Englischsprachige Lehrveranstaltungen

Der Erwerb eines Fremdsprachenscheins ist möglich.

In this class, students will learn to do what many practicing attorneys do daily—answer complex legal questions—within the context of American law and legal analysis. Specifically, students will learn the basics of the U.S. legal system, and then they will learn how to formulate precise legal issues; analyze complex facts; identify, evaluate, and apply legal rules in creative and nuanced ways; and effectively communicate answers in writing. This class is hands-on and interactive, and students will receive feedback as they develop and improve their skills. All assignments and instruction will be in English.
This course ends with a term paper after the last lecture on June 3.

This course provides a rigorous introduction to central issues in comparative constitutional law, examined through selected constitutional instruments drawn from various European jurisdictions. It offers not only an initial orientation but also a comprehensive analytical overview of European constitutional law as a field of study.

The primary objective of the course is to furnish students with the conceptual and methodological tools necessary to employ comparative legal analysis in the development, interpretation, and evaluation of constitutional norms, institutions, and systems. Particular attention is devoted to the structure of the constitutional order at both the domestic and supranational levels.

The course further considers the constitutional evolution of the European Union and the Council of Europe, with a view to situating national constitutional developments within broader European contexts.

Finally, the course addresses the dynamics of constitutional change, including the processes through which constitutions are amended, revised, or newly enacted.

vgl. Aushang

Introduction to European Energy Law is a beginner-level course designed to provide students with a foundational understanding of how energy is regulated within the European Union. Energy law stands at the very centre of contemporary climate policy, environmental protection, and debates on sustainable development. In today’s world, societies face the dual challenge of ensuring sufficient, reliable energy supplies while avoiding the global warming and climate change driven largely by fossil fuel consumption. As the demand for energy increases, the legal frameworks that govern the shift from fossil fuels to renewable and low-carbon sources—such as wind, solar, hydrogen, and nuclear energy—become more important than ever.

The course introduces students to the core principles, sources, and institutions of EU Energy Law. Students will explore how the general provisions of the EU Treaties—free movement, competition law, and environmental protection—apply directly to the energy sector. The module examines the development of the EU’s internal energy market, including the liberalisation of electricity and gas markets, the introduction of competition, and the opening of national markets to supplies from other Member States.

The course also addresses several thematic areas central to modern energy governance: Renewable energy law, Climate-related energy measures, Security of energy supply, Nuclear (atomic) energy law.

The seminar focused on the contributions of Latin American thought to the field of memory studies. Particularly, considering the experiences of the different truth commissions in the region. The goal is to critically portray different conflict contexts to understand the development, conclusions, and contributions of the mandates of truth commissions, both in the national scenarios in which they operated and the broader theoretical landscape of memory studies.

The course will provide access to English and Spanish literature, audiovisual material, and enriching discussions that present and analyze the discourses, contents, and emphasis of the truth commissions according to the historical and social contexts that shaped each of the mandates. The approximation will allow the student to build up knowledge and understanding to evaluate the potential and challenges of the Latin American experience in relation to the global context of increasing violence and human rights violations.

The aim is to promote critical reflections and the active participation of students after accessing concepts, notions, current debates, and other forms of knowledge that, despite being the result of specific settings, offer lessons and learnings for future experiences and also for increasing the scope of memory as a political and socio-cultural concern.

This seminar introduces the key concepts, theories, and current debates surrounding sustainable development, considering recent reflections and actions related to environmental and climate justice. In the first part of the seminar, we will study the emergence of the sustainable development paradigm by examining its key definitions and regulatory documents. We will then explore various approaches to climate justice. This discussion will lead us to consider two significant critical approaches to development: post-development and alternatives to development. We will also explore complementary approaches to sustainable development based on feminist, anti-racist, and decolonial perspectives. The seminar concludes with a discussion of three case studies, enabling us to explore environmental conflicts related to extractivism, biodiversity loss, and air and water pollution in more depth, along with their implications for sustainable development theories and practices.

The course explores the language of law through comparative studies, focusing on the legal systems of Poland and Germany. It examines how legal concepts, terminology, and interpretation differ and interact in these systems. The course highlights the challenges of multilingual legal frameworks, the influence of EU law on member states, and the role of legal language in shaping jurisprudence and governance. The course will address the following topics:
- Introduction to Comparative Law (Comparative law: objectives and methods);
- Characteristics of Polish, German, and EU legal systems;
- Legal Terminology and Translation Challenges: Comparing key legal terms in Polish, German, and EU law. Inc. case study: The concept of “good faith” in Polish (dobra wiara), German (Treu und Glauben);
- Harmonization and Divergence in EU Law: The principle of supremacy of EU law and its impact on national systems, direct effect and the implementation of EU directives in Poland and Germany;
- The language of judicial opinions: Comparing the Polish Constitutional Tribunal, the German Federal Constitutional Court, and the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU). Inc. the interpretative role of the CJEU;
- Multicentricity of law and multilingualism in EU Law;
- Legal design and Legal Culture Impact
The tandem seminar is part of the project “Ukraine digital: Ukraine in its transcultural and transnational context” of the Justus Liebig University of Giessen (JLU) together with the National University of “Kyiv-Mohyla Academy” (NaUKMA). The project is supported by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), funding provided by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF).

Der Erwerb eines Fremdsprachenscheins ist möglich.

The Law of Indian Tribes seminar provides students with a comprehensive understanding of the
legal systems and principles governing Indigenous communities and Nations. Through an
exploration of historical, cultural, and contemporary perspectives, students will delve into the
unique legal frameworks that shape tribal communities’ lives.
The course begins by examining the historical foundations of tribal law, including the impact of
colonialism and the subsequent development of tribal legal systems. Students will gain insights
into the diverse cultural and spiritual traditional that underpin tribal law, fostering an
appreciation for the interconnectedness between law, culture, and identity. Building upon this
foundation course delves into the core principles and concepts of tribal law. Students will
explore the sources of law within Indigenous communities, including tribal constitutions, written
and unwritten laws. Students will analyze the role of tribal governments, tribal courts, and
traditional decision-making processes in resolving disputes and maintaining governance.
The course also addresses critical issues in tribal law, such as tribal sovereignty, jurisdictional
challenges, and the relationship between tribal law and federal and state legal systems. Students
will examine landmark legal cases that have shaped the interpretation and application of tribal
law, fostering a deeper understanding of the complexities and evolving nature of Indigenous
legal systems.
Throughout the course, students will engage in comparative analyses of tribal legal systems form
various Midwest tribal Nations, highlighting the diversity and richness of Indigenous legal
traditions. Students will explore the unique challenges faced by Indigenous communities in areas
such as land rights, natural resources management, environmental protection, and cultural
preservation, as well as business, and human resources issues.

Cases in Consulting and Management Accounting
Angebot: Fallstudien-Kolloquium
Turnus: Sommersemester
Credits: 6 CP
Modulcode: 02-BWL:MSc-A-B4-3

Beschreibung:
Ziel dieser Veranstaltung ist es, Techniken zur Bearbeitung von praxisnahen Fallstudien aus dem Bereich Controlling/Consulting zu erlernen. Die Fallstudien können Themen aus sämtlichen Controlling-Bereichen enthalten, aber auch strategische Analysen und Präsentationsfähigkeiten werden zur Lösungsfindung und Vorstellung der Fallstudien benötigt.

Weitere Informationen:
Grundsätzliche Hinweise zum Modul finden Sie auch im Modulhandbuch. Konkrete Informationen zur aktuellen Veranstaltung des Semesters sowie die Materialien zur Veranstaltung finden Sie in StudIP.

Struktur: Vorlesung + Übung
Turnus: Sommersemester
Credits: 6 CP
Sprache: Englisch
Prüfungsform: Klausur
Die Veranstaltung findet in Präsenz statt.

Die Veranstaltung ist für alle Studierende im Master VWL, EGR, BWL und AFS geöffnet und besteht aus einer wöchentlichen Vorlesung und Übung.

Der Kurs basiert auf dem Buch Causal Inference von Scott Cunningham, sowie den Büchern Mostly Harmless Econometrics und Mastering Metrics von Joshua Angrist und Jörn-Steffen Pischke.

Many of the big questions in the social sciences (and economics) deal with cause and effect. How does immigration affect pay and employment levels? How does a longer education affect someone's future income? These questions are difficult to answer because we have nothing to use as a comparison. We do not know what would have happened if there had been less immigration or if that person had not continued studying.

However, last years Laureates of the Nobel Prize in Economics - David Card, Joshua Angrist, and Guido Imbens - have shown that it is possible to answer these and similar questions using natural experiments. The key is to use situations in which chance events or policy changes result in groups of people being treated differently, in a way that resembles clinical trials in medicine.

If you are curious about how economists can draw plausible conclusions about cause and effect I invite you to join this course. The course covers core methods and seminal applications (discussed in the lecture and replicated in the exercise) dealing with causal inference.

Preliminary schedule:
- Randomized Controlled Trials
- Linear Regression and Matching
- Difference-in-Differences
- Regression Discontinuity Designs
- Instrumental Variables

Struktur: Vorlesung + Übung
Turnus: Sommersemester
Credits: 6 CP
Sprache: Englisch
Prüfungsform: Klausur
Die Veranstaltung findet in Präsenz statt.

Die Veranstaltung ist für alle Studierende im Master VWL, EGR, BWL und AFS geöffnet und besteht aus einer wöchentlichen Vorlesung und Übung.

Der Kurs basiert auf dem Buch Causal Inference von Scott Cunningham, sowie den Büchern Mostly Harmless Econometrics und Mastering Metrics von Joshua Angrist und Jörn-Steffen Pischke.

Many of the big questions in the social sciences (and economics) deal with cause and effect. How does immigration affect pay and employment levels? How does a longer education affect someone's future income? These questions are difficult to answer because we have nothing to use as a comparison. We do not know what would have happened if there had been less immigration or if that person had not continued studying.

However, last years Laureates of the Nobel Prize in Economics - David Card, Joshua Angrist, and Guido Imbens - have shown that it is possible to answer these and similar questions using natural experiments. The key is to use situations in which chance events or policy changes result in groups of people being treated differently, in a way that resembles clinical trials in medicine.

If you are curious about how economists can draw plausible conclusions about cause and effect I invite you to join this course. The course covers core methods and seminal applications (discussed in the lecture and replicated in the exercise) dealing with causal inference.

Preliminary schedule:
- Randomized Controlled Trials
- Linear Regression and Matching
- Difference-in-Differences
- Regression Discontinuity Designs
- Instrumental Variables

Type: tutorial, in-person

Frequency: summer and winter semesters

Credits: 6 CP

Teaching language: English (German at B2 level is required)

Assessement: examination, presentation

Type: tutorial

Frequency: summer and winter semesters

Credits: 6 CP

Teaching language: English (German at B2 level is required)

Assessement: examination, presentation

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

We study the small open economies and their interaction with global financial markets. After an introduction to the balance of payments, we introduce the intertemporal model of the current account. We use the model in order to understand consumption, capital flows and sovereign default. In the second half, we introduce real and nominal exchange rates and discuss the main models of exchange rate determination.

Struktur: Vorlesung + Übung
Turnus: Sommersemester
Credits: 6 CP
Sprache: Deutsch und Englisch
Prüfungsform: Klausur

Wir behandeln die Makroökonomie in der langen Frist. Ausgangspunkt ist eine Betrachtung des langfristigen Wirtschaftswachstums anhand des Solow-Wachstumsmodells. Anschließend beleuchten wir den Arbeitsmarkt, die Rolle von Geld und Preisen in der langen Frist sowie die Diskussion der Phillipskurve. Ein Blick auf intertemporale Modelle der Makroökonomik rundet die Veranstaltung ab.

Structure: Lecture + Tutorial
Rhythm: Summer semester
Credits: 6 CP
Course code: 02-VWL:MSc-V1-3
Language: English
Required work: Final exam (80 %) + Participation (15%) + Seminar (5%)
Lecturers: Univ.-Prof. Dr. Georg Götz
Possible Major: Economics, Management

Course Description:
This course gives an overview over the economic study of innovation and the production of new goods and services. 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 introduces patent races, the economics of licensing, and the study of adoption and diffusion of new technology. A further topic concerns R&D cooperation with a focus on the working of Research Joint Ventures. Throughout the course we will discuss the Schumpeterian themes of the relation between market structure, firm size and innovation. The course will also evaluate current technology policy as implemented in various countries. A seminar-like part will conclude the course with various case studies of firms’ research and development activities and innovations with a special focus on the pharmaceutical sector. We will have industry experts discussing their experience.

o get a first impression on what the course is about, you might want to look at the introductory chapter of William M. Baumol's book "The free market innovation machine" - to be found at http://press.princeton.edu/chapters/s7310.pdf . For a starting point in the management literature see the collection on Top 10 Lessons on the New Business of Innovation from the MIT-Sloan Management Review 2011 (available within JLU network).

The preliminary schedule can be found under Ablaufplan. The slides for the respective lectures are available in the Download section (Dateien).

The recordings of the lecture from the past SS 2021 can be found on the chairs Youtube channel Economics2Go https://www.youtube.com/c/Economics2Go in the playlist Economics of Innovation https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLaMyPT8Jkw7nrmy-E7dSA2WrrE__4P2dv .

Required work:
Final Exam
Assignments
Group paper and presentation

Literature:
Baumol, W. The Free Market Innovation Machine – Analyzing the Growth Miracle of Capitalism, 2002, Princeton University Press
Pepall, Richard, and Norman (PRN): Industrial Organization: Contemporary theory and practice South Western, 3rd edition. 2005, chapters 22-24.
Tirole, J.: The Theory of Industrial Organizatio,MIT Press 1988, ch.10
Stoneman, P. (ed.): Handbook of the Economics of Innovation and Technological Change ch. 1, 4, 5, 7, 11, 12.
Brownwyn Hall, Nathan Rosenberg (eds.) Handbook of the Economics of Innovation, Vol 1 and Vol. 2

This course will be held in English and in presence.

Structure: Lecture + Tutorial
Rhythm: Summer semester
Credits: 6 CP
Course Code: 02-VWL:MSc-V1-1
Language: English
Required work: Final exam (85%) + Participation (15%)
Lecturers: Univ.-Prof. Dr. Georg Götz
Possible Major: Economics, Economics of Global Risk

Course Description:
You can find the most recent information to this course here. The recordings of the lecture from the summer term 2020 can be found on the chairs Youtube channel Economics2Go; in the playlist Economics of Regulation:https://www.youtube.com/c/Economics2Go

This course deals with network industries like electricity, gas and water supply as well as with the telecommunication sector and how to regulate them. A special focus is laid on the consequences of the asymmetric distribution of information among the agents active in these sectors. Here, one might think of product markets characterized by uncertainty about qualities and prices as well as labor markets, insurance markets, or financial markets. These markets are characterized by endogenous information that is generated by some market participants; behavior affecting other market participants; behavior. As a consequence, the market mechanism may be distorted or even fail.

Literature:
Paul Joskow: Regulation of Natural Monopolies August 2006, mimeo, MIT, a review article published in the Handbook of Law and Economics, 2007.

Recent developments in the theory of regulation, published in the Handbook of Industrial Organization (Vol. III), edited by M. Armstrong and R. Porter. This article provides an in-depth treatment of the theory of regulation under asymmetric information.

Regulation, Competition, and Liberalization. Journal of Economic Literature Vol. XLIV (June 2006), pp. 325–366. This article offers insights into the regulatory practice and discusses if and how effective competition can be created in sectors, which are at least partly natural monopolies.

K. Viscusi, J. Harrington, J. Vernon, Economics of regulation and antitrust. 4th. ed. MIT Press 2005;
Borrmann, J. und Finsinger, J., Markt und Regulierung. Verlag Vahlen 1999.

David Newbery, 1999, Privatization, Restructuring, and Regulation of Network Industries, MIT Press offers an excellent combination of theoretical insights and specific case studies, in particular with respect to the liberalization process.

Pepall, Richard, and Norman (PRN): Industrial Organization: Contemporary theory and practice, South Western, 3rd edition. 2005. Introduction to Economic Analysis by R. Preston McAfee.

This course will be held in presence and in English.

Struktur: Vorlesung + Übung
Turnus: Unregelmäßig
Credits: 6 CP
Sprache: Englisch (Regelfall) bzw. Deutsch (Ausnahmefall)
Prüfungsform: Klausur und Hausarbeit mit Präsentation

Qualifikationsziele:
• Beschreibung und Verständnis der Digitalisierung und ihrer Auswirkungen auf wirtschaftliche
Prozesse
• Kenntnis von theoretischen Konzepten und empirischen Methoden zur Messung der Digitalisierung
und zur Analyse ihrer Auswirkungen
• Beschreibung, Interpretation und Bewertung empirischer Ergebnisse
• Kritische Diskussion der ökonomischen und sozialen Auswirkungen der Digitalisierung
•
Inhalte:
• Informations- Kommunikationstechnologien als Querschnittstechnologie
• Auswirkungen der Digitalisierung auf Unternehmen
• Auswirkungen der Digitalisierung auf Beschäftigte
• Digitale Märkte und Plattformen


Für die Teilnahme an der Veranstaltung ist der erfolgreiche Abschluss von Kursen in Industrieökonomik und Ökonometrie sehr empfehlenswert. Weitere Informationen dazu finden Sie auch auf der Homepage.

Die Veranstaltung findet in Präsenz statt.

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

Struktur: Vorlesung + Übung
Turnus: Unregelmäßig
Credits: 6 CP
Sprache: Englisch (Regelfall) bzw. Deutsch (Ausnahmefall)
Prüfungsform: Klausur und Hausarbeit mit Präsentation

Qualifikationsziele:
• Beschreibung und Verständnis der Digitalisierung und ihrer Auswirkungen auf wirtschaftliche
Prozesse
• Kenntnis von theoretischen Konzepten und empirischen Methoden zur Messung der Digitalisierung
und zur Analyse ihrer Auswirkungen
• Beschreibung, Interpretation und Bewertung empirischer Ergebnisse
• Kritische Diskussion der ökonomischen und sozialen Auswirkungen der Digitalisierung
•
Inhalte:
• Informations- Kommunikationstechnologien als Querschnittstechnologie
• Auswirkungen der Digitalisierung auf Unternehmen
• Auswirkungen der Digitalisierung auf Beschäftigte
• Digitale Märkte und Plattformen


Für die Teilnahme an der Veranstaltung ist der erfolgreiche Abschluss von Kursen in Industrieökonomik und Ökonometrie sehr empfehlenswert. Weitere Informationen dazu finden Sie auch auf der Homepage.

Die Veranstaltung findet in Präsenz statt.

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

Type: tutorial, in-person

Frequency: summer and winter semesters

Credits: 6 CP

Teaching language: English

Assessement: take-home assignments, oral examination

Ab dem Sommersemester 2018 wird die 6 ECTS-Bachelor-Veranstaltung “Sales Strategy and Execution” von der Professur für Marketing und Verkaufsmanagement angeboten. Diese Veranstaltung ist zulassungsbeschränkt mit einer maximalen Teilnehmerzahl von 20 Studierenden.

In dieser Veranstaltung wird ein umfassender Überblick über die Konzeption und Umsetzung von Verkaufsstrategien vermittelt. Am Beispiel von Verkaufsstrategien lernen die Studierenden im Rahmen dieses Moduls, welche Entscheidungen für die Konzeption von Strategien relevant sind, wie man eine schlüssige Strategie entwickelt und worauf es beim Umsetzen von Strategien zu achten gilt. Weitere Inhalte dieses Moduls sind die Analyse und Steuerung des Verkaufsprozesses sowie erfolgreiches Verhandeln alleine oder im Team.

Struktur: Seminar
Prüfungsform: Hausarbeit & Präsentation. Details zu Struktur und Prüfungsform werden in der Kickoff-Veranstaltung erläutert.
Credits: 6 CP
Sprache: Englisch
Inhalte: Hauptseminar zu Themen aus den Bereichen Organisation, Personalmanagement und Organizational Behavior. Details zu den allgemeinen Zielsetzungen und Inhalten finden sich in der offiziellen Modulbeschreibung.
Format: Die Veranstaltung findet in Präsenz statt.

Structure: two parts, each by a JLU professor or a UWM professor
Turnus: summer term
Credits: 6 CP
Language: Englisch
Examination form: exam, homework, presentation

This Summer School is aimed at
- the participants of the exchange program in economics between the JLU Giessen and the UWM
- master students of the economics program (VWL) at JLU

There are two classes given by a JLU professor and an UWM professor each. Further information concerning the start of the summer school and the dates of classes etc. can be downloaded or found here: https://www.uni-giessen.de/de/fbz/fb02/international/summerschool/programm-aktuell/summer-school-2025
Please note that the information about the Summer School is preliminary and still subject to change.

Dear Students,

In the upcoming summer term 2025, the Chair of Financial Services (BWLV) offers the course
"Sustainable Portfolio Management” (former Applied Portfolio Management and Sustainability)
(6CP) for Master students.

Students will improve their understanding of the key concepts of asset pricing and sustainable
investment management while being able to empirically implement these theoretical concepts
using data sets and programming skills. Module content consists of, but is not limited to:

Multifactor models
Cross-sectional anomalies
Quantitative investment strategies
ESG integration
Performance evaluation of professional asset managers

At the end of the term, the students will present their results to one of the leading asset
managers for sustainability. We also welcome applications from Economics students as the
course will also cover causal inference topics and theoretical models.

Since we can only accept a limited number of participants, please send me a meaningful
performance record (and bachelor’s degree certificate, Flex Now Master and CV, if applicable)
by 04/06/2024 to paul.eubel@wirtschaft.uni-giessen.de with the keyword "ESG 2025". You will be notified by 04/13/2024 whether you have been accepted for the course.

Grading is based on a research paper and a presentation.

Best regards from
BWL V

The lecture for this module will not take place in person in the summer semester 2024. In this semester, we will provide a recorded lecture via ILIAS, which will be uploaded at the scheduled time. The exercise sessions will take place in person as usual.
---
Struktur: Vorlesung + Übung;

Turnus: Sommersemester

Credits: 6 CP

Sprache: Englisch (Regelfall) bzw. Deutsch (im Ausnahmefall)

Prüfungsform: Klausur

Bei dieser Veranstaltung handelt es sich um die Übung zur Vorlesung "Technology and Innovation Management". In der Übung werden Inhalte aus der Vorlesung diskutiert und angewendet. Ferner ist die Klausurvorbereitung wesentlicher Bestandteil der Übung.

Detaillierte Informationen entnehmen Sie bitte der Lehrveranstaltung.

Die Veranstaltung findet in Präsenz statt.

The lecture for this module will not take place in person in the summer semester 2024. In this semester, we will provide a recorded lecture via ILIAS, which will be uploaded at the scheduled time. The exercise sessions will take place in person as usual.
---
Struktur: Vorlesung + Übung

Turnus: Sommersemester

Credits: 6 CP

Sprache: Englisch (Regelfall) bzw. Deutsch (im Ausnahmefall)

Prüfungsform: Klausur

Diese Veranstaltung ist in zwei Teile gegliedert. Im ersten Teil geht es um Grundlagen des Technologiemanagements. Hier werden Konzepte zum Verständnis von Technologiestrategien etc. vorgestellt. Im zweiten Teil erfolgt eine Auseinandersetzung mit zentralen strategischen Konzepten des Innovationsmanagements. Danach werden spezifische Aspekte des Innovationsmanagements, wie z.B. die einzelnen Stufen des Innovationsprozesses, betrachtet.

Detaillierte Informationen über die Konkretisierung der Modulinhalte entnehmen Sie bitte der Lehrveranstaltung.

Die Veranstaltung findet in Präsenz statt.

Structure: Lecture + Tutorial
Rhythm: Summer semester
Credits: 6 CP
Course code: 02-VWL:MSc-V3-2
Language: English

The module Trade Policy and Global Supply Chains is part of the Master of Science major Economics of Global Risk and Economics. It is structured as a lecture with integrated tutorials and takes place every summer semester. The course is held in English. Moreover, it is recommended to have already completed the module International Economics.



Module content includes aspects from the following areas of foreign trade theory and policy:

Gains from trade
Trade policy and market structures
Political economy of trade policy
Factor movements and direct investments

Structure: Lecture + Tutorial
Rhythm: Summer semester
Credits: 6 CP
Course code: 02-VWL:MSc-V1-3
Language: English
Required work: Final exam (80 %) + Participation (15%) + Seminar (5 %)
Lecturers: Univ.-Prof. Dr. Georg Götz
Possible Major: Economics, Management

Course Description:
This course gives an overview over the economic study of innovation and the production of new goods and services. 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 introduces patent races, the economics of licensing, and the study of adoption and diffusion of new technology. A further topic concerns R&D cooperation with a focus on the working of Research Joint Ventures. Throughout the course we will discuss the Schumpeterian themes of the relation between market structure, firm size and innovation. The course will also evaluate current technology policy as implemented in various countries. A seminar-like part will conclude the course with various case studies of firms’ research and development activities and innovations with a special focus on the pharmaceutical sector. We will have industry experts discussing their experience.

o get a first impression on what the course is about, you might want to look at the introductory chapter of William M. Baumol's book "The free market innovation machine" - to be found at http://press.princeton.edu/chapters/s7310.pdf . For a starting point in the management literature see the collection on Top 10 Lessons on the New Business of Innovation from the MIT-Sloan Management Review 2011 (available within JLU network).

The preliminary schedule can be found under Ablaufplan. The slides for the respective lectures are available in the Download section (Dateien).

The recordings of the lecture from the past SS 2021 can be found on the chairs Youtube channel Economics2Go https://www.youtube.com/c/Economics2Go in the playlist Economics of Innovation https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLaMyPT8Jkw7nrmy-E7dSA2WrrE__4P2dv .

Required work:
Final Exam
Assignments
Group paper and presentation

Literature:
Baumol, W. The Free Market Innovation Machine – Analyzing the Growth Miracle of Capitalism, 2002, Princeton University Press
Pepall, Richard, and Norman (PRN): Industrial Organization: Contemporary theory and practice South Western, 3rd edition. 2005, chapters 22-24.
Tirole, J.: The Theory of Industrial Organizatio,MIT Press 1988, ch.10
Stoneman, P. (ed.): Handbook of the Economics of Innovation and Technological Change ch. 1, 4, 5, 7, 11, 12.
Brownwyn Hall, Nathan Rosenberg (eds.) Handbook of the Economics of Innovation, Vol 1 and Vol. 2

This course will be held in English and in presence.

Structure: Lecture + Tutorial
Rhythm: Summer semester
Credits: 6 CP
Course Code: 02-VWL:MSc-V1-1
Language: English
Required work: Final exam (85%) + Participation (15%)
Lecturers: Univ.-Prof. Dr. Georg Götz
Possible Major: Economics, Economics of Global Risk

Course Description:
You can find the most recent information to this course here. The recordings of the lecture from the summer term 2020 can be found on the chairs Youtube channel Economics2Go; in the playlist Economics of Regulation:https://www.youtube.com/c/Economics2Go

This course deals with network industries like electricity, gas and water supply as well as with the telecommunication sector and how to regulate them. A special focus is laid on the consequences of the asymmetric distribution of information among the agents active in these sectors. Here, one might think of product markets characterized by uncertainty about qualities and prices as well as labor markets, insurance markets, or financial markets. These markets are characterized by endogenous information that is generated by some market participants; behavior affecting other market participants; behavior. As a consequence, the market mechanism may be distorted or even fail.

Literature:
Paul Joskow: Regulation of Natural Monopolies August 2006, mimeo, MIT, a review article published in the Handbook of Law and Economics, 2007.

Recent developments in the theory of regulation, published in the Handbook of Industrial Organization (Vol. III), edited by M. Armstrong and R. Porter. This article provides an in-depth treatment of the theory of regulation under asymmetric information.

Regulation, Competition, and Liberalization. Journal of Economic Literature Vol. XLIV (June 2006), pp. 325–366. This article offers insights into the regulatory practice and discusses if and how effective competition can be created in sectors, which are at least partly natural monopolies.

K. Viscusi, J. Harrington, J. Vernon, Economics of regulation and antitrust. 4th. ed. MIT Press 2005;
Borrmann, J. und Finsinger, J., Markt und Regulierung. Verlag Vahlen 1999.

David Newbery, 1999, Privatization, Restructuring, and Regulation of Network Industries, MIT Press offers an excellent combination of theoretical insights and specific case studies, in particular with respect to the liberalization process.

Pepall, Richard, and Norman (PRN): Industrial Organization: Contemporary theory and practice, South Western, 3rd edition. 2005. Introduction to Economic Analysis by R. Preston McAfee.

This course will be held in presence and in English.

Module description:

Profound knowledge of game theory with special applications in the field of finance and capital market theory
ability to interpret models from relevant literature and to critically discuss their explanatory potential
ability to deal with applicable policy proposals based on relevant theory and empirical findings
formulation, argumentative defense and critical dispute of subject-related viewpoints and problem solving



The module covers:

Part 1 (lecture): Debt: Game Theory Applications (pre-recorded videos)
Basics of game theory
Applications in the context of finance and capital market theory

Part 2 (seminar): Fiscal and Monetary Policy in Sovereign Debt Crises (virtual live event)
Fiscal policy in crisis situations
Conventional and unconventional monetary policy in crises

Type: tutorial, in-person

Frequency: summer and winter semesters

Credits: 6 CP

Teaching language: English

Assessement: take-home assignments, presentation

Type: tutorial, in-person

Frequency: summer and winter semesters

Credits: 6 CP

Teaching language: English

Assessement: take-home assignments, examination, presentation

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.

According to the IPCC, Southern Africa is among those regions worldwide, most vulnerable to climate change impact. Consequences can be observed already by drought, extreme weather, etc., in many parts seasons are shifting with consequences to agriculture, water security and modes of sociation. Climate change is not just one of the most urgent environmental challenges of our time. As anthropogenic climate change, it emerges from economic, political, and social conditions. It is thus impacting on social institutions, cultural self-understanding, and political and economic development. This class traces the social and cultural dimension of climate change with focus on Botswana and South Africa, two societies in the Southern African region that struggle with the diverse impact of climate change. The class will refer to the expertise of various guest speakers from collaborating universities in the region.

The seminar explores current conflicts about climate change and about the measures implemented to mitigate its acceleration and effects. We will examine such conflicts with regards to different arenas and actors – ranging from the transnational to the local – as well as with respect to different forms of conflicts – ranging from litigation and parliamentary debates to protests and online disputes.

"Conflict is an inherent part of pluralistic societies. Wherever groups of people with different interests, opinions and identities come together, conflict is likely to arise. That is not per se a problem. On the contrary, conflict can fulfil important societal and democratic functions: It can strengthen group integration, spark social change and is part and parcel of a healthy democracy.
In these times of multiple, overlapping crises, however, societal conflict only seems to intensify: Debates are growing increasingly heated, positions appear irreconcilable, and citizens from different social and political groups start seeing each other in terms of “us” versus “them”. This raises the question of how to deal with such group-based conflict in democracy and society.
In this seminar, we take a closer look at the dynamics behind different types of conflict and explore how to deal with its more harmful variants. In the first part of the seminar, we study both classic theories of conflict and some contemporary applications, for example in the context of growing (affective) polarisation. In the second part, we then discuss different approaches to coping with conflict in democracy and society, drawing on perspectives from political theory, sociology, and social psychology. "

This seminar deepens the insights of the preceding project and enlarges the geographical scope of migration and democratic development beyond Germany and Türkiye by including developments in Italy and Spain as well. While the previous seminar investigated the nexus between migration and health, this seminar focuses particularly on the interrelations between migration and democratic development. It addresses the question of how migrants in European countries influence democratic developments both in their countries of residence and in their countries of origin. In a comparative perspective, we explore how democratic development interacts with cross border mobility, civic participation, and public discourse.

Through conceptual and comparative discussions, the seminar examines how migrants, diasporas, and the broader public participate in redefining democratic values and practices across Europe and its neighbourhood. Particular attention will be given to migration related debates in Germany, such as discussions on the transformation of urban space and the so called “Stadtbild” debate, as well as to debates in Italy and Spain concerning asylum governance, migration management, and public negotiation processes around migration policies.

The seminar aims to deepen students’ understanding of the connections between migration, peace, and democratic development. It contributes to a better understanding of European migration and integration policies while strengthening intercultural competences and English language skills of students, particularly regarding key concepts and terminologies related to migration, democracy, and civic participation.

This seminar examines the dynamics, role and impact of democracy promotion by the EU. The EU's efforts to act as a normative actor both in its neighbourhood and in various regions of the world are appreciated by many actors, but also heavily criticised. The seminar provides an empirical overview, examines related concepts and addresses criticism of the EU against the backdrop of increasing geopolitical conflicts with undemocratic countries.

International organisations are a central element of world politics. They structure international relations in many respects. Their character and their fields of work are very different. The central aim of this seminar is to provide an in-depth introduction to the field of international security organisations. In a first step, the concepts and theories of international organisations will be explained in more detail. In the further course of the seminar, selected security organisations will be analysed in more detail. These are in particular the UN, NATO, the EU, the OSCE, but also selected security organisations from other regions of the world. Methodologically, the seminar is based on joint text discussions, group work and a weekly news corner.

Is NATO undergoing fundamental transformation? This seminar examines the current state and future prospects of the Alliance in light of Russias war against Ukraine, geopolitical rivalry, internal tensions, and shifting global power structures. Focusing on NATO’s institutional development, strategic adaptation, and core tasks, the course also compares the security and defense policies of key member states, including the United States, France, the United Kingdom, Germany, and Poland. Students will analyse how domestic politics, strategic culture, and geopolitical position shape national perspectives within the Alliance.

Dieses Seminar beschäftigt sich mit Kommunikation, Zusammenarbeit und Lernen in Bildungskontexten, die durch künstliche Intelligenz geprägt sind. Auf Grundlage von Kommunikationstheorien, kooperativem Lernen und ethischen Perspektiven setzen sich die Teilnehmenden mit sozialen, pädagogischen und ethischen Fragen rund um generative KI im beruflichen Alltag auseinander. In interdisziplinärer Projektarbeit entwickeln sie praxisnahe Ideen für einen verantwortungsvollen und inklusiven Einsatz von KI.

Hinweis: Die Lehrveranstaltung wird bilingual auf Deutsch und Englisch angeboten.

This seminar examines the history, craftsmanship, functions, and cultural meaning of goldsmiths’ and silversmiths’ work from the Carolingian period (8th century) through to the Baroque era (18th century). We will explore a broad range of objects, including liturgical vessels such as chalices, portable reliquaries, monumental shrines; insignia, such as crowns and sceptres; and items of personal, ceremonial, or symbolically charged significance, such as jewellery.
A central component of the course is an introduction to the principal techniques of historical metalwork — including repoussé, granulation, filigree, and enamelling — alongside their technological development, diffusion and adaptation across the early medieval and early modern Euro-Mediterranean world. In discussing these works, we will consider how such objects were used, what functions they fulfilled in sacred and secular environments, and what they reveal about identity, status, memory, piety, and representation in pre-modern societies.
Goldsmiths’ and silversmiths’ works constitute one of the most significant areas within the applied arts; notably, several of the earliest signed artworks of the medieval period belong to this category. As such, the seminar introduces students to broader historiographical questions of craftsmanship, artistic authorship, and material culture.
The seminar will be delivered primarily in a lecture-based format and taught in hybrid mode: students in Gießen will attend in person, while external participants join online.
On Friday, 26 June, 2026, 2-5 pm, a field trip to the Diocesan Museum in Limburg an der Lahn is planned to study relevant objects in the original. This is part of the curriculum for those who study in Gießen.

Bibliotheken sind die Orte in Universitäten, wo wir seit Jahrhunderten das Wissen für Studium und Forschung finden können – in riesigen Mengen an Büchern und zunehmend auch in digitalen Ressourcen. Diese Räume sind uns daher allen vertraut – aber kennen wir auch ihre Architektur? Anlässlich der baldigen Eröffnung der neuen Gießener UB wird sich dieses Seminar mit der Architekturgeschichte dieses Bautypus vom Mittelalter bis in die Gegenwart auseinandersetzen. Anhand wichtiger Bibliotheksbauten wird gleichermaßen ein Überblick vermittelt und die kunsthistorische Analyse von Architektur geübt.

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!

Welcome! This class deals with the development of Anglophone poetry from the eighteenth century until today. The focus will be on British and US-American (incl. Native American) poems, but we will also look at examples by indigenous Australian authors. We will discuss the features of the most important literary periods as well as the question of how to identify individual poems as belonging to these larger frameworks. At the same time, the class serves as an introduction to poetry analysis. After clarifying the question of how poetry can be recognized, we will discuss the question of how the rhyme scheme, the meter, rhetorical devices, the speaker, and the mentioned topics or themes contribute to the meaning of poetry.

This course will trace the evolution of animal characters in British children’s literature from Victorian times to the present. Through close reading and comparative analysis we will discuss how animals function as mirrors and agents of empathy, social critique, and environmental stewardship, and how their portrayals shift in response to changing child‑audiences and cultural anxieties.

This seminar examines the ways contemporary African American literature represents cultural memory, linguistic diversity, and experiences of epistemic injustice in connection with the legacy of the US Civil Rights Movement. We will investigate how authors across generations have used literary expression to comment on African American life in both historical and present-day contexts, tracing continuities between past struggles for justice and contemporary forms of activism.

Our discussions will engage with texts by writers such as Maya Angelou, John Lewis, and Jacqueline Woodson, whose works reflect evolving perspectives within African American communities and highlight the multifaceted narratives that shape the ongoing fight for civil rights. Drawing on approaches from cultural studies, memory studies, and theories of race and social justice, we will analyze how literature functions both as testimony and as a vehicle for collective remembrance.

Regular course attendance and active in-class participation are expected.

In this course, you will develop your skills in effective and professional communication for international business contexts. You will learn how to plan messages, choose the appropriate style and tone, and adapt your language to different audiences and situations.

Throughout the semester, you will work on short oral and written tasks — such as presentations, emails, memos, and reports — to practice 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.). You will also improve your listening comprehension through authentic business dialogues, meetings, and presentations.

By the end of the course, you will be able to communicate clearly and confidently in a variety of business situations, produce well-structured and correctly formatted documents, and analyze different professional communication genres. The course concludes with a written exam where you apply what you have learned to practical business scenarios.

Assessment: Individual presentation (40%) and final exam (60%; date: July 14)

In this course, we will focus on the language used in business and economics. Topics include the role of government, the financial system, the business cycle, international trade, and global business issues such as ethics, public relations, and human resources.

You will practice expressing complex ideas clearly and confidently in spoken and written English. Through discussions, debates, and role-play activities, you will improve your skills for meetings, negotiations, and interviews while using appropriate business and economic vocabulary. Listening tasks are based on authentic materials such as news reports, press conferences, and public statements.

You will also develop your academic reading and writing skills by working with case studies related to current business and economic topics. This includes summarizing information, analyzing strategies, and making well-supported recommendations.

In addition, the course prepares you for studying or working in an international environment. You will update your CV, practice presenting your skills and experience, and take part in job interview role-plays.

Assessment form: Case studies and final exam (date to be announced)

In this course, we will focus on the language used in business and economics. Topics include the role of government, the financial system, the business cycle, international trade, and global business issues such as ethics, public relations, and human resources.

You will practice expressing complex ideas clearly and confidently in spoken and written English. Through discussions, debates, and role-play activities, you will improve your skills for meetings, negotiations, and interviews while using appropriate business and economic vocabulary. Listening tasks are based on authentic materials such as news reports, press conferences, and public statements.

You will also develop your academic reading and writing skills by working with case studies related to current business and economic topics. This includes summarizing information, analyzing strategies, and making well-supported recommendations.

In addition, the course prepares you for studying or working in an international environment. You will update your CV, practice presenting your skills and experience, and take part in job interview role-plays.

Assessment form: Case studies and final exam (date to be announced)

“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 and 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 block seminar, students will (i) learn about the field of corpus linguistics and learner corpus research, (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, UAM Corpus Tool, 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.

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 completing 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 14 July 2026; deadline for term paper submission on 15 September 2026.

World Englishes encapsulate first- and second-language varieties such as regional varieties in Africa, America, Asia, Australia, the Southern Pacific and various other places. Asian Englishes are generally divided into two geographical subgroups, i.e. South Asian Englishes and Southeast Asian Englishes. The South Asian Sprachraum comprising Bangladesh, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka constitutes a particularly intriguing case in the study of World Englishes since the respective regional varieties of English develop in linguistically complex contact scenarios with e.g. indigenous languages, but also the common core of English (cf. Quirk et al. 1985: 16). In a similar vein, language contact is also characteristic of and a driving factor behind the emergence of structurally distinct Southeast Asian Englishes (e.g. Hong Kong English, Malaysian English, Singapore English). America, Australian and South Pacific Englishes as well as others can be differentiated from Asian Englishes by the higher share of first-language users in the regions concerned while the influence of other (formerly local) languages on the respective varieties of English should not be underestimated.

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

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

Registration: Please register with FlexNow.

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

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

Exam period: Final exam on 15 July 2026; deadline for term paper submission: 15 September 2026.

Current research indicates that fluency is a neglected component of instruction and learning in the EFL classroom. This raises a number of issues and questions: (a) what does fluency mean, and what does it mean to EFL teachers and learners? (b) how familiar are teachers with research findings in foreign language fluency? (c) how confident are teachers in promoting fluency in class? (d) how do they actually go about promoting fluency in the classroom? (e) what practices and formats of interaction are most likely to contribute to fluency development in the EFL classroom? In this course, participants will gain a detailed understanding of fluency and systematic fluency development in various EFL classroom settings. Special emphasis will be given to fostering productive and receptive oral fluency through creative practice and improvisation at the secondary school level.

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: in addition to the above, a term paper

Exam period:
Term paper to be submitted by September 15, 2026.
Exam candidates are advised to submit their term papers by August 15, 2026.

Registration: Flex-Now

This course examines the enduring legacy of Bram Stoker’s Dracula through the lenses of both literature and cinema, tracing its transformation from a 19th‑century novel to a contemporary cultural icon. We will interrogate themes of identity, sexuality, bigraphy and historythat recur across both mediums, as well as the evolving moral and cultural anxieties (and hopes) they have evoked.

This seminar offers a comprehensive exploration of foreign language pedagogy, blending empirical analysis of language proficiency development with inclusive classroom practice, advanced CLIL methodologies, and evidence based lesson design across academic and community contexts. Participants will investigate subject specific learning challenges, examine contemporary and historical models of literature instruction, and assess literary theory’s role in fostering intercultural understanding and sustainable development goals. The program also cultivates presentation, moderation, and mediation skills while building competence in language teaching research, action research, and broader educational inquiry.

Prerequisites: Successful completion of modules TEFL I and TEFL II.

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

Credit: Oral group exam

Exam period:
Dates for the oral exams will be communicated during the semester.

Registration: FlexNow

This seminar offers a comprehensive exploration of foreign language pedagogy, blending empirical analysis of language proficiency development with inclusive classroom practice, advanced CLIL methodologies, and evidence based lesson design across academic and community contexts. Participants will investigate subject specific learning challenges, examine contemporary and historical models of literature instruction, and assess literary theory’s role in fostering intercultural understanding and sustainable development goals. The program also cultivates presentation, moderation, and mediation skills while building competence in language teaching research, action research, and broader educational inquiry.

Prerequisites: Successful completion of modules TEFL I and TEFL II.

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

Credit: Oral group exam

Exam period:
Dates for the oral exams will be communicated during the semester.

Registration: FlexNow

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.

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

Exam period:
Term paper must be handed in until 15th September 2026.

Registration: Flex-Now

Welcome! This class seeks to familiarize students with the phenomenon of fan fiction, i.e., rewrites produced by fans based on plotlines or characters from either a single source text or else a ‘canon’ of works. Fan fiction is doubly situated: in relation to its canon but also regarding other fans’ comments, interpretations, and rewrites. Fan fiction is created outside the commercial literary market; it is published online (on sites such as Archive of Our Own [AO3], FanFiction.net, or Wattpad); and it often gives pre-existing storyworlds a new, sometimes bizarre direction. We will deal with theoretical conceptualizations of fan fiction that concern both its functioning (in narratological terms) and its (ideological) functions and then analyze several examples of fan fiction. We will also address the fact that fan fiction is a female-dominated art form that involves a commitment to gift culture and the question of why these rewrites tend to concentrate on fantasy and science fiction.

Diversity and heterogeneity shape national and international education policies (e.g., Global Citizenship Education, Education for Peace), linking directly to Intercultural Communicative Competence (ICC). In EFL teaching, cultural hybridity is inseparable from ICC development. This seminar uses fictions of migration as contextualized teaching material, guiding participants to design, implement, and evaluate lessons that blend literary analysis, cultural insight, and language skills. By aligning with ICC and global citizenship principles, learners acquire empathy, conflict resolution abilities, and intercultural awareness, preparing them to act responsibly within a globally interconnected world.

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

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, term paper

Exam period:
Term paper must be handed in until 15th September 2026.

Registration: FlexNow

Was the will really written by the deceased or is it more likely that one of the family members faked it? Do the protocols of a murder confession represent exactly what the alleged murderer said or may the protocols have been tampered with by a police officer? Was this person drunk when he gave the interview? All these questions stem from the very heart of forensic linguistics, i.e. the usage of linguistic concepts and methods in legal contexts. In forensic linguistics, two areas are generally differentiated, i.e. the forensic linguist describing the language of law and the forensic linguist producing objective evidence based on the structures found in particular text for legal purposes.

In the course of the seminar, we will familiarise ourselves with different types of linguistic evidence – phonetic, lexical, syntactic, stylistic – in the context of legal examinations and seek to critically establish what role this type of linguistic evidence can and may be allowed to play in legal matters.

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

Reading: Reading material will be provided via Stud.IP.

Registration: Please register with FlexNow.

Ungraded credit: Regular attendance, completion of reading and homework assignments and active participation in class.
Graded credit: In addition to the above, a final exam or a term paper.

Exam period: Final exam on 16 July 2026; deadline for term paper submission: 15 September 2026.

In order to communicate in English, learners need to acquire a broad range of lexico-grammatical competences and skills. For instance, they need to learn the meanings of words, how they are pronounced and written, and how they are used in combination with other words to produce and understand text (in the broadest sense of the term). Based on current national and international research, this course looks at vocabulary learning and instruction from a theme-based perspective. Its central aims are a) to familiarize participants with current concepts and models of lexico-grammatical learning, and b) to advance their professional expertise in teaching vocabulary in thematically based EFL sequences, focusing on secondary schools.

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: in addition to the above, a term paper

Exam period:
Term paper to be submitted by September 15, 2026.
Exam candidates are advised to submit their term papers by August 15, 2026.

Registration: Flex-Now

Because of globalization, companies today sell their products and services all over the world. However, customers in different countries do not think, behave, or communicate in the same way.

In this seminar, you will explore how companies can communicate successfully with consumers in a global marketplace. The course focuses on topics such as cultural differences in consumer behaviour, challenges of cross-border and multilingual communication, and the role of language in advertising and branding. You will also examine how global marketing campaigns are adapted to different cultural and linguistic contexts.

Through lectures, case studies, and group discussions, you will develop a practical understanding of how language and culture influence global marketing communication.

A key part of the seminar is a group project in which you will design and present your own global marketing communication campaign. In this project, you will pay special attention to language choice, cultural sensitivity, and target audiences.

Assessment form: final exam, July 16

Because of globalization, companies today sell their products and services all over the world. However, customers in different countries do not think, behave, or communicate in the same way.

In this seminar, you will explore how companies can communicate successfully with consumers in a global marketplace. The course focuses on topics such as cultural differences in consumer behaviour, challenges of cross-border and multilingual communication, and the role of language in advertising and branding. You will also examine how global marketing campaigns are adapted to different cultural and linguistic contexts.

Through lectures, case studies, and group discussions, you will develop a practical understanding of how language and culture influence global marketing communication.

A key part of the seminar is a group project in which you will design and present your own global marketing communication campaign. In this project, you will pay special attention to language choice, cultural sensitivity, and target audiences.

Assessment form: final exam, July 16

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, and non-finite constructions—this course is designed to help students solidify and extend their understanding of core areas of English grammar as they transition from the upper-intermediate level to the lower-advanced level (B2 to C1). This transition not only requires a firm grasp of essential structures—those already covered in school but often forgotten or never fully mastered—but also the acquisition of finer grammatical points necessary for achieving 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, and non-finite constructions—this course is designed to help students solidify and extend their understanding of core areas of English grammar as they transition from the upper-intermediate level to the lower-advanced level (B2 to C1). This transition not only requires a firm grasp of essential structures—those already covered in school but often forgotten or never fully mastered—but also the acquisition of finer grammatical points necessary for achieving advanced language competence.

Focusing on the grammar of the English verb phrase—tense and aspect, modality, and non-finite constructions—this course is designed to help students solidify and extend their understanding of core areas of English grammar as they transition from the upper-intermediate level to the lower-advanced level (B2 to C1). This transition not only requires a firm grasp of essential structures—those already covered in school but often forgotten or never fully mastered—but also the acquisition of finer grammatical points necessary for achieving 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.

The internship module introduces students of the BA programme Anglophone Stduies to possible careers or fields of activity and their specific requirements. It promotes the applied relevance of the programme and serves as an orientation aid for the transition from study to work within and outside an academic work environment.
This course intends to prepare students for their internships (e.g. formalities, processes). A professional internship may be substituted for a hands-on project in English.

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

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

Registration: Please register with FlexNow.

This course explores key concepts in literature, art, and aesthetic value. It introduces students to foundational questions in aesthetics and the philosophy of literature, while developing their ability to analyze and interpret literary works as forms of art. The course examines both the theory and the practice of literature, as well as the institutional conventions that shape literary reading and criticism.

The aesthetic value of literature will be considered in relation to other kinds of value, including ethical, sociological, and cognitivist approaches. The concepts of genre and medium will also be discussed in order to situate literature in relation to a range of artistic and narrative forms (e.g. horror, science fiction, comics, video games).

Primary materials will include short stories and essays by authors who reflect on the relationship between art and the world.

Welcome! This lecture serves as an introduction to cognitive literary studies (CLS). It addresses the question of how readers process literature through cognitive parameters and mechanisms that are derived from their real-world experiences. More specifically, we will discuss experientiality; the creation of mental models like storyworlds (including top-down and bottom-up processes); knowledge structures (such as frames and scripts); mechanisms of perception (figure vs. ground; primacy and recency effects); processing mechanisms (such as the principle of minimal departure, naturalization, and blending); the worlds of text-world theory; character models; theory of mind; hypothetical intentionalism; storyworld possible selves; as well as important differences between first- and second-generation approaches within cognitive literary studies. At the end of the term, we will move towards empirical literary studies (ELS) to demonstrate that empirical investigations are essential if we want to get a sense of what flesh-and-blood readers do when they process literary texts. Most of the readings will be taken from the new Routledge Companion to Literature and Cognitive Studies (ed. Alber/Schneider, 2026).

This seminar will look at the cultural history of the twentieth century as seen through poetry. We will think about how history is written and what a literary genre like poetry can contribute to historiography. We will use Michael Hulse and Simon Rae’s Anthology The Twentieth Century in Poetry (Pegasus 2011) as the basis of our discussion.

In this class, students are introduced to key poets and poetic forms of modernism. Engaging in close readings and interrogating the aesthetic theory and poetics of modernism, we will trace such trends as sprung rhythm, imagism, symbolism, tradition and modernity etc. A reader with texts will be provided through StudIP at the beginning of term.

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 by using Picture Books. Our focus will be on working with tasks through picture books and 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

Exam period:
Term paper must be handed in until 15th September 2026.

Registration: Flex-Now

This course (Blockveranstaltung) is designed to prepare ICB students for successful internships and future career paths by equipping them with essential practical skills and industry insights. Through a combination of interactive workshops, business simulations, and hands-on projects, students will gain a comprehensive understanding of the challenges, opportunities, and career prospects available to ICB graduates.

The course provides detailed guidance for internship and job applications, covering key aspects such as crafting effective application materials and preparing for interviews. Drawing on business simulation methods, students will develop core employability skills, including communication, teamwork, strategic thinking, business presentation, and visual design.

In addition, the course introduces students to key career fields commonly pursued by ICB graduates, such as marketing, and explores how current digital tools and AI-driven applications can be leveraged to enhance work productivity.

Learning Outcomes:
By the end of this course, students will be able to:
• Understand the challenges, opportunities, and career prospects for ICB graduates.
• Develop effective internship and job application materials.
• Enhance employability skills, including communication, teamwork, and strategic thinking.
• Deliver professional business presentations with strong visual design.
• Identify key career fields and industry trends relevant to ICB graduates.
• Utilize digital tools and AI-driven applications to boost productivity.

Course Requirements:
• Full Attendance: Active participation in all sessions.
• Commitment: Engagement in course activities and discussions.
• Group Project: Contribution to a collaborative project, culminating in a final presentation.

This course offers practical insights and skill-building opportunities to support students in transitioning from academia to the professional world.

Project-oriented learning refers to communicative classroom settings which are enquiry-, discovery-, task- and solution-oriented. It is also associated with authentic ‘real-life’ encounters with English speakers from around the world (oral or written, face-to-face or virtual, etc.). In this seminar, specific attention is given to the central theoretical and practical aspects of conceptualizing and implementing sustainability education in project-oriented EFL settings. Student learning and work in this course will itself be informed by project-based principles, such as the development of differentiated task learning, learning with course-external relevance, task- and project-based assessment, etc. All participants will be required to develop a sustainability project of their choice in teams and present it toward the end of this course.

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.

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

Required Reading:
Readings will be made available in a number of ways (library, the web, StudIP).

Credit:
Ungraded: Active participation, weekly learning logs, forum discussions, knowledge of recommended literature
Graded: in addition to the above, a term paper

Exam Period:
Term paper to be submitted by September 15, 2026.
Exam candidates are advised to submit their term papers by August 15, 2026.

Registration: Flex-Now

This course equips future EFL teachers with foundational AI literacy and hands-on skills in prompt engineering, emphasizing its application in language education. Rooted in professional EFL teaching knowledge, students will learn how to design and refine prompts that align with pedagogical goals, principles, and methodologies, such as communicative language teaching and task-based language learning. A key component involves working with AI tools directly available on the ILIAS learning management system, enabling students to integrate AI seamlessly into their digital teaching environments. Through practical tasks and critical reflection, participants will explore the ethical and legal use of AI, address bias and reliability issues, and develop strategies for effectively prompting AI to support lesson planning and syllabi design, materials and activity development, and assessment and feedback. This course requires you to bring your own device.

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: Regular attendance, active participation in class
Graded: in addition to the above, a term paper

Exam period:
Term paper to be submitted by September 15, 2026.
Exam candidates are advised to submit their term papers by August 15, 2026.

Registration: Flex-Now

The Public Relations Writing course introduces students to the essential skills and responsibilities involved in professional PR communication. The course emphasises key writing principles, including style, content, grammar, spelling, and punctuation, to ensure clarity and precision. Students will learn how to prepare for writing through effective research and persuasive techniques aimed at various audiences. The course will discuss the creation of core public relations materials such as, for example, media kits. Students will also develop the appropriate writing skills for public media such as news releases, as well as for emails, memos, letters, proposals, reports and newsletters. Special attention will be given to writing for digital platforms, including social media content. Finally, students will explore techniques for preparing speeches, focusing on structure and audience engagement.

Reading: Reading material will be made available for download via Stud.IP. The reading is a prerequisite for in-class discussion.

Registration: Please register with FlexNow.

Ungraded credit: Regular attendance, completion of reading assignments, active participation, successful completion of reading quizzes (9/11), successful completion and submission of in-class assignments.

Graded credit: Regular attendance, completion of reading assignments, active participation, successful completion and submission of in-class assignments.

Grade: Successful completion of reading quizzes (9/99) and a face-to-face final exam (90/99).

Exam period: Final exam.

The Public Relations Writing course introduces students to the essential skills and responsibilities involved in professional PR communication. The course emphasises key writing principles, including style, content, grammar, spelling, and punctuation, to ensure clarity and precision. Students will learn how to prepare for writing through effective research and persuasive techniques aimed at various audiences. The course will discuss the creation of core public relations materials such as, for example, media kits. Students will also develop the appropriate writing skills for public media such as news releases, as well as for emails, memos, letters, proposals, reports and newsletters. Special attention will be given to writing for digital platforms, including social media content. Finally, students will explore techniques for preparing speeches, focusing on structure and audience engagement.

Reading: Reading material will be made available for download via Stud.IP. The reading is a prerequisite for in-class discussion.

Registration: Please register with FlexNow.

Ungraded credit: Regular attendance, completion of reading assignments, active participation, successful completion of reading quizzes (9/11), successful completion and submission of in-class assignments.

Graded credit: Regular attendance, completion of reading assignments, active participation, successful completion and submission of in-class assignments.

Grade: Successful completion of reading quizzes (9/99) and a face-to-face final exam (90/99).

Exam period: Final exam.

This course aims to develop students' communicative competence in reading and writing for academic purposes at the C1 level of the CEFR. Through engagement with discipline-specific topics, students will practice decoding primary and secondary sources and articulating their ideas in academic prose that is both formally and functionally appropriate for term papers. Special attention will be given to refining mediation skills (adapting and conveying complex information to suit a specific audience’s needs) and metacognitive skills (monitoring one’s own writing process).

This course aims to develop students’ communicative competence in reading and writing for academic purposes at the C1 level of the CEFR. Through engagement with discipline-specific topics, students will practice decoding primary and secondary sources and articulating their ideas in academic prose that is both formally and functionally appropriate for term papers. Special attention will be given to refining mediation skills (adapting and conveying complex information to suit a specific audience’s needs) and metacognitive skills (monitoring one’s own writing process).

This course aims to develop students’ communicative competence in reading and writing for academic purposes at the C1 level of the CEFR. Through engagement with discipline-specific topics, students will practice decoding primary and secondary sources and articulating their ideas in academic prose that is both formally and functionally appropriate for term papers. Special attention will be given to refining mediation skills (adapting and conveying complex information to suit a specific audience’s needs) and metacognitive skills (monitoring one’s own writing process).

This course offers a comprehensive exploration of qualitative research methods, with a particular focus on their application within intercultural studies. We will begin by introducing the fundamental principles of qualitative research and distinguish it from quantitative methodologies. The course will cover topics such as defining qualitative social research, understanding the relationship between research topics and research questions and conducting effective literature reviews. Students will also engage with various qualitative research methods and examine real-world examples to deepen their understanding of each approach. Through practical exercises, students will gain the skills necessary to design and implement research projects that address intercultural dynamics. This course also provides students with methodological tools to prepare for their BA thesis.

This course will be taught in cooperation with Bonn University and there will be a joint component on the weekend of June 26th/27th, 2026, where students take part in an intensive weekend session / student conference to be held in Bonn. Workload will be compensated but anyone taking part in this course should be prepared to possibly speak at the conference and take part in the conference in Bonn.

We will focus on ways in which Shakespeare engages with and reinvents dramatic genre and discuss how genre theory has become relevant to the study of Shakespearean drama and theatre. Students are asked to buy and read The Merchant of Venice and The Tempest (Arden edition recommended), a supplementary selection of texts and the syllabus will be made available through StudIP at the beginning of term.

Help your pupils dive into the world of short stories! Authentic literary texts can enrich with their broad potential the EFL lesson in various ways. By strongly engaging the personal-affective dimension of the learner, they foster linguistic-communicative, intercultural as well as literary competences. In this course, we want to explore this potential by focusing on a literary genre which could appeal to learners of all groups as well by examining the didactic-methodological principles of narrative literature in foreign language teaching and learning. Besides providing practical strategies for classroom implementation and motivating examples with suitable text types for learners at different levels, we will also be working with our own selected Anglophone literary texts for which we will design tasks and activities accordingly.

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, microteaching presentation; term paper

Exam period:
Term paper must be handed in until 15th September 2026.

Registration: Flex-Now

No final exam; ungraded credit only.

Building on Speaking and Listening I, this course aims to develop students’ communicative competence in speaking and listening for academic purposes at the C1 level of the CEFR. Engaging with discipline-specific topics in cultural studies, literary criticism, education, and/or linguistics, students will continue to practice decoding aural input and effectively communicating ideas orally in an academic setting.

This advanced-level course focuses on orally mediating information from complex academic sources—both spoken and written—with a strong emphasis on audience orientation. To achieve this, special attention will be given to features of complex oral texts that facilitate aural comprehension, including register and style, coherence and cohesion, introductions, and the explication of textual support.

Building on Speaking and Listening I, this course aims to develop students’ communicative competence in speaking and listening for academic purposes at the C1 level of the CEFR. Engaging with discipline-specific topics in cultural studies, literary criticism, education, and/or linguistics, students will continue to practice decoding aural input and effectively communicating ideas orally in an academic setting.

This advanced-level course focuses on orally mediating information from complex academic sources—both spoken and written—with a strong emphasis on audience orientation. To achieve this, special attention will be given to features of complex oral texts that facilitate aural comprehension, including register and style, coherence and cohesion, introductions, and the explication of textual support.

Building on Speaking and Listening I, this course aims to develop students’ communicative competence in speaking and listening for academic purposes at the C1 level of the CEFR. Engaging with discipline-specific topics in cultural studies, literary criticism, education, and/or linguistics, students will continue to practice decoding aural input and effectively communicating ideas orally in an academic setting.

This advanced-level course focuses on orally mediating information from complex academic sources—both spoken and written—with a strong emphasis on audience orientation. To achieve this, special attention will be given to features of complex oral texts that facilitate aural comprehension, including register and style, coherence and cohesion, introductions, and the explication of textual support.

War and trauma have profoundly shaped – and continue to shape – human history and experience. From early conflicts and the world wars of the twentieth century to contemporary and even imagined future conflicts, literature repeatedly returns to questions of violence, injustice, and displacement. This seminar explores how such narratives can be used as valuable resources in peace education, human rights education, and global citizenship education within the EFLC.
Drawing upon a diverse range of texts and visual media – from personal memoirs to novels, poetry, and film – students will critically examine representations of war and its aftermath across different historical and cultural contexts. Particular attention will be paid to how these narratives articulate the lived experiences of trauma, loss, resilience, and resistance. By connecting literary and media analysis with classroom practice, students will develop strategies for using such texts to foster empathy and support peacebuilding, ultimately contributing to the education of globally conscious, critically minded, and socially responsible language learners.
This seminar requires a high level of commitment to extensive and close reading.

Prerequisites
Teacher Education Programme: Successful completion of module TEFL I.

Required Reading
A comprehensive course bibliography will be provided via Ilias.

Credit
Ungraded: regular attendance, active participation, and familiarity with the recommended literature
Graded: in addition to the above, submission of a term paper

Exam Period
Term paper submission deadline: 15 September 2026

Registration
Flexnow

“Once upon a time…” and children’s eyes widen instantly! Discover how to bring narrative to life in your teaching practice. In this course, we want to explore the potential of storytelling as a pedagogical tool to foster foreign language learning among young learners. By focusing on a narrative expression which children are very fond of, we will examine key aspects of storytelling, evaluate various storybooks, as well as explore methodological approaches for incorporating these texts into EFL primary school lessons. In addition to providing practical strategies for classroom implementation, we will work with our own selected Anglophone storybooks for which we will plan teaching sequences and design tasks accordingly.

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, microteaching presentation; term paper

Exam period:
Term paper must be handed in until 15th September 2026.

Registration: Flex-Now

Syntax is the part of grammar which deals with the ways words are combined into sentences. We will first look at some key concepts in syntax from a structuralist perspective, starting with smaller syntactic units such as the word and the notion of different word classes. Phrases are another key concept syntactically superordinate to words, which function as constituents in clauses. In this context, it will be of pivotal importance to keep the dichotomy of form and function in mind. Apart from analysing different types of clauses (and sentences) and different ways of ordering elements in a clause (and a sentence), we will also examine the semantic roles of clause elements to discover the close connection between syntax and meaning. We will then briefly look into other approaches to syntax (valency grammar, functional sentence perspective, generative grammar), before we explore syntactic variation in selected varieties of English and the differences between spoken and written grammars.

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

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

Registration: Please register with FlexNow.

Ungraded credit: Regular attendance, completion of reading and homework assignments and active participation in class.
Graded credit: In addition to the above, a final exam or a term paper.

Exam period: Final exam on 15 July 2026; deadline for term paper submission: 15 September 2026.

The study of culture and intercultural communication remains a cornerstone of English as a foreign language (EFL) pedagogy. Over the semester, the seminar will examine how Indian culture is portrayed in English language course books, analyzing this representation as part of the broader field of world Englishes and its impact on contemporary EFL classrooms. By engaging with literary texts (both print and audio visual), expository writings, authentic cultural artefacts, and textbook materials, participants will collaboratively design, structure, and critically evaluate teaching units and lessons that integrate literary, cultural, and linguistic objectives.

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

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

Credit:
Ungraded: Regular attendance, active participation, a short teaching proposal
Graded: Regular attendance, active participation, a short teaching proposal, term paper

Exam period:
Term paper must be handed in until 15th September 2026.

Registration: FlexNow

The seminar aims to establish a comprehensive didactic and methodological framework for teaching young learners in primary schools. Throughout the semester participants will investigate how learner contributions influence language acquisition, explore child centered pedagogical approaches, and assess both topical content and appropriate teaching materials for English instruction. We will critically evaluate commercial resources, and engage in the planning, structuring, and reflective analysis of lesson units designed for beginner learners in the EFLC.

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

Exam period:
Term paper must be handed in until 15th September 2026.

Registration: Flex-Now

: ICC is one of the key competencies in modern EFL classes. In this course we will examine aspects of teaching ICC for different anglophone countries and their cultures, such as the UK and the Republic of Ireland, the U.S.A., Canada, Australia and New Zealand as well as South Africa and India and work out the crucial aspects the learners need to acquire. This course focuses on teaching ICC by using films in the EFLC. Students will create readers including teaching material and essential information which they will be able to use in their subsequent teaching career, and explore the possibilities of including other skills as well by planning relevant and motivating tasks for the EFLC.

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

Exam period:
Term paper must be handed in until 15th September 2026.

Registration: Flex-Now

Welcome! This class deals with the metafictional or self-reflexive prose narratives of the latter half of the twentieth century. On the one hand, we will discuss definitions of and theoretical approaches to postmodernism, and on the other hand, we will look at representative examples of postmodern prose. More specifically, we discuss novels and short stories by Martin Amis, Robert Coover, John Fowles, Gabriel Josipovici, and Philip Roth, and discuss ways of making sense of them.

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

Exam period:
Term paper must be handed in until 15th September 2026.

Registration: Flex-Now

This course addresses the definitional questions and political status of utopianism and science fiction in the particular example of solarpunk, a genre of speculative fiction that focuses on possible, positive futures and is explicitly positioned against apocalyptic, dystopian, and doomsaying visions. The solarpunk aesthetic, if there is one, draws on afroturism and other approaches to science fictionality to explore sustainable and progressive possibilities. In this course, we will read 21st-century utopian and solarpunk fictions and films, and engage in world-building and creative writing activities to explore our own visions of a hopeful present and future.

World Englishes encapsulate first- and second-language varieties such as regional varieties in Africa, America, Asia, Australia, the Southern Pacific and various other places. Asian Englishes are generally divided into two geographical subgroups, i.e. South Asian Englishes and Southeast Asian Englishes. The South Asian Sprachraum comprising Bangladesh, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka constitutes a particularly intriguing case in the study of World Englishes since the respective regional varieties of English develop in linguistically complex contact scenarios with e.g. indigenous languages, but also the common core of English (cf. Quirk et al. 1985: 16). In a similar vein, language contact is also characteristic of and a driving factor behind the emergence of structurally distinct Southeast Asian Englishes (e.g. Hong Kong English, Malaysian English, Singapore English). America, Australian and South Pacific Englishes as well as others can be differentiated from Asian Englishes by the higher share of first-language users in the regions concerned while the influence of other (formerly local) languages on the respective varieties of English should not be underestimated.

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

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

Registration: Please register with FlexNow.

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

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

Exam period: Final exam on 16 July 2026; deadline for term paper submission: 15 September 2026.

In this course we will explore different English varieties of the Caribbean. After a brief historical overview on how English came to be spoken in the region, we will zoom in and analyze the structural peculiarities of Caribbean English(es). We will focus on both standard and non-standard varieties. By means of small group presentations, we will get to know the different countries and their Englishes. Additional aspects such as language attitudes or language education policies in the Caribbean will be discussed as well.

Ungraded: regular attendance, assigned readings, active participation in discussions, assignments, presentation.
Graded: final exam on July 13th, 2026.

We organize our lives with a framework of rules, regulations, and norms that shapes interactions between and among people and nations. We also organize our lives through narrative—using stories to shape and understand our actual experiences. The legal system and literary expression are both experienced through language. Law is expressed in language, which is also the primary tool for enforcing law’s authority. Literary texts, similarly, are framed through language, and can even challenge the legal system by exploring boundaries of convention—banned books are both literary and legal artifacts. This course surveys the broad field of law and literature, largely through Anglo-American common law, via canonical texts presenting problems in jurisprudence and moral philosophy. The course begins with a slow reading and viewing of Aeschylus’s Oresteia, before looking at two exemplars of law-in-literature and law-in-film: “Billy Budd” and Rashomon.

This course will deal with concepts und representations of genealogy, identites and chosen families in British and American literature and culture, including William Shakespeare's "Richard the Third", Lynn Nottage's "Intimate Apparel" and Armistead Maupin's "Tales of the City".

The overarching topic of this course is (skeletal) muscle with some of its characteristics and properties that are of interest in biomechanics. In this context, we will also deal with lever arms, moments of force, and free body diagrams. Time-permitting, we will also look into muscle modelling.

In this three-hour class, we will not cover everything there is to know about the cognitive neuroscience of action in one semester. Cognitive neuroscience is a wide and diverse field that is carried by many disciplines from biology, psychology, physics, computer science, engineering, mathematics, philosophy and more. The goal is not to be exhaustive (and exhausting!) in what is covered, but to convey some basic background and more in-depth knowledge about a few specific topics to illustrate the fascination and creativity in the scientific study of cognitive neuroscience of action. Cognitive neuroscience uses a range of methods to probe the processes underlying our ability to perceive and act in an highly dynamic and ever-changing environment. After having briefly reviewed the key players on the field with their respective strengths and weaknesses, you will learn about various cortical and subcortical parts of the brain that have been implicated in the control of goal-directed action and explore a variety of topics such as ethological action maps, mirror neurons, sensorimotor learning and the perception-action-cycle. You will have the opportunity to hone your presentation skills in poster sessions and oral presentations of research findings as well as practice your argumentative skills in lots of small-group work.

In der Vorlesung „Spezifische Messverfahren“ erwerben die Studierenden grundlegende Kenntnisse über die in der biomechanisch-motorikwissenschaftlich ausgerichteten Bewegungsanalyse verwendeten Messverfahren. Besprochen werden (i) Messverfahren zur Erfassung von äußeren Kräften, Druckverteilungen und Beschleunigungen, (ii) optische Messverfahren (2D, 3D) zur Erfassung von Bewegungstrajektorien und kinematischer Parameter, (iii) Grundlagen der Oberflächen-Elektromyographie (Erfassung und Analyse von Muskelaktivitäten bei unterschiedlichen Bewegungsaufgaben) sowie (iv) Zeitmessverfahren zur Erfassung von Reaktions- und Bewegungszeiten.

Basic statistical knowledge will be extended and transferred to the analysis of movement related data. Specific requirements of such data sets will be elaborated. Matlab programs are used to deepen the understanding of the core concepts and to illustrate their practical application. Lecture and seminar on specific data analyses will be tightly coupled. The final modul exam requires the development of an analytical tool for a selected data set.

The general theme of this seminar is like the one of the associated lecture [in short: (skeletal) muscle with some of its characteristics and properties; lever arms, moments of force, and free body diagrams; time-permitting, muscle modelling]. However, the seminar has a more applied approach, with free body diagram problems, working with scientific papers, or hands-on time in the laboratory.

Im Seminar „Spezifische Messverfahren“ werden grundlegende und aktuelle Studien zu bewegungswissenschaftlichen Fragestellungen aus messtechnischer und messmethodischer Perspektive besprochen. Die Studierenden bereiten hierzu in Kleingruppen relevante Studien auf und stellen diese vor.

Basic statistical knowledge will be extended and transferred to the analysis of movement related data. Specific requirements of such data sets will be elaborated. Matlab programs are used to deepen the understanding of the core concepts and to illustrate their practical application. Lecture and seminar on specific data analyses will be tightly coupled. The final modul exam requires the development of an analytical tool for a selected data set.

Verbindliche Anmeldung zur Veranstaltung erst nach Teilnahme an der online Informationsveranstaltung für alle Interessenten am 14.04.2026 von 17:00 bis 18:00 Uhr; Link erfolgt in StudIP unter Ankündigungen

max. 3 Teilnehmer*innen, auf Englisch; voraussichtliche Durchführung der Fahrt: 09/2026
Achtung: Tropentauglichkeit zwingend erforderlich. Die Veranstaltung findet auf Unguja, Sansibar statt. Eigenverantwortung für Impfungen und Versicherungen. Gegebenenfalls kann ein Teil der Reisekosten übernommen werden. Studierende des 6. Semesters müssen vorab mit ihrer Stelle für das kleine Praktikum klären, ob die betroffenen Praktikumstage nachgearbeitet werden können.