Search result: Catalogue data in Autumn Semester 2022
Science in Perspective  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 CompetenceSiP 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. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Number | Title | Type | ECTS | Hours | Lecturers | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 853-0725-00L | History Part One: Europe (The Cradle of Modernity, Britain, 1789-1914) | W | 3 credits | 2V | H. Fischer-Tiné | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Abstract | A range of fundamental processes have transformed European societies in the course of the 19th and the 20th centuries. This lecture series asks whether one single model of modernization prevailed on the 'Old Continent' or whether we need to differenciate regionally. A special focus lies on the Swiss experience. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Learning objective | At the end of this lecture course, students can: (a) highlight the most important changes in the "long nineteenth century" in Europe (b) explain their long-term effects; and (c) relate these changes to global developments today. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Content | The thematic foci include: Industrialization on the British Isles, urban growth in Switzerland, the difficult road to democracy in Germany, and French individualism. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Lecture notes | Power Point Slides and references will be made available in digital form during the course of the semester. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Literature | Mandatory and further reading will be listed on the course plan that is made available as from the first session. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Prerequisites / Notice | This lecture series does not build upon specific previous knowledge by the students. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 851-0105-00L | Background Knowledge Arabic World | W | 2 credits | 2V | U. Gösken | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Abstract | This lecture will discuss important topics of the Arab culture involving concepts relating to history, the role of literature, sciences and religion, concepts of 'the West', meaning of education, understanding of culture as well as current concepts and discourses relevant at the sociocultural level. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Learning objective | Teaching about epistemic contents relating to the Arabic world that constitute modern Arabs' self understanding and are relevant for adequate behavior in practically dealing with the Arabic world. What basic knowledge about 'their' culture are Arabs taught? What educational goals are pursued? What is the relationship they build with the West? The topics that are discussed on the basis of a scientifically critical approach are concepts and understandings of history, the role of literature, sciences and religion, concepts of the West and relationship with the West, the role of education, understanding of culture and cultural refinement, current concepts and discourses relevant at the sociocultural level. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 052-0801-00L | Global History of Urban Design I | W | 2 credits | 2G | T. Avermaete | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Abstract | This course focuses on the history of the design of cities, as well as on the ideas, processes and actors that engender and lead their development and transformation. The history of urban design will be approached as a cross-cultural field of knowledge that integrates scientific, economic and technical innovation as well as social and cultural advances. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Learning objective | The lectures deal mainly with the definition of urban design as an independent discipline, which maintains connections with other disciplines (politics, sociology, geography) that are concerned with the transformation of the city. The aim is to make students conversant with the multiple theories, concepts and approaches of urban design as they were articulated throughout time in a variety of cultural contexts, thus offering a theoretical framework for students' future design work. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Content | In the first semester the genesis of the objects of study, the city, urban culture and urban design, are introduced and situated within their intellectual, cultural and political contexts: 01. The History and Theory of the City as Project 02. Of Rituals, Water and Mud: The Urban Revolution in Mesopotamia and the Indus 03: The Idea of the Polis: Rome, Greece and Beyond 04: The Long Middle Ages and their Counterparts: From the Towns of Tuscany to Delhi 05: Between Ideal and Laboratory: Of Middle Eastern Grids and European Renaissance Principles 06: Of Absolutism and Enlightenment: Baroque, Defense and Colonization 07: The City of Labor: Company Towns as Cross-Cultural Phenomenon 09: Garden Cities of Tomorrow: From the Global North to the Global South and Back Again 010: Civilized Wilderness and City Beautiful: The Park Movement of Olmsted and The Urban Plans of Burnham 011: The Extension of the European City: From the Viennese Ringstrasse to Amsterdam Zuid | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Lecture notes | Prior to each lecture a chapter of the reader (Skript) will be made available through the webpage of the Chair. These chapters will provide an introduction to the lecture, the basic visual references of each lecture, key dates and events, as well as references to the compulsory and additional reading. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Literature | There are three books that will function as main reference literature throughout the course: -Ching, Francis D. K, Mark Jarzombek, and Vikramditya Prakash. A Global History of Architecture. Hoboken: Wiley, 2017. -Ingersoll, Richard. World Architecture: A Cross-Cultural History. New York: Oxford University Press, 2018. -James-Chakraborty, Kathleen. Architecture Since 1400. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2014. These books will be reserved for consultation in the ETH Baubibliothek, and will not be available for individual loans. A list of further recommended literature will be found within each chapter of the reader (Skript). | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Prerequisites / Notice | Students are required to familiarize themselves with the conventions of architectural drawing (reading and analyzing plans at various scales). | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 851-0157-28L | Life and Death Particularly suitable für students of D-BIOL, D-HEST, D-CHAB, D-USYS | W | 3 credits | 2V | M. Hagner | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Abstract | This course explores the relation between the scientific investigation of life and cultural notions of death from a historical perspective (assuming there is no such thing as the scientific investigation of death). While the course covers the times from antiquity up to the present, the main emphasis will be placed on the modern life sciences since the 19th century. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Learning objective | There is only one certainty in life: death. This brute fact has animated much thought and work in theology, art and philosophy - but also in the natural sciences, such as biology and medicine. Questions regarding health and disease, evolution, extinction and immortality have played a crucial role in this connection. This course aims to explore above relations - the relations between the scientific investigation of life and cultural notions of death - from a historical perspective (assuming there is no such thing as the scientific investigation of death). While the course covers the times from antiquity up to the present, the main emphasis will be placed on the modern life sciences since the 19th century. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 851-0426-00L | Paul Feyerabend's Anarchistic Theory of Knowledge | W | 3 credits | 2S | M. Hagner, M. Hampe | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Abstract | Paul K. Feyerabend characterized his magnum opus “Against method” as an “anarchistic theory of knowledge”. In this book, he crusaded against analytical philosophy of science and critical rationalism. Feyerabend’s advocating for a variety of forms of knowledge has been debated heatedly, but is still relevant for contextualizing the role of science in society. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Learning objective | It is the aim of this seminar to become acquainted with the epistemology of Paul Feyerabend and to analyse its relevance for our time. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Content | We will start this seminar with a close reading of Paul Feyerabends Wider den Methodenzwang (Link) (acquisition and reading of this book are required) and continue with the analysis of selected chapters from Feyerabend’s other monographs in order to unveil the connections between epistemology, science, freedom and Enlightenment for the present age. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 851-0011-00L | The Body in Global History  | W | 3 credits | 2S | E. Valdameri | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Abstract | While being the universal constant which is common to every human being in history, the body is also culturally and historically specific. In this seminar we will examine how ideas of the body have changed throughout history and how these ideas of the body can be useful to understand political, social, and cultural phenomena in particular historical settings. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Learning objective | Students learn the history of the body from mid-eighteen century onwards through examples taken from the multidisciplinary scholarship on the body with a special, albeit not exclusive, focus on colonial and postcolonial contexts. More specifically, students are sensitized to the historical and cultural variabilities of the human body that challenge scientific understandings of it as an unchanging biological entity. Adopting a humanities perspective on topics like anatomy and surgery, the treatment of the insane, sexuality, physical culture, eugenics, and body productivity, the course looks at shifting attitudes to body health and fitness and the ways these have been shaped by considerations of gender, race, and class as well as by socioeconomic circumstances of modernity. It considers how bodies have historically concerned governments who have classified different (sections of) populations as 'fit' or 'unfit' to be members of a certain community. The ‘long durée’ approach of the course allows to consider the continuities and changes in terms of scientific epistemologies and practices regarding the body. In doing so, debated contemporary issues such as assisted reproductive technologies and wearable systems of surveillance of the worker fatigue in the workplace are discussed. The course is structured thematically, adopts a multidisciplinary approach, and uses academic texts as well as concrete examples. It intends to a) enable STEM students to develop new perspectives on their core subjects by bringing them in dialogue with the themes dealt with and by raising ethical questions; b) familiarise students in general with major topics in the field of the recent scholarship on the body and make them mindful of the multiple ways in which understanding the body and its relationship with culture and power can help think critically of the present we live in. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 851-0040-00L | Can it Be Permissible to Kill a Few in Order to Save Many? | W | 3 credits | 2S | N. Mazouz | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Abstract | First, the relevant literature on moral justifications in trolley cases will be discussed (Foot, Thomson, Kamm, Otsuka, Kagan). Second, neuropsychological research on trolley cases (Greene, Haidt, Berker, Kamm) and third, applications of such moral reasoning in cases potentially arising in autonomous robots (Rahwan, Nyholm and Smids, Wolkenstein) will be considered. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Learning objective | Students will gain an overview of the current ethical debates surrounding the legitimacy of homicide-rescue-cases in specific types of situations. They will be enabled to interpret complex texts, identify the argumentation, to reflect it critically and to put it up for discussion. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Content | Killing innocents is generally thought to be morally impermissible – or so it seems from an intuitive point of view. However, there are situations where people can only be saved if less others are killed, for example in some traffic cases, in some cases in natural disasters, medical emergencies, terrorist attacks or humanitarian interventions. In some of these situations our intuitions stay clear and disaproving: it is not permissible to kill, even in order to save many lives, for example, to take the vital organs of one patient in order to save many more other patients. In other scenarios, the intuitions are less clear or even revert for most of us, like in the famous trolley-bystander case, in which a bystander can divert an out-of-control trolley heading towards five to a track where one person is trapped. How are these moral intuitions to be justified, if they are? In this seminar the relevant literature on moral justifications in such trolley cases will be reviewed as well as on methodological problems pertaining to the role of intuitions in moral justifications. Neuropsychological research on such cases as well as critique of the methods and normative presuppositions used in that research will be debated. Finally, attempts to apply such moral reasoning on allegedly analogous cases arising in autonomous robots will be discussed. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 851-0184-00L | Pluralist Philosophy of Mathematics | W | 3 credits | 2V | R. Wagner | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Abstract | This course will follow Michèle Friend's book "pluralism in mathematics". It will survey various mainstream philosophies of mathematics, and suggest a pluralist integration. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Learning objective | The goal is to introduce students to mainstream philosophies of mathematics, allow them to critically examine common views about mathematics, develop their analytic skills by handling philosophical questions, and enable a pluralist approach to philosophical questions. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Content | The course will examine realist, constructivist, structuralist and formalist philosophies of mathematics, and follow Friend in suggesting a pluralist approach that combines the various positions based on our agnosticism as to the best philosophy and a paraconsistent approach to philosophical logic. In this course we will learn the various positions, critically evaluate Friend's arguments, and consider the general merits and limitations of pluralist and paraconsistent philosophical approaches. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 851-0101-77L | Science and the State Number of participants limited to 30. | W | 3 credits | 2S | R. Wagner | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Abstract | This course will reflect on historical and contemporary relations between science and the state. Through various case studies, we will inquire how these two institutions shaped each other. The case studies will cover various scientific disciplines. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Learning objective | To understand how science helped form the state apparatus, and how politics helped shape science; evaluate the image of science as free thinking vs. servant of the state; analyze the role of science in generating political authority and political reasoning; analyze how political ideals are expressed in science. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 851-0101-90L | Aesthetics: On the History and Theory of Beauty | W | 3 credits | 2S | A. Kilcher | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Abstract | The meaning of the "beautiful" seems hard to pin down. Yet intersubjective and objective criteria of the beautiful nevertheless exist. The foundation of aesthetics as a "science" of the beautiful based on sensuous experience temporarily suspended this tension. Since modernity, the question of the beautiful has been ever more open. We shall approach this question theoretically and historically. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Learning objective | The meaning of the "beautiful" seems hard to define. At first glance, it rather constitutes a merely subjective sensation. Yet, on the other hand, intersubjective, collective and cultural ideas, or even objective criteria of the beautiful exist. Since antiquity, this irresolvable tension has characterized the discourse on the beautiful in the realms of art and philosophy. With the foundation of "aesthetics" in the 18th century, however, this debate was significantly altered. This new "science" aimed at a scientific investigation of the beautiful by situating sensuous impression above logic. While art had been hitherto understood as a learnable technique, it now appears as a sensuous and therefore subjective realization. The rejection of this optimism marks the turn to modernity that defined itself through a notion of art transcending the beautiful. Ever since, the question as to the meaning of the beautiful has been continuously open for debate. In the course of this seminar, we shall approach this question from a historical as well as theoretical perspective. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 851-0435-00L | Science and Neoliberalism: From the Critique of Planning to Competition and Think Tanks (1930–2000) | W | 3 credits | 2S | M. Wulz | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Abstract | From its beginning, the history of neoliberal thought has been linked to debates about the status of knowledge in society. In the seminar, students learn to understand fundamental debates in the theory of science in their political and economic contexts; moreover, we explore to what extent neoliberal thinkers actually shaped specific forms of science policy and research funding in the 20th century | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Learning objective | The seminar promotes an understanding of seminal texts in the early philosophy of science (M. Polanyi, J.D. Bernal, etc.) in the context of ideological struggles in the 1930s and 1940s and of the debates about knowledge, science, and society at that time. Moreover, it provides insights into the political and economic foundations of funding policies for education, science, and research that were developed since the 1970s. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Content | Neoliberalism is considered one of the most influential economic currents since the last decades of the 20th century. However, neoliberalism not only has a much longer history, going back to the ideological struggles of the 1930s. Since then, it has also been closely linked to debates about the status of knowledge and science in society. Theorists of science, such as Michael Polanyi, were part of neoliberal discussion circles; economists, such as Friedrich Hayek, developed decentered forms of knowledge as part of market processes. In this way, they criticized the contemporary demand for economic planning and the idea of science serving social needs. Competition and the market were subsequently regarded as the most important driving forces for scientific and economic innovation. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Literature | – Martin Beddeleem: Fighting for the Mantle of Science. The Epistemological Foundations of Neoliberalism, 1931–1951, PhD Thesis: University of Montreal 2017. – Daniel Stedman Jones: Masters of the Universe. Hayek, Friedman, and the Birth of Neoliberal Politics. Princeton 2012. – Philip Mirowski, Dieter Plehwe (Hg.): The Road from Mont-Pèlerin. The Making of the Neoliberal Thought Collective. Harvard 2009. – Mary Jo Nye: Michael Polanyi and His Generation. Origins of the Social Construction of Science. Chicago 2011. – Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian, Philip Mirowski (Hg.): Nine Lives of Neoliberalism. London 2020. – Elizabeth Popp Berman: Creating the Market University. How Academic Science Became an Economic Engine. Princeton 2012. – Quinn Slobodian: Globalists. The End of Empire and the Birth of Neoliberalism. Harvard 2018. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 851-0101-31L | The Rise of an Asian Giant: Introduction to the History of Modern India (c. 1600-2000) | W | 3 credits | 2V | H. Fischer-Tiné | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Abstract | The lecture offers a survey of the historical trajectories taken by the countries of the Indian subcontinent from the 17th century to the turn of the 21st century. The thematic foci include, but are not limited, to an examination of the question whether or or not there was a pre-European South Asian modernity. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Learning objective | Through this course students are acquainted with the history of one of the most important world regions. The objective is not only to introduce participants to a richly diverse civilization, they are also encouraged to look at interrelations and make comparisons with the West. Through this approach their knowledge of European history is contextualised in a global framework while simultaneously their intercultural sensitivity is being trained. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 851-0436-00L | Popularizing Science. Nonfiction Books Between Academy and Public | W | 3 credits | 2S | I. Barner | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Abstract | Science needs to be popularized in order to have an impact on society. Conversely, what is thought, read, and communicated outside the universities has an effect on research. The seminar deals with the history of popular knowledge focusing on the non-fiction book. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Learning objective | The seminar focuses on the reading and discussion of original and secondary texts on the history of the relationship between knowledge, the book market and the public. Students learn to critically engage with sources as well as research literature from the fields of literary, scientific, and book and media history. The amount of reading will be limited; what is important above all is the seminar discussion. Cooperation with actors in the literary business (authors, agents, editors, publishers) is planned. The students shall learn to prepare interviews and to write short texts in the form of non-fiction. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Content | Knowledge cannot be separated from the forms in which it is expressed. An important genre of (popular) knowledge representation is non-fiction. In this seminar we will look at how non-fiction books are actually made and how they are published and read at different times. Using examples from the history of non-fiction (Yuval N. Harari to Rachel Carson, C.W. Ceram to Charles Darwin/Ernst Haeckel), the seminar will shed light on the changing relationship between knowledge, the market, and the book format. What topics/subjects are en vogue at particular times? How do non-fiction books produce and narrate knowledge? How do they establish authority, how do they establish evidence? What notions of (scholarly) authorship, what notions of reading are associated with non-fiction books? What political, media, and cultural contexts play a role in this? | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 851-0177-00L | Images of Computing | W | 3 credits | 2G | J. L. Gastaldi, O. Del Fabbro, S. Hunziker | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Abstract | This seminar will explore different areas of our social and scientific life where computational practices have a critical impact. The goal is to provide a pluralistic conception of computing based on what computing looks like when dealing with topics as diverse as climate, law, art, or war. The lectures are delivered by researchers from ETH and abroad, with different disciplinary backgrounds. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Learning objective | By the end of the course, students will be able to describe and compare different conceptions and practices of computing from multiple disciplinary perspectives. They will be able to evaluate both the differences and the convergences between those conceptions, and critically assess their relation to current trends in science, technology, and society. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Content | Computing has become omnipresent in all dimensions of scientific and social life. Not only have cultural phenomena increasingly become the object of computational analysis, but computational practices have also proved inseparable from the cultural environment in which they evolve. Therefore, it is urgent to critically address the entanglement of computing practices with the main cultural challenges our epoch is facing. The global and collective nature of such problems requires a comprehensive perspective on computing, where social and cultural aspects occupy a central position. For these reasons, thinking about machines asks today for an interdisciplinary approach, where art is as necessary as engineering, anthropological insights as important as psychological models, and the critical perspectives of history and philosophy as decisive as the axioms and theorems of theoretical computer science. In this new edition of the Turing Centre’s “Images…” lecture series, we will explore different areas of our current social and scientific life where computational practices have a critical impact in order to reflect on the multiple images of computing resulting from them. Instead of asking what computing is in general, the seminar intends to focus on what computing looks like when dealing, for instance, with a climate model, a text of law, a work of art, a mathematical proof, or a weapon of war. The goal is to achieve a pluralistic conception of computing where its scientific, technical, and cultural aspects remain indissociable. The lectures will be delivered by researchers from ETH and abroad with different disciplinary backgrounds. As part of the Turing Centre, this seminar intends to sow the seed of a suitable and long-term environment for exchanging ideas between multiple fields in the natural sciences and the humanities. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 851-0527-00L | Introduction to the History of Technology: Concepts, and Current Debates | W | 3 credits | 2S | D. Gugerli | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Abstract | Technology and society cannot be separated: No society functions without technology. The seminar offers a problem-oriented introduction to basic questions of the history of technology, introduces approaches to the history of technology and discusses selected, ongoing debates. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Learning objective | The course seeks to provide a critical introduction to the issues, methods, and selected areas of research in the history of technology. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Content | History of technology investigates technological developments that arise in specific historical contexts. These developments are perceived by social groups or entire societies as a means of social change and ultimately find use or are forgotten. The questions that history of technology poses derive from the technological and social change that are a product of contemporary orientation and thinking; current historiographical methods provide the tools for answering these questions. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Prerequisites / Notice | Beginn 2. Semesterwoche (27.9.2022) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 851-0516-05L | Mobility and the Border: Migration and Control between Mexico and the USA, 19th– 21st Century Number of participants limited to 30 | W | 3 credits | 2S | S. M. Scheuzger | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Abstract | The course is dedicated to the history of migration between Mexico and the United States and to the history of control of these migratory movements. The role of technological change and scientific discourses in these developments will be a subject of special interest in the discussions. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Learning objective | A) The students know relevant approaches of the studies of migration, they are able to assess the analytical capacities of these approaches and they know how to apply them to concrete events and processes. B) The students have acquired knowledge about important aspects of the history of migration between Mexico and the United States. C) The students are able to identify relevant relations between scientific and technological change on the one hand and developments of migration and its control on the other. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Content | The land border between Mexico and the United States, where the ‚global North‘ and the ‚global South‘ meet in the most prominent form worldwide, provides an exemplary case to study how borders generate spaces of agency, constitute human communities and create identities – not only by separating people but also by connecting them. The course is dedicated to the history of migration between Mexico and the United States and to the history of control of these migratory movements. The role of technological change and scientific discourses in these developments will be a subject of special interest in the discussions. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 851-0534-00L | Yemeni Civil War: The Arab Spring, State Formation and Regional Rivalry | W | 3 credits | 2V | E. Manea | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Abstract | This course suggests a framework of analysis for the divergent outcomes of the Arab Uprisings (2011) using Yemeni Civil War as an example. It argues that the interaction between different types of state formation and regional context can explain the disintegration of some countries such as Yemen and Libya and the preservation of states such as Egypt and Tunisia. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Learning objective | 1. To get an introduction into the politics of the Middle East and North Africa, the Arab Spring and its divergent outcomes 2. To look at the different forms of state formations within the MENA region 3. To investigate how the interaction between types of state formation and regional context shaped current situation in the post Arab Spring MENA region 4. To look closer at Yemeni Civil War | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Content | Countries that experienced popular uprisings in the 2011 Arab Spring had a range of outcomes. Some countries, like Tunisia and Egypt, had a long tradition of centralised state apparatus and a strong national identity. Their outcomes were, respectively, a fragile democratisation process and a reversion to military authoritarianism. Other countries, such as Yemen, Syria and Libya, are newer states that lack a solid national identity, and society is divided along tribal, religious sectarian, linguistic, and/or regional lines. There the outcome has been a meltdown of the political order, along with civil war and fragmentation. Why? This course suggests a framework of analysis for the divergent outcomes using Yemeni Civil War as an example. It argues that the interaction between different types of state formation and regional context can explain, respectively, the disintegration of countries such as Yemen, Syria and Libya; as well as the preservation of the Bahraini system, despite its ethnic nature. Egypt and Tunisia provide further variants in their well-developed statehood and sense of national identity. Yemen will be used as a case study for examining this complexity among the countries that experienced the Arab spring. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 851-0345-00L | A Seminar Cycle on Africa | W | 3 credits | 2V | A. Mabanckou | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Abstract | Through this cycle of seminars, we will conduct a journey through black African literature written in French, from its origins to its main subjects, including the western perception of this literary creation. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Learning objective | This will lead, at the end of the cycle, to wider perspectives, such as the questions that arise today, on the presence of Black people in France - and beyond - in Europe. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Content | In seminar cycle, we will conduct a journey through black African literature written in French, from its origins to its main subjects, including the western perception of this literary creation. This will lead, at the end of the cycle, to wider perspectives, such as the questions that arise today, on the presence of Black people in France - and beyond - in Europe. (More information on: https://francais.ethz.ch/) Friday, November 11th 9:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. Lesson 1: The origins of French-speaking African literature French colonial literature gave birth to the so-called "littérature ‘nègre’", which would later claim a word that was forbidden or confiscated by the West, allowed sometimes under the guardianship or under the cover of a certain cultural alienation, until the frank rupture born with the "négritude", this current that, in the interwar period, exalted the pride of being black and the heritage of African civilizations. 2:00 pm - 4:30 pm Seminar 1: Guest Sami Tchak, Togolese writer, Grand Prix littéraire d'Afrique noire Friday, November 18th 9:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Lesson 2: Themes of contemporary African literature This will be an evocation of the major subjects of the African novel, including the pre-colonial period, the colonial painting, the illusions of the African independence and especially the birth of the ‘immigration novel’. 2:00 - 4:30 pm Seminar 2: Guest Mohamed Mbougar Sarr, Senegalese writer, Prix Goncourt Friday, November 25th 9:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Lesson 3: On the Western perception of African literature The representation and popularization of African literature in the West sometimes undergoes a kind of "ghettoization". African literature is then perceived as a distant island. Western publishers, as well as literary critics, compete for ingredients that would illustrate Africa according to them and that they expect from authors of the African continent. One finds traces of this trend even on the covers of books. 2:00 - 4:30 pm Seminar 3: Guest Charlyne Effa, Gabonese novelist Friday, December 16th 9:30am-12:30pm Lesson 4: From Africa to France: Screening of "Noirs en France” On January 18, 2022, the documentary "Noirs en France" (Black people in France), which I co-wrote with Aurélia Perreau, was screened in France on the France 2 channel. The success of this work illustrates how much the "question of being black" still remains a taboo subject. This is an opportunity to screen this film and to open the discussion with the authors. 2:00 pm - 4:30 pm Seminar 4: Guest Aurélia Perreau, co-author of the documentary " Noirs en France ". NB. The names of the guests in the seminars might change. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 851-0199-00L | History of Mathematics from Antiquity to 17th Century : Magnitudes, Numbers and Equations | W | 3 credits | 2V | E. Sammarchi | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Abstract | Far 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 objective | The 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. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Content | After 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. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Number | Title | Type | ECTS | Hours | Lecturers | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 851-0084-00L | Sound Studies and Literature – A New Paradigm? | W | 3 credits | 2V | A. Alon | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Abstract | The lecture presents the methodological diversity of sound studies inasfar as they are related to the study of literature and undertakes to critically assess exemplary works. It offers an overview of central aspects of the sonic turn, with the aim of presenting and examining methodological instruments for literary studies oriented towards the history of knowledge. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Learning objective | Is literature silent? The paper pages of the book or the screen of the tablet that we look at while reading might suggest so. Nevertheless, when reading, one cannot help but have the impression that literature contains sound. Doesn't it allow us to identify authors by their "voice," for example, or guide our reading through repetitions and assonances? Does it not seem to reproduce the sonic world? In other words: How is the relationship between literature and sound to be thought of? In recent years a concept of 'sound' has emerged in the realm of the so-called sound studies which thinks of acoustic phenomena in their connection with human perceptions and actions (Morat/Ziemer 2018). Research in the context of the 'sonic turn' assumes that literature both generates and stores sound and that our understanding of literature should be closely linked to the conceptualization and writing practice of sound as well as the conditions of its production and reception. Strongly interdisciplinary, this research thus combines perspectives from the cognitive sciences, with approaches from the technical sciences and cultural studies. At times, it has argued to dispense with the traditional fixation on writing and instead to approach literature also through sound practices and listening techniques. These practices and techniques should not only be object of studies, but, employing "listening as a research method" (Holger Schulze), should be integrated into the research methodology. The lecture will confront the methodological diversity of sound studies inasfar as they are related to the study of literature and will undertakes to critically assess them. It will offer an overview of central aspects of the sonic turn, with the aim of presenting and examining methodological instruments for literary studies oriented towards the history of knowledge. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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