GSC 55: Graduate School of North American Studies

根据自由Universität的创始学术使命，北美研究研究生院将调查“自由的挑战”以及过去和现在民主价值观的意义。作为美国文化和政治最核心的价值，自由是这个新国家的立国理念，但同时，从这个国家一开始，自由也是一个有争议的问题。什么是最有利于追求自由的条件？怎样才能保护它不受无政府状态和多数人暴政的侵害呢？如何认识差异？变化的经济、社会和政治条件带来的挑战是什么？在9/11之后的世界里，这些问题变得更加紧迫。在美国，可以说是现代民主社会的典范，这些发展导致了深刻的文化和社会对抗。对于如何在全球化的新条件下应对自由的挑战，它们产生了各种相互矛盾的解释。

In accordance with the founding academic mission of the Freie Universität, the Graduate School of North American Studies will investigate "The Challenges of Freedom" and the meaning of democratic values in the past and present. As the value most central to American culture and politics, freedom was a founding idea of the new nation, but, at the same time, also a contested issue from the nation's very beginning. What are the conditions most conducive to the pursuit of freedom? How can it be protected against anarchy on the one side and a tyranny of the majority on the other? How can difference be recognised, and what are the challenges posed by changing economic, social and political conditions? Such questions have gained new urgency in the post-9/11 world. In the United States, arguably the exemplary modern democratic society, these developments have resulted in deep cultural and social antagonisms. They have led to a wide range of conflicting interpretations of how the challenges of freedom can be met under the new conditions of globalisation.