GRMN 202/450: "Muses & Mountains"
Course Background (English Description)
GRMN 202/450 will figuratively + thematically 'follow in the footsteps' of one of Germany’s most famous writers and avid scientists, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. During the semester, GRMN 202 or 450 students will discover art, science, engineering, and nature on a curricular journey from north to south through the Alps and ending in Italy's "Süd-Tirol" region via text, image, and film. Then, directly after the course ends, we set forth and travel/experience those same discoveries live.
To participate, students will register for either GRMN 202 or GRMN 450 as a co-led course centered on building linguistic, cultural, and logistical skills which will be helpful in Europe. Linguistic skills will build towards and arrive at Intermediate language proficiency that will allow students to communicate and troubleshoot a variety of situations abroad. Cultural skills will include an interdisciplinary capacities to engage with engineering sites, literary texts, scientific labs, and artworks in museums. Logistic skills help get students from a to b, whether on train, plane, or zu Fuss. In this preparatory course, students will analyze maps ahead of time; practice purchasing tickets; pre-navigate local and regional commutes on the one hand. This means that students will hit the ground running mentally and linguistically.
While abroad, this post-course trip abroad features and explores rich historical traditions that span energy dams & nature parks, gondola cable cars, castle designs, roof designs, flora/fauna, and the Romantic and Modern imaginaries that ushered in much of the contemporary landscapes, mindsets, and geopolitical realities of today's Alp cultures. In addition, we take a look back in time at some of the earliest cultural traces on the European continent... Our finale visit will occur in Bolzano where one of the oldest human specimens lies: Ötzi. By contrasting age-old human imprints with more contemporary phenomena in the Alps, this course allows students a deeper perspective on the longer genealogy of the Alps and its intersections with human cultures.
Why Travel Abroad?
No time like the present to explore a mountain region so relevant not just in Europe but also here in Bozeman, something that so many Montana students love: the mountains! From a pedagogical point of view, expanding learning environments into authentic real-life environments, book-knowledge into field-knowledge, personal relationships with globally-infused interpersonal growth takes shape in this kind of two week immersive travel journey, which, like Goethe's journey, will hopefully become more of a life marker and unforgettable adventure to remember.
*For students who wish to participate in the Spring 2024 course but are unable to partake in the journey, herzlich Willkommen! By all means, please join us in person for the semester and feel free to virtually follow along for the post-semester adventures. Contents from the semester carry over directly and seamlessly to the abroad trip, which gives non-traveler students opportunity to keep in touch and involved with our trip.
GRMN 202's theme and GRMN 450's theme are the same. There will be days & even weeks where we overlap in class, co-teaching and co-learning about the topics. There will also be other days/weeks we separate in order to pursue specific curricular goals pertinent to each course. Both courses are 100% auf Deutsch (in German). But the goal of both courses is to communicate with new speakers who enter into communicative scenarios with different skillsets, comfort levels, and dialects. So Student A should be willing to communicate with Student B, at MSU just as in Munich or Bolzano or Innsbruck, each of which speak a distinctly different style of German. So too can GRMN 450 speak with GRMN 202, and us all with other speakers of the world.
GRMN 202/450 will figuratively + thematically 'follow in the footsteps' of one of Germany’s most famous writers and avid scientists, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. During the semester, GRMN 202 or 450 students will discover art, science, engineering, and nature on a curricular journey from north to south through the Alps and ending in Italy's "Süd-Tirol" region via text, image, and film. Then, directly after the course ends, we set forth and travel/experience those same discoveries live.
To participate, students will register for either GRMN 202 or GRMN 450 as a co-led course centered on building linguistic, cultural, and logistical skills which will be helpful in Europe. Linguistic skills will build towards and arrive at Intermediate language proficiency that will allow students to communicate and troubleshoot a variety of situations abroad. Cultural skills will include an interdisciplinary capacities to engage with engineering sites, literary texts, scientific labs, and artworks in museums. Logistic skills help get students from a to b, whether on train, plane, or zu Fuss. In this preparatory course, students will analyze maps ahead of time; practice purchasing tickets; pre-navigate local and regional commutes on the one hand. This means that students will hit the ground running mentally and linguistically.
While abroad, this post-course trip abroad features and explores rich historical traditions that span energy dams & nature parks, gondola cable cars, castle designs, roof designs, flora/fauna, and the Romantic and Modern imaginaries that ushered in much of the contemporary landscapes, mindsets, and geopolitical realities of today's Alp cultures. In addition, we take a look back in time at some of the earliest cultural traces on the European continent... Our finale visit will occur in Bolzano where one of the oldest human specimens lies: Ötzi. By contrasting age-old human imprints with more contemporary phenomena in the Alps, this course allows students a deeper perspective on the longer genealogy of the Alps and its intersections with human cultures.
Why Travel Abroad?
No time like the present to explore a mountain region so relevant not just in Europe but also here in Bozeman, something that so many Montana students love: the mountains! From a pedagogical point of view, expanding learning environments into authentic real-life environments, book-knowledge into field-knowledge, personal relationships with globally-infused interpersonal growth takes shape in this kind of two week immersive travel journey, which, like Goethe's journey, will hopefully become more of a life marker and unforgettable adventure to remember.
*For students who wish to participate in the Spring 2024 course but are unable to partake in the journey, herzlich Willkommen! By all means, please join us in person for the semester and feel free to virtually follow along for the post-semester adventures. Contents from the semester carry over directly and seamlessly to the abroad trip, which gives non-traveler students opportunity to keep in touch and involved with our trip.
GRMN 202's theme and GRMN 450's theme are the same. There will be days & even weeks where we overlap in class, co-teaching and co-learning about the topics. There will also be other days/weeks we separate in order to pursue specific curricular goals pertinent to each course. Both courses are 100% auf Deutsch (in German). But the goal of both courses is to communicate with new speakers who enter into communicative scenarios with different skillsets, comfort levels, and dialects. So Student A should be willing to communicate with Student B, at MSU just as in Munich or Bolzano or Innsbruck, each of which speak a distinctly different style of German. So too can GRMN 450 speak with GRMN 202, and us all with other speakers of the world.