Semester Courses

The Department of American Studies offers a wide range of courses. Also, a number of courses offered by other departments are open to American Studies students. For comprehensive information on all study courses, please see the course catalogue on alma.

Dates & Deadlines

Alma Guides

Winter Semester 2026/2027

Basic Module Courses

S: Introduction to Literary Studies	Dr. Isabell Klaiber
S: Introduction to Literary Studies	Dr. Anthony Obute
S: Introduction to Literary Studies	PD Dr. Carsten Schinko
S: Introduction to Cultural Studies (nur IAS)	Marina Pingler

These courses are accompanied by a tutorial.

Advanced Module Courses

S: 21st-Century Superhero Movies (Post-Civil War)	Julia Klumbach
S: Dark Academia: The Politics and Poetics of Haunted Halls, Forbidden Knowledge and Evil Powers (Pre- and Post-Civil War)	Dr. Davina Höll
S: Feminism and AI: Techno Liberation in Sci-Fi Films (Post-Civil War)	Denise Meier
S: Indigenous Futurisms (Post-Civil War)	Marina Pingler
S: Remembering the American Civil War (Pre- and Post-Civil War)	Dr. Johanna Roering
S: The Art of Negation: Hawthorne - Poe - Melville (Pre-Civil War)	PD Dr. Carsten Schinko
S: The Attractions of Early Film (Post-Civil War)	Dr. Ignacio Albornoz
S: The Beatles and America (Post-Civil War)	Dr. Thomas Gijswijt
S: The Politics of the Private Sphere: American Women’s 19th-Century Short Fiction (Pre- and Post-Civil War)	Dr. Isabell Klaiber
S: Uncle Tom's Cabin: Investigating an American Motif (Pre- and Post-Civil War)	Dr. Johanna Roering

Focus and Master Module Courses

S: 19th Century Transatlantic Kinship in Literature	Dr. Anthony Obute
S: Blueprints & Dystopias: North American Science Fiction as Mirror, Map and Warning	Dr. Johanna Roering
S: Pop on the Big Screen: Hollywood & Popular Music	PD Dr. Carsten Schinko
S: Representing War in American Literature and Culture	Dr. Johanna Roering
S: Speaking from the Self: Confession and Its Audiences in American Culture	Dr. Risto Lenz
S: Tennis Fiction	Prof. Dr. Michael Butter
S: Traditions in Transition: Indigenous Film and Photography in North America	Dr. Isabell Klaiber
S: Transcendentalism	Prof. Dr. Michael Butter

Master Module Courses

S: Concepts, Methods, Theories (MA AMS)	Prof. Dr. Michael Butter
S: „Telling the Truth“: Documentary Writing and Photography	Prof. Dr. Horst Tonn

Lectures

L: American (In-)Authenticities	PD Dr. Carsten Schinko
L: Introduction to Cultural Studies	Prof. Dr. Michael Butter
L: Issues in American Literary & Cultural History IV: From World War II to the Present	Dr. Thomas Gijswijt

Elective Curriculum

S: Songwriting	Dr. Thomas Gijswijt
S: The Midterm Elections	Dr. Thomas Gijswijt
S: U.S. Foreign Policy II: Key Texts and Theories	Dr. Thomas Gijswijt

External Offer for Interdisciplinary/Elective Curriculum

If registration doesn't work through Alma, please contact the instructor directly to request admission. Please provide your student ID number.
Analyzing Armed Conflicts	Prof. Dr. rer. soc. Andreas Hasenclever
Art and International Relations	PD Dr. phil. Gabriele Schlag
Citizenship and the state: status, identity and rights in a globalised world	Ph.D. Cecilia Bruzelius
Cross-disciplinary Perspectives on Narratives	Prof. Dr. phil. Lea Frermann
Disability Ethics in Health, Media, and Technology	Ph.D. Kierra Peak
Ethics in International Relations	Dr. rer. pol. Christopher Gohl
Foreign Policy and Transnationalization of the Far Right	M.Sc. Javid Ibad
Friends or Foes? International Migration and National Welfare States	Ph.D. Cecilia Bruzelius
Global Ethics	PD Dr. phil. Gabriele Schlag
Leaders in Conflict	Dr. phil. Juliana Tappe Ortiz
Media Literacy in the Age of Misinformation	Dr. rer. nat. Nicole Antes
Political demography: states, policies and populations	Ph.D. Cecilia Bruzelius
Populism and its Critics	Prof. Ph.D. Léonie de Jonge
Post-colonial perspectives on age and ageing	Dr. phil. Mone Spindler
Proseminar Nordamerikanische Geschichte (Fortuna)	James Fortuna
Regime Change and Democratization	Prof. Dr. rer. soc. Oliver Schlumberger
Rhetorical Citizenship	Jun.-Prof. Blake Scott
Secularity and religion in global perspective	Dr. phil. Katharina Wilkens
Social inequalities in comparative perspective	Prof. Ph.D. Pia Schober
Sociology of Morality	M.A. Manuel Dieterich
The Bill of Rights	MA Lucas Ogden
The Constitution and the Government of the United States	MA Lucas Ogden
The Far Right and Culture	M.A. Esmee Bakker
The Global Far Right	Prof. Ph.D. Léonie de Jonge
Theory and method in the study of religion and culture	Dr. phil. Katharina Wilkens
The Politics of Migration	Dr. rer. soc. Marco Krüger
Übung Nordamerikanische Geschichte (Schild)	Prof. Dr. phil. Georg Schild
Visual Global Politics	PD Dr. phil. Gabriele Schlag
Welfare States and Social Policy in Times of Climate Crisis	Miriam Zeitler
Hauptseminar Nordamerikanische Geschichte (Schild)	Prof. Dr. phil. Georg Schild
Proseminar Nordamerikanische Geschichte (Schild)	Prof. Dr. phil. Georg Schild
Übung Nordamerikanische Geschichte (Essifi)	BA Lena Essifi
Vorlesung Nordamerikanische Geschichte (Schild)	Prof. Dr. phil. Georg Schild
VL_Luke	Prof. Dr. phil. Megan Luke

Summer Semester 2026

Basic Module Courses

S: Introduction to Literary Studies	Prof. Dr. Astrid Franke
S: Introduction to Literary Studies	Dr. Isabell Klaiber
S: Introduction to Cultural Studies (nur IAS)	Prof. Dr. Michael Butter

These courses are accompanied by a tutorial.

Advanced Module Courses

S: 19th Century Poetry (Pre-Civil War)	PD Dr. Carsten Schinko
S: Dystopian Fiction (Post-Civil War)	Julia Klumbach
S: Guns in America: Culture, Politics, Violence (Pre- and Post-Civil War)	Dr. Thomas Gijswijt
S: Performing America: Race, Gender, and Politics in Recent U.S. Plays (Post-Civil War)	Dr. Isabell Klaiber
S: Queer Heroes: Reimagining Justice and Heroism in YA Fantasy and Superhero Fiction (Post-Civil War)	Elisa Pesce
S: Tech Utopia and American Politics (Post-Civil War)	Dr. Johanna Roering
S: The American Dream in Film and Fiction (Post-Civil War)	Verena Nestele
S: The Literatures of Abolitionism (Pre- and Post-Civil War)	Dr. Johanna Roering
S: Writing Selves, Writing Bodies: Texts on Illness, Trauma, and Transformation (Post-Civil War)	Elisa Pesce

Focus Module Courses

S: Excess and Exclusion: The US Maximalist Novel and its Politics of Belonging

Elisa Pesce

Focus and Master Module Courses

S: African American Poetry from the Harlem Renaissance to the Dark Room Collective	PD Dr. Carsten Schinko
S: American Social Dance	Dr. Johanna Roering
S: Analyzing Music Videos	PD Dr. Carsten Schinko
S: "Black Autobiography"	Prof. Dr. Tonn-Meller
S: Genealogies of Popular Music: Media Technologies and Pop-Cultural Figures from the 1970s to the Digital Age	Dr. Risto Lenz
S: Reel Alternatives? New Hollywood Cinema	PD Dr. Carsten Schinko
S: Star Wars: Films, Franchise, Fandom	Prof. Dr. Michael Butter
S: The Past of Afrofuturism	Prof. Dr. Astrid Franke
S: War Photography	Dr. Johanna Roering

Lectures

L: Conspiracy Theories in American Culture (and Beyond)	Prof. Dr. Michael Butter
L: Issues in American Literary & Cultural History III: From the Civil War to the Second World War	Prof. Dr. Astrid Franke
1776-2026: Was ist los in den USA?	Prof. Dr. Astrid Franke

Colloquia

KO: MA-Kolloquium

Prof. Dr. Astrid Franke

Elective Curriculum

S: 09/11	Dr. Thomas Gijswijt
S: The U.S. Political System	Dr. Thomas Gijswijt
S: U.S. Foreign Policy I	Dr. Thomas Gijswijt
S: U.S. Foreign Policy III: The United States and Russia since the End of the Cold War	Dr. Thomas Gijswijt

External Offer for Interdisciplinary/Elective Curriculum

If registration doesn't work through Alma, please contact the instructor directly to request admission. Please provide your student ID number.
Vorlesung Nordamerikanische Geschichte (Schild)	Prof. Dr. phil. Georg Schild
Übung Nordamerikanische Geschichte (Schild)	Prof. Dr. phil. Georg Schild
The Constitution and the Government of the United States	Lucas Ogden
The Bill of Rights	Lucas Ogden
Masculinity Studies: A Cross-Cultural Perspective	Ph.D. Rahat Shah
Theory and method in religion and culture	Dr. phil. Katharina Wilkens
„One for all, all for one“: understanding and explaining the North Atlantic Treaty Organization	PD Dr. phil. Gabriele Schlag
Hauptseminar Zeitgeschichte (Matt)	Prof. Ph.D. Susan Matt
Managing Across Cultures	Prof. Dr. rer. pol. Markus Pudelko