Prof. Dr. Maren Hartmann
Lütten Klein, Reims & Co.: Soziale Klasse neu gedacht?
Blockseminar, English, 2 SWS, 2 ECTS
Monday-Thursday, 4.-7.10.2021, 9-17 Uhr, at Floating University

In this four-day block seminar, we will approach current debates around social class and related issues through the lens of autobiographical, semi-documentary writings (such as Didier Eribon's 'Returning to Reims', Anna Mayr’s ‚Die Elenden‘ and others).
You are expected to read one of the books before we start the seminar. For the four days, we will be based at the Floating (https://raumlabor.net/floating-ev/). We will use this open-air teaching space to re-think the traditional sociological notion
of class in an attempt at revisiting the social through the lens of the cultural, while also trying out different formats in teaching. It will allow us a look at the question of intersectionality, of the long-term consequences of the pandemic, of scenarios of the future concerning the social.
We will begin the week with sharing our reading experiences and build thematic clusters. Later, we will work with memory works and relate these autobiographical reflections to the thematic clusters. From these, projects will be developed (further
research or additional autobiographical writing, performing or designing something, etc.). The second half of the week will be filled with these projects, regularly interrupted by discussions around key topics. Active participation is expected.

Possible readings:
Eribon, Didier (2016): Rückkehr nach Reims. Berlin: edition suhrkamp. // Eribon, Didier (2019): Returning to Reims. London: Penguin.
Hartman, Saidiya (2020): Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments: Intimate Histories of Riotous Black
Girls, Troublesome Women, and Queer Radicals. NN Norton.
Mau, Steffen (2020): Lütten Klein. Leben in der ostdeutschen Transformationsgesellschaft. Berlin: Suhrkamp.
Mayr, Anna (2020): Die Elenden. Berlin: Hanser.

Voraussetzung für die Teilnahme: Bereitschaft zur Lektüre eines Buches vorab

Konkrete Leistungsanforderungen für den unbenoteten Studium-Generale-Schein:
- Lektüre eines der genannten Bücher vorab (oder aber - in Absprache - eines selbst gewählten)
- Vorstellung/ Besprechung des Buches in der Gruppe
- Aktive Mitarbeit in den Gruppe zur Identifikation der Kernelemente
- Arbeit an einem der gemeinsam entwickelten Projektideen
 

Maren Hartmann is Professor since December 2014 for communication and media sociology at the University of the Arts (UdK) in Berlin, Germany, where she had been an
Assistant Professor for communication sociology since 2007. She also became Head of the Vilém Flusser Archive at the UdK in 2016. Before joining the UdK, she has worked at several universities in Britain, Belgium and Germany. She has also been a visiting professor in Denmark, Sweden and Australia. Her research focuses on mobile media
cultures, mobilities, appropriation concepts (esp. domestication); time and media and homelessness & media use. Her latest publication is a co-edited volume on Mobile
Socialities (Routledge, 2021).