VIENNA STORIES

Prerequisites: (GERM UN3002) Students explore film, podcasts and digital technology as tools for analyzing culture, language and identity. Integrated in this course is an in-person, on-site segment involving faculty leading study abroad in one of Europe’s most diverse cities: Vienna, Austria. During a one-week stay in Vienna during the spring break, students will put their German-language, filming and digital technology skills to use and gather ethnographic material to produce a short German-language documentary film on identity, the notion of homeland, and stereotypes. Live encounters with native Viennese as well as with recent migrants from Turkey, Ukraine, Poland, former Yugoslavia, and/or Syria in formal and informal settings and a field study project will serve as the main sources for the video. After the on-site and out-of-classroom segment, students will edit their film material and present the final video in the class, Advanced German II: Vienna now and then, which will take place during the same semester. A course website will be created to host final video projects for future reference. Student videos will thereby serve as authentic classroom material for German courses at Barnard and elsewhere. This course includes a one-week study abroad project in Vienna during spring break.