Organizing your studies
You can find important information regarding the organization of your studies and exams on the following pages:
Managing your enrolment in PULS
Please also consult our programme's central moodle course for up to date information: Anglophone Modernities in Literature & Culture (Assistance & Info)
Melinda Niehus-Kettler, our Anglophone Modernities tutor is happy to support you with further advice on how to best organize your studies with us. Contact Melinda at: niehuskeuuni-potsdampde .
Module objectives and contact persons
| Module | Credit Points | Objectives, Format and Assessment |
|---|---|---|
Introduction to Anglophone Modernities Module convenor: Lars Eckstein | 6 | Students will gain an introductory knowledge of various perspectives on the concept of modernity from various areas of research in Anglophone literary studies and cultural studies. They will become able to critically and conceptually engage with a pluralized understanding of modernity. They will learn to explain and reflect upon their own positions and to justify them in dialogue with other positions. For students who started before winter semester 2021/22: Lecture series with final exam (PULS code 263011). |
Literary/Cultural Theories of Modernity Module convenor: Nicole Waller | 15 | Students will be able to describe complex methods for theorizing modernity and independently apply them to concrete investigations of literary and cultural phenomena and practices. In the process, they will apply basic knowledge they have already acquired to expanded and theoretically more challenging questions. They will thus become capable of critical engagement with competing scholarly positions and of forming their own independent judgment. Students will be able to make methodologically consistent arguments that meet scholarly standards and will practice these skills in the oral presentation of their research results, thus perfecting their dialogical competence. Three seminars with three short essays of 800 words, not graded (PULS codes 263111, 263112, 263113); one long essay of 7.000 words, graded (PULS code 263101). |
Literature and Modernity Module convenor: Dirk Wiemann | 15 | Students will learn to precisely examine and aesthetically assess literary texts at different levels of analysis, to reflect upon and make methodologically founded arguments about the mediality and sociality of texts; to comprehend the connection of literature and culture from a historical perspective, to question periodizations, to recognize the diverse interactions between texts and contexts and between national literatures; to grasp different kinds of literary-theoretical approaches and independently apply these in the concrete analysis of texts; to critically engage with competing scholarly positions and come to independent, yet dialogically developed judgments. Three seminars with three short essays of 800 words, not graded (PULS codes 263211, 263212, 263213); one long essay of 7.000 words, graded (PULS code 263201). |
Culture and Modernity Module convenor: Anja Schwarz | 15 | Students will learn to assess the role of culture for the dynamic dimensions of social processes in modernity. By examining regionally specific developments in connection with international interactions, they will develop competences in analyzing the transnationality of cultural transfer processes. This investigation aims to recognize forms of individual and collective mobility a s constitutive moments of cultural practice in modernity. Students will comprehend the city as an ambivalent site of modernity. They will simultaneously see the city as a nerve center for global processes of interconnection, as a space of extreme economic, social, ethnic and gender-specific inequality and of the highly conflictual negotiation of this inequality. This will enable them to develop differentiated analyses of the complex interactions within the different urban spaces of the English-speaking world and to make oral and written arguments about these spaces that are methodologically reflective and consistent in their scholarly approach. Three seminars with three short essays of 800 words, not graded (PULS codes 263311, 263312, 263313); one long essay of 7.000 words, graded (PULS code 263301). |
Module convenor: Anke Bartels | 9 | In seminars devoted to language practice, students will learn and more intensively practice preparing and critically analyzing argumentative texts, and they will expand their command of academic English and its academically specific vocabulary in written form. This also includes flexibility in being able to shift registers depending on the genre of text and situation. Additionally, the module teaches advanced skills in the translation of literary and academic texts. In the translation internship, students will apply their previous knowledge and the skills they obtained in the practical language courses in the master’s degree program in the area of translation, and they are given guidance and advise to help them deepen these skills in independent project-based work and in continuous communication with international partners. Through working intensively with core texts of research into modernity, the students will develop an increased awareness for the possibilities and limits of translating central terminology and concepts. At the same time, they will gain advanced collaboration skills. Seminar ‘Translation’ with translation practice or review article of 6000 words, graded (PULS code 263411). Seminar ‘Academic Writing’ with two short essays of 1000 words, graded (PULS code 263412). |
Module convenor: Lars Eckstein | 9 | The ability to collaborate and intercultural communicative competence will be strengthened through the use of discipline-specific ways of working in selected areas of practice. Students will experience the interplay of theory and practice by reflecting on the scope of different methods and working out individual or cooperative strategies for developing and realizing a program of research. Gaining familiarity with selected areas of application in science and research management, in communicating scholarly content and arguments, inindependent archival work or in preparing and editing publications will also help students establish contacts that can prepare them for their careers. Independent work experience with a report, not graded (PULS code 263501); information on assessment can be found here. |
International Research and Exchange Module convenor: Dirk Wiemann | 9 | The overall objective of this module is to enables students to reflect on the international dimension of their academic life as well as the larger cultural context within which they act. The four essay tasks of this module are further designed to focus on personal, socio-cultural and conceptual aspects of modernities in the actual present.Accordingly students write on personal experiences of transcultural phenomena and processes; on the similarities and differences of university systems and practices in two countries; and on the actual relevance for the socio-cultural present of one key concept from the field of modernity studies. Independent study documented by a learning journal, graded (PULS code 263601); information on assessment can be found here (enrolment key: exchange). |
Module convenor: Nicole Waller | 12 | Students will be introduced to current disciplinary methods and controversies, become familiar with different research perspectives in the subject and its sub-disciplines and critically engage with these approaches. They will be able to independently prepare a relevant research project, to present it in an appropriate and comprehensible form and to practice scholarly dialog in a discussion. Colloquium 1 & 2 with three short essays of 800 words, not graded (PULS codes 263711, 263712); Colloquium 3: Oral presentation of the master’s thesis with written documentation, graded (PULS code 263713). |
| Masters Thesis | 30 | Supervised independent research; thesis of approx. 80 pages, graded (75%) and thesis defense, graded (25%); further information on the MA thesis can be found here. |
Module Papers
The modules ‘Literary/Cultural Theories of Modernity’, ‘Literature and Modernity’, and ‘Culture and Modernity’ are completed by long essays (‘Modularbeiten’) of 7.000 words. Module papers are graded and account for 6 out of the 15 overall credit points that are awarded for each of these modules.
How to plan and register a module paper:
You begin by identifying a topic that you would like to write about. In the majority of cases, these topics build on the insights into a specific academic field that you acquired in the classes for this particular module. Contact your lecturers with a proposal for a paper and visit their office hours to narrow down and further refine your paper’s topic, research question and methodology.
You then register your paper with this particular lecturer on PULS under ‘My modules’.
Further information:
- Only register a module paper after you have spoken to your supervising lecturer.
- There are no deadlines for module papers, but you should agree on an individual, non-binding deadline or schedule with your supervisor.
- You can find an Essay Writing Guideline, an MLA style sheet and a plagiarism guideline on our Documents and forms page.
- Find out more about academic writing assistance, such as workshops, writing groups and peer-tutoring sessions, here.