PULS
Foto: Matthias Friel
DUE TO CURRENT PANDEMIC: This course will initially be taught online for at least 6 weeks. Participants need to sign up on PULS and will be issued further instructions on the 27th of April; in order to be enrolled in the course, prospective participants have to follow these instructions within a week. Participants will have to complete small assignements on a weekly basis so as to ensure constant exchange. If life-chats are going to take place, they will be scheduled during the regular course hours.
The recent rise of populist movements in Europe and in the USA as well as the sudden wide-spread acceptance of nationalist discourses that only thinly veil their racist investments has produced a wave of scholarly material on the history and the continuance of conservatism and racism all over Europe and in the USA. This course aims to look at the history of one specifc ideological conviction that underlies the Alt-Right: White Supremacism. The course will investigate the historical roots in European colonialism and trace the historical variations of white supremacist thought in colonial America/the USA.
Some of the materials will include language and images that participants may find disturbing. Please consider this before enrolling in the course - we will do our best not to reproduce the discourse of those we study, and not turn their violence it into a spectacle. This course takes a largerly historical approach but is committed to study this subject because of its political relevance. This follows the conviction that a detailed understanding of the continuances and nuances of this contemptuous (menschenverachtend) discourse may be necessary in order to challenge/defuse it without engaging in the polemics exercised by the Alt-Right.
Please consider the following course description to decide whether the changes to this format are viable for your current situation:
Preliminary Schedule
27. April - 15. May
Introductions
During the first two weeks, you will set up your moodle appearance, hear something about the course and will be given an overview of the topic; you will then sign up for your group project.
15. May - 12. June
Group Work
In your group, you will have a month to create an small online-teaching element - each group will be assigned one academic book that discusses a specific movement and its relation to White Supremacism (such as lynchings, race riots, the legislation of interracial romantic relationships, the KKK etc.) for the other participants. Your contribution should include: an overview over the book's content and the main thesis, including a review of its critical reception/your own opinions, a selected excerpt (no more than 25 pages of the original text and/or historical sources pertaining to the topic; can be less/consist of snippets) that you recommend for the other students, and a small assignment that your fellow students can then complete.
How you present the content/historical context/review is up to you, but it does not have to be in a written form; a small video/an online powerpoint/a video game/sock puppets… it is up to you! In fact, you want to convince as many other participants as you can to do your assignment and to review it favorably.
12. June - 3. July
Individual Assignments
Once all the group projects are uploaded, each individual student has to complete two of the assignments and upload them onto moodle.
3. July - 15. July
Reassessment
The groups will device the 'ideal answer' to their assignment from their own knowledge and from the answers that they received and put them up on moodle. Each student is asked to write a short review (2 -3 three sentences) over the three presentations they found to be most engaging.
Each Friday, the lecturer will check up on the progress, provide some guidance regarding procedure, and will be available for questions via chat/phone/online conference. This means that during the 'group phase,' each group has to give a very short weekly account on what has been on the agenda.
Should Corona allow for it, we will meet in person on campus for the last phase (reassessment).
Literature will be provided on moodle; preparatory readings will be circulated before the first session.
Each student who completes the group segment, two individual assignments and three reviews will pass the course. Grades will be determined as follows: 50% group assignment, 50 % individual assignments. Your grade can be improved should your fellow students specifically single out your work (group or your individual answers) for praise.
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