Course
Class Time
Interreligious and Intercultural
Dialogue in Germany
January 5th, 2015 - January 23rd, 2015
Mon: 1.30 pm – 3 pm & 3.15 pm – 4.45 pm
Tue: 9 am – 10.30 am & 11 am – 12.30 pm
Wed: 1.30 pm – 3 pm & 3.15 pm – 4.45 pm
Thu: 9 am – 10.30 am & 10.45 am – 11.30 am
ECTS
Course Level
Instructor
4 ECTS credit points (45 contact hours)
Undergraduate students with an interest in religious
studies, cultural studies, social sciences, European studies
Dr. Victoria Bishop Kendzia
Course related
department/ faculty Institute for European Ethnology
Course Description
This course aims to examine convergences, divergences, and parallel tracks,
interrogating tensions evident between the Jewish narrative within the culture
of memory in Germany (Erinnerungskultur) and the endeavors to represent
migration today. The focus will be on museum and exhibition-oriented
institutions with three to four field trips to relevant sites in Berlin. The trips will
be preceded in class by an overview of a theoretical framework on the issues
of the construction of "Self" and "Other" and followed by discussions of the
field sites in a workshop atmosphere. Although this course is largely
anthropologically inflected, it is interdisciplinary in nature and engages with
several academic fields, touching on issues in history, politics, literature,
theology, philosophy and ethics. It is also relevant to students interested in
thematic programs, such as urban studies and museum studies.
Course Objective
To explore the topic of “Interreligious and Intercultural Dialogue: from the
Jewish Narrative to Migration Today” through field trips using ethnographic
methods and critical analysis.
Required Textbook
A reader will be handed out
Reading(s)/ Reference(s)
All these will be in the reader
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Fabian, Johannes. (2006) "The other revisited: Critical afterthoughts." In
Anthropological Theory. Vol. 6 (2): 139-152. (*This text is optional
reading for your own background. I will be lecturing on it in the first class
so will cover the main points then).
Ostow, Robin. (2007). "From Displaying ‘Jewish Art’ to (Re)Building
German-Jewish History: The Jewish Museum Berlin." In Vijay Agnew
(ed.). Interrogating Race and Racism. University of Toronto Press. 289319.
Young, James, E. (2000). "Chapter Six: Daniel Libeskind’s Jewish Museum
in Berlin: The Uncanny Arts of Memorial Architecture." In James E. Young.
At Memory’s Edge: After-Images of the Holocaust in Contemporary Art
and Architecture. Yale University Press. New Haven. 152-182.
Purin, Bernhard. (2008). "Building a Jewish Museum in Germany in the
Twenty-First Century." In Robin Ostow (ed.). Revisualizing National
History. University of Toronto Press. 139-155.
Yurdakul, Gökçe and Bodemann, Y. Michal. (2006). “We Don’t Want to Be
the Jews of Tomorrow” Jews and Turks in Germany after 9/11. German
Politics and Society. 44-67.
Rothberg, Michael and Yildiz, Yasemin. (2011). "Memory Citizenship:
Migrant Archives of Holocaust Remembrance in Contemporary Germany."
Parallax (Special Issue on Transcultural Memory) 17.4 (2011): 32-48.
Bunzl, Matti (2005) “Between Anti-Semitism and Islamophobia: Some
Thoughts on the New Europe.” American Ethnologist 32.4. 499-508.
Shooman, Yasemin and Riem Speilhaus (2010). “The concept of the
Muslim enemy in the public discourse” In Jocelyn Cesari (ed.) Muslims in
the West after 9/11. Religion, politics, and law. Routledge: London and
New York. 198-228.
Course Requirements/ Assessment Components
Your final grade will be composed of active attendance and participation. In
addition to attending the classes and the field trips, this includes:
1. Doing the readings in time and preparing 2 discussion questions on each
of them
2. Taking active part in the in-class workshops
3. Taking part in a group presentation. The groups are encouraged to chose
local site and present on it there.
4. Handing in a written research report (4-5 pages, double-spaced, 12 font,
Times New Roman), which can be based on the presentation. Details
re: due date (usually two weeks after the end of the course) and
content can be negotiated with the instructor.
Class Schedule
Week 1 - The "Jewish" Narrative
- Introduction to the course and to the "Jewish" narrative. Discussion of the concept
of self and other and introduction to the ethnographic methods. Excursion to the
Jewish Museum Berlin using ethnographic field methods.
Discussion of field trip and the three readings assigned for the week (Ostow 2007,
Young 2000, Purin 2008)
-Workshop on the method: Conversation Walk
Week 2 Intersections with Issues of Exclusion and Racism
- Excursion (venue tba) focus on the topic of intercultural dialogue
- Seminar comparing the two field trips.
The Migration Narrative
- Seminar on the Migration Narrative
- Excursion to a specific site: Villa Global at the Schöneberg Jugendmuseum
-Discussion on the two readings assigned for the week (Yurdakul/Bodemann 2006,
Rothberg/Yildiz 2011).
-Workshop on the method: Interview
Week 3 – Continuation of Jewish Narrative meets Migration Issues
Student Presentations and Summary Discussions
- Two Student Group Presentations and Discussions (day 1)
-Discussion of the final two readings (Bunzl 2005, Shooman/Spielhaus 2010)
-Workshop on the method: Field Diary
- Two Student Group Presentations and Discussions (day 3)
- Seminar: Summary Discussion, Certificates, feedback etc.
Schedule Winter University 2015 “ INTERRELIGIOUS AND INTERCULTURAL DIALOGUE”
Mo, January5th
Topic of the
day:
Course Introduction
Focus: Methods
9-10.30am
&
11-12.30pm TUE
10.45 -11.30 THU
No class
1.30-3pm
&
3.15-4.45pm
The Jewish Narrative
Lecture and Discussion
Wed, January 7th
Field Trip to the Jewish
Museum Berlin
Topic of the
day:
Field Trip (venue tba)
Focus: Dialogue
9-10.30am
&
11-12.30pm TUE
10.45 -11.30 THU
No class
1.30-3pm
&
3.15-4.45pm
Tue, January 13th
Discussion and Lecture
Focus: Migration
Wed, January 14th
Field Trip to Villa Global
Focus: Diversity
Topic of the
day:
Student
Presentations I and
II
9-10.30am
&
11-12.30pm TUE
10.45 -11.30 THU
No class
No class
Thu, January 15th
Discussion/Workshop
Focus: Anti-Semitism and
Islamophobia
Student Presentations
III and IV
Thu, January 22nd
No class
Fri, January 23rd
Summary Discussion
Focus: Visibility of
Dialogue
No class
No class
Fri, January 16th
No class
No class
Wed, January 21st
No class
Discussion/Workshop
Focus: Dialogue
No class
Tue, January 20th
Fri, January 9th
Discussion/Workshop
Focus: Jewish Narrative
No class
No class
Mo, January 19th
Thu, January 8th
No class
No class
Mo, January 12th
1.30-3pm
&
3.15-4.45pm
Tue, January 6th
No class
No class
No class