Required Courses

GERM 103 Intermediate German I

Students will gain a wider range of oral expression, both lexical and grammatical. They will be able to express more complex reactions, read more complex narrative texts, and write sentences in cohesive paragraphs and short essays. They will further understanding of German-speaking cultures.

GERM 104 Intermediate German II

This course is a continuation of GERM 103. Hence, students will continue to improve their linguistic and cultural proficiency skills as outlined above.

GRMS 300 German Studies Capstone

Students will synthesize the knowledge gained in their 18 hours of coursework into an interdisciplinary project and 10–15 page paper that combines that knowledge with the student’s other major(s)/minor(s) or other interests. This requirement may also be satisfied with an internship at the DANK Haus in Chicago.

Elective Courses

GERM 250 Conversations and Composition I

Students will gain confidence in their ability to speak, read and write modern German by acquiring a wider range of oral expression, both lexical and grammatical. They will learn to express opinions, both orally and in writing, in a German comprehensible to the native speaker. This will occur on the basis of comprehending and commenting on German cultural artifacts(e.g., texts, film, and music) that will provide an overview of the development of German-speaking cultural history.

GERM 251 Conversations and Composition II

Students will continue the process started in GERM 250 of gaining confidence in their ability to speak, read and write modern German on the basis of a wide variety of cultural artifacts from the German-speaking world.

GERM 369 German for Reading (offered every summer)

This course provides undergraduate and graduate students in the humanities, arts and social sciences with the fundamentals of German grammar for the purposes of reading and translating academic German. We will work through German grammar explanations, vocabulary, strategies for negotiating meaning, and translation exercises. In addition, you will work on a project translating a text from German into English pertinent to your particular area of academic interest.

GERM 370 German Film

This course provides an overview of German film from its beginnings until the present time. Movies will be screened chronologically from the various eras of German film: Silent Movies, Weimar Sound Movies, Film in the Third Reich, Post-War Films, New German Film and Movies of Unified Germany. The films will be viewed and analyzed as aesthetic works of art, and against the development of German history and culture.

COMM 260 Film History: New German Cinema (offered every second or third year)

Students will examine the New German Cinema movement which takes place from the early 1960'sto the late 1970s. They will gain an understanding of the development and evolution of the New German Cinema movement within a cultural context.  The course is also designed to expand the student’s understanding of the critical/cultural theoretical approaches use in the analysis of cinematic texts.

HIST 300B Barbarians and the Fall of the Roman Empire (offered every other or third year)

Students will gain familiarity with the Germanic tribes (Barbarians) and their interactions with the Roman Empire; the ability to make connections between secondary and primary sources; and the capacity to think critically about the ways that historians have approached major issues.

HIST 300C Poland and Germany (offered every other or third year)

Students will gain familiarity with Poland and Germany in historical perspective; the ability to make connections between secondary and primary sources; and the capacity to think critically about the ways that historians have approached major issues.

HIST 300C Topics in European History (post-1700)(offered every other or third year)

Students will gain familiarity with the topic; the ability to make connections between secondary and primary sources; and the capacity to think critically about the ways that historians have approached major issues.

HIST 310  The Early Middle Ages 600-1150

This course examines European society and culture in the early Middle Ages. Students will demonstrate an understanding of reasons behind the transformation of classical civilization; the so-called fall of Rome and the barbarian invasions; early Germanic kingdoms; Charlemagne and Carolingian Europe; the Vikings; and church and society in the eleventh century.

HIST 310A Medieval World, 1100-1500 (offered every year)

Students will demonstrate understanding of new forms of schools and learning; the origins of national monarchies; the crusades; chivalry; courtly love and the role of women; the rise of towns; church and state relations; the Black Death and the Hundred Years War.

HIST 310B Medieval Culture (offered every other year)

Students will understand how these cultures developed through shared roots, mutual influence, interaction and reaction; be able to interpret artistic expression and material culture in historical context; and gain skill in the analysis of primary sources.

HIST 315 The Reformation

This course examines the birth and progress of the Reformation in Europe from Luther's protest in 1517 to the conclusion of the Thirty Years War in 1648. Students gain familiarity with the social, religious, intellectual, and political background of the Reformation; Luther’s personal religious experience and his theological convictions; the Swiss Reformation of Zwingli and Calvin; the nature and spread of Calvinism; the elements of the Radical Reformation; and the efforts for Catholic Reform culminating at the Council of Trent.

HIST 321 Germany in the Nineteenth Century,1815-1900 (offered every other year)

Students will gain familiarity with the Germany in the 19thcentury; the ability to make connections between secondary and primary sources; and the capacity to think critically about the ways that historians have approached major issues.

HIST 330 Europe in the 20th Century, 1900-1945(offered every other year)

Students will gain familiarity with the Europe in the 20th century; the ability to make connections between secondary and primary sources; and the capacity to think critically about the ways that historians have approached major issues.

HIST  333 Germany in Twentieth Century

This course will cover the major phases of modern German history: Wilhelmine Germany, Volkish Germany, Germany in the First World War, Weimar Germany, National Socialist Germany, Germany in the Second World War, Post-War West Germany, East Germany, and Reunification.  While setting forth the background of political and social developments, we will carefully consider responses to these issues by leaders in German intellectual and cultural life. Students will apprehend the role of Germany in World War I; the turn to the Weimar Republic; the Rise and Fall of National Socialism; the emergence of two Germanies as a consequence of defeat in World War II; reunification in 1989; and cultural responses to these developments.

HIST 334 Nazi Revolution (offered every other or third year)

Students will explore the origins of Nazism and the reasons for Hitler’s success. Students appreciate the elements of Nazi culture, the nature of Nazi rule in the 1930s, Nazi foreign policy and aggression in the 1930s, and World War II.  They acquire a sense of the Nazi movement as a phenomenon growing out of unique German circumstances as well as one reflecting the larger context of modern western history.

HIST 335 The Second World War (offered every other or third year)

Students will understand the interrelationships among the political, social, economic, military and diplomatic developments of the war, its origins, and its results. Students will also come to understand the difficulties of decision-making and moral choices in a time of total war.

HIST 336 Contemporary Europe, 1945 to the Present(offered every other or third year)

Students will understand the process of European integration, including the effects of the Cold War on Europe, the challenges of the re-unification of Germany, the integration of ten Central European nations into the European Union, and cultural reactions to these developments.

HIST  338A  History of European Communism

In this course students will study the history of European Communism from its inception. The success that this ideology enjoyed among European societies makes it necessary to study this phenomenon in detail. The course will begin by tracing the origins of Communism and end with a discussion of its downfall.  Outcomes include improved cognitive skills and communications skills, and enhanced historical knowledge.

PHIL 306 19th Century Philosophy

This course will enhance and clarify the students' understanding of (a) some major philosophers of the 19thcentury (e.g., Hegel, Marx, Nietzsche) and (b) the philosophical development after Kant from idealism to phenomenology.

PHIL 309 Classical Modern Philosophy

This course will enhance and clarify the students' understanding of (a) some major philosophers in early modern philosophy (e.g., Descartes, Hume, Kant) and (b) the major epistemological and metaphysical issues that are now associated with those influential philosophers.

PHIL 375 Philosophy of Marxism

This course will enhance and clarify the students' understanding of (a) Karl Marx and his philosophical successors and (b) the major philosophical issues that provided for the longstanding influence of Marxist philosophy.

PLSC 308 Contemporary Political Thought (offered every other semester)

Students will read selected works from Friedrich Nietzsche, Max Weber, Reinhold Niebuhr, Hannah Arendt, Michel Foucault and Massimo Tale as a criticism of modernity. In the process, they will reflect on and come to understand these writers ‘concerns with the political, social, spiritual and psychological dispositions created by modern political institutions.

SOCL 205 Social Theory

Students will gain familiarity with the major classical theories in sociology for understanding the workings of society (Marx, Weber, Freud). Students will gain a critical perspective on the social organization of power and privilege. Students will be able to apply classical social theory to contemporary society and their own personal situation.

THEO 281 Christianity through Time (offered annually)

The course is a survey of the history of Christian thought. Not a course in Church history, this is a course whose primary goal is to investigate the major interactions between Christian thought and practice and the cultures that it has been a part of in its two thousand year history. Students will learn to analyze and interpret religious texts, beliefs and practices using standard scholarly methods and tools.

THEO 319 Reformation Theology (offered irregularly)

A study of Christendom and its faith and life during the late medieval and early modern period. Students will acquire the theological and historical knowledge relevant to the Reformation era. They will also learn appropriate critical skills for dealing with the political, social, and religious crises of these times.

 

Total number of credit hours required for the minor: 19.