Archives: Courses

Klimawandel, Klimakrise, Nachhaltigkeit – diese Begriffe sind im (Universitäts-)Alltag allgegenwärtig. Worum geht es jedoch bei diesen Themen? Was macht eine Entwicklung nachhaltig? Das Grundlagenseminar des Zertifikats „Bildung für Nachhaltige Entwicklung“ beantwortet diese Fragen. Das Ergebnis ist eine Basis für den fundierten und strukturierten Umgang mit Themen, die den Studierenden im Nachhaltigkeitsdiskurs begegnen. Zur historischen Einordnung beginnt der Kurs mit den Meilensteinen der globalen Beschäftigung mit Klimawandel und Nachhaltigkeit. Neben der Präsentation und Diskussion grundlegender Konzepte, Theorien und Literatur werden auch Themen wie Klimafolgenanpassung, Verhaltensforschung und Klimakommunikation behandelt.

Are you ready to meet the sustainability challenges that Europe will face in the 21st century? In „Challenges in Europe,” students select from a range of topics, each of them linked to a specific Sustainable Development Goal (SDG), to examine case studies with 4–5 fellow students from different Aurora universities and to develop their own research project under the supervision of an instructor. Students and instructors will then meet up physically for a conference in Amsterdam from June 3–June 5, 2026, to present their ideas for a more sustainable Europe.

Depending on the topic they have chosen, students can identify relevant theoretical models of and explain multiple different viewpoints on the challenge at hand. Students can list potential solutions to the challenge at hand and explain their advantages and disadvantages compared to other solutions. Students can discuss these findings in the shape of an oral presentation and a research paper.

Available Tracks 2025–2026:

SUSTAINABLE TOURISM: After an introduction to tourism, this track explores sustainability through the lens of theme parks. Topics include resource and climate efficiency, employee health and safety, and the practices that make tourism more sustainable.

THE NEW EUROPEAN CITY: Students examine existing or imagined cities through contrasting categories (e.g., public/private, nature/technology). Each team selects a city and a dichotomy to analyze critically using texts and photographs.

BEYOND NATURE/CULTURE: This track will use non-anthropocentric and ecofeminist perspectives to study places, people, and the self. We explore embodied writing, other-than human agencies, naturcultural spiritualities, and shepherdesses’ uses of communication.

This class will allow students to improve their Analysis, Intercultural Knowledge, and Written and Oral Communication competencies.

The lecture covers selected cultural theoretical topics which will be transferred to cultural circumstances and experiences in the Anglophone world in an exemplary manner. On this basis, we will work in a culturally comparative approach and thereby deducing an intercultural dimension based on our own experience from our own and foreign cultures. These approaches create an awareness for cultural relativity as well as skills for conflict solution in intercultural interaction. Furthermore, basal methodological approaches and competences for systematic cultural observation will be discussed.

This course is all about you and your ideas, purposeful doings, sustainability and teamwork.

In Entrepreneurship with Purpose, students learn about the characteristics of entrepreneurial ventures that are driven by a dual mission: a strong social, societal and/or ecological purpose alongside economic goals. They learn about, discuss, and reflect upon social and economic purpose during ideation, team building and business modelling. They get acquainted with ideas, tools, processes and methods from various “practices” in business and organisations, like Theory U, New Work and Design.

You students are invited to reflect upon and critically explore if and how social/ecological and economic purpose can be potentially aligned in entrepreneurial ventures. Individually and in teamwork, you reflect upon how personal values can drive the various blocks of a venture creation process. You experiment in teams to deal with potentially conflicting values and interests to jointly find out how to align them in a collectively created idea.

In the course, the concept of regeneration, the process Theory U and contemplation and expression through arts are used to explore how an entrepreneurial mindset can foster action towards sustainable activities.

The idea of regeneration is to nurture and restore natural ecosystem. In the course, we ask how you can apply entrepreneurship to integrate nature, its value and its limited capacities into you team’s venture and, generally, into business activities.

Theory U is a process and method developed and applied by the Presencing Institute (Otto Scharmer, Katrin Kaeufer & team). Its methods and tools are used in the course to explore individual values and mindsets. It frames the teamwork. It is used as an approach for reflection, co-creation and as one potential perspective on necessary societal transformations.

In contemplations on arts and as form of expression, you deal with arts both in theory and in practice. You wilil look at art for inspiration and to engage with its critical power. You will make art to express, reflect and, yet again, look. Through arts, we engage with different aspects of entrepreneurship, like the consideration of stakeholders, prototyping, and the integration of nature in business activities.

The Digital Entrepreneurship bachelor lecture at the University of Duisburg-Essen introduces students to key concepts and methods for developing digital business ideas. Through a combination of theory and practice, students learn how to design business models, understand startup dynamics, and apply design-oriented research methods. The course includes a group case study project with a written report and presentation (60% of the grade) and an individual written exam (40%).

Are you eager to apply your knowledge in a hands-on setting that mirrors the fast-paced startup world? Do you want to explore how digital ideas evolve into real ventures? If so, Digital Ideation and Entrepreneurial Design is the course for you!

The course Digital Ideation and Entrepreneurial Design introduces students to the basics of digital entrepreneurship and sustainable innovation with a focus on digital ideation and entrepreneurial design. Conducted in a practice-oriented approach, students work in teams to tackle real-world challenges provided by an external collaborator in order to develop solutions themselves.

In the course, you develop adequate strategies to find and assess problems of individual and societal significance. Building on methods of design thinking, you are introduced to design-oriented research methodology, where you learn to systematically define relevant solution spaces to solve these problems. Through this approach, you learn to analyze complex requirements under time pressure, systematically develop alternative decisions and reflect on possible options in different contexts. You systematically analyze possible causes of deviations from plans and develop suitable response measures.

Individually or in teams, you prepare written analyses and illustrate their decision-making processes to later on present them appropriately to various target groups. To mirror this methodological approach, you engage in the scenario of an entrepreneurial context that requires you to search (or design) an opportunity through means of effectuation.

From folk ballads to punk anthems and hip-hop tracks, protest songs have long helped people express feelings of anger, hope, and resistance. They offer a way to make unheard voices heard and help build a sense of community, especially among groups who have historically been excluded or marginalised. In this way, political songs can challenge dominant ideas – not just through their lyrics, but through sound, performance, and the construction of collective identities. These dimensions work together to strengthen the songs’ emotional and symbolic power, making them key cultural texts in times of conflict and transformation.

In this seminar, we will examine the role of selected protest songs in British and American cultural history. Through selected case studies such as the Vietnam War, the Miners’ Strike, Occupy Wall Street, the climate movement, and the Trump presidency, we will analyse how music can reflect and shape political consciousness.