Introduction to the Archive

Manuscripts, notes, letters, index cards and photos - these are the
sources of archive work. What is special about working with these
materials? What (critical) potential do they offer? What are the
challenges of this work? How does research differ in literary archives,
publishers' archives and city archives? How are archives related to
concepts of nationality, transnationality and globality? What is the
connection between archives and politics? Who decides what is to be
considered archival material? What is meant by endangered archival
material? What opportunities and problems go along with digital archives?
These are questions that will be addressed in the seminar.

This Blockseminar provides an introduction to archives and archive
research as a key competence not only for historians, literary and
cultural scholars, but also for journalists.

This course is particularly recommended for the Angewandte Studiengänge.
Course materials are in English and German.