In spring 2013, students in the new Germanics course, "The Tele-Novel: Seriality and Visual Storytelling," worked on projects that culminated in a digital humanities website. Students in this course examined three television serials that transcend the common practice of episodic TV entertainment and aspire on a variety of levels to the complexity and import of great literature (Heimat, The Wire, Battlestar Galactica). This course was an example of collaborative team-based learning. Ten different student groups were assigned one season of one of the three shows to observe and analyze in detail and as a larger whole. You can visit the creative results of their efforts here:
Friends of the German department may be especially interested in the work two groups did on the epochal television series, Heimat. Check out their websites at the link above! To get a taste of one group's creative engagement with Zweite Heimat (the show's second series), go directly to their amusing and astute sock-puppet analysis of the season's over-arching plot and thematics.
Professor Ellwood Wiggins enjoyed teaching this course and working with UW's enterprising students and helpful TAs, Sabine Noellgen and Tobi Gruenthal.