Reflecting on war: Extensive theme week in May

The aim of the #ukraine|krieg theme week is to stimulate a diverse exchange about the current geopolitical and humanitarian crisis situation. Nearly 40 courses on war are planned in English, Romance, German and Theology: in seminars lectures and talks.

This means: "We analyze the discourses, narratives and images of war. We discuss the relationship between political-military authority, power and (dis)information. We reflect on the ideologems, practices and rhetorics of physical, psychological and structural violence. Even though we ourselves cannot yet grasp the inconceivable that has befallen Europe and have more questions than answers, we do not want to remain silent," say the organizers.

Students and members of other departments are cordially invited. However, places are limited. Please contact the respective lecturers directly for further arrangements if you are interested.

Participating lecturers and their courses

Tamara Bodden and Christine Riess (German Linguistics): Two in-depth seminars on 'Text' will address orality/writtenness: For example, a speech (Selenskyjs) will be examined as a conceptually written form of oral speech, or similar approaches will be taken that deal with texts and oral communicates in general.

Dr. Robert Brandau (Protestant Theology): In the seminar "Peace Ethics", the biblical foundations of the question of peace and violence are elaborated, historical stages are considered and discussed against the current challenge of the Ukraine war: Is radical pacifism the Christian option - what about violence, which creates and secures law and peace in the first place? Has the nuclear threat fundamentally changed the debate?

Prof. Dr. Olaf Gätje (German Linguistics and Language Didactics): In the seminar "Language and Impact", the thematic week on the war in Ukraine will focus on the language regime on the war in Ukraine imposed by the Russian leadership, which is meant to hem in public discourse in Russian society and which is used to promote certain narratives.

Maria Gallinat (German Linguistics): The seminar "On a Word" is about words in crisis (corona, climate, war) and their potential for discrimination. The seminar "Literary Learning" in primary level didactics is about language-sensitive literary learning, in the theme week specifically about the holistic view of people in teaching-learning settings, which integrates biographical aspects such as migration and flight and takes linguistic heterogeneity into account. In the symposium "Current Childhoods | Current Didactics", invited speakers will discuss, among other things, 'Corona Childhood' and childhood in war as current topics in daily politics.

Katharina Gaida (Protestant Theology) / Prof. Dr. Mirja Kutzer (Catholic Theology): In the joint seminar "Theology in the Context of Religious Plurality. Positions - Encounters - Competencies" the seminar will work on 'Religious Peacebuilding', dealing with the (possible) contribution of religions to war and peace (also using the example of the role of Christian Orthodoxy in the Ukraine war) and the concept of just peace.

Prof. Dr. Andreas Gardt (German Linguistics): A thematic block "Languages of War and Dictatorship" will be added to the Research Colloquium.

Prof. Dr. Andreas Gardt u. Dr. Paul Reszke (German Linguistics): In the seminar "Linguistic Exhibition Research", the Ukraine war will be addressed with reference to concrete artistic works of the upcoming documenta fifteen.

Prof. Dr. Daniel Göske (American Literary Studies): In the lecture "Make It New! American Literature 1860-1920", the theme week uses William Dean Howell's story Editha to address, among other things, the topic of war as male training.

Prof. Dr. Liliana Gómez (Art and Society): In the lecture series "Aesthetic Dimensions of the Political: Art, Activism, Participation" Jens Kastner will talk about activist practice of art and resistance, starting from the feminist art collective Polvo de Gallina Negra. In the seminar "Artists' Talks" court cases against female artists and curators will be discussed, for example against the Russian punk group Pussy Riot (guest speaker is Dr. Sandra Fimmel, editor of Kunst vor Gericht and Eastern Europe expert).

Prof. Dr. Stefan Greif (Modern German Literary Studies): In the seminar on Goethe's "Faust II," the theme week will focus on various forms of (physical, psychological, structural) depiction of violence.

Nicole Kasper (German Linguistics and Language Didactics): In the seminar "Zwischen Geolino und medizini. Journalistic Texts for Children Yesterday and Today"one of the topics is which current/social topics are presented for children - here especially the Ukraine war.

Prof. Dr. Tom Kleffmann (Protestant Theology): In a seminar on the concept of sin, the philosophical and theological question of just war is discussed.

Prof. Dr. Stefanie Kreuzer (Modern German Literature and Media Studies): In a poetry seminar, the thematic focus is on war poetry and the (Ukrainian) war. In the seminar on this year's Grimm Poetics Professor Doris Dörrie, the nuclear threat is to be addressed in the context of her film "Greetings from Fukushima" (D 2016). The master colloquium will discuss the topicality of (humanities) scholarship in the context of the war in Ukraine. 

Prof. Dr. Mirja Kutzer (Catholic Theology): The seminar "Fulfilled Time - Introduction to Eschatology" will deal with (eschatological) conceptions of peace on the basis of artistic representations: Of (Heavenly) Peace - Christian Concepts of Peace as a Reaction to Experiences of War.

Prof. Dr. Michael Mecklenburg (Early German Literary Studies): Medievalist seminars will focus on narratives that understand war as a systematic and planned form of action aimed at killing those perceived as opponents and that discursively embed and justify these acts of war. One focus is on the continuity of the violence-based concept of masculinity that has existed from the Middle Ages to the present.

Prof. Dr. Ilse Müllner (Catholic Theology): In the lecture "The Psalms" the 'Enemy Psalms' in the Old Testament are discussed, where the theme of violence plays an important role. Thus, it is paradigmatically about the hermeneutics of texts on violence - for example, in those Psalms in which the prayerful calls for God's intervention against one's enemies (Ps 3:8; 139:19-22). It is to be asked how such texts are to be understood historically, what they mean in contemporary communication contexts, and how they can be dealt with in liturgical contexts? In the seminar "The Book of Job in Bible and Reception History" a thematic unit on 'Biblical Hopes for Peace' will be included.

Prof. Dr. Jennifer Pavlik (Modern German Literary Studies and Didactics of Literature): In the seminar on 'Poetic and Cultural Alterity' the concept of the 'refugee' will be problematized starting from Hannah Arendt's essay Wir Flüchtlinge (We Refugees ) and, if necessary, discussed on the basis of Robert Menasse's novel Die Hauptstadt (The Capital ) on the common 'idea' of Europe.

Prof. Dr. Nikola Roßbach (Modern German Literary Studies): In the seminar "History of Poetry III: From Romanticism to Naturalism," the theme week will focus on revolutionary and resistance poems of the 19th century.

Prof. Dr. Annegret Reese-Schnitker (Catholic Theology): "Introduction to Religious Education" will address the topic of the Ukraine war in a relevant way.

Prof. Dr. Angela Schrott (Romance Linguistics): The courses "Narration in Spanish," "Conversational Linguistics of French," and "Analyzing Spanish Literature Linguistically" will include topical discourse analyses of the war in Ukraine and the corresponding discourses in France, Spain, and Latin America, respectively.

Vanessa Sternath (Older German Literary Studies): In the seminar "Introduction to Older German Literature and Language 2 (Hartmanns von Aue Der arme Heinrich)" the representations of ruler figures in Middle High German texts and of Selenskyi and Putin in current newspaper articles will be analyzed intersectionally and related to each other in order to be able to uncover dynamics of physical, psychological and structural ruler violence in their multidimensional interconnectedness.

Johannes Thüne (Catholic Theology): In the seminar "The Liberation Theologian Leonardo Boff", excerpts from his book Fundamentalism and Terrorism will be read during the theme week, in which he argues that there will only be political peace with simultaneous religious peace. Is the advocated position 'love overcomes hate' naive? What are meaningful responses?

Dr. Andreas Wicke (Modern German Literary Studies and Didactics of Literature): The seminar "Theater Text and Production" is about political theater using Milo Rau's The Moscow Trials as an example. The "Kafka" seminar headlines in the theme week "Germany has declared war on Russia. - Afternoon Swim School." Franz Kafka and the war - using the example of the story In the Penal Colony. The seminar "Intercultural Didactics of Literature" discusses the topic of flight and deportation on the basis of a children's novel.

Prof. Dr. Jan Witthaus (Spanish Literature): The lecture "History of Latin American Nature: from Columbus to Magic Realism" will be about 'The Dictator in the Novel - Latin America's Contribution to Political Type Theory'.

Questions are welcome via e-mail to the initiators: Liliana Gómez, Stefanie Kreuzer, Michael Mecklenburg, Jennifer Pavlik and Nikola Roßbach.