GSC 55: Graduate School of North American Studies

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

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.