Search result: Catalogue data in Spring Semester 2017

GESS Science in Perspective Information
Only the topics listed in this paragraph can be chosen as "GESS Science in Perspective" course.
Further below you will find the "type B courses Reflections about subject specific methods and content" as well as the language courses.

6 ECTS need to be acquired during the BA and 2 ECTS during the MA

Students who already took a course within their main study program are NOT allowed to take the course again.

These course units are also listed under "Type A", which basically means all students can enroll
Type A: Enhancement of Reflection Competence
Students who already took a course within their main study program are NOT allowed to take the course again.
History
NumberTitleTypeECTSHoursLecturers
853-0726-00LHistory II: Global (Anti-Imperialism and Decolonisation, 1905-1975)W3 credits2VH. Fischer-Tiné
AbstractThe lecture will give an insight into the formation of anticolonial nationalist movements in Asia and Africa from the beginning of the 20th century onwards and discuss the various dimensions of dismantling of colonial empires.
ObjectiveThe lecture will give students an insight into the history of the non-European world, looking specifically into the political, economic, social and cultural transformation on the backgrounds of colonial penetration strategies and the resistance of anti-colonial movements. The aim is to show that societies in Asia and Africa are not just the product of colonial penetration or anti-colonial resistance, but that both aspects influenced the present political, economic, social and cultural perception of these parts of the world to a considerable extent. A nuanced knowledge of the long and arduous process of decolonisation is hence important to understand today's geopolitical constellation, still characterised by the struggle for a just post-imperial world order.
LiteratureJansen, J.C. und Osterhammel, J., Decolonization: A short History, Princeton and London 2017.
Prerequisites / NoticeA detailed syllabus will be available from Feb 22nd 2016 at Link
851-0101-07LScience and Colonialism
Does not take place this semester.
W3 credits2SH. Fischer-Tiné
AbstractThe course explores the multifaceted entanglements between inperialism and science. It provides a detailed anlaysis of the relevance colonial constellations had for the rise of disciplines such as geography, anthropology, botany, tropical medicine, "race science", etc.
ObjectiveThis course is designed to enable students to critically contextualise the production of scientific and technological knowledge. Besides, it aims at making them understand complex theory-oriented writings in the humanities and social sciences and become acquainted with the method of advanced historical source analysis.
LiteratureINTRODUCTORY LITERATURE:

COHN, Bernard, Colonialism and its Forms of Know¬ledge The British in India, Delhi 1997, S. 3-15.

BALLANTYNE, Tony, ‘Colonial Knowledge’, in: S. Stockwell (Hg.), The British Empire: Themes and Perspectives, Malden-Oxford-Carlton, 2008, S. 177-197.

FISCHER-TINE, Harald, Pidgin-Knowledge: Wissen und Kolonialismus, Zürich-Berlin 2013.
Prerequisites / NoticeA detailed syllabus will be available as from 15 February 2016
Link
851-0554-04LCultural and Scientific History of East-AsiaW2 credits2VV. Eschbach-Szabo
AbstractThis course deals with the cultural and scientific history of East-Asia. It comprises lectures on new research work on stagnation and innovation in different fields: it is an overview of history and an introduction into the Chinese writing system, philosophical concepts and their influence on various cultural phenomena and scientific areas of natural sciences in China, Japan and Korea.
ObjectiveThe Cultural and Scientific History of East Asia

The lecture on the cultural and scientific history of East Asia is intended as an introduction to the cultural and scholarly history of China, Japan and Korea. Cultural and scientific developments may have different origins. Although East Asia and the West have never functioned as separate entities, there are certain distinct characteristics concerning cultural understanding and different levels of development of stagnation and innovation.

The Chinese writing system was adapted in different countries. The same canonical texts are known in Japan and Korea. Firstly an overview of history and an introduction into philosophical concepts as Taoism, Confucianism, Shinto, and Buddhism will be presented in order to point out there influence on various cultural phenomena and scientific areas: rites, gardening, architecture, calligraphy, Mathematics, Biology, Medicine, Astrology and Astronomy and modern technical developments.

It is intended for everyone, to gain a basic insight into this specific region and to enable students to do research on scientific topics in East Asia.
ContentIntroduction, Early Chinese History
Confucianism and the reading of a text of Confucius in Chinese
Further development of the Chinese Writing System in East Asia
Cultural and scientific contacts between China and Europe
Buddhism, garden
Taoism, Medicine, Astrology
Christian influences in East Asia
Modern China and Japan
Concepts for Person, Gender in Japan
Intercultural communication inJapan
Globalization and East Asia
Language policy and writing technology
Lecture notesLecture notes, handouts will be available for purchase at the cost of reproduction for the most lectures.
LiteratureNeedham, Joseph: Science and Civilisation in China. Abridged by Colin A. Ronan. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1978.
851-0812-07LHeureka IV: Ancient Cities: The Significance of Urban Centers in the Greco-Roman WorldW2 credits2VC. Utzinger, M. Amann, B. Beer, A. Broger, F. Egli Utzinger, R. Harder
AbstractA Lecture Series on Ancient Greece and Rome and Their Impact on Later Periods
ObjectiveInsights into some important fields relating to urban centers in antiquity (topography, archaeology, history, culture, economy, ideology).
ContentUnsere Kultur und wissenschaftliche Tradition haben eine lange Geschichte. Am Anfang steht die griechische Kultur (und die römische, die eine erste Rezeption der griechischen darstellt). In der aktuellen Heureka-Reihe soll diese Kultur ausgehend von der Stadt als dem Ort menschlichen Zusammenlebens und -wirkens beleuchtet werden. Der (weiten) Frage "Was ist eine Stadt?" wird unter topographisch-archäologischen, historischen, politischen, soziokulturellen, wirtschaftlichen und ideologischen Aspekten nachgegangen.
Die Vorlesungsreihe gliedert sich in sechs thematische Module (1-6):
Sitzung 1-2 (Modul 1): Athen: Wie eine Stadt zu einer Grossstadt wurde
Sitzung 3-4 (Modul 2): Alexandria: Schmelztiegel von Kulturen und Stadt der Wissenschaft
Sitzung 5-6 (Modul 3): Byzanz - Konstantinopel - Istanbul: Die christliche Hauptstadt und ihre Anziehungskraft
Sitzung 7-8 (Modul 4): Rom: Die ewige Stadt
Sitzung 9-10 (Modul 5): Der Golf von Neapel: Die Goldküste Roms
Sitzung 11-12 (Modul 6): Troia: Untergang einer Stadt. Der Mythos vom trojanischen Krieg und seine Bedeutung für das antike Geschichtsbild
Sitzung 13: Lernzielkontrolle
051-0312-00LHistory of Art and Architecture IV Information
This course is offered the last time in FS18.
W3 credits2VL. Stalder
AbstractThe two-semester course offers an introduction to the history and theory of architecture from the industrial revolution up to now. Based on current questions a variety of case studies will be discussed.
ObjectiveThe aim is to give an overview on crucial events, works of art, buildings and theories since the beginning of the 19th century up to now. The course should enhance the comprehension of historical and theoretical issues, and allow the students to localize their own practice within a broader historical context.
ContentThe subject of this lecture course is the history and theory of architecture since the beginning of the 19th century up to now. It examines the architectural answers to the changing technical inventions and social practices. Consequently, the focus will be less on individual architects or buildings than on various themes that determined the architecture of the period.
Lecture notesLink
051-0364-00LHistory of Urban Design II Information W2 credits2VV. Magnago Lampugnani
AbstractThe lecture covers the time from the beginning of urban culture until the mid 19th century. With selected examples it emphasizes on the historical plannings and methods of European cities. Each specific urban development will be presented within a broader context.
ObjectiveThis course analyzes the history of urban architecture primarily in its existing three dimensional form as a complex human artefact. It also explores the inspirations that prompted the creation of this artefact: philosophical and religious concepts, social conditions, property relationships and the mechanisms that exploit the economics of real estate and the influence of building technology. Intellectual, literary or artistic modes of thought will also be assessed with regard to their impact on urban development. Urbanism has its own distinctive approach as a discipline, but it is also clearly responsive to the influence of related disciplines. Study is made of actual cities and urban expansion plans which are in the process of implementation, as well as unrealized projects and visions of the future. These projects sometimes illustrate ways of thinking that are equal to, or clearer than, actual urban situations.
ContentThe immense urban changes of the 19th century are presented along with their impacts on the developments until the interwar period.

23.02. Company Towns in Great Britain during the Industrial Revolution: The social utopia city concepts of Robert Owens and Charles Fourier

02.03. Garden Cities for tomorrow: Ebenezer Howard and the green alternative for the metropolis

09.03. Civilized wilderness and City Beautiful: from Frederick Law Olmsteds park movement to the urban planning of Daniel H. Burnham

16.03. Antagonists in the shadow of the 'Ringstrasse': the 'infinite city' of Otto Wagner, the artistic urban development of Camillo Sitte and the 'retrogressive utopia' of Adolf Loos

30.03. 'Impressionistic' city architecture: Hendrik Petrus Berlage and the School of Amsterdam

06.04. Urban design of the Beaux-Arts movement, modern classical period and a socialist skyscraper: The Cité Industrielle of Tony Garnier and the Gratte-Ciel in Villeurbanne

13.04. Ideas of the city in the radical avantgarde movement: futurism in Italy and constructivism in the postrevolutian Soviet Union

27.04. 'walkinglines' of pedestrians and 'movinglines' of the traffic: The modernization of the City of Berlin

04.05. The 'Lebensreform' movement, the 'crown of the city' and the housing schemes of the 'Neue Sachlichkeit'

11.05. Satellite town versus 'Superblock': New Frankfurt and Red Vienna

18.05. Le Corbusier: Theories, Visions and clear cuts in the name of the autorité
Lecture notesTo each lecture an overview is listet within a script (two semesters of the bachelor studies), that can be purchased at the chair for the history of urban design (HIL D 75.2) at the price of SFR 30,-. The script serves as an auxiliary means to the attended lecture compiling the most important illustrations showed and the names and dates of the buildings and its builders along with a short introductory note.
LiteratureFurther recommended literature to consult is listet within the script.
Prerequisites / NoticeUrban architecture from antiquity till the 19th century
851-0551-04LHistory of ETHW3 credits2VD. Gugerli
AbstractThis lecture presents the political shaping of ETHs governance since 1848.
ObjectiveStudents get acquainted with the interdependence between the promises of Swiss science policy on the one hand, and of ETH as an organisation for teaching, learning, and research on the other hand.
Lecture notesDie Unterrichtsmaterialien (Reader) werden zu Beginn des Semesters auf Link zugänglich gemacht.
851-0101-54LSwitzerland in the Age of Empires: 1848 ReconsideredW3 credits2SB. Schär
AbstractSwitzerland never possessed any colonies, yet was still a colonial power. Through networks of mercenaries, trading houses, missionary societies, and science Switzerland took part in the process of European Expansion and was shaped by it. How did 'Swiss expansion' shape the founding of the 1848 federal state?
ObjectiveStudents will become familiarised with new approaches to Global History writing, and new research into the history of 'Colonial Switzerland'.
They shall become acquainted with the biographies of the 23 'founding fathers' of modern Switzerland, who drafted the federal state's 1848 constitution.
Examining those biographies students are expected to analyse how the process of European Expansion shaped the biographies of Switzerland's 'founding fathers' and the modern nation, which they helped to establish.
851-0125-65LA Sampler of Histories and Philosophies of Mathematics
Particularly suitable for students D-CHAB, D-INFK, D-ITET, D-MATH, D-PHYS
W3 credits2VR. Wagner
AbstractThis course will review several case studies from the history of mathematics (Greek geometry, early modern European notions of infinity and 20th century constructive and axiomatic approaches). The case studies will be analyzed from various philosophical perspectives, while rooting them in their historical and cultural contexts.
ObjectiveThe course aims are:
1. To introduce students to the historicity of mathematics
2. To make sense of mathematical practices that appear unreasonable from a contemporary point of view
3. To develop critical reflection concerning the nature of mathematical objects
4. To introduce realist, dialectical, practical and constructivist approaches to the philosophy and history of mathematics
5. To open the students' horizons to the plurality of mathematical cultures and practices
851-0101-33LGlobalgeschichte, Themen und Konjunkturen seit dem 19. Jahrhundert Restricted registration - show details
Number of participants limited to 30
W3 credits2SH. Fischer-Tiné
AbstractFor more than a century, historians have attempted to transcend a national perspective on historical problems and develop various approaches to adequately deal with transnational phenomena of the past. The first part focusses on six prominent examples of such endeavours the second analyses key texts of of "global history", thereby idenfying the main themes and methods of the emerging field.
ObjectiveThrough intense reading and discussion of the theory oriented secondary literature, the participants will be introduced to one of the most exciting new fields of historical inquiry.
851-0101-36LDrugs and Empires: Perspectives on the Trade, Consumption and Control of Intoxicants (c. 1700-2000) Restricted registration - show details
Number of participants limited to 30
W3 credits2SH. Fischer-Tiné
AbstractThe course will look at the historical trajectory of the interaction between the politics of colonial or quasi-colonial empires and the cultivation, trade, and consumption of mood altering substances (c.1750-2000). Apart from the economic aspects of trafficking, cultural and social consequences of production and consumption on both sides of the imperial divide are put under scrutiny.
ObjectiveThe course aims at providing historical background knowledge regarding the controversies on international drug trafficking and the fight against it. It is designed to enhance the students' capability to deconstruct normative discourses, thus fostering their analytical skills and sharpening their critical acumen. This does not only relate to the problems of a mere historical nature, as the topic under study still is of critical relevance today.
Literature
NumberTitleTypeECTSHoursLecturers
851-0315-01LWriting: Precision of Language as a Field of Research for Literature Restricted registration - show details W1 credit1GF. Kretzen
AbstractWhen we write a literary text we enter into a set-up for experiments and explore the possibilities ensuing from the specific structure and consistency of such a text. Literary writing allows us to go over to another kind of knowledge. Thus, the question: what is it that I want to write about? is replaced by: what do I write?
ObjectiveIn this course we shall analyze and apply conditions and criteria for literary writing on the basis of our own texts.
The course is intended for persons who are interested in literary approaches to exactitude.
Any attempt to write literature is confronted with an unforeseeable linguistic dynamism whose feasibility is determined by laws and rules quite different from those of science and technology. For the science-oriented writer, experiencing the self-evidence produced by literary approaches in his or her own writing project opens up a field of language with new content and new methods.
ContentIn the natural sciences as well as in engineering we set up experiments, analyze equation systems, and formulate theories. In order to complement these practices, the course «Writing» shall pursue precision in literary writing, its choice of word and its self-evidence.

When we write a literary text we also enter into a set-up for experiments and explore the possibilities ensuing from the specific structure and overall consistency of such a text. This form of writing takes us from the question: what is it that I want to write about? to the question: what do I write?
How do such literary approaches differ from the ways in which the natural sciences use language?
In this course we shall analyze and apply conditions and criteria for literary writing on the basis of our own texts.
The course is intended for persons who are interested in literary approaches to exactitude.
Any attempt to write literature is confronted with an unforeseeable linguistic dynamism whose feasibility is determined by laws and rules quite different from those of science and technology. For the science-oriented writer, experiencing the self-evidence produced by literary approaches in his or her own writing project opens up a field of language with new content and new methods.
Prerequisites / NoticeThose wishing to participate are required to send in between two and three pages text of their own writing that will be discussed in class. It may be an existing text , such as an essay yet from school or a post for a student magazine. The next step will be writing a text on a preset topic as a basis for discussing the various realizations of a given task.
851-0365-02LIntroduction to English Literature: Science and Fiction Part IIW2 credits2SA. Brand-Kilcher
AbstractWho are we? Why are we here? Both science and literature alike are often motivated by a deep desire to answer life's big questions. We will look at differences and similarities in approach, methods and output in search for answers.
ObjectiveFind out more about shared ground between sciences and humanities and how that relationship changed over the last three centuries.
Develop a critical awareness about concepts such as a neat distinction between dry objectivity and emotional subjectivity which breaks down when the human identity of scientists is considered.
ContentWhat will save us in the end: surgery or poetry? That is one of the questions posed in Ian McEwan's novel "Saturday". Mc Ewan's novel and other texts and essays will be read and discussed.
Today there is not one scientific style anymore but rather a multiplicity of scientific genres. You can bring your own scientific text to class in order to analyze, discuss and possibly improve it.
LiteratureRecommended reading: Ian Mc Ewan: Saturday (2005);
Charlotte Sleigh: Literature and Science (2011).
851-0301-06LKnowledge of Resentment - Anti-Jewish Textual and Visual TraditionsW3 credits2VH.‑J. Hahn
AbstractThe lecture examines central moments of anti-Jewish production of knowledge from antiquity until today. The guiding question refers to the shifts of paradigms or the reprogramming of these traditions. Apart from textual sources also visual representations of Jewishness from different periods of time (Early Christianity, Late Middle Ages, Protestant Reformation etc.) will be analysed.
ObjectiveThe lecture aims at an exemplary as well as a critical examination of Western culture and science, which had not only generated the idea of human rights but are also affected by traditions of anti-Jewish "knowledge". Apart from seminal positions within research on Antisemitism, also current discussions in the field of research on Racism are included in the analysis. Additionally the lecture will present different aesthetic strategies within a variety of media in which anti-Jewish images of Jewishness are reproduced, tightened or critically deconstructed.
ContentDas Wissen vom Anderen dient dem Entwurf des Eigenen. So produziert gerade der moderne Antisemitismus, dessen Anfänge in der Ablehnung der Emanzipation seit dem ausgehenden 18. Jahrhundert liegen, ein sich ständig wandelndes, flexibles und anpassungsfähiges Wissen des Ressentiments. Insbesondere im 19. Jahrhundert sind dabei Wissenschaft und Antisemitismus vielfach miteinander verknüpft. Eine Wissensgeschichte des Antisemitismus geht deshalb von dem wissenschaftlichen Anspruch aus, der dem in den 1870er Jahren geprägten Neologismus unmittelbar eingeschrieben ist, und fragt, welche älteren Text- und Bildtraditionen jeweils aufgegriffen und transformiert werden und wie dieses gewissermaßen toxische Wissen zur Begründung von Gemeinschaften dient. Ganz grundsätzlich wird so die Frage nach den prägenden Faktoren zeitbedingter Vorstellungen von Wissenschaftlichkeit gestellt. Während antisemitische Vorstellungen um 1900 herum selbstverständlich in Disziplinen wie der Nationalökonomie, der Psychologie, den Gesellschaftswissenschaften oder der Philosophie anzutreffen sind, sind auch technische Fächer betroffen. Insbesondere bei der Wahrnehmung moderner Technologien lassen sich etwa in kulturkritischen Texten aus der ersten Hälfte des 20. Jahrhunderts antisemitische Deutungsmuster beobachten.
851-0334-01LMemoire of Occupied Paris: The Oeuvre by Patrick ModianoW3 credits2VO. Barrot
AbstractIn France Patrick Modiano embodies the absolute figure of the great author. In 2014 he obtained the Nobel Prize in Literature. Peter Englund of the Swedish Academy considered him as the "Marcel Proust of our times". His work has been translated in 40 languages. The course will provide with the necessary tools to approach his inspiration, style and universe.
Objective1. Paris
2. The Occupation of Paris by Nazi
3. The Style of Modiano

During the course we will familiarize with 3 books (available in the collection Folio) and 2 films by Patrick Modiano: "La Place de l'Etoile", his first novel (1968), "Dora Bruder" (a story of a 15-year-old-girl of Eastern European Jewish immigrants, who disappears in 1942 (1999)), "Un pedigree", his first attempt of autobiographical writing (2005); "Lacombe Lucien", a film by Louis Malle, of which Modiano wrote the original scenario (1974); "Le Parfum d'Yvonne", a film adapted from "Villa triste" by Patrice Leconte (1995).
851-0301-07LNarrating Time? Restricted registration - show details
Number of participants limited to 30
W3 credits2SC. Jany
AbstractIt seems quite natural to capture past times by way of narrative representation. Certain philosophers and historians even claimed that time is inherently narrative and therefore articulated best in the form of narrations. But is it even possible to narrate time? What kind of translation is that? And, above all, what are the costs of, and the resistances to, such a translation?
ObjectiveThis course means to train the students' ability to thoroughly read and critically penetrate literary texts. Its second aim is to introduce basic problems of narrative representation, above all the relation between temporal development and narrative processes. The third aim is to develop the question of whether literature is, unlike historiography, aware of the fundamental unavailability of time, as that of how such knowledge is expressed.
LiteratureReadings may include: Nietzsche, Storm, Thomas Bernhard, Max Frisch, Paul Ricoeur, Hayden White, Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht.
851-0300-71LFantastic Literature and Occult Knowledge
Information for UZH students:
Enrolment to this course unit only possible at ETH. No enrolment to module 550cm0 and 167c at UZH.

Please mind the ETH enrolment deadlines for UZH students: Link
W3 credits2VA. Kilcher
AbstractThe course focuses on the complex relation between the Fantastic and Occultism, which is understood as part of the history of knowledge of the imaginary after the 18th century.
ObjectiveThe course aims at conveying a general overview on various theoretical and literary conceptions of the Fantastic. At the same time it wishes to transmit the knowledge of occultism and its forms of representation.
ContentThe Fantastic may be understood as the conflictual surpassing of the fundamental literary function of fantasy during the modern age. Fantasy no longer structures an autonomous wonderful world, but it breaks in on the real as the imaginary. After 1800, and in the form of the imaginary, the fantastic breaks into a world that is thought to be rational and scientifically explainable while dissolving the causative correlations of the Enlightenment. In the backdrop of such tensed evolution, the Fantastic establishes itself within the context of the secularisation and of the scientification of knowledge. Yet, the Fantastic also promotes new forms of knowledge that come into conflict with the academic sciences during the 18th and 19th centuries and assert themselves as counterknowledge. This becomes evident and comprehensible in relation to occult sciences, namely theosophy, occultism, spiritism etc. With reference to the Fantastic counterknowledge becomes evident in a wide variety of distinctive images, and narratives, that relate of the uncanny, the gothic, the grotesque, the demonic, the surreal etc. At the same time, occult sciences look for the proximity to the arts of the Fantastic, that promise a new aesthetic -- as well as their possibilities in the media -- for the representation and the narration of the imaginary and the obscure.

The course has a twofold goal. It wishes to understand the notion and the history of Fantastic literature beginning with the 19th century, taking as case studies crucial and intriguing writers such as E.T.A. Hoffmann, Gustav Meyrink and Jorge Louis Borges. At the same time, the course aims at ascertaining the notion "occult knowledge" (resp. occult sciences) and its epistemological aspiration in conflict with academic knowledge. The lecture, therefore, aims at the reconstruction of the complex interrelation between the Fantastic and Occultism as a part of the history of knowledge of the imaginary right up to Psychoanalysis.
851-0300-59LUniversal Science. Models of Encyclopedia Between Philosphy and Literature (1600-2000)
Information for UZH students:
Enrolment to this course unit only possible at ETH. No enrolment to module 173 at UZH.

Please mind the ETH enrolment deadlines for UZH students: Link
W3 credits2SA. Kilcher
AbstractThe form of encyclopedia is central to knowledge since the modern era. It claims to embrace all phenomena of nature, history and culture and to represent this totality in a universally valid form. Despite its demand for universality the form of encyclopedia changes strongly throughout the centuries. The seminar is going to discover this development from renaissance to the present day.
Objective1) Overview of the most important encyclopedia projects from renaissance to the present; 2) theoretical understanding of different encyclopedia models; 3) comprehension of the aesthetic aspects of encyclopedia; 4) role of encyclopedic models in theory and history of the novel.
ContentThe form of encyclopedia is central to knowledge in modern era. Such knowledge claims to embrace all phenomena of nature, history and culture. Encyclopedia, in this context, is claimed to be the universal form which can describe this totality. However, if we look at the history of encyclopedia, it shows clearly that this was not at all a universally valid form. In fact, the actual form of encyclopedia changes various times: Combinative models in the 16th century were replaced in the 17th century by rational systems. In 18th and 19th century these rational systems were exchanged for alphabetic lexicons. And these lexicon got substituted for networks such as the Internet. The seminar will investigate, on the one hand, a historical approach to the changing models of encyclopedia. On the other hand, it is interested in an epistemological and poetological analysis of encyclopedic models. We will therefore focus both aesthetic aspects and the role of encyclopedia for certain literary genres, such as the novel.
LiteratureAndreas B. Kilcher: Mathesis und Poiesis. Die Enzyklopädik der Literatur 1600-2000. München: Fink 2003
851-0334-02LA Country Without Heroes: Romance and National Identity in Modern ItalyW3 credits2VS. Jossa
AbstractThe course aims to focus on some of the symbolic passages in the process of nation-building in Italy in the 19th and 20th centuries, as Italy reached its unity only in 1861.
ObjectiveThrough the study of Foscolo's Last Letters of Jacopo Ortis (1798), Collodi's Pinocchio (1880), Calvino's The Path to the Nest of Spiders (1947), and Tomasi di Lampedusa's The Leopard (1958) the course aims to give students an understanding of how and why Italy was born so late as a political entity. By focussing on the different stages of the process of Nation building in Italy, the course also aims to make students aware of how Italy's national identity developed: two books (Foscolo's and Collodi's) were written in the 19th century, and will help students to understand the pre-Risorgimento (the making of Italy), and the post-Risorgimento (the making of the Italians); whereas the other two books (Calvino's and Tomasi's) come from the 20th century, and will help students to understand the Resistenza (the making of the Republic), and the post-war Italy (the crisis of nationhood).
The course also aims to discuss the problem of the absence of a national hero in the Italian literary tradition, such as Wilhelm Tell for Switzerland or D'Artagnan for France or Robin Hood for Britain.
Economics
NumberTitleTypeECTSHoursLecturers
851-0252-04LBehavioral Studies Colloquium Information Restricted registration - show details
Number of participants limited to 50.
W2 credits2KE. Stern, H.‑D. Daniel, D. Helbing, C. Hölscher, B. Rütsche, R. Schubert, C. Stadtfeld
AbstractThis colloquium offers an opportunity for students to discuss their ongoing research and scientific ideas in the behavioral sciences, both at the micro- and macro-levels of cognitive, behavioral and social science. It also offers an opportunity for students from other disciplines to discuss their research ideas in relation to behavioral science. The colloquium also features invited research talks.
ObjectiveStudents know and can apply autonomously up-to-date investigation methods and techniques in the behavioral sciences. They achieve the ability to develop their own ideas in the field and to communicate their ideas in oral presentations and in written papers. The credits will be obtained by a written report of approximately 10 pages.
ContentThis colloquium offers an opportunity for students to discuss their ongoing research and scientific ideas in the behavioral sciences, both at the micro- and macro-levels of cognitive, behavioral and social science. It also offers an opportunity for students from other disciplines to discuss their ideas in so far as they have some relation to behavioral science. The possible research areas are wide and may include theoretical as well as empirical approaches in Social Psychology and Research on Higher Education, Sociology, Modeling and Simulation in Sociology, Decision Theory and Behavioral Game Theory, Economics, Research on Learning and Instruction, Cognitive Psychology and Cognitive Science. Ideally the students (from Bachelor, Master, Ph.D. and Post-Doc programs) have started to start work on their thesis or on any other term paper.
Course credit can be obtained either based on a talk in the colloquium plus a written essay, or by writing an essay about a topic related to one of the other talks in the course. Students interested in giving a talk should contact the course organizers (Rütsche, Stern) before the first session of the semester. Priority will be given to advanced / doctoral students for oral presentations. The course credits will be obtained by a written report of approximately 10 pages. The colloquium also serves as a venue for invited talks by researchers from other universities and institutions related to behavioral and social sciences.
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