Teaching

Courses Winter Semester 2023/24

Previous Courses

Seminar

Tuesday: 12-14 h

Place: Nora-Platiel-Str. 9 - Room 0402

Start: October 24, 2023

Assignments: BA HF Module 4; BA NF Module Module 3; L3 & L2 (2019) Module 5; L2 & L3 (2010, 2014, 2023) Module 6

The seminar deals with the relationship between capitalism, the scientific exploration of nature in relation to the modern history of science, and the relationship between humans and nature from the perspective of environmental and animal history. The seminar examines the change in the understanding of nature and the relationship to nature in Europe with a focus on the 19th century. The focus will not least be on the historical role of science in the relationship between humans and nature and how it continues to shape the discourse on the environmental crisis today. We will have the opportunity to reflect on the influence of both knowledge production and capitalism on the relationship to nature. They will thus have the opportunity to deepen their historical knowledge of social relations to nature in the context of the history of knowledge and capitalism.

Learning content:

  • Environmental and scientific history of Europe
  • History of capitalism
  • History of modern human-nature relations
  • History of the environmental crisis and discourse
  • Agricultural, forestry and energy history of the 19th century

Excursion seminar

Wednesday bi-weekly: 12-14 h (Dates: 1.11., 8.11. 22.11., 6.12., 20.12., 10.1., 24.1. and 7.2. plus 2-day excursion to the Senckenberg Museum Frankfurt a.M.)

Location: Campus Center - Room 1111 / Seminar room 2

Start: November 1, 2023

Assignments: BA HF Module 6; L3 & L2 (2019) Module 5; L2 & L3 (2010, 2014, 2023) Module 6

Animals are omnipresent in human societies - from our houses and apartments to our fields and cities to our supermarkets, cinemas and bookstores. This raises the question of what role they play in human history and what history these relationships have. Questions of this kind have been asked since the 1970s in the research fields of human-animal studies and animal history. Since then, this field of research has become firmly established in the academic landscape. On the one hand, animal history in particular is concerned with researching the history of the representation of animals in art, media and literature, as well as the question of the cultural and symbolic significance of animals. On the other hand, it is also about the question of how animals influence human history through their presence and their own actions; in human-animal studies, this is referred to as the agency of animals in human societies. The topics covered range from the role of animals and images of animals in systems of thought and the history of ideas in Western societies to interactions between humans and animals and studies of animal-related practices and the treatment of animals in various social fields such as science, economics and agriculture.

The seminar will introduce you to human-animal studies with a focus on the historical dimension of the role of animals in human societies. We will deal with the concept of animal history and debate how the so-called animal turn described above has been reflected in historical studies. Topics that will be discussed in the seminar range from theoretical conceptions of animal-human approaches, to the historical agency and power of animals, to the methodological-applied implementation of the research program of Human-Animal Studies. The seminar offers you the opportunity to get to know a new field of historical science that can be profitably applied in a wide variety of professional contexts and, last but not least, also establishes central references to ecological sustainability discourses. The aim of the seminar is to recapitulate and apply fundamental aspects of human-animal studies and animal history. Participants should also be able to recognize the relevance of theoretical concepts for historiography.

Learning content:

  • Human-Animal Studies and animal history as a new interdisciplinary field of research
  • Methods of animal history
  • History of human-animal relationships and historical representation of animals
  • Natural history museum as a (animal) historical site

Seminar

Monday: 4-6 p.m.

Location: Campus Center - Room 1110 / Seminar room 1

Start: October 23, 2023

Assignments: MA History and the Public Module A3; L3 (2010) Module 8; L3 (2019) Module 6; L3 (2023) Module 7

Darwin revolutionized the theory of evolution in the 19th century. His approach quickly gained general scientific recognition. In public, however, his work was discussed with a high degree of skepticism and sometimes open derision, particularly with regard to evolutionary descent from apes and thus the history of mankind. This is particularly evident in a famous caricature from 1871, in which Darwin's head is depicted on the body of an orangutan. Darwin thus represents an exciting case for a historical examination of the relationship between knowledge production and the public sphere. Parallels with today's climate debate and the denial of man-made global warming become clear, illustrating the current relevance of this relationship.

In the seminar, we will examine the relationship between science and the public and how they deal with history using the example of the public debate about Darwin. We will have the opportunity to reflect on history and the relationship between science and the public in general as well as to gain insights into this relationship in Europe in the long 19th century. In addition, we will deepen historical approaches and the knowledge-historical reappraisal of public discourse and the role of knowledge production in the public sphere. The seminar will thus enable you to get to know both the relationship between knowledge production and the public sphere historically and the history of knowledge as a historical sub-discipline, as well as to deepen your historical understanding of the public sphere in the 19th century.

Course content:

  • History of the representation and negotiation of science and history in the public sphere in Europe in the long 19th century, as well as the case of Darwin as a prominent example of this relationship
  • Deepening the methodology of the history of knowledge, e.g. public sources as an approach to the history of science

History of knowledge as a sub-discipline of history

Seminar

Tuesdays: 4-6 p.m.

Room: Nora-Platiel-Str. 1 - Room 1311

Start: October 24, 2023

Modules: MA History and the Public Sphere Module A2; MA Agriculture, Ecology & Societies; L3 (2010) Module 8; L3 (2019) Module 6; L3 (2023) Module 7

Humans today shape the planet on a geological scale. Indeed, the human impact on the environment is larger than all nonhuman forces in nature combined. To recognize this influence, scholars argue that we are living in a new epoch: the Human Age, or Anthropocene. The idea has been immensely popular yet equally controversial. Various starting points have been suggested for the epoch, from the neolithic revolution over the European discovery of the Americas, and the industrial revolution to the detonation of the first atomic bomb. Critics have pointed out how each prioritizes a different narrative of responsibility for the environmental crisis. Others have rejected the concept completely for its colonial overtones that hides the responsibility of some by creating a vision of a coherent humanity.

In the course, we will explore the Anthropocene through the different proposals for its beginning and ask for their consequences for environmental justice. You will gain an understanding of three concepts central to current debates in the environmental humanities and history: the "Anthropocene", "deep history" and "environmental justice". We will consider these concepts in how they intersect social, environmental, scientific and historical dimensions of the current environmental crisis. Therein, we will have equal opportunity to consider questions of justice among human societies and cultures as in relation to nonhumans and the environment as such. The relevance of this is not only theoretical, but also practical, as environmental justice is not just a question of equal representation but negotiating differing responsibilities. In the context of your studies, the course contributes to gain a better understanding of the social and historical dimensions of our current environmental challenges as well as of potential responses to the crisis.

Learning goals:

  • introduces ideas and discourses of the "Anthropocene", "deep history", and "environmental justice"
  • theories of historical periodization in relation to environmental justice and the Anthropocene
  • history of human-nature relations in relation to transformations of nature
  • environmental and animal history

Project seminar

History for MA and teaching degree Gymnasium

English studies/English for BA, MA and grammar school teaching degree

Modules "Digital History" and "Power and Domination"

In this seminar, we will work together to create a virtual exhibition on protest cultures on the internet platform omeka.net. You will collect sources and exhibits yourself, learn to catalog them and develop the exhibition based on the resulting collection. You will work in small groups to create sections of the exhibition, write exhibition texts and implement the presentation of the exhibition.

We will deal with questions of exhibition design as well as representation - in other words, we will ask what the exhibits you have collected represent and what it means that they "represent" something, as well as reflect on the challenge of how to ensure adequate representation of the actors in your own representation of the topic in the exhibition. Last but not least, the aim will also be to develop a common understanding of protest cultures and to consider how a phenomenon as vague as protest can be exhibited.

Learning content:

  • Critical communication of historical knowledge on the internet, using the example of creating a virtual exhibition on protest cultures
  • Creating collections
  • Designing exhibitions and exhibition texts
  • Getting to know protest as a cultural-historical phenomenon
  • Learning to theoretically understand and reflect on representation and discourse as well as their implementation in the field of history

Seminar

History for BA, secondary school and grammar school teaching degree
Module "Europe"

The course will introduce the significance and emergence of the concept of the Anthropocene from a historical perspective and place it in the environmental history of the 20th and 21st centuries. We will approach the Anthropocene from a non-European perspective and will examine both the scientific literature and popular cultural texts on the Anthropocene.

The term Anthropocene was proposed in 2000 by the chemist Paul Crutzen and the biologist Eugene Stoermer as a new geological epoch into which the Earth had entered. Since then, the term has become enormously popular beyond the scientific community, for example in the album "Miss Anthropocene" by the musician Grimes or the song "Anthrocene" by the band Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds. As the "age of man", however, it blurs the boundaries between human social history and the history of nature, which raises the question of what the Anthropocene actually is (natural or social history), as well as which history is written in the Anthropocene and how.

Learning content:

  • Develop an understanding of the concept of the Anthropocene and the controversies based on its history,
  • learn to categorize the term historically and intellectually,
  • get to know non-European perspectives on the Anthropocene,
  • and examine what an examination of history in the Anthropocene can or should look like.

Last but not least, you will also be asked whether and how you yourself perceive the Anthropocene historically.

Seminar

History for BA, teaching degree Hauptschule, Realschule and Gymnasium

Module "Non-Europe"

The seminar examines the interactions between the natural sciences, colonialism and the appropriation of nature using the example of the colonization history of Aotearoa New Zealand.

The scientific exploration, identification and mapping of natural areas and their resources was closely linked to the colonial appropriation and exploitation of overseas territories. At the same time, the scientific description of the territories itself represented a colonization of local knowledge.

Aotearoa emerged as a territory relatively late in the history of European colonization. Due to its geographical location, it played a peripheral role in the colonial economy. This did not change until the middle of the 19th century, partly due to the invention of refrigerated ships. Before that, it was mainly important as a base for Pacific whaling.

Due to these specific characteristics and a highly idiosyncratic flora and fauna, the integration of natural sciences as well as cultural, social, colonial and scientific tensions in the appropriation of nature are more evident than elsewhere. These continue to have an impact today, so that the colonization history of Aotearoa also lends itself to discussing controversies in the debate about justice and responsibility in the context of current environmental destruction.

In the seminar, we will examine the role of science in the appropriation and exploitation of natural and cultural spaces on the one hand, and on the other, we will bring to light new perspectives on our current environmental debate.

 

Literature examples:

  • Annie Potts, Philip Armstrong, Deidre Brown: A New Zealand Book of Beasts: Animals in our Culture, History and Everyday Life. New York 2013.
  • Harriet Ritvo: The Platypus and the Mermaid and Other Figments of the Classifying Imagination. Cambridge, MA 1998.
  • Ulrike Kirchberger and Brett M. Bennett (eds.): Environments and Empire: Networks and Agents of Ecological Change. Chapel Hill, IL 2020.
  • Geoffrey W. Rice (ed.): The Oxford History of New Zealand. Auckland 1992.

Seminar

History for MA and grammar school teaching degree

Modules "Cultural practices and discourses" and "History and the public sphere"

How can a history, or even history itself, be constructed from the factual findings of an empirical historical science? Is this even possible? Or is it worth striving for? And what could be the benefit of reflecting on such questions?

These questions will be discussed in the seminar. We will look at specific approaches to the theory of history, from Hegel's universal history and the positions of Walter Benjamin and Theodor W. Adorno to Hayden White and Susan Buck-Morss. These positions serve as points of reflection to discuss what history is or could be and what challenges arise for the writing and communication of history. You will thus receive an introduction to the history of debates about the meaning of history and become familiar with individual references in historical theory.

The focus of the course is on the relationship between general tendency and individual event, which today arises in particular in questions about the relationship between nature and history or societies. Does history concern the history of man, or is it always already a common history of man and nature, and what about the commonality of the history of different human groups? In other words, can history be reduced to individual events and disparate narratives, or do we also need common historical narratives, especially in times of problems such as climate change, which seems to affect us all?

 

Literature examples:

  • Susan Buck-Morss: Hegel and Haiti: For a new universal history. Berlin 2011.
  • Hayden White: Klio dichtet auch oder die Fiktion des Faktischen: Studien zur Tropologie des historischen Diskurses. Stuttgart 1986.
  • Stefan Haas: "Theoriemodelle der Zeitgeschichte", Version: 2.0, in: Docupedia-Zeitgeschichte, 22.10.2012, http://docupedia.de/zg/haas_theoriemodelle_v2_de_2012

Seminar

History for MA and secondary school teaching degree; Sociology for MA

Modules "Power and Domination" and "Social Theory and Social Change"

The book A Thousand Plateaus by Giles Deleuze and Félix Guattari is one of the most dazzling works of the second half of the twentieth century, as influential as it is controversial. It is considered a key work of postmodernism, a theoretical current that dominated cultural analysis in the second half of the twentieth century. Yet there is hardly anyone who could tell you what the book is actually about. However, the critical theorist Fredric Jameson emphasizes that Deleuze and Guattari, in contrast to the structuralism of the 20th century, have brought the dynamics of history back into the analysis of late modern cultures.

It always seems appropriate to form one's own impression of a work before following its critics or apologists - especially as it is widely agreed that a thousand plateaus cannot be reduced to a formula. A summary of the work is generally considered impossible. In the seminar, we will therefore read Thousand Plateaus together and try to make sense of the work. In doing so, we will reflect in particular on questions of the quality of history in late modern, late capitalist societies and the analysis of history in A Thousand Plateaus. In addition to the book itself, reading the book will allow us to address the contemporary and ambiguous concepts of postmodernism and questions about the linearity of history. Selected texts will support our discussion. However, we will mainly read the book itself step by step.

 

Literature examples:

  • Gilles Deleuze, Félix Guattari: A Thousand Plateaus. Capitalism and Schizophrenia. Berlin 1992.

Seminar

History for BA, teaching degree Hauptschule, Realschule and Gymnasium

Module "Advanced module Europe" and "Basic module Modern Times"

The period of the European Enlightenment is understood as an era of upheaval. Central to this was a change in the human relationship to and understanding of nature. This reassessment continues to have an impact today in the debates on climate change and the Anthropocene. But what is this nature? Is it different from human culture? Are humans part of nature? And is there such a thing as nature at all? The answers to these questions were renegotiated in the early modern period.

The course traces the upheavals in the conceptions of nature that took place in Europe roughly between 1600 and 1800 in order to give this discourse more depth. To make the debate more tangible, we will focus on animals as specific representatives of nature, as well as the changes in the understanding of science that accompanied the Enlightenment and how they manifested themselves in the example of animals. This will give you an insight into the roots of today's discussions about nature as well as the opportunity to critically classify the Enlightenment. We will deliberately take a Europe-wide view.

Seminar content:

  • The Enlightenment in Europe with a focus on nature
  • History of the understanding of nature and relationships to nature
  • European scientific networks of the early modern period

 

Literature examples:

  • Karen Gloy: The understanding of nature. Munich: 1995-1996.
  • Carolyn Merchant: The Death of Nature. Munich: 1987.
  • Markus Wild. The anthropological difference. The spirit of animals in the early modern period in Montaigne, Descartes and Hume. Berlin: 2006.

Seminar

Philosophy for BA and MA and grammar school teaching degree

Modules "In-depth theoretical philosophy" and "Philosophy of science"

While there was talk of a crisis of materialism in the wake of the demise of real existing socialism, a new materialism has been making the rounds for some time now. Its proponents emphasize that the new materialism is fundamentally different from its predecessors.

The course will introduce the positions of New Materialism and its philosophical siblings Object-Oriented Ontology and Speculative Realism and ask how it relates to the materialism of old distinction. On the one hand, the aim will be to discuss the extent to which New Materialism represents a delimitable philosophical position or perhaps rather a field of discourse, and on the other hand to reflect on its historical-social relevance and localization.

The authors likely to be discussed are Karen Barad, Christine Bauhardt, Rosie Braidotti, Jane Bennett, Elizabeth Grosz, Stacy Alaimo, Diana Coole, Tony Bennett, Timothy Morton and Graham Harman. On the side of old materialism, we will pay particular attention to Walter Benjamin, who is both a keyword giver and an object of demarcation for new materialism.

 

Literature examples:

Student organized lecture series

Open for the Environmental Knowledge Certificate of the Graduate Center for Environmental Research

http://www.verhältnisseverstehen.de

Do we really see animals for what they are or is our view clouded by tradition and culture? Why is the almost limitless violence against "farm animals" tolerated and "pets" ostracized? What treatment and protection do we owe to living creatures that cannot stand up for their own needs and are completely at the mercy of human interests?

Human-animal relationships are characterized by seemingly irresolvable contradictions. However, they are not rigid and natural, but have evolved historically and are subject to constant change. Therefore, research on animals must not stop at their usability or their behavior. In order to have a lasting positive influence on our relationship, the human-animal relationship must be seen and understood as a culturally evolved phenomenon, together with its social, historical and political dimensions.

This lecture series deals with current issues relating to the treatment of animals on a societal level. Let yourself be excited and surprised by refreshing ideas from animal ethics and human-animal studies, spiced up with insights from philosophy, psychology and sociology.

Project seminar

History for MA and teaching degree Gymnasium

English studies/English for BA, MA and grammar school teaching degree

Modules "Digital history" and "Power and rule"

Octopuses are currently all the rage. A precursor to this fascination can already be found in 19th century Britain. While the animals functioned as an attraction back then to lure visitors to the newly established public aquariums, today they primarily stand for an encounter with a non-human consciousness. The enthusiasm for octopuses is reflected in a wide variety of ways. In addition to films, art and science, new cultures of representation have developed that have discovered the eight-armed creatures for themselves.

The aim of the seminar is to prepare these different forms of representation visually and textually for a wide audience within the framework of a virtual exhibition. Through your own research activities, you will develop a more precise understanding of cultures of representation and document the various representations of octopuses from a historical perspective with meaningful materials. In addition, we will address mechanisms of power in the communication of history and the responsible handling of this role by historians.

The exhibition you create during the seminar will be integrated into an existing research project on the aesthetics of octopuses. This will give you the opportunity to participate in ongoing research processes.

 

Literature examples:

  • Richard Schweid: Octopus. London 2014
  • Sharon MacDonald (ed.): The Politics of Display: Museums, Science, Culture. London 2006
  • Stefanie Samida: "Reflections on the Concept and Function of the 'Virtual Museum': The Archaeological Museum on the Internet", Muesologie Online 4 (2002), pp. 1-58.(http://www.historisches-centrum.de/m-online/02/01.pdf)

https://www.europeana.eu/portal/en/exhibitions/the-first-world-war-places-of-transit#ve-anchor-intro_5662-js

First year introductory course in history

History for BA

Module "Introduction to History - Modern History"

Animals are omnipresent in history books. For a long time, however, they were regarded as extras or material objects in a history made exclusively by humans that had no significant influence on the historical development of societies. This passive position of animals has been questioned for some time and instead the role of animals and the relationships between humans and animals in and for history has been explicitly brought into focus. According to this view, historical developments are inconceivable without animals. They are thus ascribed a significant role in history. This new branch of historical research is described as animal history. However, this raises a number of questions. Where does the discovery of animals as historical actors come from? What exactly is animal history? Can animals actively influence history at all? How can an animal history be written? What do we gain or lose with animal history?

The seminar builds on these questions. We will trace the origins of animal history, discuss the theoretical foundations and some of the methodological challenges of investigating and presenting animal history, and look at various examples of concrete animal historiography. You will thus become familiar with a new and highly topical research approach in the historical sciences. In addition, the seminar will enable you to get to know and practise scientific work and presentation using the concrete example of animal history.

 

Literature examples:

  • John Berger: "Why do we look at animals?" In Ders, The Life of Images or the Art of Seeing. Berlin 2003, pp. 12-35.
  • Harriet Ritvo: The Platypus and the Mermaid, and Other Figments of the Classification. Cambridge, MA 1997.
  • Gesine Krüger, Aline Steinbrecher, Clemens Wischermann (eds.): Animals and History. Contours of an Animate History. Stuttgart 2014.
  • Keith Thomas: Man and the Natural World. Changing Attitudes in England 1500-1800. London 1983.

Exhibition "History According to Cattle ": http://www.gustafssonhaapoja.org/museum-of-the-history-of-cattle/

Seminar

History for MA and grammar school teaching degree

Modules "Cultural practices and discourses" and "History and the public sphere"

How can a history, or even history itself, be constructed from the factual findings of an empirical historical science? Is this even possible? Or is it worth striving for? And what could be the benefit of reflecting on such questions?

These questions will be discussed in the seminar. We will look at specific approaches to the theory of history, from Hegel's universal history and the positions of Walter Benjamin and Theodor W. Adorno to Hayden White and Susan Buck-Morss. These positions serve as points of reflection to discuss what history is or could be and what challenges arise for the writing and communication of history. You will thus receive an introduction to the history of debates about the meaning of history and become familiar with individual references in historical theory.

The focus of the course is on the relationship between general tendency and individual event, which today arises in particular in questions about the relationship between nature and history or societies. Does history concern the history of man, or is it always already a common history of man and nature, and what about the commonality of the history of different human groups? In other words, can history be reduced to individual events and disparate narratives, or do we also need common historical narratives, especially in times of problems such as climate change, which seems to affect us all?

 

Literature examples:

  • Susan Buck-Morss: Hegel and Haiti: For a new universal history. Berlin 2011.
  • Hayden White: Klio dichtet auch oder die Fiktion des Faktischen: Studien zur Tropologie des historischen Diskurses. Stuttgart 1986.
  • Stefan Haas: "Theoriemodelle der Zeitgeschichte", Version: 2.0, in: Docupedia-Zeitgeschichte, 22.10.2012, http://docupedia.de/zg/haas_theoriemodelle_v2_de_2012

First year introductory course in history

History for BA

Module "Introduction to History - History of the Modern Era"

Animals are omnipresent in history books. For a long time, however, they were regarded as extras or material objects in an exclusively man-made history that had no significant influence on the historical development of societies. This passive position of animals has been questioned for some time and instead the role of animals and the relationships between humans and animals in and for history has been explicitly brought into focus. According to this view, historical developments are inconceivable without animals. They are thus ascribed a significant role in history. This new branch of historical research is described as animal history. However, this raises a number of questions. Where does the discovery of animals as historical actors come from? What exactly is animal history? Can animals actively influence history at all? How can an animal history be written? What do we gain or lose with animal history?

The seminar builds on these questions. We will trace the origins of animal history, discuss the theoretical foundations and some of the methodological challenges of investigating and presenting animal history, and look at various examples of concrete animal historiography. You will thus become familiar with a new and highly topical research approach in the historical sciences. In addition, the seminar will enable you to get to know and practise scientific work and presentation using the concrete example of animal history.

 

Literature examples:

  • John Berger: "Why do we look at animals?" In Ders, The Life of Images or the Art of Seeing. Berlin 2003, pp. 12-35.
  • Harriet Ritvo: The Platypus and the Mermaid, and Other Figments of the Classification. Cambridge, MA 1997.
  • Gesine Krüger, Aline Steinbrecher, Clemens Wischermann (eds.): Animals and History. Contours of an Animate History. Stuttgart 2014.
  • Keith Thomas: Man and the Natural World. Changing Attitudes in England 1500-1800. London 1983.

Exhibition "History According to Cattle ": http://www.gustafssonhaapoja.org/museum-of-the-history-of-cattle/

Reading seminar

History for MA and grammar school teachers

Philosophy for MA

Modules "Theory and Practice" and "Historical Forms and Cultures of Knowledge"

Since their creation, Darwin's works have hardly lost any of their topicality and political explosiveness. In the USA, there is a dispute about the inclusion of evolution in school lessons, while in 2010 the Hessian Minister of Culture proposed including the theory of creation in biology lessons as a counterweight to evolution. Darwin's work is also striking from the perspective of the history of science. Although there was a broad debate on the historical-biological development of species even before Darwin, hardly any idea is more synonymously associated with a scientist than that of evolution with Darwin. Few scientific works have had such far-reaching consequences beyond the realm of science. At the same time, hardly any work has been received in a more ideologically distorted way, be it in the assumption of a progression of evolution aimed at perfection or the much-cited and falsified formula of the "survival of the fittest". It seems to be above all the tendency towards a world view that is responsible for its popularity and importance.

Accordingly, even 150 years after its publication, Darwin's work is worth reading for a variety of reasons: historically because of its importance, philosophically because of its often distorted presentation and interpretation, and socio-politically because of its far-reaching ideological appropriation and reinterpretation. And there is currently another reason: in the context of environmental debates, there is widespread uncertainty and discussion about the modern understanding of nature. Darwin's theory provides an impetus here that perhaps makes it possible to open up new perspectives on nature. At the heart of this is the consideration of evolution as a random process of natural history mediated by the actions of individuals.

In order to develop an appropriate picture of Darwin's theory, we will therefore read the German translation of Darwin's The Descent of Man, and the Selection in Relation to Sex (1871) in the reading seminar. Although The Origin of Species is probably Darwin's best-known work, The Descent of Man in particular spells out Darwin's theory of evolution. The focus will be on the significance of Darwin's writing for an understanding of the historicity of animals and its consequences for our understanding of both history and animals, thus linking historical and scientific-theoretical discussions. The reading of the book is accompanied by historical and philosophical contextualizations.

In addition to a sound understanding of Darwinian theories on evolution and natural history, the seminar will provide you with insights into the scientific and social history of the 19th century as well as scientific-theoretical aspects of Darwin's theory for today's debates on the characteristics of animal existence and nature. The focus will be on the thesis of the historicization of nature in the nineteenth century in relation to the idea of the historicity of animals. In addition, we will discuss questions concerning the thesis of the revolution of science, the relationship between empiricism and theory and the change in the understanding of nature in the 19th century.

 

Literature examples:

  • Charles Darwin: The Descent of Man. Wiesbaden, 1986 resp. 1992 [1871].
  • Eve-Marie Engels: Charles Darwin. Munich 2007.
  • Eve-Marie Engels (ed.): Die Rezeption von Evolutionstheorien im 19. Jahrhundert. Frankfurt a.M. 1995.
  • Elizabeth Grosz: Becoming Undone: Darwinian Reflections on Life, Politics, and Art. Durham, London 2011.
  • Jonathan Hodge, Gregory Radick (eds.): The Cambridge Companion to Darwin. Cambridge 2009.
  • Julia Voss: An Introduction to Charles Darwin. Hamburg 2008.

First year introductory course in history

History for BA

Module "Introduction to History - History of the Modern Era"

Animals are omnipresent in history books. For a long time, however, they were regarded as extras or material objects in a history made exclusively by humans that had no significant influence on the historical development of societies. This passive position of animals has been questioned for some time and instead the role of animals and the relationships between humans and animals in and for history has been explicitly brought into focus. According to this view, historical developments are inconceivable without animals. They are thus ascribed a significant role in history. This new branch of historical research is described as animal history. However, this raises a number of questions. Where does the discovery of animals as historical actors come from? What exactly is animal history? Can animals actively influence history at all? How can an animal history be written? What do we gain or lose with animal history?

The seminar builds on these questions. We will trace the origins of animal history, discuss the theoretical foundations and some of the methodological challenges of investigating and presenting animal history, and look at various examples of concrete animal historiography. You will thus become familiar with a new and highly topical research approach in the historical sciences. In addition, the seminar will enable you to get to know and practise scientific work and presentation using the concrete example of animal history.

 

Literature examples:

  • John Berger: "Why do we look at animals?" In Ders, The Life of Images or the Art of Seeing. Berlin 2003, pp. 12-35.
  • Harriet Ritvo: The Platypus and the Mermaid, and Other Figments of the Classification. Cambridge, MA 1997.
  • Gesine Krüger, Aline Steinbrecher, Clemens Wischermann (eds.): Animals and History. Contours of an Animate History. Stuttgart 2014.
  • Keith Thomas: Man and the Natural World. Changing Attitudes in England 1500-1800. London 1983.

Exhibition "History According to Cattle ": http://www.gustafssonhaapoja.org/museum-of-the-history-of-cattle/

Seminar

History for MA and grammar school teaching degree

English studies/English for BA, MA and grammar school teaching degree

Modules "Methods, Theories, Practice" and "Historical Learning"

Animals have played a crucial role in film as an artistic medium, from the literal use of animal products in film stock to the capturing of animal movement as a driver of stop-motion, wide-screen and CGI film technology. The wish to picture animals' lives, whether naturalistically or playfully, brings about filmic genres such as wildlife film and animation. By analyzing a range of key films, the module will consider these and other major aspects of animals in film such as: the historical development of animal presence in film; animals' role in different film genres, from art-house documentary to horror; the range of literal and symbolic ways animals appear in film; animals in the film star-system; animal lives and the ethics of film-making; adaptation and the different challenges of filmic and literary representation of animals.

The seminar provides insight into the range of work and disciplinary approaches represented within the field of human-animal studies. It complements our course offerings in human-animal studies at the University of Kassel and allows students to further extend their study of human-animal relations from a disciplinary perspective that is not usually represented at Kassel University. Moreover, it gives students the opportunity to work closely with an internationally recognized human-animal studies scholar and to evaluate the benefits and possibilities for a potential research stay at the University of Sheffield.

There will be a 2-hours preparatory meeting prior to Dr. McKay's visit during which we will discuss readings for the seminar. Based on the seminar with Dr. McKay, Students will choose a movie and independently develop an entry for the online archive Zooscope. The results will be circulated among the participants of the course and we will together discuss the different works and reflect on the research process in a final meeting at the end of the semester. One additional credit point can be claimed for language competence.

 

Literature examples:

  • Howard Hawkes (dir.): Bringing Up Baby. 1938.
  • John Huston (dir.): The Misfits. 1961.
  • Werner Herzog (dir.): Grizzly Man. 2005.
  • Brad Bird (dir.): Ratatouille. 2007.
  • Jonathan Burt: Animals in Film. London 2002.