I finished teaching a beginners course on early modern history the other day and asked the students what had been most important to them during the course.
One student answered: At the end of the course I have words for something that I have not had words for before. I just knew it predated the French Revolution.
This is so beautiful.
#EarlyModern #History #AcademicChatter #academicTeaching #histodons
Some good news: I won the 2025 Teaching Award at the University of Cologne's Faculty of Arts & Humanities for my 3D documentation and modelling courses! 🎓 I wrote a blog post reflecting on what this means to me – why good teaching needs time, why practical components are often neglected in academia, and why awards like this matter for making teaching visible.
https://itsmoreofacomment.com/2026/02/13/teaching-award-2025-and-why-good-teaching-needs-time/
Preparing for next week's course start.
I am not very keen on most introduction round set-ups. However, I finally found one that sounds appealling to me which I am going to try next week. It is centred around chocolate surprise eggs.
I have for a habit to offer my distant students voluntary group meetings once a week during teaching periods. They may come and join, meet their course mates and me, ask questions, share thoughts. A student, former army member, joint today's meeting and confessed that my course on historical peace studies forced him out of his comfort zone (military and military history) and that he appreciates it. - This made my day.
Last week I asked my students to search for representations of peace in their neighbourhoods. Day by day more examples are arriving in the assignment box. It is interesting to see what the students find and how they interpret this task. I receive very personal texts and reflections, and I am grateful that the students dare to share their thoughts with me.
Last week I asked my students to read the one chapter on peace in Hugo Grotius's work On the law of War and Peace. Students should also comment on what surprises/puzzles them when they read this text.
Most of them are amazed how modern Grotius's thoughts still are.
#Peace #PeaceHistory #HistoricalPeaceStudies #History #academicTeaching #AcademicChatter
This week we focus on ideals and values of peace from Antiqutiy to the Colombia peace agreement.
#Peace #HistoricalPeaceStudies #History #academicTeaching #AcademicChatter
Last week I asked my students to conduct written group discussions on definitions of peace. I provided them with texts covering definitions of peace from antiqutiy to the 20th century. Each group member had to summarise one text. Thereafter they should compare these different definitions. One student concluded that peace developed from being a breathing space between fights to a complete gym programme. I like this picture very much.
I use a simple and joyful way to check if my students have read the course #syllabus: I hide the task to post pictures of a specific animal on the course plattform in the syllabus text. This term the course plattform is floading over with foxes.
Besides the didactical dimension of this task, the posts reveal students' creativity and compose a nice thread to turn to when motivation fades.
Dorothée Goetze
Sebastian Hageneuer
fortext lab