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Understanding
Europe

Joint educational program for BA students

“Understanding Europe” is a joint educational program (10 ECTS) offered by the Aurora European Universities Alliance and open to BA students of all disciplinary backgrounds. Students have the unique opportunity to get a multidisciplinary introduction to Europe – its history, politics, societies, arts, and popular culture.

The program consists of two core courses (5 ECTS each, in English). Students gain a comparative perspective in their university experience and have access to various forms of mobility. Students will also benefit from the innovative teaching methods developed within Aurora and the special attention paid to the Sustainable Development Goals. Students are awarded a certificate from the Aurora European Universities Alliance after successfully completing the courses.

For further information, please contact: florian.freitag@uni-due.de

Perspectives on Europe in a Global Context

Core course 1

ECTS credits: 5
Period: weekly, from 15 October 2024 to 10 December 2024
Mode of repetition: annually

In this course, we address trans-European cooperation and integration by studying media, film, literature, popular culture, arts and EU law from a historical and contemporary perspective. You will learn about the formation of identities and cultures, politics of migration, mobility and security, war and conflict in Europe. The course will cover:

  • History of Europe and the European Union: Political, Philosophical, Legal, Social and Cultural Dimensions
  • Processes of Europeanization and Integration: Strategies and Mechanisms of Inclusion and Exclusion and Identity Formation
  • Migration and Mobility
  • Imagined Others and Memory Cultures
  • Narratives of Europe in Film, Literature and Art

We will also have a guest lecture and discussion with Oliver Geden (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) on the topic of EU climate politics.

Teaching methods

Online lectures and exercises include analysis of documents, visual sources and graphs; group discussions in breakout rooms and flipped classrooms; and preparatory reading.

Class assessment

Multiple choice test on 10 December 2024.

Challenges in Europe

Core course 2

ECTS credits: 5
Period: weekly, April-June 2025
Mode of repetition: annually

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 3-4 fellow students 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 in June 2024 to present their ideas for a more sustainable Europe.

Important dates

First meeting: TBA
First topic group meeting: TBA
Student conference: TBA

Registration and Questions

Participation is limited to 20 students.
Registration deadline: TBA
To register and if you have any questions, please get in touch with Florian Freitag

Topics

Imag(-ing) Cities: Reading Urban Spaces Through Social and Architectural Dichotomies

SDG 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities

Instructor: Francesca Scamardella 

Cities are complex and ever-evolving spaces, shaped by historical, economic, social, and political forces. This track explores how urban landscapes can be analyzed through key dichotomies that reveal underlying mechanisms of transformation.

By reasoning through images and contrasting social and architectural categories, we investigate tensions between center and periphery and the evolution of these two urban forms, the need to redefine the relationship between production and ecological generation, and the shifting boundaries between public and private realms. We examine how singularity and collectivity shape urban governance and explore the visible and invisible dimensions of cities, where informal practices and spatial inequalities redefine urban life.

Through interdisciplinary perspectives, the course provides a critical lens to interpret contemporary urban dynamics, highlighting how these dichotomies are not rigid oppositions but fluid interactions that influence the built environment.

By unveiling these complexities, we aim to foster a deeper understanding of cities and their potential for more sustainable, inclusive, and participatory futures.

Cathedral Cities: Functions and Interrelationships

SDG 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities

Instructor: Marta Serrano 

This track explores the manifold historical and contemporary functions of urban religious edifices and their interrelationship(s) with the surrounding cityscapes.

Sustainable Tourism

SDG 12: Responsible Consumption and Production

Instructor: Florian Freitag

Following a general introduction to tourism, this class will use the unlikely example of theme parks to introduce key areas and practices of sustainable tourism, from resource and climate efficiency through digitization and innovation to the safety, health, and general wellbeing of employees through safety and diversity initiatives and relationships with (local) communities through special programs e.g. for children.

Moreover, sustainability will be discussed as an economic strategy whose relevance for both theme park-investor relationships (the attraction of financial investments) and theme park-customer relationships (the “public image” of the company) has been steadily on the rise. Finally, students will develop their own research project on sustainability in an area of tourism of their choice.