Learning With Water

This seminar constitutes an experimental interdisciplinary teaching format which brings
together students from the Bauhaus University in Weimar with students from the FSU Jena.
In a blended learning concept, we will combine a “green classroom” with online teaching. In
on-site, water-based learning sessions, we will explore various water bodies in Thuringia,
especially the Ilm and the Saale. Creative writing tasks and sensory walks by the water will
complement the theoretical input given in the online sessions. In the face of global water
crises and shrinking freshwater resources, the seminar seeks to re-examine environmental
and social justice challenges with the help of creative and scientific methods. Approaches
from the environmental humanities, the blue humanities as well as ecocriticism frame our
observations on site. The aim of the seminar is to translate observations of various bodies of
water in Thuringia into creative, artistic translations, such as videos, literary texts and
installations, and in this way bring together sensory and conceptual knowledge. Students
will have to hand in an online portfolio at the end of class which consists of various
creative tasks, a short academic essay, and a reflection of their learning process. The
results of the seminar will be presented in a public event and selected student portfolios will
be published in the DBT Thüringen as a digital publication with DOI.

On-site sessions will be 15.5. (Jena) 2-6 pm + 6-8 pm film screening of River at Kino am
Markt; 12.6. (Weimar) 12.30-6pm and 10.7. (Weimar) 14-18 pm. All other sessions will be
online.

Testkurs BU Weimar