NYU transitioned away from traditional study away this academic year and is instead offering students a “Go Local” option. With this option, undergraduates may take classes at one of NYU’s global locations if they are unable to travel to their home campus due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
NYU Berlin Director Gabriella Etmektsoglou met with us virtually to update the Gallatin community on what’s happening at NYU Berlin during this unusual term, and to share her thoughts on why students should look forward to studying in Berlin in the future.
Conor Brady: What has “Go Local” looked like at NYU Berlin this term, and how are things going in general during this unprecedented semester?
Gabriella Etmektsoglou: “Go Local” means that NYU Berlin feels very intimate, as our courses are smaller than usual. We have 27 Go Local students, and in addition, about the same number of students join our classes remotely. Any student can sign up for the courses at sites like NYU Berlin as long as they meet the prerequisites. Our “Go Local” students come from many different countries and are pursuing a wide variety of majors. The feedback from the “Go Local” students is very positive; they appreciate the human interaction they get with in-person classes and especially value how available and supportive their lecturers are. They also welcome the many opportunities remote learning offers to optimize their course schedule by taking classes taught from other NYU locations.
CB: Have there been any efforts at NYU Berlin to foster community despite the challenges during the pandemic?
GE: As soon as the students landed, we started offering a variety of extracurricular activities for small groups of up to six students, usually activities that take place outside, from visiting open-air exhibitions to kayaking in the Spreewald Biosphere reserve, and boat tours exploring the Havel lakes around Berlin. We also offer an online version of our language tandem program and our German Book Club and thus widen our community and our students’ opportunities to meet and practice with local native speakers. All these events helped with the bonding among the students. Our students and guides have been amazing in following COVID-19 restrictions during all these activities.
CB: Do you think there will be long-term changes for how courses are taught at NYU Berlin, based on the new modes of teaching explored during the current crisis?
GE: Any crisis is a motor for positive change and innovation. Although we have heard from both students and lecturers that they prefer in-person to remote or blended classes, everyone is also happy to hold onto those innovations that have proven helpful. For example, office hours are more easily arranged for students and lecturers if done via Zoom. The same applies to students working in groups and having more frequent meetings, or inviting exciting international guest speakers. In all such cases, it will simply be more common in the future to connect online.
Furthermore, now that we have become used to blended learning and as our classrooms have been equipped with cameras and microphones to make this possible, it appears increasingly feasible to connect classrooms at different NYU sites. Such cooperation already exists but will become more permanent features for a number of courses. As an example, a class studying urban greening initiatives in Berlin can have a number of joint sessions with a class investigating the same in Washington, DC, where they each present their results.
CB: Are there other ways in which the COVID-19 crisis has impacted what is being studied at NYU Berlin?
GE: The pandemic indeed touched many aspects of what and how we teach. In any business, the possibilities of remote communication and learning are now being fully made use of, and this means that we also have to prepare our students for a slightly different work environment. In environmental studies, one of the most obvious points COVID-19 brought up is whether many of our travels are really necessary. Art and music courses address other ways for artists to find their audiences, and there have been significant and very creative shifts in art production. Lastly, the challenges posed by the global pandemic have once again underscored the importance of our ability to respond as a global institution, in our teaching and our research.
CB: Are your faculty actively engaged in investigating and commenting on the current crisis outside of the classroom?
GE: Yes, absolutely. To mention just a few: metropolitan studies lecturer Ares Kalandides has already written extensively and has taught in NYU Berlin’s classes about the city and epidemics. At Manchester Met University, where he is a professor, he is part of a team examining how town centers can recover after COVID-19. He is also involved in an intervention that the mayor of Athens, Greece, has implemented to increase public space as part of the measures to tackle the pandemic, and he is part of the mayor‘s evaluation and public deliberation committee.
Psychology lecturer Lysann Zander is conducting an extensive survey of lecturers and students at her home department at Leibniz University of Hannover about their experiences during the time of remote instruction. History lecturer Sasha Disko reflected on how the pandemic forces us to rethink the relationships between society, economy, and the environment.
CB: Looking to the future, when we hope Gallatin students will be able to study away, can you tell us why Gallatin students should choose NYU Berlin?
GE: Since German unification in 1990, Berlin has developed into the most diverse scientific and research landscape in Europe that also boasts a very creative and vibrant art scene and innovative start-up, ecology, and film and media sectors. The city has been associated with experimentation, freedom, and exploration of new opportunities, which makes it a great match for Gallatin students: they like to explore, innovate, create an integrated practice, and make an impact outside the classroom.
Courses at NYU Berlin engage with their key themes, combining interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary approaches—a learning model that suits Gallatin students. For example, our course, “Augmenting the Gallery,” looks at how augmented and virtual reality can be used for new media production and storytelling and to enhance Berlin’s museums. Students have the opportunity to develop tools that can be applied to museum collections. Many other courses also focus on the application of what is taught, thus our politics course on War and Peace includes lessons in mediation.
CB: Are there topics you think would be particularly interesting for students at NYU Berlin once study away can resume? And do you foresee any long-term curricular changes or opportunities for new courses in response to the pandemic?
GE: This depends on their area of concentration, but I would suggest the following topics that might encourage them to rethink connections between science, big data, activism, and public policy as well as identify ways in which they can contribute to the city: environmental social movements; urban ecologies, including gentrification and sustainability; the decolonization of the arts in public and institutional spaces; emerging media and technology; race, gender, and identity in the German context.
As regards new foci of academic inquiry in the post-COVID-19 era, the inequalities exposed by the pandemic, the impacts of climate change, and the rise of racist populism has led to new research at NYU that will definitely inform dynamic curricular developments across the university, including NYU Berlin.