Featured Spring Courses

Fairy tales and virtual reality, green tech and cinematic masterpieces: Germany has them all. This spring semester, you can fulfill your core requirements while exploring this fascinating culture.

These four courses are just a few of the subjects you can choose from.

Greek style painting of a man holding up a puppet between a fire and another man

Virtual Realities: Collective Dreams from Plato to Cyberspace

GER 266S / ROMST 266S / LIT 265S | Taught in English, Online

Instructor: Sarah Pourciau

Tues. / Thurs. 12:00 p.m. - 1:15 p.m.

What is "virtual reality"? If something is real, isn't it also always actual, and if virtual, only almost or nearly real? What strange, hybrid no-mans-land lies midway between truth and illusion, and how can we learn to navigate inside this space? The puzzle is an old one, even if the technology we call VR is new.

In this course, we will read, watch, and maybe even play our way through some of the most powerful attempts to understand humanity's penchant for collective dreaming. We will ask about the relationship between dreams, art, games, technology, and reality, and how these relationships have changed over time.

Wind turbines against a blue sky

Green Germany

GER 364 / HIST 250 / ENERGY 364 | Taught in English, Hybrid

Instructor: K. Dolan

Wed. (in-person) / Fri. (online) 3:30 p.m. - 4:45 p.m.

A detailed examination of German environmentalism in the 20th century, followed by consideration of ongoing efforts to increase the country's reliance on renewable energy while also phasing out nuclear power.

Painting of a girl reading a book in a forest

Fairy Tales: From Grimms to Disney

GER 262 / ENG 287 / LIT 252 | Taught in English, Online or in-person

Instructor: April Henry

Section 1: Tues. 12 p.m. - 1 p.m. (in-person)
Section 2: Tues. 3:30 p.m. - 4:30 p.m. (online)
Section 3: Thurs. 5:15 p.m. - 6:15 p.m. (online)
Section 4: Thurs. 7 p.m. - 8 p.m. (online)

Snow White, Cinderella, Hansel and Gretel, Little Red Riding Hood, Rapunzel – who created these fairytales, and to whom were they told? What are they about, and why have they survived to the present day? To answer these questions, we will read and interpret several well-known tales from the collection of the Brothers Grimm, but also look at how they are told today, for instance in Disney movies. To deepen our understanding of this evolving heritage, we will familiarize ourselves with the various interpretive approaches of historians, folklorists, psychologists, anthropologists, and women’s studies scholars.

Movie posters for Metropolis and Barbara

German Film: Masterpieces of World Cinema

GER 264 / VMS 280 | Taught in English, Online

Instructor: Jochen Wohlfeil

Wed. 10:15 a.m. - 12:15 p.m.

An exploration of German film, from the golden age of Weimar cinema to contemporary hits.

Five students pose arm in arm

Deutsch @ Duke

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