Englischsprachige Lehrveranstaltungen

1. Semesterhälfte (in der 2. Semesterhälfte findet Public International Law III statt)
Anmeldeverfahren im Nebenfach Völkerrecht zur begleitenden AG über StudIP: https://studip.uni-giessen.de/dispatch.php/course/details?sem_id=416b982086ee5fb76da2bd9502e173a0&again=yes

The last 30 years have seen an unprecedented rise of constitutionalism in the world. Part of this development has been the expansion of constitutional review, i.e. the power given to courts to strike down (parliamentary) laws if they violate the constitution. Though constitutional review often seems natural to us today and a necessity in any Rechtsstaat, it is in reality a rather new thing and not a self-evident power of courts at all. This course provides an overview of the rise of and development of constitutional courts and constitutional review in a range of different legal systems, starting with the United States where constitutional review is until today fairly contested and the Supreme Court is undergoing a major legitimacy crisis at the moment. We try to understand the development of US constitutionalism from a historical perspective, encountering landmark decisions like Dred Scott, Lochner, Brown v. Board of Education, Roe v. Wade and others. Secondly we move to Germany but with a focus not on doctrine (Dogmatik) but on the evolution of constitutional review here and the role of the German Constitutional Court over the last decades. Finally, we turn to South Africa as an example for a more recent constitution which has borrowed from the German and whose constitutionalism shares with the German the need for overcoming an evil past. South Africa is also one of the internationally most admired examples of constitutionalism to date, with an active constitutional court with a comparatively progressive jurisprudence.

The class pursues 3 objectives: 1. to give German students the opportunity to see German constitutionalism in comparison to other countries and offer them new perspectives on the world outside Germany, 2. to help practice your English by engaging in conversations in class and 3. to offer Erasmus and other visiting students an introduction to German constitutionalism from a broader comparative perspective.

2. Semesterhälfte

Struktur: Vorlesung + Übung
Turnus: Wintersemester
Credits: 6 CP
Sprache: Englisch
Prüfungsform: Klausur

The course Advanced Econometrics introduces to current econometric methods. Lecture and exercise classes will be given in English.
The content of the course will be presented at intermediate to advanced formal level and will provide a good methodological base both for applied work and more specific econometric methods. Students will learn about potential and limitations of selected methods. Applications will focus mainly, but not exclusively, on examples from microeconomics including cross-sectional and panel analyses as well as on the specific methods for modelling discrete and limited dependent variables. The lecture will also provide references to current literature in applied econometrics and econometrics.
It is assumed that participants possess some basic knowledge of statistical concepts, in particular regarding estimation and testing.
The course will be followed in the summer term by one which adds content on time series econometrics and computer based methods and has a stronger focus on application of these econometric methods.
The course will take place in presence.

Der Kurs Advanced Econometrics bietet eine Einführung in die aktuellen ökonometrischen Methoden. Die Vorlesung und Übung werden auf Englisch gehalten, um auch internationalen Studierenden die Teilnahme zu ermöglichen.

Die Inhalte werden auf einem mittleren bis fortgeschrittenem formalen Niveau präsentiert und bieten eine solide methodische Grundlage für die angewandte Wirtschaftsforschung als auch für speziellere Methoden. Die Studierenden lernen die Möglichkeiten der verschiedenen Methoden, aber auch deren Grenzen kennen. Im Hinblick auf die Anwendungsgebiete konzentriert sich dieser Kurs auf die Mikroökonomie, z.B. auf die Modellierung von Querschnitts- und Paneldaten einschließlich der Fälle von diskreten und begrenzt abhängigen Variablen. Im Kurs werden die Studierenden auch in Berührung mit aktueller Literatur der angewandten Ökonomie und Ökonometrie kommen.

Es wird vorausgesetzt, dass die Teilnehmenden über Grundkenntnisse der Statistik, vor allem im Bereich Schätzen und Testen verfügen.

Im Anschluss an diesen Kurs können Studierende das Modul Zeitreihenökonometrie und computergestützte Verfahren besuchen, das sich auf die praxisorientierte ökonometrische Modellierung von Zeitreihen konzentriert.

Die Veranstaltung findet in Präsenz statt.

Struktur: Vorlesung + Übung
Turnus: Wintersemester
Credits: 6 CP
Sprache: Englisch
Prüfungsform: Klausur

The course Advanced Econometrics introduces to current econometric methods. Lecture and exercise classes will be given in English.
The content of the course will be presented at intermediate to advanced formal level and will provide a good methodological base both for applied work and more specific econometric methods. Students will learn about potential and limitations of selected methods. Applications will focus mainly, but not exclusively, on examples from microeconomics including cross-sectional and panel analyses as well as on the specific methods for modelling discrete and limited dependent variables. The lecture will also provide references to current literature in applied econometrics and econometrics.
It is assumed that participants possess some basic knowledge of statistical concepts, in particular regarding estimation and testing.
The course will be followed in the summer term by one which adds content on time series econometrics and computer based methods and has a stronger focus on application of these econometric methods.
The course will take place in presence.

Der Kurs Advanced Econometrics bietet eine Einführung in die aktuellen ökonometrischen Methoden. Die Vorlesung und Übung werden auf Englisch gehalten, um auch internationalen Studierenden die Teilnahme zu ermöglichen.

Die Inhalte werden auf einem mittleren bis fortgeschrittenem formalen Niveau präsentiert und bieten eine solide methodische Grundlage für die angewandte Wirtschaftsforschung als auch für speziellere Methoden. Die Studierenden lernen die Möglichkeiten der verschiedenen Methoden, aber auch deren Grenzen kennen. Im Hinblick auf die Anwendungsgebiete konzentriert sich dieser Kurs auf die Mikroökonomie, z.B. auf die Modellierung von Querschnitts- und Paneldaten einschließlich der Fälle von diskreten und begrenzt abhängigen Variablen. Im Kurs werden die Studierenden auch in Berührung mit aktueller Literatur der angewandten Ökonomie und Ökonometrie kommen.

Es wird vorausgesetzt, dass die Teilnehmenden über Grundkenntnisse der Statistik, vor allem im Bereich Schätzen und Testen verfügen.

Im Anschluss an diesen Kurs können Studierende das Modul Zeitreihenökonometrie und computergestützte Verfahren besuchen, das sich auf die praxisorientierte ökonometrische Modellierung von Zeitreihen konzentriert.

Die Veranstaltung findet in Präsenz statt.

Link zu JLUMaps:
https://www.uni-giessen.de/JLUmaps/?id=167813&lang=de

Diese Veranstaltung ist zulassungsbeschränkt mit einer maximalen Teilnehmerzahl von 20 Personen.
Ein Platz in der Veranstaltung kann nicht garantiert werden.

In dieser Veranstaltung werden erfolgskritische Aspekte des modernen Marketing- und Vertriebsmanagements vertieft.
In dieser Veranstaltung werden erfolgskritische Aspekte des modernen Marketing- und Vertriebsmanagements vertieft. Die Veranstaltung setzt sich aus den folgenden beiden Teil-Veranstaltungen "Marketing und Vertrieb in einer digitalen Welt" und "Verhandeln und Verkaufen" zusammen.
Der Vorlesungsteil der Veranstaltung bezieht sich auf dern Teilaspekt "Marketing und Vertrieb in einer digitalen Welt".
Die Digitalisierung bietet Unternehmen völlig neue Chancen, aber auch vielfältige Bedrohungen. Ziel dieser Veranstaltung ist ein vertieftes Verständnis der Möglichkeiten der Digitalisierung für eine effektive marktorientierte Unternehmensführung. Dazu wird aus einer Marketing- und Vertriebsperspektive behandelt, wie Unternehmen die Digitalisierung für ihren Marktauftritt (z.B. innovative Produkte und Dienstleistungen) sowie ihre externen und internen Prozesse (z.B. Wertschöpfungsnetzwerke, Kollaboration) nutzen können.

Diese Veranstaltung ist zulassungsbeschränkt mit einer maximalen Teilnehmerzahl von 20 Personen.
Die Teilnehmerauswahl erfolgt jeweils im vorausgegangenen Juli über schriftliche Bewerbungen.

In dieser Veranstaltung werden erfolgskritische Aspekte des modernen Marketing- und Vertriebsmanagements vertieft. Die Veranstaltung setzt sich aus den folgenden beiden Teil-Veranstaltungen "Marketing und Vertrieb in einer digitalen Welt" und "Verhandeln und Verkaufen" zusammen.
Der Übungsteil der Veranstaltung bezieht sich auf den Teil "Verhandeln und Verkaufen".
Effektives Verhandeln und das „Verkaufen“ der eigenen Ideen ist eine Kernkompetenz erfolgreicher Manager. Die Veranstaltung vermittelt die erforderlichen Kenntnisse und Fähigkeiten für eine effektive Verhandlungsführung. Die Vermittlung aktueller Theorien, Konzepte und Methoden zum Verhandeln und Verkaufen werden durch Übungseinheiten und Rollenspiele unterstützt. Auf diese Weise werden Verkaufs - und Verhandlungskompetenzen erworben, die in der späteren Berufspraxis flexibel an unterschiedliche Verhandlungssituationen angepasst werden können.

Struktur: Vorlesung + Übung
Turnus: Wintersemester
Credits: 6 CP
Sprache: Englisch
Prüfungsform: Klausur



The course gives and overview of various fields of modern macroeconomics. We extensively use the intertemporal model of consumption smoothing, which we extend to include capital and an endogenous labor supply decision. The implications of the resulting Real Business Cycle model will be contrasted with empirically observed stylized facts. Finally, nominal rigidities and monopolistic competition are introduced to study the role of monetary policy. The course also addresses the intersection of macroeconomics and finance, i.e. asset pricing, financial frictions and financial instability.

Module codes: 02-BWL/VWL:MSc-B11-Extra2
Course format: Lecture (6 CP)
Lecturer: Prof. Dr. Nicolas Pröllochs (BWL XI)
Term: Summer semester
Language: English
Grading: oral examination (presentation)

The course will consist of a blend of in-person and digital sessions ("Präsenz mit digitalen Anteilen")

***Course description***
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is transforming businesses by unlocking new opportunities for efficiency and data-driven decision-making. The master’s course on “Applied AI” provides students with an overview of the field of AI with a focus on real-world applications. Students will learn the end-to-end process of preparing data, implementing machine learning models, and evaluating their performance. The course will provide hands-on coding examples, equipping students with the necessary skills to implement these techniques independently. At the end of the course, participants will be familiar with the most important concepts, principles, algorithms, and challenges in applied AI.

The main objectives of this course are to:
1) Understand the basic concepts of AI and machine learning and their relevance in business contexts
2) Obtain an overview of different methods, algorithms, and software tools for applied AI
3) Learn how to train and evaluate AI methods on real-world datasets
4) Understand limits and challenges associated with contemporary AI methods, including ethical considerations and biases

***Term project & grading***
Grading will be based on an oral presentation, which will report on the results of a term project conducted throughout the semester. The assignments will consist of a specific problem from applied AI (e.g., applying a machine learning method on a given dataset). Students will be provided with an assignment at the beginning of the semester and may work on their projects individually or in small groups. Assignments will be tailored to students’ interests and expertise. Basic experience in computer programming (e.g., in R, Python) is desirable but not mandatory.

***Registration***
The number of participants is limited to a maximum number of 24 students. Please register for the course by sending an e-mail to datascience@wirtschaft.uni-giessen.de. Please attach your current transcript of records (FlexNow printout) and a short (max 50 – 100 words) motivational statement (optional). If more than 24 students apply, participants will be selected based on their previous grades and/or their motivational statement. The application deadline is 14th April 2025.

For further information, please check the course information on the chair's website: https://www.uni-giessen.de/de/fbz/fb02/fb/professuren/bwl/data-science-digitalisierung/lehre

________
Information vom Prüfungsamt:
Das Modul kann in folgende Bereiche eingebracht werden:
MASTER BWL/VWL:
☒ Business Administration, ☒ Economics, ☒ Management, ☒ Finance and Accounting, ☒ Datenökonomie, ☒ Minor.
MASTER AFS:
☒ Major, ☒ Minor.
MASTER EGR:
☒ Major, ☒ Minor.

Struktur: Vorlesung mit integrierter Übung
Turnus: Wintersemester
Credits: 6 CP
Modulcode: 02-BWL:MSc-F-B6-1
Sprache: Englisch
Prüfungsform: Term Paper oder Klausur
Typ: Präsenzveranstaltung

Beschreibung:
Ziel der Vorlesung ist es, die Studierenden mit der Anwendung finanzwirtschaftlicher Analysemethoden vertraut zu machen. Im Mittelpunkt stehen die wesentlichen Entscheidungen des Finanzvorstands eines Unternehmens wie Investitions- und Finanzierungswahl oder Ausschüttungsentscheidungen. Anhand unterschiedlicher Fallbeispiele sowie aktueller Unternehmensereignisse sollen die Studierenden unmittelbar in die Lage versetzt werden, relevante Entscheidungssituationen zu erfassen, mögliche Lösungsansätze zu analysieren um so die Finanzierungsstrategie eines Unternehmens nachzuvollziehen. Die Vorlesung schließt mit einer Unternehmens-Bewertung und einer Analyse möglicher Optimierungspotentiale. Im Rahmen einer integrierten Übung werden alle Vorlesungselemente an ausgewählten Unternehmen diskutiert. Dabei werden sowohl kapitalmarkt-notierte wie private Unternehmen aus unterschiedlichen Ländern und Industrien betrachtet.

Format: Tutorial
Offered: Winter semester, summer semester
Credits: 6 CP
Teaching language: English
Asssessment: Oral examination, written examination
Equivalence: Advanced Management Communication: Business Ethics (02-Q:MSc-Englisch-1)

This seminar is targeted at advanced students who have an interest in learning about the ethical dimensions of business decisions. Using classic case studies, various moral dilemmas and extensive reading assignments, the course will challenge students to develop a more critical and thoughtful perspective on corporate and managerial decision-making. Participants will also practice how to use central ethical principles and analytical techniques in business decisions. Grading is based on an oral examination (40%) and a final written examination (60%).

This course will be taught in person.

Teilnehmerbeschränkt (30 TN)
Die Teilnehmerauswahl erfolgt Ende September. Zur Bewerbung senden Sie bitte eine Motivationsschreiben sowie Ihren Lebensauf bis zum 15. September an: alexander.haas@wirtschaft.uni-giessen.de

Teilnehmerbeschränkt (30 TN)
Die Teilnehmerauswahl erfolgt Ende September. Zur Bewerbung senden Sie bitte eine Motivationsschreiben sowie Ihren Lebensauf bis zum 20. September an: marketing@wirtschaft.uni-giessen.de

This course is offered twice a year, during the summer term as regular course in German
language in presence and during the winter term as virtual course in English language.
You can pass the corresponding module only once.

Lecture and exercise classes will be held online during the winter semester. The lecture
(asynchronous – slides with audio track) and some additional materials will be made
available via Ilias starting October 6th, 2026.

The exercise part will be offered in synchronous mode online via BigBlueButton (access
via StudIP → Meetings) on Tuesdays from 2:15pm to 4:45pm every other week starting
on October 28th, 2025. In addition, we offer appointments for virtual office hours between
the exercise dates (only based on students’ requests). You will find the corresponding
dates for the winter term 2025/26 on the last page of the syllabus before the start of the
term.

Link zu JLUMaps:
https://www.uni-giessen.de/JLUmaps/?id=167813&lang=de

Struktur: Übung
Turnus: Wintersemester

Credits: 6 CP
Sprache: Englisch
Inhalte:
· Grundlagen der Unternehmerischen Denken und Handelns in verschiedenen Kontexten
· Fähigkeiten zum Unternehmertum
· Kreativitätstheorien und-techniken
· Pitchen
· Grundlagen zu Erkenntnissen des eigenen Unternehmerischen Denken und Handelns und Entscheidungsfindung innerhalb verschiedener unternehmerischer Kontexte
Fokussierung auf bestimmte Fragestellungen innerhalb und entlang des Unternehmerischen Denken und Handelns
Die Veranstaltung findet in Präsenz statt

Struktur: Vorlesung
Turnus: Wintersemester
Prüfungsform: Klausur
Credits: 6 CP
Sprache: Englisch
Inhalte:
· Grundlagen der Unternehmerischen Denken und Handelns in verschiedenen Kontexten
· Fähigkeiten zum Unternehmertum
· Kreativitätstheorien und-techniken
· Pitchen
· Grundlagen zu Erkenntnissen des eigenen Unternehmerischen Denken und Handelns und Entscheidungsfindung innerhalb verschiedener unternehmerischer Kontexte
Fokussierung auf bestimmte Fragestellungen innerhalb und entlang des Unternehmerischen Denken und Handelns
Die Veranstaltung findet in Präsenz statt

Structure: Lecture + Tutorial
Rhythm: Winter semester
Credits: 6 CP
Course description: 02-VWL:MSc-V1-2
Language: English
Required work: Final exam (85%) + Assignments (10%) + Participation (5%)
Lecturers: Univ.-Prof. Dr. Georg Götz
Possible Major: Economics, Management

The recordings of the lecture from the past WS 20/21 can be found on the chairs Youtube channel Economics2Go; in the playlist Industrial Organization.

Course description:
This course extends the basic concepts of Industrial Organization and presents advanced methods and topics. The focus is on business strategies such as price discrimination and product differentiation and on strategic interaction in oligopoly. Students will learn about the importance of the research and development activities of firms and how they are influenced by public policy in general and by the patent system in particular. The course models and evaluates business behavior from both a public policy and a managerial perspective.

Literature:
Pepall, Richard, and Norman: Industrial Organization: Contemporary theory and practice, South Western, 3rd edition. 2005 (or Industrial Organization: Contemporary theory and practice, Wiley, 4th edition. 2008).
Pepall/Richards/Norman: Contemporary Industrial Organization: A Quantitative Approach, resp. We recommend that you buy the more advanced "Quantitative Approach" text book.
D.W. Carlton and J.M. Perloff: Modern Industrial Organization, Pearson, 4th edition 2005.
Luis Cabral: Introduction to Industrial Organization, MIT Press, 2000.
Tirole, J., The Theory of Industrial Organization. MIT-Press, 1988.
Industrial Organization - Markets and Strategies by Paul Belleflamme and Martin Peitz, Cambridge University Press 2010.
Helmut Bester: Theorie der Industrieökonomik, third edition, Springer, Berlin 2004.

Structure: Lecture + Tutorial
Rhythm: Winter semester
Credits: 6 CP
Course description: 02-VWL:MSc-V1-2
Language: English
Required work: Final exam (85%) + Assignments (10%) + Participation (5%)
Lecturers: Univ.-Prof. Dr. Georg Götz
Possible Major: Economics, Management

The recordings of the lecture from the past WS 20/21 can be found on the chairs Youtube channel Economics2Go; in the playlist Industrial Organization.

Course description:
This course extends the basic concepts of Industrial Organization and presents advanced methods and topics. The focus is on business strategies such as price discrimination and product differentiation and on strategic interaction in oligopoly. Students will learn about the importance of the research and development activities of firms and how they are influenced by public policy in general and by the patent system in particular. The course models and evaluates business behavior from both a public policy and a managerial perspective.

Literature:
Pepall, Richard, and Norman: Industrial Organization: Contemporary theory and practice, South Western, 3rd edition. 2005 (or Industrial Organization: Contemporary theory and practice, Wiley, 4th edition. 2008).
Pepall/Richards/Norman: Contemporary Industrial Organization: A Quantitative Approach, resp. We recommend that you buy the more advanced "Quantitative Approach" text book.
D.W. Carlton and J.M. Perloff: Modern Industrial Organization, Pearson, 4th edition 2005.
Luis Cabral: Introduction to Industrial Organization, MIT Press, 2000.
Tirole, J., The Theory of Industrial Organization. MIT-Press, 1988.
Industrial Organization - Markets and Strategies by Paul Belleflamme and Martin Peitz, Cambridge University Press 2010.
Helmut Bester: Theorie der Industrieökonomik, third edition, Springer, Berlin 2004.

Struktur: Vorlesung + Übung
Turnus: Wintersemester
Credits: 6 CP
Sprache: Englisch
Prüfungsform: Klausur

Die Modulinhalte umfassen unter anderem Aspekte aus folgenden Gebieten der Außenhandelstheorie und -politik:
• Erklärung von Handelsstrukturen
• Effizienz- und Verteilungswirkungen von Handel und Globalisierung
• Instrumente der Handelspolitik und deren Wirkungen
• Handelspolitik der Entwicklungsländer

Die Veranstaltung findet in Präsenz statt.

Struktur: Vorlesung + Übung
Turnus: Wintersemester
Credits: 6 CP
Sprache: Englisch
Prüfungsform: Klausur

Inhalte:
• Grundlagen der Personalführung
• Klassische Theorien der Personalführung (z.B. Führungsrollen und Verhalten von Managern, Eigenschaftsansatz, Führungsstiltheorien, situative Theorien)
• Moderne Theorien der Personalführung (z.B. charismatische und transformationale Führung, dyadische Führungstheorien, destruktive Führung, informelle Führung; Führungsethik/ethische Führung)
• Empirische Erkenntnisse der Führungsforschung

Die Veranstaltung findet in Präsenz statt.

Struktur: Vorlesung + Übung
Turnus: Wintersemester
Credits: 6 CP
Sprache: Englisch
Prüfungsform: Klausur

Inhalte:
• Grundlagen der Personalführung
• Klassische Theorien der Personalführung (z.B. Führungsrollen und Verhalten von Managern, Eigenschaftsansatz, Führungsstiltheorien, situative Theorien)
• Moderne Theorien der Personalführung (z.B. charismatische und transformationale Führung, dyadische Führungstheorien, destruktive Führung, informelle Führung; Führungsethik/ethische Führung)
• Empirische Erkenntnisse der Führungsforschung

Die Veranstaltung findet in Präsenz statt.

Die Übung zur „Marketing“ Vorlesung findet unter anderem in Form von freier Aufgabenbearbeitung statt. Hierbei erfolgt eine Vertiefung der vorgestellten Inhalte. Übungsfragen helfen zudem, beim Selbststudium die Inhalte weiter zu vertiefen.
Es werden feste Übungstermine angeboten, bei denen die Aufgaben besprochen und die Lösungen vorgestellt werden.

In dieser Veranstaltung wird ein erster Einblick in das Marketing gegeben. Die Marketingidee, in deren Zentrum die Kundenorientierung und die bestmögliche Befriedigung von Wünschen und Bedürfnissen der Kunden stehen, wird ebenso erläutert wie grundlegende marketingtheoretische Ansätze und die Einbindung des Marketings in die Unternehmung. Zunächst erfolgt eine Sensibilisierung für das Marketing. Anschließend wird ein Verständnis für Kunden, die im Zentrum des Marketings stehen, entwickelt. Es folgt ein Überblick darüber, wie man Märkte gezielt analysieren kann. Anschließend wird das Vorgehen zur Planung von Zielen und Strategien erläutert. Ein Schwerpunkt der Vorlesung bildet die Maßnahmengestaltung im Rahmen des Marketing-Mix der Unternehmung. Die Basis dafür bilden die festzulegenden Markenoptionen, die die Grundlage zur Ausgestaltung der Produktpolitik, der Kommunikationspolitik, der Preispolitik und der Distributionspolitik dienen. Diese werden ebenfalls detailliert dargelegt. Die Vorlesung schließt mit der Kontrolle von Zielen, Strategien und Maßnahmen und der Verankerung des Marketings im Unternehmen.

Die Vorlesungen werden auf Englisch gehalten. Ergänzend stehen Aufzeichnungen der deutschsprachigen Vorlesung des letzten Wintersemesters zur Verfügung.

Die Übung baut auf den Inhalten der Vorlesung auf. Der in der Vorlesung vorgestellte Lernstoff wird anhand von Fallstudien aus der Praxis vertieft und angewendet. Übungsfragen helfen zudem, beim Selbststudium die Inhalte weiter zu vertiefen.

Products and innovations are becoming increasingly important for both the short and long-term competitiveness of companies. In addition to the basics and strategic aspects of product management, this module provides students with an insight into the product management process of companies as well as the necessary tools to support the individual process phases. This module also covers aspects of product management organisation and its successful implementation.

Struktur: Vorlesung + Übung
Turnus: Wintersemester
Credits: 6 CP
Sprache: Englisch
Prüfungsform: Klausur und Vortrag

Struktur: Vorlesung + Übung
Turnus: Wintersemester
Credits: 6 CP
Sprache: Englisch
Prüfungsform: Präsentation + Hausarbeit

Die maximale Anzahl der Teilnehmer ist auf 24 begrenzt. Details zum Bewerbungsprozess finden Sie auf der Website der Professur.

Die Hauptziele dieses Kurses sind:
* Grundlegenden Konzepte von Text Mining und seine Bedeutung für wirtschaftliche Anwendungen zu verstehen
* Einen Überblick über verschiedene Methoden, Algorithmen und Software-Tools zur Extraktion von Information & Wissen aus unstrukturierten Textdaten zu erlangen
* Die Fähigkeit zur Implementierung von Text-Mining-Anwendungen in R zu erlernen

Die Veranstaltung findet in Präsenz statt.

Struktur: Vorlesung + Übung
Turnus: Wintersemester
Credits: 6 CP
Sprache: Englisch
Prüfungsform: Präsentation + Hausarbeit

Die maximale Anzahl der Teilnehmer ist auf 24 begrenzt. Details zum Bewerbungsprozess finden Sie auf der Website der Professur.

Die Hauptziele dieses Kurses sind:
* Grundlegenden Konzepte von Text Mining und seine Bedeutung für wirtschaftliche Anwendungen zu verstehen
* Einen Überblick über verschiedene Methoden, Algorithmen und Software-Tools zur Extraktion von Information & Wissen aus unstrukturierten Textdaten zu erlangen
* Die Fähigkeit zur Implementierung von Text-Mining-Anwendungen in R zu erlernen

Die Veranstaltung findet in Präsenz statt.

Struktur: Vorlesung + Übung
Turnus: Wintersemester
Credits: 6 CP
Sprache: Englisch
Prüfungsform: Klausur

Das Modul Theory of International Trade zählt zu den Wahlmodulen der Master of Science-Schwerpunkte Economics of Global Risk und Economics. Es wird empfohlen das Modul Internationale Wirtschaftsbeziehungen bereits belegt zu haben.

Die Modulinhalte umfassen unter anderem Aspekte aus folgenden Gebieten der Außenhandelstheorie und -politik:

-Verallgemeinerungen der neoklassischen Außenhandelstheorie
-Handel in Zwischenprodukten und Fragmentierung der Produktion
-Weltmarktintegration und Auswirkungen an Arbeitsmärkten
-Globalisierung und Wirtschaftswachstum

Die Veranstaltung findet in Präsenz statt.

Struktur: Vorlesung mit integrierter Übung
Turnus: Sommersemester
Credits: 6 CP
Sprache: Englisch
Prüfungsform: Klausur

Inhalte:
• Determinanten wirtschaftlicher Entwicklung
• Charakteristik und Funktionsweise der Marktwirtschaft und Zentralplanwirtschaft
• Probleme von Zentralplanwirtschaften
• Elemente einer Transformation von Wirtschaftsordnungen
• Integration von Wirtschaftsräumen, Formen und Institutionen (WTO, EU)
• Einzel- und gesamtwirtschaftliche Wirkungen der Integration von Wirtschaftsräumen

This seminar explores the notion of ‘safe space’, which is gaining increasing importance not only in the classroom and on the campus but has itself become a parameter of societal conflict. Questions adressed are: How are safe spaces created? Are safe spaces inclusive or do they produce new forms of exclusion? Do they represent zones of comfort or sites of critique against existing (power) structures? How does the concept of safe space relate to public space, how does it shape society? What connects the idea of a “safe space” with other security dispositifs and other forms of spatial protection?

Literature: Mostly English, some German

Prüfungsleistung: Essay

This advanced research seminar introduces graduate students to the theory of Autocratic International Institutionalisation (AII), a framework developed to understand the strategic, patterned, and regime-specific engagement of autocratic regimes with intergovernmental organisations (IGOs). Students will engage with the theory, develop and pitch empirical research questions, and collaborate in small groups to execute research projects. Outstanding papers may be selected for publication via JLU-PUB in a digital collection curated by the instructor.

Artificial intelligence, especially large language models, which can be found in many digital applications, including social media apps, is omnipresent – and usually without us realizing it. Discussions in the political public sphere are now clearly influenced by them, with the visualization of certain political content, but also doxxing, swarming and other forms of discrimination and agitation playing an increasing role. The seminar aims to explore the question of what is meant by a functioning democratic public space, how AI programs can be understood and how technical tendencies influence democratic processes.

COURSE DESCRIPTION
This proseminar provides an introduction to the political and social system of the Federal Republic of Germany. It addresses both JLU’s first-semester BA Social Sciences and Political Science minor subject (Nebenfach) students as well as international students (e.g. ERASMUS+ or other exchange programmes) who wish to learn more about politics and society in Germany.
Together, we want to enable a reflective, comparative perspective on Germany today. The weekly seminar sessions cover the fundamental rights of the German constitution, the main political institutions and parties, the German welfare regime and the family conceptions underpinning it, the market economy model predominant in Germany as well as trending topics such as rising inequalities, rising populism and extremism and the climate crisis. Whenever possible, day-to-day politics serve to illustrate the theoretical arguments and models.

REQUIREMENTS
All participants of the proseminar are expected to actively participate in the discussions and to read short introductory texts before each seminar session. All mandatory readings as well as the slides used in the sessions will be provided via Stud.IP. Students need to take part in at least 51% of the sessions.

German-speaking BA Social Sciences students studying under the current Study Regulation (since winter semester 2018/19) take an end-of-module exam (Modulabschlussprüfung) in the form of a written exam in the corresponding lecture delivered by Prof. Dr. Dorothée de Nève. To successfully pass the module, these BA Social Sciences students also need to submit a scientific Seminar Report (Seminarbericht, in English; 5 pages, not graded) in the proseminar.

International Exchange Programme students are either assessed on the basis of a scientific Seminar Report (2 ECTS; 5 pages, not graded) or a Coursework (4 ECTS; 10 pages, graded), depending on their Learning Agreement.

Political Science minor subject (Nebenfach) students are assessed on the basis of a scientific coursework (Hausarbeit: in English, 10 pages, graded).

IMPORTANT INFORMATION
Please note that this course will only take place between October 17 and December 12, 2025, as a weekly, three-hour seminar (Friday mornings between 9:15 and 11:45am).

The seminar “Peace, Migration, and Democratic Development in Europe” focuses particularly on the interrelations of peace, migration, and democratic development by addressing the question of how migrants in European countries can contribute to the development of peace and democracy in their European countries of residence as well as of origin. In a comparative perspective, we look at how Turkish, Spanish, and Italian migrants engage in integration processes in Germany, and Moroccan migrant organizations in Spain promote peace and democracy in the Maghreb region. In addition, we examine how African migrants in Italy push asylum policies in Italy and promote peace in sub-Saharan Africa, and Syrian refugees in Turkey try to help to rebuild Syria through transnational networks in Istanbul and Ankara. The seminar should improve knowledge about issues of peace, migration, and democracy, and contribute to a better understanding of European peace policies, and enlarge intercultural competences and English skills of students and future teachers (particularly regarding terminologies, categories, and concepts of peace and democracy).

In this course, we will be working on memory as a cultural practice with a particular focus on migration processes. As we look closer to the question of how migration has been remembered (or forgotten), the postmigration perspective, which has been prominent regarding critical reflexive research on migration in the German speaking context in the last decades, will guide our analysis.
Empirical materials of the course have a particular focus on young generations in Germany with migration history in their families. Drawing upon the definition of cultural memory as “the interplay of present and past in socio-cultural contexts” (Erll 2010), this course aims to open space for a collective scrutinization of cultural practices of remembering migration, social inequality and otherness in relation to current senses and definitions of belonging in society.
The course will provide an introductory theoretical discussion of concepts such as cultural memory, collective memory as well as postmigration as a new perspective in analyzing the current complexities of immigration societies. Examples such as collective memory projects, autosociobiographical texts and documentaries will be used as course materials for a deeper exploration of configurations of cultural memory in postmigrant settings.
Course readings/empirical materials are in English and in German. Discussions are also open to bilingual participation. All participants are expected to read the assigned texts for each block session and take actively part during the course sessions.

The relatedness of societies towards the future cannot be taken for granted. It rather is a characteristic of modernity which conceptualizes the future as open horizon of infinite dynamics, plannings, and designs. This affects economic as much as political agency and individual biographies. Hence, the future has developed into one of the core variables of society and sociation. At the same time, the future remains unknown, is hard or simply not predictable and, thus, invariably remains risky. This class reflects on approaches towards the future from the social sciences and cultural studies.

This course helps educators build collaboration and teamwork skills to work effectively with diverse teams. It focuses on integrating technology into teaching to enhance education quality and support lifelong learning. Participants will gain future skills to adapt to the evolving educational landscape and confidently use advanced tools to drive positive change in their institutions, fostering student engagement and improving the learning experience.

Note: The course will be taught in English.

This course aimed to equip students with essential skills for scientific research writing, focusing on core principles such as understanding the nature of science, learning scientific work techniques, conducting topic research, and correctly citing sources. Students will develop the ability to formulate independent research questions and engage in ethical research practices. These insights and skills will not only enhance their academic performance but also develop mindset as educators promoting a culture of critical thinking and integrity in educational institutions. This course will be in English, basic knowledge of English is sufficient.
This course will be offered in English and German; students will receive all resources in both languages and are free to submit assignments in either language.

Dieser Kurs wird auf Englisch und Deutsch angeboten. Die Studierenden erhalten die Materialien in beiden Sprachen und können ihre Aufgaben in jeder der beiden Sprachen einreichen.

The seminar aims to provide an overview of the development of nationalism theory and to deepen this perspective using the example of Central and Eastern Europe in a historical context. It is an interdisciplinary seminar, taking into account not only history but also linguistics, literary and cultural studies, and sociology. The first few sessions will introduce students to the conceptual history of nationalism theory through classic works on the theoretical debate about the nation (such as Miroslav Hroch, Benedict Anderson, and Ernest Gellner). This knowledge will then be deepened on the basis of concrete examples from Eastern Europe since the 16th century. Particular emphasis will be placed on interdisciplinary and trans-epochal perspectives. The regional focus will be on Poland, Lithuania, the Bohemian lands, historical Hungary, Slovenia, Croatia, and Ukraine. The seminar will be held in English. Students will work on a topic independently and can choose between an empirical or a theoretical contribution.

Introductory literature:
Anderson, Benedict: Imagined Communities. Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism, London 1983.
Brubaker, Rogers: Nationalism Reframed. Nationhood and the National Question in the New Europe, Cambridge 1996
Hroch, Miroslav: Social preconditions of national revival in Europe, A Comparative Anaysis of the Social Composition of Patriotic Groups among the Smaller European Nations, Cambridge 1985.

This course examines the profound transformations brought about by the spread of gunpowder weapons in the early modern world between roughly 1300 and 1700. Sometimes described as a “military revolution,” these changes reshaped not only the ways wars were fought but also the structures of states, economies, and societies. We will investigate the introduction and diffusion of firearms and artillery, the development of new fortifications, and the rise of disciplined standing armies. Particular attention will be given to the ways in which gunpowder warfare influenced state-building and the fiscal demands of war in Europe, including Eastern Europe and Russia.
The course also adopts a global perspective, exploring how gunpowder transformed warfare in the Ottoman Empire, Safavid Persia, Mughal India, Ming and Qing China, Korea, and Japan. Students will consider the extent to which European developments were unique or part of broader global patterns of military innovation. Through close engagement with historiographical debates, they will assess competing interpretations of the “military revolution” thesis, from Michael Roberts to more recent global approaches.
By the end of the course, students will be equipped to critically analyze how technological and organizational change in warfare influenced the emergence of early modern states and empires worldwide.

VERMERK: Diese Übung ist bilingual, Teilnahme an Diskussionen und Gruppenaufgaben auf Deutsch ist möglich. Sehr gute Englischkenntnisse werden jedoch für die Teilnahme am Kurs vorausgesetzt, da überwiegend die englischsprachige Forschungsliteratur zur Diskussion und Analyse angeboten wird.

What does the situation of women reveal about the development of a society? This interdisciplinary course explores this question through the lens of Southeastern Europe in the 20th century. Building on existing narratives of “backwardness” and development initiatives in the region, we focus specifically on the perspectives of women—voices that have often been omitted from historical accounts.
Using a variety of sources such as oral history interviews, autobiographies, letters, poetry, and photographs—some of them in the original languages—we examine the ambivalent lived experiences of women in different social contexts. In doing so, we critically engage with the complex concept of “development”—one of the most frequently used terms in politics and society—by highlighting gender as a largely overlooked dimension.
Digital and AI-based tools (Transkribus, DeepL, ChatGPT) will also be employed, allowing us to critically reflect on their potentials and limitations in historical research.
The course introduces students to working with non-traditional sources, raises awareness of gender-related questions in development debates, and offers an engaging entry point into the history of Southeast Europe. It is designed for anyone interested in critical historiography, interdisciplinary research, and digital methods.

Was sagt die Situation von Frauen über die Entwicklung einer Gesellschaft aus? In diesem interdisziplinären Kurs gehen wir dieser Frage am Beispiel Südosteuropas im 20. Jahrhundert nach. Ausgehend von bestehenden Narrativen über „Rückständigkeit“ und Entwicklungsinitiativen in der Region gehen wir gezielt auf die Perspektive von Frauen ein, deren Stimmen in historischen Darstellungen oft ausgelassen wurden.
Anhand unterschiedlicher Quellen wie oral history-Interviews, Autobiografien, Briefen, Gedichten oder Fotografien – teilweise in Originalsprachen – beleuchten wir ambivalente Lebensrealitäten von Frauen in verschiedenen sozialen Kontexten. Dabei hinterfragen wir den vielschichtigen Begriff von „Entwicklung“ – einen der meistverwendeten Begriffe in Politik und Gesellschaft – mit einem Fokus auf Geschlecht als bislang wenig beachteter Dimension. Zum Einsatz kommen auch digitale und KI-gestützte Werkzeuge (Transkribus, DeepL, ChatGPT), deren Potenziale und Grenzen wir im historischen Arbeiten kritisch reflektieren.
Der Kurs vermittelt Grundlagen im Umgang mit nicht-traditionellen Quellen, sensibilisiert für Geschlechterfragen in Entwicklungsdebatten und bietet einen spannenden Einstieg in die Geschichte Südosteuropas. Er richtet sich an alle, die an kritischer Geschichtsschreibung, interdisziplinärer Forschung und digitalen Methoden interessiert sind.

In this seminar we will aim to reconsider the history and conceptual framework for the study of Soviet dissent, focusing on the lesser-known resistance movements in Ukraine, Belarus, Lithuania, and other national republics. While the Soviet history of dissent has traditionally been framed through the experiences of Russian intellectuals, in this course we will work with the sources and samizdat texts from the so-called Soviet peripheries. By this, we will attempt to question the dominant narratives and will further explore the diverse peripheral forms of cultural resistance under late Socialism that were often overlooked. By focusing on the transnational dimensions of dissent, we will delve into the interconnectedness of resistance practices across national boundaries, challenging the conventional understanding of "center-periphery" relations. This course will also ask about the persistence of these practices beyond the Cold War era and will address their continued relevance for modern-day resistance movements in Eastern Europe and beyond

ZOOM LINK for the seminar: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89687652258

The Middle Ages were far more interconnected than is often assumed. Warfare, trade, pilgrimage, and diplomacy created dense networks of contact and exchange across Europe, Asia, and Africa. Within these frameworks, the practice of gift-giving – especially among political and religious elites – played a central role in shaping diplomatic, social, and religious relationships in times of peace and war. Far more than acts of generosity, medieval gifts were embedded in systems of reciprocity, obligation, and symbolic communication. Rulers and institutions exchanged valuable and often highly codified gifts to forge alliances, express loyalty, affirm hierarchies, seek favour, or to avoid war. In religious contexts, gift-giving served as an expression of devotion, penance, and memoria. The act of giving was thus never neutral: it was a performative gesture, rich in symbolic meaning and governed by cultural norms and expectations.
This seminar examines the functions, forms, and values of gifts in the medieval world. The concept is broadly defined to include tributes, bride gifts, and other structured exchanges. While our understanding of diplomacy and gift exchange in the Middle Ages relies heavily on written sources, the seminar will focus on the material culture of these transactions – on the surviving “material ambassadors” themselves, their designs, their meanings, and their donors.

In this seminar, we will focus on phonological variation in English. We will study methods of accent analysis and apply this knowledge in a practical approach: you will conduct your own research and get the opportunity to work with authentic data. In the course of the semester, you will learn to prepare, conduct, and record a sociolinguistic interview and to transcribe, code and analyze spoken language. The project work will be closely supervized and each step will be carefully guided in class.

Examination: Exam on February 12, 2026 or a project report due on March 31, 2026

Does Taylor Swift use more terms of endearment in her lyrics than Justin Bieber? How do people in Sri Lanka address each other? Do women hedge their statements more often than men?

With a view to finding answers to these questions and understanding how speakers of English – as well as speakers of other languages – communicate with one another, the empirical analysis of authentic language data via linguistic corpora, i.e. text collections from song lyrics, face-to-face conversation or other textual resources, has become a generally accepted standard. In order to be in a position to devise empirical answers to some of the above questions and perspectives on English and its different varieties, several steps need to be taken and we will take them together in the course of this class.

The sequencing of a full-fledged corpus-linguistic analysis structures this class. We will familiarise ourselves with characteristics of linguistic corpora and techniques of corpus compilation and annotation. Subsequently, we will focus on how to extract data from linguistic corpora and how to add information we deem relevant for its analysis. In a last step, we will explore how different statistical approaches can help us profile central trends in our data to find answers to the questions we set out to tackle. To facilitate the individual steps, we will become acquainted with tools for corpus creation and annotation, software for corpus querying as well as for statistical analysis.

Exam date: 12 February 2026
Term paper deadline: 15 March 2026

This seminar explores the pedagogical integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into English language teaching. Designed for future English teachers, it provides both a theoretical foundation and practical applications of AI-supported tools and strategies. Drawing upon the Hessian framework for media education, participants will critically engage with all six competence areas — from searching and collaborating to protecting and reflecting — within the context of AI.
Students will experience AI as a writing partner, content generator, analysis tool, and conversation facilitator. Through guided tool exploration, collaborative lesson planning, and critical media reflection, they will learn to navigate both the opportunities and challenges that AI brings to language education.

Prerequisites: Successful completion of module TEFL I

Required Reading: readings will be made available via StudIP

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

Exam Period: The term paper has to be handed in by March 15, 2026.

Registration: via Flex-now.

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.

The contents of this course will be part of the module exam "MAP: Introduction to English Linguistics II". Please note that the date for that exam will be announced at the beginning of the semester!

This seminar will explore British poetry from the mid-20th century to the present day, focusing on the works of Ted Hughes, Seamus Heaney, George Mackay Brown, Simon Armitage, Liz Berry, Alice Oswald and others. Through close readings, critical analysis, and contextual studies, students will engage with the thematic, stylistic, and historical developments that have shaped British poetry over the past six decades. The course will emphasize the interplay between poetry and society, the relationship of poetry to the natural world, the role of the poet in contemporary society, and the evolution of poetic forms and techniques.

The aim of Business English I is to familiarise students with various forms of communication in business settings, with an aim to hone students’ competence in effective, audience-oriented and professional English-language communication. Beginning with basic principles of communication and message planning, this course confronts students with various business and academic settings, for which students will learn to use specific forms of communication to achieve practical goals.
In the course of the semester, students should manage to complete an oral portfolio of individual and group oral presentations and an individual portfolio of written work, focusing on various communication goals (informative, persuasive, etc.) and using various communicative approaches (direct vs. indirect, routine vs. non-routine, informative, persuasive, bad news, etc.), registers (formal vs. informal, familiar vs. unfamiliar, etc.), types (written, spoken, verbal, nonverbal), and channels/communication technologies (meetings, letters, memos, emails, blogs, IMs, etc.) for various audiences (internal vs. external, top-down vs. bottom-up directionality, etc.). As the objective is to prepare students for careers in international contexts, intercultural aspects of professional communication are also addressed in the course and students will be able to analyse and discuss situations, discussing widely adopted models of intercultural dimensions. While style of communication is the central focus, students will also learn to format documents professionally. Finally, there is a large focus on constructive and supportive feedback-giving, as students learn to formulate their feedback in situation-appropriate ways.
Furthermore, students will improve their listening comprehension and be able to understand and discuss excerpts from dialogues, meetings and presentations that occur on a daily basis in business settings.
By the end of the course, students will be able to analyse and produce various genres of professional speaking and writing that they will encounter in their future careers in international settings (e.g. request letters, informative emails, bad news memos, digital service encounters, process presentations, persuasive sales presentations, constructive feedback).
In additional to the written, listening and oral tasks during this class, students will complete a final written exam at the end of the semester in which they are given a set of assignments to apply the concepts learned during the semester.

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

Registration: Please register with FlexNow.

Graded credit: Oral portfolio (40%), written portfolio (pass/fail), final exam (60%).

Exam period: Final exam on the 10th February 2026.

The aim of Business English I is to familiarize students with various forms of communication in business settings, with an aim to hone students’ competence in effective, audience-oriented and professional English-language communication. Beginning with basic principles of communication and message planning, this course confronts students with various business and academic settings, for which students will learn to use specific forms of communication to achieve practical goals.
In the course of the semester, students should manage to complete an oral portfolio of individual and group oral presentations and an individual portfolio of written work, focusing on various communication goals (informative, persuasive, etc.) and using various communicative approaches (direct vs. indirect, routine vs. non-routine, informative, persuasive, bad news, etc.), registers (formal vs. informal, familiar vs. unfamiliar, etc.), types (written, spoken, verbal, nonverbal), and channels/communication technologies (meetings, letters, memos, emails, blogs, IMs, etc.) for various audiences (internal vs. external, top-down vs. bottom-up directionality, etc.). As the objective is to prepare students for careers in international contexts, intercultural aspects of professional communication are also addressed in the course and students will be able to analyse and discuss situations, discussing widely adopted models of intercultural dimensions. While style of communication is the central focus, students will also learn to format documents professionally. Finally, there is a large focus on constructive and supportive feedback-giving, as students learn to formulate their feedback in situation-appropriate ways.
Furthermore, students will improve their listening comprehension and be able to understand and discuss excerpts from dialogues, meetings and presentations that occur on a daily basis in business settings.
By the end of the course, students will be able to analyse and produce various genres of professional speaking and writing that they will encounter in their future careers in international settings (e.g. request letters, informative emails, bad news memos, digital service encounters, process presentations, persuasive sales presentations, constructive feedback).
In additional to the written, listening and oral tasks during this class, students will complete a final written exam at the end of the semester in which they are given a set of assignments to apply the concepts learned during the semester.

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

Registration: Please register with FlexNow.

Graded credit: Oral portfolio (40%), written portfolio (pass/fail), final exam (60%)

Exam period: Final exam on the 10th February 2026.

The aim of Business English II is to familiarise students with the language of fundamental business concepts such as entrepreneurship, management and corporate culture, production, business strategy, marketing, finances, and a relationship with major stakeholders. Thus, this course will revolve around a central project, which will require that students form groups and develop their own business plan based on their own business ideas. Students will also “pitch” their business proposals in a persuasive oral presentation. Finally, students will listen to their classmates’ presentations and act as mock potential investors.

By the end of the course, students will have produced an abbreviated business plan, which will include such subcomponents as the executive summary, the mission statement, a simplified budget/cashflow chart, a SWOT analysis, as well as descriptions of the target market and marketing strategies.

Furthermore, students will have learned to deliver a persuasive presentation in which they will effectively convey key elements of their business plan using appropriate subject-related vocabulary and expressions, and other components of a business presentation (graphs and charts, statistics, organisational structures, etc.).


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

Registration: Please register with FlexNow.

Graded credit: Regular attendance, active participation in class, completion of weekly reading and/or exercise assignments, business pitch – oral presentation (40%), a written business plan (pass/fail), and a final exam (60%).

Exam period: Final exam on February 12, 2026.

The aim of Business English II is to familiarise students with the language of fundamental business concepts such as entrepreneurship, management and corporate culture, production, business strategy, marketing, finances, and a relationship with major stakeholders. Thus, this course will revolve around a central project, which will require that students form groups and develop their own business plan based on their own business ideas. Students will also “pitch” their business proposals in a persuasive oral presentation. Finally, students will listen to their classmates’ presentations and act as mock potential investors.

By the end of the course, students will have produced an abbreviated business plan, which will include such subcomponents as the executive summary, the mission statement, a simplified budget/cashflow chart, a SWOT analysis, as well as descriptions of the target market and marketing strategies.

Furthermore, students will have learned to deliver a persuasive presentation in which they will effectively convey key elements of their business plan using appropriate subject-related vocabulary and expressions, and other components of a business presentation (graphs and charts, statistics, organisational structures, etc.).


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

Registration: Please register with FlexNow.

Graded credit: Regular attendance, active participation in class, completion of weekly reading and/or exercise assignments, business pitch – oral presentation (40%), a written business plan (pass/fail), and a final exam (60%).

Exam period: Final exam on February 12, 2026.

What do teachers want at the end of the day? To do their jobs and go back home with a little bit of their sanity intact. In this seminar we will try to explore ways to manage and create a classroom environment that is ideal, or, maybe, just allows for students and teachers to co- exist and work well with each other. We will be investigating topics such as language, behavior, discipline, challenging students, anger, rules and social forms and focus on providing solutions or just insight into some pressing classroom issues. Just be aware: there is no single magic solution. Establishing yourself as a teacher is something that comes with experience, self-reflection and developing a thicker skin. Students will be expected to actively participate, read the texts, reflect and share their thoughts and ideas. Throughout the seminar they will also be expected to work together to complete mini projects that would complement practically the deeper understanding of the different topics. The participants will have to use the knowledge acquired in the first sessions to create their own instruction processes and a manual to be used alongside these, for all the tasks and activities. Finally, to further benefit from that experience students would record their impressions and learning journey on a log that would be reviewed by the lecturer.

Prerequisites:
Successful completion of Module TEFL I.

Required Reading:
A comprehensive course bibliography will be made available on Stud.IP.

Credit:
Regular attendance, active participation in class; term paper

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, 2026.

Registration: via Flex-now.

The seminar aims to provide an overview of the development of nationalism theory and to deepen this perspective using the example of Central and Eastern Europe in a historical context. It is an interdisciplinary seminar, taking into account not only history but also linguistics, literary and cultural studies, and sociology. The first few sessions will introduce students to the conceptual history of nationalism theory through classic works on the theoretical debate about the nation (such as Miroslav Hroch, Benedict Anderson, and Ernest Gellner). This knowledge will then be deepened on the basis of concrete examples from Eastern Europe since the 16th century. Particular emphasis will be placed on interdisciplinary and trans-epochal perspectives. The regional focus will be on Poland, Lithuania, the Bohemian lands, historical Hungary, Slovenia, Croatia, and Ukraine. The seminar will be held in English. Students will work on a topic independently and can choose between an empirical or a theoretical contribution.

Introductory literature:
Anderson, Benedict: Imagined Communities. Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism, London 1983.
Brubaker, Rogers: Nationalism Reframed. Nationhood and the National Question in the New Europe, Cambridge 1996
Hroch, Miroslav: Social preconditions of national revival in Europe, A Comparative Anaysis of the Social Composition of Patriotic Groups among the Smaller European Nations, Cambridge 1985.

In the twenty-first century, British theatre remains an artistic force to be reckoned with. Not only do new productions continue to be performed on national and international stages. The theatre also provides other creative industries with stage-trained actors, and some of the most celebrated screenwriters of our time (from Martin McDonagh and Lucy Prebble to Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Richard Gadd) have been socialized in the cultural environment of British theatre.

The seminar surveys some of the key forms, themes, and developments that have shaped British theatrical culture since the 1990s. Beginning with the impact of ‘in-yer-face theatre’, we are going to explore negotiations of mental health on the stage, responses to #metoo in legal drama, and the legacy of theatrical storytelling in recent TV series.

Participants are kindly asked to buy two plays: Martin McDonagh's The Beauty Queen of Leenane (1996) and Suzie Miller's Prima Facie (2019). All other course material is available on Stud.IP.

Please note that contemporary theatre often confronts audiences with highly uncomfortable and traumatic experiences, and that this applies – in different ways – to all of the productions we are going to discuss. It is paramount that we practice a form of communication which is attuned to the subject matter and mindful of the diversity of experiences assembled in our group.

This course combines the disciplines of Corpus Linguistics and Discourse Analysis. After reviewing some fundamental issues, concepts and methods in both disciplines, we will have the opportunity to dive deeper into case studies concerning specific areas of discourse that can fruitfully be studied from the corpus linguistic perspective.

Term Paper: March 31, 2026

English is arguable the most important language around the globe, spoken and used by billions of people. In some countries, it is the official language and speakers grow up with English as a native language. In others, it is taught as a second language in school and has an official status. There are also speakers for whom English is considered a foreign language and who use it to communicate with interlocutors who do not share their mother tongue. In these latter contexts, English is used as a lingua franca. The label World Englishes is a cover term for all these different uses. The plural of English indicates that there are different, so-called varieties of English, depending on the location, its speakers, and the speech situations. With the help of corpus linguistics, we can investigate such variation and identify existing patterns.

Corpus linguistics can be understood as a tool that is used in many areas of linguistics, such as variation studies, contrastive and comparative linguistics, translation studies, or applied linguistics.

In this seminar we will focus on global English and we will learn how World Englishes can be studied with the help of corpora, i.e., electronic collections of spoken and/or written language. The advantage of such an approach is that we can process large quantities of language use which we would otherwise, i.e., without corpus-linguistic methods, not be able to do.

First, this course introduces students to corpus-linguistic methods and provides an overview of theories and practices of analyzing World Englishes. Second, students will learn about tools and programs that facilitate the use of corpora and the analysis of corpus data (AntConc, Excel, R Studio). Third, students are expected to work independently on small corpus projects and to investigate different (grammatical) features in different English varieties, employing corpora, corpus methods, and statistics. In order to successfully follow this course, students should have prior knowledge of linguistics as well as an interest in statistical analyses.

Reading: The main resource will be the book "Corpus linguistics for World Englishes. A guide for research" by Lange and Leuckert (2019). This book and all other reading materials 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 an oral presentation, which may involve group activities and class discussions, or a written report.

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

Exam period: Final exam on 11 February 2026; deadline for term paper submission: 15 March 2026.

Crisis communication is an important part of public relations. Its primary goal is to protect an organisation's reputation and stakeholder relationships during a challenging situation or a crisis. Successful crisis communication involves strategic planning and managing the flow of information during and after emergencies, unexpected events, or disruptions. Some of the topics covered in the course will include risk assessment, message development, working with the media, social media monitoring, and post-crisis recovery. In this seminar, students will analyse and discuss example case studies to familiarise themselves with different aspects of crisis communication and prepare themselves for real-life situations.

Reading: Reading material will be made available for download via Stud.IP (students will receive the 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 exercises, assignment, oral presentation.

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

Exam period: Final exam on the 10th February 2026.

The overall focus of this course centers on theory and practice of empirical data collection and analysis in linguistics. Students will gain specialized competences of principles and methods of collecting and working with primary data, localizing and evaluation of potential data sources, as well as accessing, analyzing, and presenting results.

Throughout the course, students are introduced to the three basic methods of data collection, i.e., observation, survey (interviews & questionnaires), and experiment. In the remainder, students can choose which type of data they want to collect and analyze, either alone or in small groups.

In order to successfully follow this course, students are expected to embark on a project (including data collection and data analysis), to work independently, and to have prior knowledge of linguistics in general, as well as corpus linguistics and (simple) statistical analyses in particular.


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, project presentation.

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

Exam period: Final exam on 11 February 2026; deadline for term paper submission on 15 March 2026.

This seminar focuses on teaching grammar in a communicative EFL classroom environment. The following aspects will be given special attention: linguistic approaches to grammar (overview), the history of teaching grammar in German EFL classrooms, the role of grammar today, concepts of grammar learning/acquisition in secondary schools (e.g. implicit/explicit, conscious/subconscious, monolingual/bilingual), teaching strategies, techniques, procedures, materials as well as error treatment, assessment and testing. Course languages are English (predominantly) and German (where appropriate and necessary; e.g. when bilingual methodological options are discussed).

Prerequisites:
Teacher Education Programme: Successful completion of Moduls TEFL I and TEFL II.
Anglophone Studies MA Programme: BA

Required Reading:
A comprehensive course bibliography will be made available on Stud.IP.

Credit:
Ungraded: regular attendance, active participation in class, knowledge of recommended literature
Graded: in addition to the above, a written exam

Exam Period: February 9, 2026

Registration: Flex-Now

Just like any other living language, English is neither geographically nor socially homogeneous. More often than not there are many ways of saying the "same thing". For instance, in English there are different possibilities of forming negative interrogatives with do-support: "Did you not know that?", "Didn't you know that?" and some speakers would even accept "Did not you know that?" Thus, variation is one of the fundamental characteristics of human language. Sociolinguistics, the study of language in society, investigates how social groups vary in their use of a language (for example, it is imaginable that "Did not you know that?" is used more by older speakers or more by women than by men) in different situations ("Didn't you know that?" is used much more in informal spoken than in formal written language), etc.
After reviewing basic principles and assumptions of synchronic sociolinguistics, this course will focus on historical sociolinguistics, i.e. the reconstruction and analysis of the sociolinguistic variation in earlier stages of English. We will familiarize ourselves with important databases and methods in historical sociolinguistics and look at some seminal studies. A substantial part of this course will be devoted to the practical analysis of historical English texts and text collections (corpora) from a historical sociolinguistic perspective.

Credit: Graded: Regular attendance, active participation in discussions and in-class tasks, in-class presentation and a final exam or term paper (tba). Ungraded: Regular attendance, active participation in discussions and in-class tasks, in-class presentation.
Final exam: 10.02.2026
Term paper submission according to the department-wide deadline: 31.03.2026

This course examines the cultural significance of dinosaurs from their scientific discovery to their portrayal in modern media. Students will explore how dinosaurs have been depicted in literature, film, art, and popular culture, and how these depictions reflect and influence societal attitudes towards science, nature, and the past.

The architecture of oral interaction in the classroom – i.e. the way classroom discourse is organized and conducted in everyday practice - is of vital importance to learning English as a foreign language in institutional environments. This corpus-based and video-supported seminar aims to provide a deeper understanding of what successful, effective and efficient classroom interaction is all about in the age of communicative language teaching (CLT). Course languages are English (predominantly) and German (where necessary and appropriate; e.g. when bilingual methodological teaching and learning options are discussed).

Prerequisites:
Teacher Education Programme: Successful completion of Moduls TEFL I and TEFL II.
Anglophone Studies MA Programme: BA

Required Reading:
A comprehensive course bibliography will be made available on Stud.IP.

Credit:
Ungraded: regular attendance, active participation in class, knowledge of recommended literature
Graded: in addition to the above, a written exam
Exam Period: February 9, 2026

Registration: Flex-Now

This course explores the intersection of fashion and storytelling, examining how fashion communicates narratives, shapes identities, and influences culture.

When we hear fictionality, we tend to think of novels, feature films, comic books, and TV series; when we hear non-fictionality, we tend to think of politics, journalism, documentary films, and scientific communication. Recent research, especially in the field of rhetorical theory, has troubled the clarity of these distinctions, inviting us to consider fictionality and non-fictionality as modes of communication that cut across discourses, genre, and media. Moreover, this work asks us to understand both fictionality and non-fictionality as resources whose functions vary depending on context-specific use and historical circumstances. In the seminar, we are going to explore uses and combinations of fictionality and non-fictionality in a range of texts and contexts including the early novel, contemporary fiction, the documentary film, and non-literary discourses.

Participants are kindly asked to buy two novels: Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey (1818) and Ben Lerner's Leaving the Atocha Station (2011). All other course material is available on Stud.IP.

Imagination, creativity, and flexibility are of great importance in today’s knowledge age and economy. Thus, it is crucial to develop and strengthen these capacities in schools. Current education reforms, however, place primary emphasis on the ability to perform to fine-graded standards of competency and skill. Imagination, creativity, and flexibility are chiefly viewed from this perspective. Moreover, creativity is typically conceived of as an individual process or product, not as a collaborative or collective endeavor. Little attention is given to improvisation (spontaneous creativity in performance) and to the spontaneous und functional use of accumulated competencies and skills in everyday social interaction (so-called ‘little-c’ creativity).
This course is based on international research indicating that implementing more adventurous, explorative, and creative forms of interaction in the EFL classroom is indispensable to enhancing learners’ target language proficiency. Participants will acquire the theoretical knowledge and practical skills necessary to foster mental agility, communicative flexibility and resourceful spontaneity in attractive communicative contexts.

Prerequisites:
Teacher Education Programme: Successful completion of Moduls TEFL I and TEFL II.
Anglophone Studies MA Programme: BA

Required Reading:
A comprehensive course bibliography will be made available on Stud.IP.

Credit:
Ungraded: regular attendance, active participation in class, knowledge of recommended literature
Graded: in addition to the above, a written exam
Exam Period: February 10, 2026

Registration: Flex-Now

This course explores the various adaptations of Edgar Allan Poe's seminal short story "The Fall of the House of Usher". We will analyze how different mediums, cultures, and time periods have interpreted and reimagined Poe's classic tale, examining the themes of decay, madness, and the supernatural that permeate the story.

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.

Focusing on the grammar of the English verb phrase (tense and aspect, modality, non-finite constructions), this course is designed to help students solidify and extend their grasp of core areas of English grammar and make the transition from upper intermediate level to lower advanced level (B2 to C1). Making this transition not only involves getting a firm grip on the essentials (structures already covered at school but all too often either forgotten or never properly mastered in the first place), it also involves adding some of those finer points that need to be mastered on the steep and thorny way to advanced language competence.

.Focusing on the grammar of the English verb phrase (tense and aspect, modality, non-finite constructions), this course is designed to help students solidify and extend their grasp of core areas of English grammar and make the transition from upper intermediate level to lower advanced level (B2 to C1). Making this transition not only involves getting a firm grip on the essentials (structures already covered at school but all too often either forgotten or never properly mastered in the first place), it also involves adding some of those finer points that need to be mastered on the steep and thorny way to advanced language competence.

Focusing on the grammar of the English verb phrase (tense and aspect, modality, non-finite constructions), this course is designed to help students solidify and extend their grasp of core areas of English grammar and make the transition from upper intermediate level to lower advanced level (B2 to C1). Making this transition not only involves getting a firm grip on the essentials (structures already covered at school but all too often either forgotten or never properly mastered in the first place), it also involves adding some of those finer points that need to be mastered on the steep and thorny way to advanced language competence.

.Focusing on the grammar of the English verb phrase (tense and aspect, modality, non-finite constructions), this course is designed to help students solidify and extend their grasp of core areas of English grammar and make the transition from upper intermediate level to lower advanced level (B2 to C1). Making this transition not only involves getting a firm grip on the essentials (structures already covered at school but all too often either forgotten or never properly mastered in the first place), it also involves adding some of those finer points that need to be mastered on the steep and thorny way to advanced language competence.

In unserem Seminar werden wir anhand von Beispielen aus der russischen, polnischen, ukrainischen und belarusischen Literatur und Kultur untersuchen, wie die sogenannten „Gründerväter“ der jeweiligen Nation konstruiert, etabliert und hinterfragt werden, wozu man sie braucht und wie sie über Jahrhunderte hinweg ihre kulturelle und politische Kraft bewahren bzw. neu konstituieren. Warum wurden männliche Dichter des 19. Jahrhunderts so gerne zu „Gründervätern“ erklärt? Kann es auch „Gründermütter“ geben? In welchem Verhältnis steht Aleksandr Puškin zum russischen nationalen und imperialen Projekt, und warum werden seine Denkmäler jetzt in der Ukraine en masse abgerissen? Warum wurde der ukrainische Nationaldichter Taras Ševčenko mal als Superman, mal als Batman und mal als Rambo dargestellt? Wie viril darf ein Gründervater sein? Was passiert mit den Gründervätern in Zeiten des Kriegs? Was haben der belarusische Diktator Aleksandr Lukašenko, der Anführer der Ukrainischen Aufständischen Armee Stepan Bandera und der ehemalige Oberkommandierende der ukrainischen Streitkräfte General Valerij Zalužnyj gemeinsam? Diese und andere Fragen werden wir mithilfe exemplarischer Lektüren zu beantworten versuchen.
Kenntnisse der jeweiligen slavischen Sprachen sind von Vorteil, aber nicht zwingend erforderlich.

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): Will 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): Will be announced at the beginning of the semester!

The Intercultural Business Communication course will provide students with the knowledge and skills to navigate the complexities of communication in international and global business contexts. The course will focus on learning about other cultures, understanding cultural differences, written and spoken communication styles, and interacting with individuals from diverse backgrounds.
Students will also learn about the role of language in intercultural communication, for example, varieties of English, accent perception and the role of Business English as a lingua franca.

Reading: Reading material will be made available for download via Stud.IP (students will receive the 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 exercises, assignment, oral presentation.

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

Exam period: Final exam on the 12th February 2026.

This course provides an introduction to Asian American literature from the mid-twentieth century to the present, exploring how writers engage with themes of immigration, race, gender, sexuality, and the construction of Asian American identities. In addition to introducing key concepts in Asian American literary studies, the course engages with some other contemporary directions in the field, including literature on trauma and healing, human relationships with the environment, and science fiction.

Students are required to acquire two books: "M. Butterfly" by David Henry Hwang and "The Best We Could Do" by Thi Bui. Additional readings will be provided on Stud.IP.

The detailed syllabus will be available on Stud.IP from 15.09.2025.

“Corpus linguistics is a research approach that facilitates empirical investigations of language variation and use, resulting in research findings that have much greater generalizability and validity than would otherwise be feasible.”
(Biber & Reppen 2015: 1)

Corpus linguistics as a tool can be used in many areas of linguistics, such as variation studies, contrastive and comparative linguistics, translation studies, and it can also play an important role in applied linguistics, for instance in language teaching.

In this seminar, students will (i) learn about the field of corpus linguistics, (ii) get to know a number of important (English) corpora, (iii) learn about tools and programs that facilitate the use of corpora and the analysis of corpus data (AntConc, Excel, R Studio), and (iv) start working on their own empirical corpus study (either in pairs/small groups or individually). This research project will be the basis for the term paper.

In order to analyze variation in English, for instance based on different foreign language learners of English, by comparing different varieties of English, genres or modes, students should have an understanding of the relevant terms and concepts of the different fields of linguistics (i.e., morphology, syntax, semantics, …). Furthermore, this is a learning-by-doing course introducing statistical methods based on topical linguistic problems. Ideally, students should have an interest in quantitative data analysis (and statistics). Prior knowledge is an asset but not a pre-requisite to successfully complete this course.

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, project presentation.

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

Exam period: Final exam on 10 February 2026; deadline for term paper submission on 15 March 2026.

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 ("Übung") 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 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 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 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 is designed to introduce first-year students to the study of English and American literature and cultural studies by covering key concepts and theoretical approaches. Through close reading of texts, we will develop strategies of analyzing and interpreting poetry, drama, prose texts, and film as well as how to engage with (popular) cultural phenomena. Furthermore, this course also serves as an introduction to doing research, finding secondary literature, citing sources correctly, and compiling a bibliography.

Welcome! This course is designed to introduce first-year students to the study of English and American literature and culture. Among other things, we will deal with the analysis and interpretation of poetry, drama, prose, film, and other cultural phenomena as well as theoretical approaches to literature and culture. Furthermore, you will learn how to do research, i.e., how to find secondary literature, how to quote literature, and how to compile a bibliography.

This course is devoted to the exploration of the relationship between politics and language. We will critically discuss current political discourse in the Anglophone world surrounding topics such as the electoral politics, policies concerning immigration, health care, etc. In doing so, we will pay special attention to linguistic approaches to political discourse analysis, with an emphasis on those approaches closely aligned to Cognitive Linguistics (e.g., Conceptual Metaphor Theory, Moral Politics, Critical Discourse Analysis). We will also make use of corpus-based methodologies to analyze political speeches, (social) media-based discourse and political satire.

Exam: Feb. 12, 2026
or Term Paper: March 31, 2026

Building on the overview of the internal (linguistic) and external (socio-political and cultural) history of the English language dealt with in the introductory lectures, this course will introduce you to Late Modern English. This period, spanning the 18th and 19th centuries, is the forerunner of Present Day English. It was characterised by drastic social changes due to the Industrial Revolution, increased social and geographical mobility, urbanisation, continuing British overseas expansion and colonisation, growing literacy, the rise of new genres like the novel and the newspaper, to name but a few. Nevertheless, Late Modern English has been called the “Cinderella of historical linguistics” because the common assumption was that by 1700 English had essentially already reached the present-day stage. This is why historical linguists for a long time concentrated on earlier periods. While it is true that Late Modern English is more accessible to us than, say, Early Modern English (just compare the language of Jane Austen or Charles Dickens to that of Shakespeare), the structure of Late Modern English has seen quite a few, and in some cases sweeping, changes. Some of these are still ongoing today. In this course we will examine these changes in front of the backdrop of social changes outlined above.

Credit: Graded: Regular attendance, active participation in discussions and in-class tasks, in-class presentation and a final exam or term paper (tba). Ungraded: Regular attendance, active participation in discussions and in-class tasks, in-class presentation.
Final exam: 09.02.2026
Term paper submission according to the department-wide deadline: 31.03.2026

Welcome! This class seeks to familiarize students with the state of literary theory in the twenty-first century. We will read and discuss theoretical texts that concern cognitive narratology, postcolonial criticism, feminism, gender / queer theory, masculinity studies, critical race theory, whiteness studies, new formalism, postcriticism, and surface readings. We will also deal with the question of what we need theories for, and we will demonstrate what these approaches can do (and what they cannot do) by applying the theoretical frameworks to a set of literary texts.

The class is open to any student of JLU but since it is part of the English track of JLU’s MA program Interdisciplinary studies on Eastern Europe it will be held in English.
In the class we will be watching and discussing the movies of Czechoamerican film director Miloš Forman.
We will also read up on the analysis of movies and apply that new knowledge to our discussions of the films. The text book used for the introduction to film analysis will be Film Art. An Introduction (10th edition) by David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson. The university library has several copies available (https://hds.hebis.de/ubgi/Record/HEB335088945).
Here a list of some of the movies that we will be analyzing. The final choice of the movies will depend on the specific country interest of the participants:

In the first session I would like to discuss how films as an art form differ from other art forms as literature and theatre. What is the specific difference between thise art forms.
In the first session we will also discuss if we are going to watch the movies together or individually at home. The amount of awarded credits points allows us to watch and discuss about 8 or 9 movies. For each movie a list of questions should be prepared for the class. The questions function as a starting point for our discussions.

T. S. Eliot and Virginia Woolf were almost exact contemporaries and are today seen as two leading figures of literary modernism. Even though Woolf critically observed in her diary „how sharp, narrow, & much of a stick Eliot has come to be, since he took to disliking me", they were also close friends and both readers and critics of each other's work. This seminar will trace correspondences and differences in their respective writings, looking at Eliot’s poetry, specifically the Four Quartets, and his critical work, the essays and autobiographical writings of Virginia Woolf and her novel To the Lighthouse (any edition is fine).

This class will cover key concepts and methods devoted to the study of morphology, i.e. the study of words and their internal structure. We will pursue fundamental questions concerning what counts as a word, how are words formed, how are words processed in terms of their structure, etc. We will also take a look a prominent studies that have contributed significantly to the field of morphology.

Exam Date: Feb. 11, 2026
or Term Paper: March 31, 2026

Welcome!
This course introduces first-year students to the multicultural dimensions of Elizabethan drama. We will explore how playwrights such as William Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe, and George Peele reflected the era’s expanding global awareness, often influenced by travel writings. Through literary analysis and close reading, we will examine how drama engaged with cultural encounters and exchanges, and why these works continue to be meaningful today.

Welcome! When Todorov coined the French term 'narratologie' in 1969, he used the word in analogy to disciplines such as biology and sociology to convey the idea of a science of narrative. This lecture begins by zooming in on the development of classical structuralist narratology, which was, for instance, influenced by Russian formalism. In a second step, we will then focus on recent debates within the field of postclassical narratology. Among other things, we will look at new developments in the area of ethical and postcolonial narratology (compared to the 'older' rhetorical theory of narrative); crucial differences between first- and second-generation cognitive narratologists; the role of cognitive parameters vis-à-vis unnatural narratives; new approaches in the areas of feminist, queer, and transmedial narratologies; recent work on oral storytelling, small stories, and online storytelling; the narrativity of music, paintings, and dance performances; as well as the role of empirical studies. We will also discuss the question of what to do with these approaches, i.e., how to apply the theoretical frameworks to literary texts.

This seminar aims to explore the multifaceted role of poetry as a form of socio-political participation and cultural critique across different communities and historical contexts. In this context, we will explore African American Voices from Slavery to the 21st Century, Native American Poetry from the U.S. Expansion to Contemporary Expressions of Indigenous Culture, as well as Feminist and Queer Writing from the Suffrage to Same-Sex Marriage.

Our discussions will engage with poets such as Phillis Wheatley, Langston Hughes, Jacqueline Woodson, Jane Johnston Schoolcraft, Joy Harjo, Simon Ortiz, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, and Audre Lorde. In approaching these texts, we will employ a range of critical perspectives, including postcolonial, cultural, and religious frameworks as well as theories of gender and sexuality.

Relevant primary and secondary literature will be uploaded to Stud.IP at the beginning of the semester. Participants are expected to engage actively with the readings, contribute to seminar discussions, and complete assignments.

Exam for Of History and Hope - Poetry as Means of Socio-Political Participation and Cultural Critique: Monday, 09 February 2026.

Discover how to bring poetry vividly to life in your EFL classroom! This lecture offers a journey through a wide range of poetic forms - from nursery rhymes and tongue twisters designed for younger learners to sonnets and more experimental contemporary expressions for advanced pupils - across the Anglophone world. Together, we will explore how to convey to your pupils the power of words, the rhythm of language, and the imaginative potential of poetry to open up new horizons. By engaging with authentic lyrical texts, both classic and contemporary ones, the lecture aims to reveal poetry’s broad potential for language learning from linguistic-communicative, intercultural, and critical-interpretative perspectives. Particular emphasis will be placed on teaching methodologies that combine cognitive, personal, and creative approaches. We will explore practical strategies for classroom implementation, always guided by the belief that poetry should not only be read, but also experienced and lived.


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, 2026.

Registration: via Flex-now.

This course offers an introduction to the critical theory of Posthumanism and it uses it as a lens to analyze the representation of migration in contemporary literature. The course’s objective is to equip students with posthumanist critical tools to understand the phenomenon of migration through cultural practices. The Blockseminar will follow a trajectory that begins with the most pressing theoretical and conceptual concerns and ends with an opening onto the most creative and affirmative ways of thinking about migration through posthumanism. Each class focuses on a specific thematic thread. The first class will introduce migration and posthumanism. The final four intensive classes will be each focuses on the following topics:
1) Technology and Migration
2) Mastery (Dehumanism) and Migration
3) Nonhuman Migration
4) Other Forms of Migration
The course is heavily focused on critical theory and close reading exercises. We will study the primary texts closely with narratological rigor and paying specific attention to the formal aspects of the text.
By the end of the course, the students should be able to employ posthumanist thinking in their understanding of migration phenomena. More information is provided in the Syllabus document.

The seminar offers an introduction to the literature and theory of postmodernism – a historical mindset that exerted significant influence at the end of the twentieth and the beginning of the twenty-first century. By studying both literary and theoretical texts, we are going to attain a better understanding of the postmodernist critique of concepts such as authorship, authenticity, history, reality, and knowledge. As a ‘critical’ and ‘historical’ introduction, the seminar is particularly interested in exploring postmodernism’s complicated legacy in contemporary culture. It suggests that, if you want to understand current phenomena such as post-truth, Trumpism, ‘anti-wokism’, and conspiracy thinking, you are well-advised to know something about postmodernism. In this vein, we are going to study both postmodernism’s original concerns and how several of its ideas have been misunderstood and misappropriated, especially by reactionary political agendas.

Participants are kindly asked to buy Ian McEwan's novel Enduring Love (1997). All other course material is available on Stud.IP.

This course introduces master students to the literary and cultural theory of poststructuralism, which is seminal for contemporary Slavic Studies. Poststructuralism started with Foucault’s discourse analysis and Derrida’s deconstruction and has found fields of application in Gender Studies and Postcolonial Theory. The focus of the course is on reading and understanding just a few, but in no way easy texts. After individual preparatory reading, these texts are jointly discussed and inter-preted during the course sessions. At the end of each thematic block—poststructuralism, postfemi-nism, and postcolonialism—the participants will become familiar with continuations of French and Anglo-American theoretical inspirations in Slavic Studies.

More participants are welcome; for registration please send an email to dirk.uffelmann@slavistik.uni-giessen.de

This class focuses on the field of pragmatics, i.e. the study of meaning in context. After review of the basic concepts and key terms, which you will be familiar with from your introductory course, we will dive deeper into various pragmatic phenomena, including implicature, reference, speech acts, etc. We will also consider broader social and cultural aspects that go into the study of pragmatics.

Exam Date: Feb. 11, 2026
or Term Paper: March 31, 2026

The seminar focuses on criteria-led reflection on the experience gained during the practical semester in teaching English at primary school. The aim is to evaluate one's own professional identity along didactic competence areas and to identify future aspects of development and outline them in terms of relevant knowledge-bases. This is intended to take account of the idea of cross-phase and competence-orientated teacher training.

Prerequisites:
Teacher Education Programme: Successful completion of teaching practicals

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

Exam period: tba

Registration: FlexNow

The seminar focuses on criteria-led reflection on the experience gained during the practical semester in teaching English as a foreign language. The aim is to evaluate one's own professional identity along didactic competence areas and to identify future aspects of development and outline them in terms of relevant knowledge-bases. This is intended to take account of the idea of cross-phase and competence-orientated teacher training.

Prerequisites:
Teacher Education Programme: Successful completion of teaching practicals

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

Exam period: tba

Registration: FlexNow

Since the mid-1990s, a peculiar trend has taken hold of US cinema. Films began telling stories in looping, reversible, fragmented, or parallel times, introduced impossible worlds that coexist, followed an opaque logic – or simply make it difficult to make sense of them. Collectively known as puzzle films, these productions introduce variations to classical storytelling, challenge Hollywood conventions, and pose questions that confuse viewers. In this course, we take a closer look at the phenomenon of puzzle films, how they work, what their effects are on viewers, and why they continue to be popular. The course requires students to watch one film per week, including key examples such as Christopher Nolan’s Memento and Inception, and more recent representatives such as Charlie Kaufman’s I’m Thinking of Ending Things. We will also consider the trend beyond Hollywood to look at its origins in European art cinema, such as in Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane and Alain Resnais’ L’Année Dernière à Marienbad, as well as its spillover into television, as seen in Noah Hawley's Legion or Sam Esmail's Mr. Robot. By the end of the course, participants will be able to identify different forms of narrative complexity and film-specific strategies that challenge viewers’ understanding, possible reasons for the trend and its appeal, and how we can cope with these films, both while watching and when analyzing them.

This research seminar will provide a forum for the discussion of empirical projects in synchronic and diachronic linguistics. The course is directed towards advanced students who are approaching their final exams/theses, but anyone with a specific linguistic research interest is welcome to participate. It is expected that the projects discussed in this class will cover a wide range linguistic areas and different methods. The course will therefore provide students with diverse ideas for their final theses and introduce them to appropriate methods.
During the discussion of individual projects, we will review the basic principles of planning a synchronic or diachronic linguistic project, consider linguistic field methods (techniques for collecting spoken data) and other ways of obtaining data (e.g. archival work, introspection, questionnaires) and finally look at various methods of aggregating, presenting and interpreting them. We will also discuss the specific problems connected with individual research questions.


Credit: Graded: Regular attendance, active participation in discussions and in-class tasks, in-class presentation and a final exam or term paper (tba). Ungraded: Regular attendance, active participation in discussions and in-class tasks, in-class presentation.
Final exam: 12.02.2026
Term paper submission according to the department-wide deadline: 31.03.2026

In light of global warming and other large-scale crises and catastrophes, ‘resilience’ and ‘sustainability’ have become part and parcel of the standard vocabulary of our time. But what do they actually mean? And how are their meanings entangled with other cultural assumptions as well as political and economic paradigms such as growth, liberty, security, justice, and the good life, among many others?
The seminar has four main goals: 1) to introduce and discuss the main concepts and interdisciplinary theories of resilience and sustainability; 2) to probe the heuristic potential of these concepts and theories for the analysis of literary and cultural perspectives on resilience and sustainability; 3) to acquaint students with some selected literary narratives of resilience and sustainability (in the wider sense that also includes, e.g, films and TV series); 4) to explore the potential of narrative fiction as counter-narratives to political, technological, and economic notions of resilience and sustainability. We will draw especially on recent work in ecocriticism and environmental humanities to investigate the eco-ethical dimensions of literature manifesting in the ways in which the relationship between literature and survival is envisioned in the selected works.

Welcome! This class provides an overview of Romantic literature, which was written between the end of the eighteenth and the beginning of the nineteenth century. In a first step, we will analyze poems by William Blake, William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, John Keats, Percy B. Shelley, George Gordon (Lord Byron), but also consider female Romantic poets (such as Mary Robinson and Felicia Hemans). In a second step, we will move on to the horror- or terror-inducing genre of the Gothic novel. We will discuss representative examples (namely The Castle of Otranto [1764] by Horace Walpole and The Monk [1796] by Matthew Lewis). We will discuss different approaches to the Gothic novel, we will list important features of Gothic novels, and we will address their functions.

Sociolinguistics is the study of the relationship between language use and society. By examining how different people use language in different social settings, 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 focusing on regional, social, and functional variation of English. They will also take a closer look at the role of social factors in speech perception.

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 exercises, assignment, oral presentation.

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

Exam period: Final exam on the 9th February 2026.

This course focuses on developing students' communicative competence in the domains of listening and speaking in academic settings at level C1 CEFRL. Students will develop and practice effective listening strategies for the global, selective and detailed decoding of aural input, specifically in academic settings (e.g. lectures), including appropriate note-taking skills. They will practice speaking fluently and eloquently in appropriate registers, specifically when contributing to academic discussions and delivering presentations. They will extend their subject-specific as well as general academic vocabulary and consolidate their knowledge of grammatical structures characteristic of academic registers.

This course focuses on developing students' communicative competence in the domains of listening and speaking in academic settings at level C1 CEFRL. Students will develop and practice effective listening strategies for the global, selective and detailed decoding of aural input, specifically in academic settings (e.g. lectures), including appropriate note-taking skills. They will practice speaking fluently and eloquently in appropriate registers, specifically when contributing to academic discussions and delivering presentations. They will extend their subject-specific as well as general academic vocabulary and consolidate their knowledge of grammatical structures characteristic of academic registers.

This course focuses on developing students' communicative competence in the domains of listening and speaking in academic settings at level C1 CEFRL. Students will develop and practice effective listening strategies for the global, selective and detailed decoding of aural input, specifically in academic settings (e.g. lectures), including appropriate note-taking skills. They will practice speaking fluently and eloquently in appropriate registers, specifically when contributing to academic discussions and delivering presentations. They will extend their subject-specific as well as general academic vocabulary and consolidate their knowledge of grammatical structures characteristic of academic registers.

.Focusing on the grammar of the English verb phrase (tense and aspect, modality, non-finite constructions), this course is designed to help students solidify and extend their grasp of core areas of English grammar and make the transition from upper intermediate level to lower advanced level (B2 to C1). Making this transition not only involves getting a firm grip on the essentials (structures already covered at school but all too often either forgotten or never properly mastered in the first place), it also involves adding some of those finer points that need to be mastered on the steep and thorny way to advanced language competence.

This seminar focuses on exploring working and teaching in inclusive settings. Both theoretical and practical examples of inclusive and differentiated material and practices will be investigated.
Students will be expected to actively participate, read the texts, reflect and share their thoughts and ideas. Throughout the seminar they will also be expected to work together to complete mini projects that would complement practically the deeper understanding of the different topics. The participants will have to use the knowledge acquired in the first sessions to create their own instruction processes and a manual to be used alongside these, for all the tasks and activities. Finally, to further benefit from that experience students would record their impressions and learning journey on a log that would be reviewed by the lecturer.

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, 2026.

Registration: via Flex-now.

The lecture provides an overview of the development of Gothic literature from the late eighteenth- to the early twenty-first century, focusing predominantly (though not exclusively) on the Gothic novel. It pursues three key objectives: firstly, to familiarize attendees with major forms and subgenres of Gothic literature; secondly, to introduce key periods of literary history (as refracted through a Gothic lens); and, thirdly, to read Gothic texts as responses to cultural contexts and social anxieties. Each lecture will first introduce salient contexts for the topic at hand, then move on to a close reading of a sample text, and conclude with a brief summary and perspectives for further research. While the lecture mainly charts the evolution of Gothic literature in England, it will touch upon US-American and include postcolonial contexts the further we proceed diachronically.

The representation of culture and the cultural multiplicity of the anglophone world is a key element in teaching and learning English as a foreign language. Focusing on Ireland‘s diverse culture and multifarious cultural agents, the seminar is designed to introduce models of culture as well as inter- and transcultural learning and their implications for the EFLC. A mandatory excursion to the Irish consulate in Frankfurt/Main is scheduled for Thursday, 23 October.

Prerequisites:
Teacher Education Programme: Successful completion of Moduls TEFL I and TEFL II.
Anglophone Studies MA Programme: BA

Required Reading:
A comprehensive course bibliography will be made available on Stud.IP.

Credit:
Ungraded: Regular attendance, active participation in class
Graded: Regular attendance, active participation in class; written exam

Exam period: written exam on February 12, 2026

Registration: Flex-Now

Writing practices in language education are currently in turmoil due to the ongoing proliferation and refinement of generative AI tools. In this seminar students develop knowledge and strategies of fostering writing competencies in the EFL (English as a Foreign Language) classroom. Some basic approaches to writing are introduced, such as genre writing, process writing, and creative writing. We discuss possible adjustments to various learner groups and levels of proficiency. Written feedback in conjunction with teacher workload is another focus area. Crucially, all is viewed through the lens of the current AI revolution as we explore potential threats and benefits of the latest technological advancements.

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, 2026.

Registration: via Flex-now.

Technology is “material culture” (Don Ihde), i.e. the human-made objects, both tangible and virtual, which surround as and which accompany our everyday procedures. Language teachers and learners have always used various technologies, with the EFL textbook being but one prominent example. As technologies become increasingly digitalized and fleeting, the question is to what extent language learning and, more importantly for us, language teaching (!) can benefit from the latest technological advancements, whereas some of these tools look promising at first glance but provide very little in the way of enriching actual learning processes. In this seminar, we broach some of these overarching issues and discuss the intricate challenges in trying to extract pedagogical value from various technological applications.

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, 2026.

Registration: via Flex-now.

Course Description:
The aim of the project seminar is to gain insights into English lessons at school and to reflect on these in a theory-based way. To this end, we will accompany the English lessons of a learning group at the Gesamtschule Gießen Ost comprehensive school for the entire semester. In addition to observing and evaluating lessons, the focus is on the competence-orientated planning of sequences and support measures as well as the implementation of micro-teaching.


Prerequisites:
Teacher Education Programme: Successful completion of Modules TEFL I and TEFL II.

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

Credit:
Ungraded: Regular attendance, active participation, a short teaching proposal
Graded: Regular attendance, active participation, a short teaching proposal, written exam

Exam period: tba

Registration: FlexNow

The study of text linguistics involves going beyond the level of the sentence, which we have previously viewed as the largest linguistic structure. Text linguistic study not only considers the structural aspects of texts, i.e. spoken and written texts, but also dives into the overriding social contexts, in which these texts are constructed. In this vein, this class also will focus on discourse analysis and its methodologies.

Exam Date: Feb. 12, 2026
or Term Paper: March 31, 2026

This seminar will concentrate on the work of Thomas Hardy. We will explore Hardy's thematic concerns, literary techniques, and examine the engagement with social issues inherent in his real-and-imagined worldmaking of "Wessex". A reader with all texts will be available through StudIP from the beginning of term, students will be asked to buy one of his novels.

Pointing out the importance of working on teaching skills is the purpose of most seminars, as instruction is the focus of the learning experience. One of the most challenging but also interesting skills to teach is Speaking. Throughout the seminar, students will work in understanding the main principles and implications of working on Speaking with primary school students. Our focus will be on working with tasks and picture books. We will, thus, explore some of their most significant aspects, namely the fundamental principles of teaching Speaking, classrooms strategies and techniques, speaking tasks as well as practical classroom examples. Both the elements of instruction and assessment will be explored in both their theoretical and practical dimensions. The participants will have to use the knowledge acquired in the first sessions to create their own instruction and assessment processes and a manual to be used alongside these, for all the tasks and activities.


Prerequisites:
Successful completion of Module TEFL I.

Required Reading:
A comprehensive course bibliography will be made available on Stud.IP.

Credit:
Regular attendance, active participation in class; term paper


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, 2026.

Registration: via Flex-now.

Mobile software applications for smartphones and tablets have the potential to transform the way languages are learned. This course focuses on commercial and non-commercial as well as textbook-related and textbook-independent mobile apps and their potential value for teaching and learning English as a Foreign Language [EFL) in the classroom and beyond. In terms of approach to pre-service EFL teacher education, the seminar focuses on reflecting upon participants’ knowledge about and experience with mobile apps and mobile-assisted language learning (MALL) and current international research in this area. Special emphasis is given to exploring, evaluating, and comparing a few exemplary apps in systematic ways.
Please note that this course will be conducted in an asynchronous, computer-mediated virtual format predominantly. Since asynchronous online courses are not conducted live and in-person, participants are not required to be logged in at the same time as everyone else, for instance, to attend virtual lectures or participate in video conferences and chat sessions. Instead, the instructor will distribute coursework through a virtual learning management system (i.e. StudIP, usually at the beginning of each week). Participants can complete the provided writing assignments and tasks at their own paces, adhering to the deadlines requested by the instructor (usually at the end of each week). This means that they can log on whenever they want, completing the coursework as they would like during each weekly block of learning.
This is a TEFLhybrid Course: http://www.uni-giessen.de/faculties/f05/engl/tefl/teflhybrid


Prerequisites:
Teacher Education Programme: Successful completion of Moduls TEFL I and TEFL II.
Anglophone Studies MA Programme: BA

Required Reading:
A comprehensive course bibliography will be made available on Stud.IP.

Credit:
Ungraded: weekly assignments and learning logs, active participation (online forum), knowledge of recommended literature
Graded: in addition to the above, a written exam

Exam Period: tbd

Registration: Flex-Now

Just like any other living language, English is neither geographically nor socially homogeneous. More often than not there are many ways of saying the "same thing". For instance, in English there are different possibilities of forming negative interrogatives with do-support: "Did you not know that?", "Didn't you know that?" and some speakers would even accept "Did not you know that?" Variation has always been a fundamental characteristics of human language. It is the prerequisite for most language changes in that one variant in the variation (e.g. 1. "Did you not know that?", 2. "Didn't you know that?", 3. "Did not you know that?") may become preferred by language users and eventually replace one or more of the other variants.
In this lecture, we will have a closer look at selected sound, morphological and syntactic changes from pre-Old English to Present Day English.

No final exam; ungraded credit only.

“English is a highly diversified language that appears in a multitude of varieties across the globe. These varieties may differ extensively in their structural properties.”
(Siemund 2013, back cover)

The term ‘World Englishes’ typically refers to non-native or second language varieties of English (also called ‘New Englishes’) part of what Kachru (1985) classified as ‘outer circle’ varieties of English; yet it could also encompass the ‘expanding circle’ varieties or even the ‘inner circle’ varieties (Filppula et al. 2017; Meshrie & Bhatt 2008; Wolf & Polzenhagen 2009). Typically, the plural form ‘Englishes’ is used to highlight the (systematic) diversity found in the uses of this language across the world (Meshrie & Bhatti 2008: 3). The two most prominent inner circle Englishes are British and American English. However, these are not the varieties we will focus on in this course. Instead, we will investigate outer circle (such as Indian or Nigerian English) or expanding circle varieties (for example English spoken in Korea or Japan). Advances in corpus linguistics as well as the availability of corpora including samples of naturally occurring language use other than of native Englishes allow for substantial investigations of world Englishes.

The aim of this course is to acquire an understanding of (i) the central models describing the evolution of varieties of English and (ii) patterns of development of selected World Englishes, and (iii) to empirically investigate structures/patterns/grammatical features with the help of corpora.

In order to successfully follow and complete the course it is necessary that you have taken and passed the course Introduction to English Linguistics.

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, project presentation.

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

Exam period: Final exam on 10 February 2026; deadline for term paper submission on 15 March 2026.

Epicentres in World Englishes are regional varieties of English that exhibit structural influences on neighbouring Englishes, i.e. it has – for instance – repeatedly been shown that Indian English can be regarded as influencing other varieties in South Asia such as Sri Lankan or Pakistani English. Epicentral configurations can consequently be found in South Asia, but also in Southeast Asia as well as in Australia and potentially in other parts of the world. The regional focus of this class is thus on Australasia and the notion of linguistic epicentres provides the framework against which the regional varieties are going to be presented.

In the course of this class, we will introduce central models describing the evolution of postcolonial/non-native varieties of English (e.g. Moag 1982; Kachru 1985; Schneider 2003, 2007) and discuss the notion of a linguistic epicentre in the World Englishes paradigm. Against this background and on the basis of structural and sociohistorical evidence, we will discuss the development and present-day structure-related as well as sociolinguistic profile of a selection of varieties in Australasia. Methodologically, we will explore different ways of a) empirically studying the structures and usage patterns that profile each of these Australasian Englishes in a unique way and b) trying to delineate epicentral configurations.

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

Reading: Reading material will be provided on closed reserve in the department library or 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 an oral presentation, which may involve group activities and class discussions, or a written report.
Graded credit: In addition to the above, a final exam or a term paper.

Exam period: Final exam on 11 February 2026; deadline for term paper submission: 15 March 2026.