Search result: Catalogue data in Spring Semester 2022

Science in Perspective Information
In “Science in Perspective”-courses students learn to reflect on ETH’s STEM subjects from the perspective of humanities, political and social sciences.

Only the courses listed below will be recognized as "Science in Perspective" courses.
Type A: Enhancement of Reflection Competence
SiP courses are recommended for bachelor students after their first-year examination and for all master- or doctoral students. All SiP courses are listed in Type A.

Courses listed under Type B are only recommendations for enrollment for specific departments.
History
NumberTitleTypeECTSHoursLecturers
853-0726-00LHistory II: Global (Anti-Imperialism and Decolonisation, 1919-1975)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.
Learning 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., Dekolonisation: Das Ende der Imperien, München 2013.
Prerequisites / NoticeA detailed syllabus will be available in due course at http://www.gmw.ethz.ch/en/teaching/lehrveranstaltungen.html
851-0812-08LHeureka V: Politics and Society in Discussion in Antiquity and TodayW2 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
Learning objectiveStudents learn about ancient forms of government from different eras (Athenian democracy, Roman republic and Roman principate) and the social, scientific and technical context of their emergence. They gain insight into a theoretical discourse that extends from antiquity to the present. Already in antiquity, philosophers and scientists such as Plato and Aristotle tried to intervene in the social debate and to put their theoretical findings into practice (relationship between model and reality).
Using literary and material sources, participants reflect on the aftermath in pre-modern and contemporary constitutional debates. They also analyze art and architecture as a means of political propaganda. They recognize that architectural forms, starting in antiquity, have been and continue to be used as propaganda tools in modern states.
The students are able to take an informed position in current constitutional debates by knowing ancient and modern developments and arguments.
ContentUnsere Kultur und wissenschaftliche Tradition haben eine lange Geschichte.
In der aktuellen Heureka-Reihe soll diese Kultur ausgehend von der Analyse der verschiedenen Staatsformen und der gesellschaftlichen Diskussionen beleuchtet werden. Insbesondere soll der Bezug zur heutigen Gegenwart mit ihren aktuellen staatspolitischen Fragen hergestellt und die Verwurzelung der modernen Diskussionen in der Antike aufgezeigt werden.
Dabei geht es auch um die enge Verflechtung wissenschaftlicher und technischer Entwicklungen und politischer Systeme: Die Entstehung der Demokratie im antiken Athen ging mit einer kulturellen und wissenschaftlichen Vorreiterrolle dieser Stadt einher. Die frühen Naturwissenschaften entwickelten sich parallel zur ersten Demokratie, wurden aber in der folgenden Krisenzeit von der Demokratie bedroht. Heutige Technik (z.B. facebook-Algorithmen) gefährdet umgekehrt die Demokratie.
Wie gehen wir damit um, dass in Diktaturen wissenschaftlich und ökonomisch identifizierte Handlungsfelder, wenn sie politisch anerkannt sind, sofort umgesetzt werden, wie sich aktuell an Chinas Massnahmen zur Verbesserung der Luftqualität zeigt? Naturwissenschaft steht immer im Wechselspiel mit den politischen Systemen und der gesellschaftlichen Matrix, in die sie eingebettet ist.
Veränderungen in der Staatsform können also nie isoliert betrachtet werden. Beispielsweise veränderten materialtechnische Entwicklungen im Heer mehrfach die Truppenzusammensetzung und bewirkten eine Machtverlagerung in der Politik und Gesellschaft.
Die Vorlesungsreihe gliedert sich in sechs thematische Module (1-6):
Sitzung 1-2 (Modul 1): Alle Macht dem Volk? Athenische und moderne Demokratie
Sitzung 3-4 (Modul 2): Fort mit dem König - die römische Republik
Sitzung 5-6 (Modul 3): Ein starker Mann muss her - die römische Kaiserzeit
Sitzung 7-8 (Modul 4): Im Zeichen des Kreuzes - der Aufstieg des Christentums
Sitzung 9-10 (Modul 5): Jetzt sprechen die Philosophen - antike und moderne Staatsutopien
Sitzung 11-12 (Modul 6): Die Macht der Bilder - Bilder der Macht
Sitzung 13: Lernzielkontrolle
052-0806-00LHistory and Theory of Architecture IV Information W2 credits2VL. Stalder
AbstractThis two-semester course is an introduction to the history of architecture from the Second Industrial Revolution in the 1850s to the Oil Crisis in the 1970s in Europe. Students will be able to identify the “things”—technical objects and ensembles—that transformed architecture, and to relate them to the technical, scientific, and cultural concerns that introduced them as key features of modernity.
Learning objectiveTo introduce students to the history and theory of architecture, the course has three objectives.
First, students will be able to identify the “things” that transformed architecture in modernity, and the crucial events, buildings, theories, and actors that characterize their history.
Second, students will be able to describe how these “things” operated at different scales, focusing less on the formal level, and naming instead the different forms of expertise that constituted them historically, as well as the processes within which they were embedded.
Third, students will be able to reflect on a series of apparatuses, devices, and building parts that are in fact micro-architectures which have often been neglected, despite their pivotal role in shaping the daily lives of modern societies.
ContentThe course proposes a new approach to the study of the history and theory of architecture in Europe during modernity. It focuses less on single architects or their buildings, and more on those “things” that have brought profound transformations in the built environment and daily life over the last 200 years, such as the revolving door, the clock, and the partition.
The notion of “thing” includes both the concrete building parts and the concerns associated with them, such as material performance, social synchronization, and individual expression. To understand buildings as assemblages of “things,” therefore, does not mean to diminish their significance, but on the contrary to add reality to them, to understand them in terms of the complex, historically situated, and diverse concerns within which they were designed.
Each lecture introduces one “thing” through a genealogy that shaped it, from patents and scientific discoveries and technological advancement, to cinema, the visual arts, and literature. A set of renowned projects as well as lesser-known buildings from all around Europe offer a variety of case studies to describe these “things,” to understand how they operated in relation with one another, and to identify the theories and tactics that architects mobilized to make sense of them.
Lecture noteshttps://stalder.arch.ethz.ch/lectures/history-and-theory-of-architecture-iv_en
Prerequisites / NoticeLocation:
1st Hour: Lecture, HPV G 4 (LIVESTREAM: https://video.ethz.ch/live/lectures/hoenggerberg/hpv/hpv-g-4.html;
RECORDINGS: https://www.video.ethz.ch/lectures/d-arch/2022/spring/052-0806-00L)
2nd Hour: Seminars in groups, HIL (see Website: https://stalder.arch.ethz.ch/lectures/history-and-theory-of-architecture-iv_en)
701-0791-00LEnvironmental History - Introduction and Overview Restricted registration - show details
Number of participants limited to 80.
W2 credits2VM. Gisler
AbstractIntroduction into environmental history as a discipline that ask for the human-nature-relationships from a long-term and spatially defined perspective. By presenting a selection of different topics the lecture provides access to new questions and insights.
Learning objectiveIntroduction into environmental history; survey of long-term development of human-nature-interrelations; discussion of selected problems. Improved ability to assess current problems from a historical perspective and to critically interrogate one's own standpoint.
ContentHumans live in and with nature, depend on it, change it permanently: as bio- and geological agents they intervene, reshape, leave prints, improve, reproduce and demonize nature; in short, they’re “doing environment”. Namely in the 20th century, the "era of ecology" (Joachim Radkau) or the age of the “Great Acceleration” (John McNeill), human interventions in their environments have increased exponentially. But nature itself is also constantly changing, adapting, striking back. This leads to a constantly changing interrelation between human and nature.
This interdependence is at the core of this lecture. The introduction into “environmental history” offers an overview of the human-environment-relationship in a long-term perspective. It outlines concepts such as the anthropocene, climate and energy as well as questions of environmental policy and the history of the environmental movements. It is meant to expand the competencies for the assessment of current problems and the critical questioning of one's own point of view.
Lecture notesCourse material is provided in digital form.
Literature- Kupper, P. (2021). Umweltgeschichte, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht.
- Radkau, J. (2011). Die Ära der Ökologie, München: Beck.
- McNeill, J.R. (2000). Something new under the sun: An environmental history of the twentieth-century world, New York: Norton.
Prerequisites / NoticeStudents are asked to write an exam during the last session
CompetenciesCompetencies
Subject-specific CompetenciesConcepts and Theoriesassessed
Method-specific CompetenciesAnalytical Competenciesassessed
Personal CompetenciesCritical Thinkingassessed
851-0080-00LNew Forms and Contents in Nonfiction Writing Restricted registration - show details
Number of participants limited to 30.
W3 credits2SW. Eilenberger
AbstractThe course will give an introduction into the new forms of reflection, also of topics from the natural sciences, in nonfiction writing.
Learning objectiveTo develop an understanding for the functions and forms of contemporary non-fiction. To acquire elementary competences in non-fiction writing.
ContentSachbücher (engl. non-fiction-books) erleben auf dem Buchmarkt derzeit eine Renaissance. Als primärer Zweck dieser Gattung gilt oder galt die Wissensvermittlung, insbesondere als Vermittlung wissenschaftlich generierter Inhalte an ein breites Lesepublikum.
Die Entwicklung der Gattung dient damit als aussagekräftiger Indikator für die Dynamik des Verhältnisses von Wissenschaft, Wissensvermittlung sowie den diesbezüglichen Erwartungshorizonten einer interessierten Öffentlichkeit.
Anhand ausgewählter Publikationen (und daran anschließenden Übungen) wird der Kurs diesen Dynamiken nachgehen und dabei insbesondere neuere formale wie inhaltliche Entwicklungslinien untersuchen, wie etwa der Trend zum narrativen Sachbuch, zu explizit wissenschaftskritischen Sachbüchern oder auch stark prominenzgetragenen Publikationen.
851-0431-00LWhat is (Not) Human? On the History of AnthropologyW3 credits2SM. Hagner
AbstractAnthropology as a scientific discipline is a brainchild of European Enlightenment and has formed the modern view of human beings in an often very problematic way. In this seminar we will discuss the most important anthropological theories and practices in historical context.
Learning objectiveThe objective of this seminar is (1) to give a critical introduction into the history of anthropology since the 18th century and (2) to facilitate a discussion on how we can cope today with this tradition in a responsible way.
ContentOne of the most important slogans of the Enlightenment was that the true object of the study of mankind was man himself. To underline this claim, an independent science of man was even founded, anthropology. This science has repeatedly fallen into disrepute for conveying a false image of man, because since the 18th century it generated racist ideas about the nature of man, often in connection with colonialist claims and the legitimization of slavery. Today, we are confronted with the material legacy of this anthropology, stored in museums and universities in the form of bones, skulls, anatomical specimens, photographs, and cultural artifacts - and not infrequently subject to claims for restitution from the states concerned. The seminar will focus on learning about the history of anthropology and stimulating a discussion on how we can responsibly deal with this tradition today.

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
851-0304-00LScience Fiction Restricted registration - show details W3 credits2SA. Kilcher, C. Weidmann
AbstractIn the age of mechanization, “scientific romances” (H.G. Wells) emerged, which amplify the new possibilities of knowledge in distant futures and foreign worlds. In the seminary, these are to be contextualized in terms of the history of knowledge as well as politics. We also discuss theories of science fiction, with their euphoric or critical reflections on hypertechnical societies.
Learning objective- Concept and history of science fiction
- Theory of science fiction and related forms (e.g. utopia, fantasy)
- Contexts of the history of knowledge and technology in the 19th and 20th centuries.
- Potential of science fiction to criticise technology and society
ContentWhat became a popular genre of film - reinforced by digital techniques - has its beginnings in literature around 1900: the fictional imagination of scientific and technical future worlds. In the midst of the age of industrialization and mechanization, “scientific romances” (H.G. Wells) were created, which combine natural science and fantasy and reflect new possibilities of knowledge in distant futures and alien worlds. It is not only about scientific-technical speculation (such as space travel, robots, AI, para-scientific experiments), but also about negotiating social and political alternatives, be it in an affirmative and utopian or in a critical and dystopian way. This fictitious exaggeration of scientification is to be examined in the seminar on the one hand historically, using literary examples and their historical contexts (from Jules Verne, HG Wells, Theodor Herzl, Kurd Laßwitz and Robert Kraft to Isaac Asimov, Stanislaw Lem, Philip Dick and Ursula Le Guin, among others ). This brings into view scientific-technical as well as social, economic and political contexts (e.g. totalitarianism, socialism, cold war). Secondly, it is about theories of science fiction that reflect this genre from different perspectives and, using it symptomatically, arrive not only at general literary and scientific observations, but also at euphoric or critical considerations of hypertechnical societies (including Roland Barthes, Umberto Eco, Darko Suvin, Donna Haraway).
851-0157-84LHealth and Disease
Particularly suitable for students of D-BIOL, D-HEST
W3 credits2VM. Hagner
AbstractHealth and disease belong to the fundamental conditions of human life. Thus, human beings have conceived different ideas and theories concerning health and disease in history. It is the aim of this lecture series to introduce this historical variety in transcultural perspective from antiquity to the present.
Learning objectiveIt is the aim of this lecture series to introduce this historical variety in transcultural perspective from antiquity to the present.
851-0433-00LBioethics and the Shadow of the Holocaust: A Comparative, Interdisciplinary Outlook Restricted registration - show details W2 credits1SR. Zalasik
AbstractThe course deals with impact of the Holocaust on discourse of bioethics in Israel, the U.S. and Germany from the end of WWII until the present. It explores the questions how and to what extent Nazi medical crimes (euthanasia, human medical experiments, involvement of German doctors in the murder of handicaps, mentally ill, Jews and concentration camps prisoners) has influenced medical practice.
Learning objectiveThe course aims to critically explore the development of bioethics and the shadow of the Holocaust Israel, Germany and the U.S. constructing a triangle of the representative of the victims, the perpetrators and the victorious with the emphasize on beginning and end life, fertilization technologies and informed consent.
ContentBioethics in its current form has emerged only after World War II. The influence of the Holocaust played a direct role in its development especially with the Nuremburg doctors’ trials and the creation of the “Nuremberg Code”, which was written by American doctors and jurists in an effort to avoid the recurrence of such medical atrocities and to clearly differentiate between the crimes committed by Nazi doctors and ordinary medical research. A common claim is that the Holocaust had a deep influence on the birth of bioethics, and the Nuremberg code, being a watershed moment in its history. In contrast, some scholars contend that the Nuremberg trials and the Nuremberg Code had a rather limited influence on the development of bioethics.
851-0199-00LHistory of Mathematics from Antiquity to 17th Century : Magnitudes, Numbers and Equations Restricted registration - show details W3 credits2VE. Sammarchi
AbstractFar from being fixed and timeless notions, magnitudes, numbers and equations are three objects that were conceived by mathematicians in a -sometimes radically- different way, and that were influenced by their historical context. The course analyses the evolution of these objects from Greek Antiquity to the beginning of 17th century, via Arabic and Latin Middle Age, and the Italian Renaissance.
Learning objectiveThe course aims are:
- to introduce students to the historical dimension of mathematics;
- to develop a critical understanding of mathematical notions;
- to have a general idea of the history of mathematics until 17th century;
- to acquire skills in order to read and comment mathematical texts written in the past ages and in different cultures.
ContentAfter a methodological introduction to the history of mathematics, we analyse texts written by mathematicians such as Euclid, al-Khwarizmi, al-Khayyam, Fibonacci, Cardano, Stifel, Descartes. The aim is to understand what magnitudes, numbers and equations are for these scholars. Students are also led to consider:
- the cultural and sociological consequences of the invention of the printed book;
- the history of the classification of mathematical sciences;
- the history of the scientific institutions.
851-0172-00LAround 1936: The New Language of Science Restricted registration - show details
Number of participants limited to 40.

As a research seminar, this course is mostly suitable for MA and PhD students.
W3 credits2SJ. L. Gastaldi
AbstractThe years around 1936 witnessed an intense intellectual production in all fields of knowledge. All those contributions had a common denominator: the reorganization of their fields around a formal conception of language, which changed our linguistic practices both in science and in everyday life. This seminar proposes a comparative reading of those texts, to understand that transformation.
Learning objectiveDuring the seminar, students will be able to:
⁃ Acquire a broad interdisciplinary perspective on the history of formal languages and sciences
⁃ Obtain philosophical and historical tools for critically assessing the status language and sign systems in scientific practices
- Become acquainted with concepts and methods in the history and philosophy of science
⁃ Develop a critical understanding of the notion of formal
⁃ Discuss the methodological capabilities of historical epistemology
ContentThe years around 1936 (say, between 1934 and 1938) were the occasion of an intense and fertile intellectual production, opening new and long-lasting perspectives in practically all fields of knowledge, from mathematics and physics to linguistics and aesthetics, and even inaugurating or prefiguring new disciplines such as computability, complexity or information theory. Indeed, within those few years, famous seminal papers and works appeared by authors such as Einstein, Turing, Church, Gödel, Kolmogorov, Bourbaki, Gentzen, Tarski, Carnap, Shannon, Fisher, Hjelmslev, Schoenberg or Le Corbusier.

Despite the diversity of fields of knowledge concerned by this intense production, all those contributions seem to have a common denominator. In essence, they all concern a reorganization of their respective fields around a new conception of language as being of a purely formal nature. In hindsight, it can be said this simultaneous intellectual effort ended up changing our conception and practice of language, of what it means to read and write, both in science and in everyday life. However, although simultaneous, those efforts were not necessarily convergent. Multiple tensions, incompatibilities and fragile alliances accompanied the emergence of orientations such as computability theory, complexity theory, structuralist mathematics, proof and model theory, logicism, information theory, structuralist linguistics or aesthetical formalism and constructivism.

This seminar proposes, then, to perform a comparative reading of those original texts, to understand the nature of that transformation, the convergences and divergences between the different projects at stake, and how the singular way in which they have historically communicated still determines our contemporary practices and conceptions of language.

Students will be required to choose one of the proposed texts corresponding to their area of competence, and present it to the other students in an accessible way. Presentations will be followed by a collective discussion, putting in perspective all the texts discussed so far.
Prerequisites / NoticeAs a research seminar, this course is mostly suitable for MA and PhD students
CompetenciesCompetencies
Method-specific CompetenciesAnalytical Competenciesassessed
Social CompetenciesCommunicationassessed
Cooperation and Teamworkassessed
Customer Orientationassessed
Sensitivity to Diversityassessed
Negotiationassessed
Personal CompetenciesAdaptability and Flexibilityassessed
Creative Thinkingassessed
Critical Thinkingassessed
Integrity and Work Ethicsassessed
Self-awareness and Self-reflection assessed
851-0070-00LEnvironment and the SciencesW3 credits2GN. Guettler
AbstractClimate crisis, species extinction and pandemics have made the study of "environment" one of the most important topics in contemporary science. But when did the scientific study of the environment begin, and how did social changes and political upheavals in the 19th and 20th centuries alter the concept of the environment and ecology?
Learning objectiveIn the lecture, students become acquainted with the fundamental trajectories of the development in the modern environmental sciences. Through brief and joint analysis of selected source material, the knowledge they gain is applied to concrete topics and critically evaluated.
ContentThe lecture focuses on the development of interdisciplinary "environmental sciences" in the 19th and 20th centuries as well as the emergence of an environmental consciousness in related fields such as architecture and the humanities. Emphasis will be placed on the transformation of ancient natural history into a modern ecology, the role of (geo)political factors such as colonialism and the Cold War, the influence of infrastructures on modern environmental sciences, and the importance of social movements and popular science initiatives.
851-0015-00LThe Good Citizen: Global Historical Perspectives on Citizenship (1800 - 2000) Restricted registration - show details W3 credits1SE. Valdameri
AbstractExamining citizenship as a contested category, the course focuses on the technoscientific discourses and practices that have historically been adopted to define citizens. Students are introduced to critical literature in this area and explore in particular the relationship existing between citizenship, biopolitics and technology.
Learning objectiveStudents learn the history of citizenship from ca 1800 onwards through readings taken from the multidisciplinary scholarship on the topic with a focus on different cultural and political settings. Providing insights into the ever-shifting meaning of citizenship, the course explains this category in relation to scientific and technological changes.
ContentThis seminar aims to explore the complex and often ambivalent effects that technoscientific discourses and practices and technologies of biopower have had on norms, practices and institutions of citizenship. It does so by considering, in particular, the impact that technoscientific developments have had in terms of inclusion/exclusion and emancipation/control of citizens. In particular, the role of biology, (colonial) biomedicine, data science, surveillance technologies and biometric identification techniques are objects of substantial reflection that promise to provide students from natural and technical sciences with new perspectives on their core subjects by raising ethical questions about the role and responsibility of these in relation to citizenship issues. The seminar is thematically structured, adopts a multidisciplinary perspective, and uses scholarly texts and concrete examples from different world-regions and periods to familiarise participants with the different dimensions of, and historical variations in, citizenship as well as with the major shifts in understanding this category. It considers topical issues like the implication of digital technologies on political participation, social inclusion, and state borders; the effects of Assisted Reproductive Technologies and genetic advancements on formal membership and immigration policy; the forms of resistance that such practices have spurred locally and globally. Critically engaging with these topics, students a) examine and reflect on the complex, problematic, and often contradictory relationship existing between citizenship, biopolitics and technology; b) relate what they have learnt to their core scientific subject or to contemporary debates while considering historical continuities and discontinuities; c) revisit and broaden their understanding of citizenship while learning to use it as an analytical lens to make sense of the globalised world.
851-0434-00LHistory of Nonfiction BooksW3 credits2SI. Barner
AbstractHow are nonfiction books produced, read, evaluated, sold? What is the place of nonfiction books in the changing publishing cultures since the beginning of the 20th century? And what do nonfiction books do with the knowledge they express?
Learning objectiveThe seminar focuses on joint reading and discussing original sources and secondary texts on the history of the relationship between science, the book market, and the public. Students will learn to critically engage with sources and with research literature from the fields of literary studies, history of knowledge, and the history of the book.
ContentThe seminar aims to combine a historical overview of selected examples of the history of non-fiction books with the general question of the influence of publication processes and formats on (scientific) knowledge. The focus will be on the social contexts, formats, and media involved in the production, distribution, and reception of nonfiction books.
851-0498-00LStructures of Confinement: The Global History of Prison ArchitectureW3 credits2VS. M. Scheuzger
AbstractThe course discusses the history of prison architecture in its broader social, political, economic, scientific, legal and cultural contexts. The building of prisons and its developments are dealt with from the Early Modern Age to the present particularly in their relations to changing concepts and practices of punishment.
Learning objectiveA) The students are familiar with important historical developments of prison architecture. B) They are able to relate these developments to the concepts of penal confinement changing over space and time. C) They are able to assess central elements of prison architecture with regard to their objectives and implications critically.
862-0111-00LTechnical Tower Buildings. A History of the Productive Vertical. Restricted registration - show details
Participants limited: 30
W3 credits2SR. Delucchi, B. Berger
AbstractWater towers, silos, fire watch towers and distillation towers: Why were they built - as towers? How did their vertical orientation reorganize the perception, control and use of space? How did the function of the tower shape its form?
The seminar investigates technical tower buildings from the perspective of the history of technology and of construction.
Learning objectiveStudents will be introduced to the interdependencies of technical, architectural and social change.

Through the interdisciplinary implementation of the seminar, the students learn from each other different techniques of scientific work, as well as analytical approaches to technical buildings.
ContentTechnical tower buildings are sites of distribution, storage and transformation. These functions are closely related to their vertical orientation. High rising television towers can better distribute signals, water towers allow constant pressure for water distribution and distillation towers the gradual fractionation of crude oil.

Towers work on their own or as an element of a homogeneous or heterogeneous collective. Outlook towers autonomously guide the visitors' views to the surroundings; a wide-area forest firefighting operation can rely on an infrastructure network of fire watch towers; the tower-like structures of an industrial site or a rocket launch site create a visually as well as functionally mixed ensemble.

Why were towers built? How did they reorganise the perception, control and use of space? How did a new relation between visibility and view, between closeness and distance, between communication and control, between past and future develop in the use of towers - through their appearance itself, during ascent and descent, through filling and emptying, as well as through their use? How did the function of the tower shape its form? How did conversions or extensions change proven and familiar tower typologies so that individual towers became unique buildings?
We will use approaches from the history of construction and the history of technology to investigate these questions.

The first part of the seminar is dedicated to the reading of secondary texts and the methodological introduction (documentation on investigations on site, classification and constructive analysis of buildings, research in archives, source analysis); in the second part, individual objects, ensembles or infrastructural tower networks will be examined in group work.
Literature
NumberTitleTypeECTSHoursLecturers
851-0080-00LNew Forms and Contents in Nonfiction Writing Restricted registration - show details
Number of participants limited to 30.
W3 credits2SW. Eilenberger
AbstractThe course will give an introduction into the new forms of reflection, also of topics from the natural sciences, in nonfiction writing.
Learning objectiveTo develop an understanding for the functions and forms of contemporary non-fiction. To acquire elementary competences in non-fiction writing.
ContentSachbücher (engl. non-fiction-books) erleben auf dem Buchmarkt derzeit eine Renaissance. Als primärer Zweck dieser Gattung gilt oder galt die Wissensvermittlung, insbesondere als Vermittlung wissenschaftlich generierter Inhalte an ein breites Lesepublikum.
Die Entwicklung der Gattung dient damit als aussagekräftiger Indikator für die Dynamik des Verhältnisses von Wissenschaft, Wissensvermittlung sowie den diesbezüglichen Erwartungshorizonten einer interessierten Öffentlichkeit.
Anhand ausgewählter Publikationen (und daran anschließenden Übungen) wird der Kurs diesen Dynamiken nachgehen und dabei insbesondere neuere formale wie inhaltliche Entwicklungslinien untersuchen, wie etwa der Trend zum narrativen Sachbuch, zu explizit wissenschaftskritischen Sachbüchern oder auch stark prominenzgetragenen Publikationen.
851-0335-00LLITERATURE AND DARWINISM. Outlines of Biopoetics Restricted registration - show details W3 credits2VM. Cometa
AbstractAfter an extensive analysis of the biocultural turn in literary theory, the lectures will focus on the so-called Literary Darwinism, both in its orthodox version and in the forms that draw on the sciences of the mind and cognitive archaeology.
Learning objectiveOutlining the basic features of a "biopoetics". This means bringing together the sciences of “bíos” with literary theory in the broader context of a study of the narrative niche of Homo Sapiens.
ContentIn the famous conference on Darwinism in art (1883) Francesco De Sanctis, while expressing unconditional admiration for the English scientist and writer, already warned scholars of literature and aesthetics on the risks of a too mechanical application of the principles of the new biology to the Humanities. However, he did not fail to grasp the inevitability of a comparison with the "new science" that Charles Darwin had founded. More than a century later, the science of literature is called, with new arguments, to this dialogue and to overcome, once and for all, the thesis of the "two cultures".
After an extensive analysis of the biocultural turn in literary theory, the lectures will focus on the so-called Literary Darwinism, both in its orthodox version and in the forms that draw on the sciences of the mind and cognitive archaeology. Today, outlining the basic features of a "biopoetics" means bringing together the sciences of “bíos” with literary theory in the broader context of a study of the narrative niche of Homo Sapiens.
851-0330-00L19th Century Man and Animal. New Shares Restricted registration - show details W3 credits2VC. Millet
AbstractThe question of the animal always refers to that of the borders, which separate its world from that of humans, but also invite to think their own crossing. This sharing refers to questions of an ecological, economic, political, legal and metaphysical nature.
Learning objectiveWe will try to undo, through the prism of the question of the animal, the image of a monolithic 19th century, an aggregate solidified by the scientistic ideology of productivism, colonialism and specific violence, to make it a space of debates, conflicts and contradictions from which our present is largely derived.
ContentThere is no more animal than human in itself, but historical constructions produced by heterogeneous, complex and conflicting practices and orders of discourse. The question of the animal always refers to that of the borders, which separate its world from that of humans, but also invite to think their own crossing. This sharing refers to questions of an ecological, economic, political, legal and metaphysical nature.
We will try to undo, through the prism of the question of the animal, the image of a monolithic 19th century, an aggregate solidified by the scientistic ideology of productivism, colonialism and specific violence, to make it a space of debates, conflicts and contradictions from which our present is largely derived and in which it can benefit from reflecting on itself by taking into account what Serge Audier calls its "forgotten promises”.
At the same time, we will reflect on the relationship of 19th century works to the sciences of their time in an attempt to think about the relationship of literature to sciences and to science in terms of popularization, ideological assimilations, but also critical displacements and counter-proposals. Our reflections will lead us to contemporary discussions about the rights and the future of animals. More information on the course can be found here: https://francais.ethz.ch/
851-0329-00LCultural Extraction. The Transfer of Cultural Heritage from Africa to Europe, 19th-20th Century Restricted registration - show details W3 credits2VB. Savoy
AbstractThe seminar offers an insight into the history of the appropriation of Africa's material heritage by European powers between the 1860s and the 1940s.
Learning objectiveThe seminar pursues two objectives: on the one hand, to inform about the chronology, methods and actors of the vast heritage translocation that took place during the colonial era between the African continent and Europe. On the other hand, in direct contact with archival documents, to analyze the historical sources that allow us to reconstruct this history that has long remained in the shadows.
ContentWe will analyze the different stages of the extraction of cultural heritage from Africa for the benefit of European museums, the actors involved, the techniques employed, the nature of the objects moved, but also the use that may have been made of them (or not), in the capitals of Europe. Furthermore, the consequences of these displacements will be discussed, up to the restitution requests of the 1970s-2020s. Part of the seminar will be organized as "investigations" based on real archival documents.
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