habits, to Brexit, January 6, and the discursive strategies of the international populist right, as well as the emergent challenges of generative AI for knowledge and truth);
- explore ways of combating and resisting the ongoing undermining of truth online we are affected by variously.

Frankfurt, Harry G. (2005). On Bullshit. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
McIntyre, Lee (2018). Post-Truth. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press

This seminar aims to explore how mental health and identity are represented in graphic novels and picture books. To this end, we will familiarize ourselves with basic narrative techniques and stylistic devices in the graphic novel before further diving into media analysis.

As this seminar centers on the discussion of graphic novels and picture books and their representation of mental health and the search for identity, participants are expected to be willing to purchase at least one graphic novel of their choosing for analysis. While the lecturer will bring several texts to the sessions in order to provide students with some initial examples, students may be asked to either find examples at the university library or purchase primary texts of their choosing to prepare the unconference as well as an abstract for their term papers. At the same time, any necessary secondary literature will be made available digitally via Stud.IP.

With this course being taught in four sessions, students are expected to fulfill regular course attendance, active in-class participation, and submission of assignments in preparation for the respective session. Additionally, participants are asked to ensure access to a copy of a graphic novel or picture book of their choice for individual work sessions and in-class group assignments (digital copies are accepted).

Some of the graphic novels and picture books we will be discussing include but are not limited to Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home (2006), Grayson Lee White’s Dotson (2023), Debbie Tung’s Everything is Okay (2022), and Zoe Thorogood’s It’s Lonely at the Centre of the Earth (2023). Additional secondary literature will include Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics. The Invisible Art (1994) as well as Julia Abel and Christian Klein's (Eds.) Comics und Graphic Novels. Eine Einführung (2016).

From political discourse to the stories we tell about ourselves, the skepticism regarding truth, facts, and authenticity made prominent by post-structuralist and post-modernist thought appears to be of unprecedented relevance online. Theorists have been attempting to come to terms with these issues with a constantly expanding range of concepts, be it the diagnosis of a post-truth era (McIntyre 2018) or the assessment that we are dealing with bullshit (Frankfurt 2005), to only name two examples. Whatever might be the case, we seem to be witnessing a veritable paradigm shift in how facts are constructed, circulated, and contested that calls for critical study and reflection.

In this seminar, we will
- Engage with some of the theoretical foundations for why the line between fact and fiction seems to be becoming increasingly blurred;
- survey some of the complementary notions in which what is untrue can be conceptualized (fake news, inauthenticity, mis- and disinformation, bullshit, alternative facts, clickbait and engagement farming, etc.)
- theorize and model how platform ecologies and economies might be contributing to the proliferation of content that is at the very least indifferent to truth;
- investigate some of the realms in which contested facts have wide-reaching consequences (from political pundits to influencers shaping our political participation and consumption habits, to Brexit, January 6, and the discursive strategies of the international populist right, as well as the emergent challenges of generative AI for knowledge and truth);
- explore ways of combating and resisting the ongoing undermining of truth online we are affected by variously.

Frankfurt, Harry G. (2005). On Bullshit. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
McIntyre, Lee (2018). Post-Truth. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press