Digital resources in the Social Sciences and Humanities OpenEdition Our platforms OpenEdition Books OpenEdition Journals Hypotheses Calenda Libraries OpenEdition Freemium Follow us

Writing Berlin: What we discussed + next week’s assignment

Dear all,

Thank you for the engaged conversation today about writing as discovery. It was fascinating to hear the different tensions you’re noticing about urban life—from questions of visibility and erasure to patterns of displacement and belonging to the persistence of certain stories over others.

What We Explored Yesterday

We started with the question of what writing actually does—not just as a way of communicating what we already know, but as a tool for discovering what we think. Writing helps us see patterns we hadn’t noticed, make connections that weren’t obvious, and find questions we didn’t know we were asking.

The central question for this course is: What survives in cities?

Each of you will investigate this question from your own perspective and background over the semester, developing a substantial piece of writing (4,000-6,000 words) that approaches the question through your particular lens, using Berlin as your case study.

You may work and write in teams. The piece of writing is open to many different formats.

The early weeks (the next 4-5 sessions) will help you find your specific angle on this shared question. Then the course opens up—we’ll meet every few weeks to share drafts, problems, and discoveries, functioning more like a research community than a traditional seminar.

For Next Week (Oct 22, Wed 10-12)

Assignment: Bring one example of how your field studies cities—or a field that you like or in which you are interested.

This could be:

  • A book chapter or article that exemplifies the discipline’s approach to urban spaces
  • A specific method or framework the field uses
  • A key concept or theory
  • Even just a way of asking questions that’s typical of the discipline

Come prepared to share it briefly (5 minutes) with the group. We’ll discuss: What does each approach try to answer? What does it reveal? What might it miss?

You don’t need to prepare a presentation—just be ready to talk about it conversationally.

Looking Ahead

Our schedule for the next few weeks:

  • Oct 22: Disciplinary approaches to cities
  • Oct 29: Identifying your specific tension
  • Nov 5: Why should anyone care? What’s at stake?
  • Nov 12: Continue development

Then we’ll meet every 2-3 weeks as you work independently on your writing.

A Reminder

If you’re thinking “I don’t know enough about Berlin yet” or “I’m not sure what my discipline would say about this”—that’s completely normal. You don’t need to know yet. That’s what the semester is for.

Keep the question with you this week: What survives in cities? Let it follow you around. Notice what it makes you pay attention to.

See you Wednesday, Victoria


P.S. If you’re having trouble finding an example from your field, or if you’re not sure what “your field” even is yet, that’s fine—just bring your uncertainty and we’ll work with it.


OpenEdition schlägt Ihnen vor, diesen Beitrag wie folgt zu zitieren:
Victoria Mummelthei (16. Oktober 2025). Writing Berlin: What we discussed + next week’s assignment. Keine Disziplin – No Discipline. Abgerufen am 9. März 2026 von https://doi.org/10.58079/14z0y


Schreibe einen Kommentar

Deine E-Mail-Adresse wird nicht veröffentlicht. Erforderliche Felder sind mit * markiert

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.