The educational targets are threefold: I) highlighting the ongoing trend within Media and Cultural Studies (including art-related research) to focus on maritime spaces as a consequence of the ‘Anthropocene’. II) broadening the students view concerning the discrepancy regarding different notions of the sea (i.e. the notion of ‘freedom’ and ‘adventure’ versus the ‘stratification’ of the sea). III) enabling first steps towards an understanding how technical artefacts and matters of engineering are always linked to an affective dimension, setting up images, promises and expectations which go beyond the mere construction.
Structuring the Sea: Ships, Shores, Strata
Structuring the Sea: Ships, Shores, Strata
In our day and age, which is at times labelled to be the ‘Anthropocene’, the traditional, Western distinction of natural and cultural spheres seems to blur. This affects a variety of spaces, including the Sea and thereby different maritime spaces. In recent decades, there has been a significant shift in media and cultural studies, in order to gain a further understanding into how those bodies of water have never been ‘natural’ (in the sense of ‘untouched’, ‘pure’, ‘original’, etc.) at all. Rather they have been the site or scene of various modes of structuring and thus have always been a space in-between ‘nature’ and ‘culture’.
Thus, the course will follow diverse phenomena to examine this intermingling. Three publications will be mandatory and crucial:
- Peters / Turner [Eds.]: Ocean Governance (Beyond) Borders
- Deleuze/Guattari: Thousand Plateaus
- Starosielski: The Undersea Network
The online phase will give an introduction into the discourse and consist of joint discussions of the above mentioned texts. Subsequently, students will work in ‘focus groups’ on the three phenomena given in the title (Ships, Shores, Strata) and deliver a presentation during the week in Weimar.
NOTE:
This course includes an attendance phase in Weimar from March 12 to March 21, 2026.
Preferably Master students, but advanced Bachelor students are more than welcome.
Your application should be submitted until November 2nd, 2025.
Required application documents:
- Letter of Nomination (applicants financed by the BIP scholarship from the partner universities)
- CV
- Letter of motivation or a short motivation video (max. 1min)
- Portfolio
- English language certificate (test certificate or a letter from your university stating your English language knowledge)
The course fee is 300 EURO and includes:
- Orientation & Support
- Programme according to description
- Teaching materials
- Certificate
- Free use of library
The course fee does not include:
- Travel costs
- Accommodation
- Insurance
Participants, coming from the partner universites in the framework of Erasmus BIP scholarship and BUW students don't pay the course fee.
In addition to the Spring School courses, we offer a comprehensive "Service Package", which includes participation in the excursions and social programme, free entrance to the museums, shuttle-service on the day of arrilval and lunch (from Mon - Fri) in the student cafeteria. The booking of the Service Package for €70 is optional.
Students who do not take up the Service Package are automatically required to pay a course deposit of €100. This is to protect us against costs incurred by non-participation. Since in this case, the universities will not receive any funding from the European Commission. The deposit will be refunded as soon as the participants start the course in Weimar.
Please note our terms and conditions (admission conditions, cancellation conditions etc.)
3 ECTS
BUW students: please check with the academic programme coordinator for credit recognition.
In our everyday imagination, images of ‘the sea’ or ‘the ocean’ are usually connected to notions of fluidity and liquidity and thereby vastness, openness and flow. Yet, maritime spaces have always been heavily structured by various measures: shipping routes, fishing routines, jurisdiction concerning national and the so-called ‘open water’, pipelines and oil rigs, etc. … In this course we will try to gain a further understanding of how the images mentioned above correspond and interlace with the various dimensions of setting up boundaries.