Lehr-Moodle der Universität Duisburg-Essen

Hee Kyoung Chang (heekyoung.chang@uni-due.de/ LE 610)

10:15-12:35 Thursday

SG / SG 111

Course Description

This course addresses the geopolitical dynamics surrounding the Korean peninsula from the international relations perspective. The aim of the course is that the students while focusing on the Korean peninsula develop an academic understanding of the various ongoing conflicts in East Asia (i.e. “New Cold War”) between the USA, China, Japan, Russia and North and South Korea. At the beginning of the seminar, we will make ourselves acquainted with conceptual approaches to international relations in East Asia. This is followed by a set of sessions in which we examine historical developments around the Korean peninsula starting from the 19^th century working our way up to the division of the Korean peninsula (1945-48) and the Korean War (1950-53). Against this backdrop, we spend the remainder of the semester with studying contemporary developments regarding international relations and conflicts and cooperation between the two Koreas, the USA, Japan, China, and Russia. Meanwhile, a central focus is put on issues related to the difficulties and possibilities of peace on the Korean peninsula and East Asia.

Grading

Common: 2 times summary of the required reading materials

Master’s degree: research paper based on secondary literature focused on 1 topic in 5,000 words

Bachelor's degree: 2-3 Essay writing concerning the questions that I will suggest.

The course provides a cross-regional context for understanding  the East Asian region since the post-WWII settlement.

The aim is to understand the historical trajectories that shaped the region and its constituent parts, China (Chinese Mainland, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau), Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Republic of Korea, Japan and Mongolia.  The lectures  address the legacy of regional divisions and conflicts during the Cold War, the Chinese transition economy, the emergence of the "post-Communist" world order, as well as dynamics promoting and/or counteracting regional integration.  We will look at main developments, factors and players from synthesizing, cross-boundary and cross-disciplinary perspectives. By completion of the course. students should have acquired skills in analyzing, synthesizing and debating specific events and phenomena in the context of cross-cutting trends in East Asia.

To be or not to be in this seminar – that is not the question if you are interested in drama and if you like Shakespeare. Murder and madness, passion and poison, an ex-widow and ex-students from a German university: Hamlet has it all. This course will give you an opportunity to immerse yourselves in a close reading of this play, combined with a great deal of hands-on acting. We shall consider historical and cultural contexts as well as questions relating to the staging of the play, both in Shakespeare’s time and today. We shall also look at cinematic and other adaptations and works of art inspired by Hamlet.

Please buy this edition and none other: William Shakespeare (ed.: Ann Thomson and Neil Taylor), Hamlet. Revised Edition. The Arden Shakespeare, Third Series (Bloomsbury), ISBN 978-1472518385. You will need the text from the first week of the seminar, so buy your book as soon as possible and start reading. Do not waste your money on other editions without substantial annotations as these would be useless for the purposes of this course. A great deal of background knowledge of key cultural and literary contexts of Shakespeare’s time can be found here: Christoph Heyl, Kleine Englische Literaturgeschichte. J.B. Metzler. ISBN-13: 978-3476045096.

Requirements: Good preparation for each session (as always: think, enjoy, annotate, and look up things if necessary), active participation, including quite a bit of sighing and screaming, and of course doing any amount of wild, exciting and outrageous things. You will get a chance to turn into a confused and tormented prince, a ghost, a young woman going mad, a gravedigger … and these are just some of the options.

Just in case your application is rejected by the LSF system: If you want to do this course because you are genuinely interested, you will be most welcome, no matter what LSF says. Please get in touch with claudia.hausmann@uni-due.de who will enrol you manually. The worst that might happen to you is that you cannot do a Leistungsnachweis if you lack the formal requirements.

For a long time, the ancient world – Greece, the Roman Empire, but also Babylon and Egypt – loomed large in the British imagination. In the Middle Ages, it was believed that London was founded by a descendant of the Trojan hero Aeneas. From the Renaissance on, English literature was profoundly influenced by the works ancient writers. As the British Empire developed, it came to be seen as a modern equivalent of the Roman Empire. This led to the idea that London was the new Rome, a notion that gained currency in the early eighteenth century and remained very influential throughout the nineteenth century and beyond.

The ancient world as a cultural model affected many spheres of life – from literature to architecture, art and fashion. London is full of neo-classical architecture, paintings and statues. While London was thought of as the new Rome, Edinburgh re-invented itself as the Athens of the North, with an impressive neo-classical New Town and a bizarre attempt at creating a Scottish copy of the Parthenon temple. Authors, artists and architects speculated about how, one day, the British Empire would be a thing of the past, and how it would be studied by archaeologists of the future. There are historical novels set in ancient Rome, or, even better, in Roman Britain, and there are interesting movies (such as I, Claudius) based on such novels. In this seminar, we are going to look at all of this … a fascinating range of phenomena, texts, images, architecture, movies, from the Middle Ages to the present day, and from epic poetry to The Life of Brian. This seminar will also very probably feature special events such as an opportunity to meet the closest equivalent of a real-life Roman legionary (a member of a group of historical re-enactors), and possibly a visit from a specialist in the reception of ancient history. There will be a Moodle room in which a reader (along with other material) will be made available. You will receive the Moodle password via e-mail.

I hope to do a study tour to London accompanying this seminar, which would be an opportunity to look at neo-classical architecture, a spectacular obelisk on the Thames Embankment, the weird, wonderful and spooky Roman and Egyptian underworld in Sir John Soane´s Museum, eighteenth-century portraits in which English people look like ancient Romans, the actual Roman city walls of London, and many other things besides. My plan is to do this in September – but please bear in mind this can only happen if I manage to get a viable group of people together. A limited number of places will be available, and those will hopefully come with a financial subsidy to make the whole trip more affordable. 

Requirements: thorough preparation for each session, active participation, and, if applicable, written work according to your particular Studienordnung. As always: think, enjoy (!), annotate, and look things up if necessary. Useful background knowledge of key cultural, historical and literary contexts of classicism can be found here: Christoph Heyl, Kleine Englische Literaturgeschichte. J.B. Metzler. ISBN-13: 978-3476045096.

Just in case your application is rejected by the LSF system: If you want to do this course because you are genuinely interested, you will be most welcome, no matter what LSF says. Please get in touch with claudia.hausmann@uni-due.de who will enrol you manually. The worst that might happen to you is that you cannot do a Leistungsnachweis if you lack the formal requirements.

Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936) was born in India at the time when India was part of the British Empire. He was the author of The Jungle Book (yes, that Jungle Book … Mowgli, Baloo the bear an all that) as well as many poems and short stories. He was hugely popular in the late 19^th and early 20^th century. He wrote about the British Empire in India, and therefore about imperialism – but was he an imperialist, or were his views much more differentiated? Let´s find out by looking at his poems and prose texts ourselves!

Material will be made available in a Moodle room. You will receive the password via e-mail. Requirements: thorough preparation for each session, active participation, and, if applicable, written work according to your particular Studienordnung. As always: think, enjoy (!), annotate, and look things up if necessary. Useful background knowledge of key cultural, historical and literary contexts can be found here: Christoph Heyl, Kleine Englische Literaturgeschichte. J.B. Metzler. ISBN-13: 978-3476045096.

Requirements: thorough preparation for each session, active participation, and, if applicable, written work according to your particular Studienordnung. As always: think, enjoy (!), annotate, and look things up if necessary.

Just in case your application is rejected by the LSF system: If you want to do this course because you are genuinely interested, you will be most welcome, no matter what LSF says. Please get in touch with claudia.hausmann@uni-due.de who will enrol you manually. The worst that might happen to you is that you cannot do a Leistungsnachweis if you lack the formal requirements.

Bei einer Teilnahme an diesem Kurs wird von den Studierenden aktive Mitarbeit sowie die Bereitschaft zur Lektüre englischsprachiger Texte erwartet. Dieses Seminar wird mit einer Modulprüfung für das Modul 4 abgeschlossen, die als mündliche Prüfung zum Ende des Semesters stattfindet. Gegenstand sind Inhalte des Seminars sowie Inhalte der Vorlesung „Internationale Beziehungen und Global Governance“. Zu Beginn des Semesters werden die entsprechenden Studien- und Prüfungsleistungen ausführlich erläutert.

Sehr geehrte Studierende,

wir möchten Sie gerne einladen an dieser kurzen Befragung teilzunehmen. Sie dient dem Zweck Sie alle optimal nach Ihren persönlichen Präferenzen in eines der drei angebotenen Methodenseminare zuzuteilen und einen ersten Eindruck über Ihre bisherige Methodenausbildung zu gewinnen. Die Ergebnisse der Befragung werden selbstverständlich vertraulich behandelt und es entstehen Ihnen durch Ihre Antworten keinerlei Nachteile. Bitte nehmen Sie nur einmalig an der Umfrage teil.

Bevor Sie an der Umfrage teilnehmen, sollten Sie die Beschreibungstexte der Seminare im Onlinesystem LSF anschauen. Eine Kurzdarstellung werden Sie noch einmal im Verlauf der Umfrage sehen. In allen Seminaren erbringen Sie Leistungen gemäß den Anforderungen Ihres jeweiligen Studiengangs, so dass der Workload auf ihren Studiengang zugeschnitten ist. Es gibt also keine studiengangspezifischen Seminare.