Anthropology of culture of Central and Eastern Europe 3224-D7ANTEŚW
These classes complement the Contemporary Trends and Methods in Cultural Studies course. They are an introduction to in-depth reflection on culture from an anthropological perspective, with an emphasis on the contexts of Central and Eastern European cultures. They aim to present the most important areas of interest in cultural anthropology (including space, time, the body, types of social bonds, the concept of the person, and historically shaped models of culture), to present research categories, directions, and scopes of analysis of cultural phenomena (including cultural patterns, the humanistic factor, ideal types and cultural relativism), as well as preparing students to use these categories in the anthropological description of the region's cultures, illustrated with examples of findings and analyses of cultural phenomena characteristic of the region. The discussion of methodological approaches is accompanied by a presentation of theoretical concepts that are key in the history of cultural studies and currently in use. The classes are also an attempt to introduce the cognitive attitude referred to as ‘anthropological imagination’ in the context of researching and understanding the cultural specificity of Central and Eastern Europe.
During the classes, students develop their research skills in the field of anthropological description of the cultures of Central and Eastern Europe and learn to acquire knowledge independently, with the support of a scientific supervisor.
BLOCK I: Anthropological imagination.
1. Introductory classes: anthropological imagination.
Readings:
- Mencwel A., ‘Anthropological Imagination. Attempts and Studies’, Warsaw 2006, chapters: ‘Preface: anthropological imagination’ and ‘Knowledge about culture in contemporary culture’, excerpts: 1, 4, 5, 6;
- Czyżewski K., Miłosz – Tkanka łączna [Miłosz – Connective Tissue], Chorzów 2014, chapter: ‘Linia powrotu’ [The Line of Return].
Issues: anthropological imagination as a cognitive attitude in opposition to the zoological attitude, Jean-Jacques Rousseau – founder of the humanities, anthropology as a ’ philosophy that went on a journey, the problem of identity and its questioning, cultural studies as an aspect of culture, culture and communication, the ‘Pogranicze – anthropological imagination in action’ centre.
2. Sources of reflection on culture.
Readings:
- Burszta W.J, ‘Cultural Anthropology. Topics, Theories, Interpretations’, Poznań 1998, chapter: ‘Encounter with Otherness – at the roots of anthropology’;
- Pomian K., ‘The Birth and Transformation of European Heritage’ [in:] ‘Sploty kultury’ [Intertwined Cultures], ed. Nicole Dołowy-Rybińska, Anna Gronowska, Agnieszka Karpowicz, Igor Piotrowski, Paweł Rodak, Warsaw 2010, pp. 32-38.
Issues: ethnocentrism, the categories of ‘other’ and ‘foreign’, two concepts of ‘the wild’, the relationship between nature and culture, precursors of reflection on culture, types of otherness – primitive cultures and folk culture, historical elements and contemporary content of European heritage, national heritage and European heritage, awareness of European heritage.
3. Issues in anthropology – contemporary perspectives.
Readings:
- ‘Badanie kultury. Elementy teorii antropologicznej’ [The Study of Culture. Elements of Anthropological Theory], ed. Marian Kempny, Ewa Nowicka, Warsaw 2003, chapter: ‘Elementy teorii antropologicznej – wprowadzenie’ [Elements of Anthropological Theory – Introduction];
- Firth R., ‘Does social anthropology have a future?’ [in:] ‘The study of culture. Elements of anthropological theory’, ed. Marian Kempny, Ewa Nowicka, Warsaw 2003.
Issues: directions and problem areas of contemporary anthropological research: controversies surrounding the theory and essence of anthropological research, the sphere of symbols and symbolic actions, the cultural meaning of social organisation, the cultural dimension of human economies and the issue of cultural gender; anthropology as a moral attitude.
4. Issues in anthropology – Polish perspectives.
Readings:
- Piotrowski I., ‘A question of geography? Islands, trajectories, research expeditions – premises for a map of Polish cultural studies’ [in:] ‘Polish cultural studies. Past, space, perspectives’, ed. Piotr Jakub Fereński, Anna Gomóła, Marta Wójcicka, Magdalena Zdrodowska, Gdańsk 2018;
- Skórzyńska A., ’Communities of practice and fields of cooperation. Between cultural studies and cultural animation’ [in:] “Polish Cultural Studies. Past, Space, Perspectives”, ed. Piotr Jakub Fereński, Anna Gomóła, Marta Wójcicka, Magdalena Zdrodowska, Gdańsk 2018.
Topics: cultural studies centres in Poland, their roots, specific characteristics and areas of interest, Polish cultural studies in the context of research trends in the region and worldwide, cultural studies scholars as researchers and practitioners in the field of culture – the phenomenon of cultural animation and cooperation with the cultural sector.
BLOCK II: Dimensions of culture.
5. The sacred, the profane, symbolic culture.
Readings:
- Eliade M., ‘The Sacred and the Profane: An Essay in the Direction of a Theory of the Meaning of the Sacred,’ trans. Robert Reszke, Warsaw 1999, chapter: ‘Introduction’;
- Burszta W.J, ‘Anthropology of Culture. Topics, Theories, Interpretations’, Poznań 1998, chapter: ‘Rites and Symbols’.
Issues: the concepts of the sacred and the profane – two existential situations and forms of being in the world, their significance for recognising and understanding cultural phenomena, rites and rituals in culture, rituals and their role, semantics of cultural communication, symbolic culture.
6. Cultural determinants of the body.
Readings:
- Mauss M., ‘Sociology and Anthropology’, trans. Marcin Król, Krzysztof Pomian, Jerzy Szacki, Warsaw 2001, chapter: ‘The concept of ways of using the body’, pp. 391-397;
- Stomma L., ‘Anthropology of 19th-century Polish village culture’, Gdańsk 2000, chapter VII: ‘Mendeleev's tables’.
Issues: the body as man's first tool, ways of using the body and their cultural conditioning, classifications of ways of using the body, the matrix of the folk view of the world – the body as a tool for evaluating reality and influencing it, the body and magic.
7. Body and identity.
Readings:
- Surynt I., ‘Ugliness – beauty – health. On national constructions of the body in 19th-century German literature as exemplified by the works of Gustav Freytag’ [in:] ‘Colloquia Anthropologica et Communicativa No. 4, Wrocław 2011, pp. 133-157;
- Bauman Z., ‘Postmodern Adventures of the Body’ [in:] ‘Anthropology of the Body. Issues and Selected Texts’, ed. Agata Chałupnik, Justyna Jaworska, Justyna Kowalska-Leder, Iwona Kurz, Małgorzata Szpakowska, Warsaw 2008.
Issues: the body as an ideological construct, the physiological and hygienic aspect of the concept of nation, biological anthropology and the construction of criteria for distinguishing between familiarity and foreignness, anatomical and physiological dispositions as criteria for belonging to a civilisation, the issue of gender – the ‘naturalisation’ women, from the body of the worker and soldier to the private and consumer body.
8. The body in cultural discourses.
Readings:
- Glensk U., Gawliński P., ‘The unwanted body. On the abandonment of funeral rites in the Czech Republic’ [in:] ‘Colloquia Anthropologica et Communicativa No. 4, Wrocław 2011, pp. 195-211;
- Nikiforova B., Šapoka K., ‘Body as a New Social Medium in Lithuanian Performance Arts: How Discourse Comes to Matter’ [in:] ‘Culture and Values’ No. 22, Lublin 2017, pp. 5-19.
Issues: historical representations of death and dying, the birth of ars moriendi, conventionalisation of the treatment of the deceased and funeral ceremonies, the phenomenon of ‘bezowków’ (funeral ceremonies without a coffin), contemporary Czech non-ritual burials, the body as a subject and object in contemporary art, artistic and cultural reconceptualisations of the body, functions and meanings of the body in Lithuanian performing arts.
9. Space and place.
Readings:
- Jałowiecki B., ‘Magia miejsc’ [The Magic of Places] [in:] ‘Peryferie kultury. Szkice ofiarowane profesorowi Rochowi Sulimie’ [The Peripheries of Culture. Essays Dedicated to Professor Roch Sulima], Warsaw 2013;
- Hall E.T., ‘The Hidden Dimension’, trans. Teresa Hołówka, Warsaw 1997, chapters: ‘Anthropology of Space: A Structural Model’ and ‘Distances in Man’.
Issues: valorisation and ways of perceiving space, the sociocreative roles of places, the concept of a ‘magical place’, the magic of home, private and public space, permanent, semi-permanent and informal space, prosocial and antisocial space, the dynamism of space, the category of distances.
10. Space: centres and borderlands.
- Venclova T., Describing Vilnius, trans. Alina Kuzborska, Warsaw 2006, chapter: ‘The city in Europe: the nationalities of Vilnius’;
- Kieniewicz J., Borderlands and peripheries: on the boundaries of European civilisation [in:] ‘European Civilisation. Diversity and Divisions. Volume III’, ed. Maciej Koźmiński, Krakow 2014.
Issues: the city as a centre and as a borderland, the city as a laboratory of ‘imagined communities’, ethnic, religious, linguistic and cultural heterogeneity of Vilnius and its consequences in the context of Bakhtin's thought, understanding of the borderland and its distinctive features, the borders of Europe and its culture and the process of transformation of borderlands into peripheries, borderlands and the problem of Central and Eastern Europe, the Kresy as a model of the imagined borderland.
11. Space and identity.
Readings:
- Jakowenko N., ‘The Other Side of the Mirror. From the History of Ideas and Concepts in Ukraine in the 16th and 17th Centuries’, trans. Katarzyna Kotyńska, Warsaw 2010, chapter: ‘Ukraine between East and West: the projection of a certain idea’;
- Bartosz A., ‘Nie bój się Cygana’ [Don't Be Afraid of Gypsies], Sejny 1994, chapter: ‘Jadą wozy kolorowe’ [Colourful Wagons Are Coming].
Issues: the problem of territorial identity, the living space of the Ukrainian ethnic group as a metaphysical, timeless constant, ‘us’ and ‘aggressors’, the idea of separating Central and Eastern Europe and the cultural status of Ukraine, the space between East and West and its ‘displacement’, the wandering Gypsy – stereotype or reality? Home, place, wandering in Romani culture.
12. Time and identity.
Readings:
- Neher A., ‘The Vision of Time and History in Jewish Culture’, trans. Bohdan Chwedeńczuk [in:] ‘Time in Culture’, ed. Andrzej Zajączkowski, Warsaw 1988;
- Andruchowycz J., ‘Central and Eastern European Revisions’, trans. Lidia Stefanowska [in:] Andruchowycz J., Stasiuk A., ‘My Europe’, pp. 25-45.
Issues: the image of Jews as ‘builders of time’, the concept of time in Jewish tradition, the inclusion of religious time in the constructive dimension of history, the meaning and purpose of history, the empirical understanding of time in Judaism, Europe as individual and collective history, the Central European understanding of the past and the future, being in history as a component of identity.
13. Time and the present day.
Readings:
- Haber F.C., ‘The Darwinian Revolution in the Concept of Time’ [in:] ‘Time in Culture’, ed. Andrzej Zajączkowski, Warsaw 1988;
- Schnabel U., ‘The Art of Doing Nothing: On the Happiness of Doing Nothing’, trans. Viktor Grotowicz, Warsaw 2014, pp. 11-45.
Issues: sources of contemporary ideas about time: concepts of time before Darwin – mathematical time intertwined with religious time, the Darwinian revolution – change, development and progress as aspects of the perception of time, the opening of linear time, the time of modern man: free time, gained and lost time, lack of time as a cultural phenomenon, the society of acceleration and its characteristics.
14. The person and personality:
Readings:
- Mauss M., ‘Sociology and Anthropology’, trans. Marcin Król, Krzysztof Pomian, Jerzy Szacki, Warsaw 2001, part V: ‘The Concept of the Person’;
- Kardiner A., ‘Basic Personality’ [in:] ‘Anthropology of Culture. Issues and Selected Texts’, ed. Grzegorz Godlewski, Leszek Kolankiewicz, Andrzej Mencwel, Paweł Rodak, Warsaw 2005.
Issues: the evolution of the concept of the person, from identification with a mask, through the legal, moral and spiritual person to a philosophical category, the basic structure of personality and social character, key integration systems and the process of basic personality formation.
15. Constructions of the person and personality in the cultures of the region.
Readings:
- Mencwel A., Stanisław Brzozowski. Postawa krytyczna. Wiek XX [Stanisław Brzozowski. A critical attitude. The 20th century, Warsaw 2014, chapter II: ‘Białe ściany polskiego dworu’ [The white walls of the Polish manor house];
- Uspieński B. A., Żywow W. M., ‘The Tsar and God. Semiotic aspects of the sacralisation of the monarch in Russia, trans. Henryk Paprocki, Warsaw 1992, chapter: ‘Semiotic attributes of the monarch: the tsar and God’.
Issues: the noble and intellectual construct of personality, awareness of cultural determinants of personality, the role of the family in shaping personality, created personality, the problem of the symbiosis of power and religion, Byzantium as a source of Russian cultural models, the idea of parallelism between the monarch and God, methods and manifestations of the sacralisation of the monarch.
Student workload:
Classroom participation – 30 hours (1.5 ECTS)
Preparation for classes – 30 hours (1 ECTS)
Preparation of a project – 30 hours (1.5 ECTS)
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Term 2025Z:
These classes complement the Contemporary Trends and Methods in Cultural Studies course. They are an introduction to in-depth reflection on culture from an anthropological perspective, with an emphasis on the contexts of Central and Eastern European cultures. They aim to present the most important areas of interest in cultural anthropology (including space, time, the body, types of social bonds, the concept of the person, and historically shaped models of culture), to present research categories, directions, and scopes of analysis of cultural phenomena (including cultural patterns, the humanistic factor, ideal types and cultural relativism), as well as preparing students to use these categories in the anthropological description of the region's cultures, illustrated with examples of findings and analyses of cultural phenomena characteristic of the region. The discussion of methodological approaches is accompanied by a presentation of theoretical concepts that are key in the history of cultural studies and currently in use. The classes are also an attempt to introduce the cognitive attitude referred to as ‘anthropological imagination’ in the context of researching and understanding the cultural specificity of Central and Eastern Europe. BLOCK I: Anthropological imagination. 1. Introductory classes: anthropological imagination. Readings: Issues: anthropological imagination as a cognitive attitude in opposition to the zoological attitude, Jean-Jacques Rousseau – founder of the humanities, anthropology as a ’ philosophy that went on a journey, the problem of identity and its questioning, cultural studies as an aspect of culture, culture and communication, the ‘Pogranicze – anthropological imagination in action’ centre. 2. Sources of reflection on culture. Readings: Issues: ethnocentrism, the categories of ‘other’ and ‘foreign’, two concepts of ‘the wild’, the relationship between nature and culture, precursors of reflection on culture, types of otherness – primitive cultures and folk culture, historical elements and contemporary content of European heritage, national heritage and European heritage, awareness of European heritage. 3. Issues in anthropology – contemporary perspectives. Readings: Issues: directions and problem areas of contemporary anthropological research: controversies surrounding the theory and essence of anthropological research, the sphere of symbols and symbolic actions, the cultural meaning of social organisation, the cultural dimension of human economies and the issue of cultural gender; anthropology as a moral attitude. 4. Issues in anthropology – Polish perspectives. Readings: - Piotrowski I., ‘A question of geography? Islands, trajectories, research expeditions – premises for a map of Polish cultural studies’ [in:] ‘Polish cultural studies. Past, space, perspectives’, ed. Piotr Jakub Fereński, Anna Gomóła, Marta Wójcicka, Magdalena Zdrodowska, Gdańsk 2018; Topics: cultural studies centres in Poland, their roots, specific characteristics and areas of interest, Polish cultural studies in the context of research trends in the region and worldwide, cultural studies scholars as researchers and practitioners in the field of culture – the phenomenon of cultural animation and cooperation with the cultural sector. BLOCK II: Dimensions of culture. 5. The sacred, the profane, symbolic culture. Readings: - Eliade M., ‘The Sacred and the Profane: An Essay in the Direction of a Theory of the Meaning of the Sacred,’ trans. Robert Reszke, Warsaw 1999, chapter: ‘Introduction’; Issues: the concepts of the sacred and the profane – two existential situations and forms of being in the world, their significance for recognising and understanding cultural phenomena, rites and rituals in culture, rituals and their role, semantics of cultural communication, symbolic culture. 6. Cultural determinants of the body. Readings: Issues: the body as man's first tool, ways of using the body and their cultural conditioning, classifications of ways of using the body, the matrix of the folk view of the world – the body as a tool for evaluating reality and influencing it, the body and magic. 7. Body and identity. Readings: Issues: the body as an ideological construct, the physiological and hygienic aspect of the concept of nation, biological anthropology and the construction of criteria for distinguishing between familiarity and foreignness, anatomical and physiological dispositions as criteria for belonging to a civilisation, the issue of gender – the ‘naturalisation’ women, from the body of the worker and soldier to the private and consumer body. 8. The body in cultural discourses. Readings: Issues: historical representations of death and dying, the birth of ars moriendi, conventionalisation of the treatment of the deceased and funeral ceremonies, the phenomenon of ‘bezowków’ (funeral ceremonies without a coffin), contemporary Czech non-ritual burials, the body as a subject and object in contemporary art, artistic and cultural reconceptualisations of the body, functions and meanings of the body in Lithuanian performing arts. 9. Space and place. Readings: Issues: valorisation and ways of perceiving space, the sociocreative roles of places, the concept of a ‘magical place’, the magic of home, private and public space, permanent, semi-permanent and informal space, prosocial and antisocial space, the dynamism of space, the category of distances. 10. Space: centres and borderlands. - Venclova T., Describing Vilnius, trans. Alina Kuzborska, Warsaw 2006, chapter: ‘The city in Europe: the nationalities of Vilnius’; Issues: the city as a centre and as a borderland, the city as a laboratory of ‘imagined communities’, ethnic, religious, linguistic and cultural heterogeneity of Vilnius and its consequences in the context of Bakhtin's thought, understanding of the borderland and its distinctive features, the borders of Europe and its culture and the process of transformation of borderlands into peripheries, borderlands and the problem of Central and Eastern Europe, the Kresy as a model of the imagined borderland. 11. Space and identity. Readings: Issues: the problem of territorial identity, the living space of the Ukrainian ethnic group as a metaphysical, timeless constant, ‘us’ and ‘aggressors’, the idea of separating Central and Eastern Europe and the cultural status of Ukraine, the space between East and West and its ‘displacement’, the wandering Gypsy – stereotype or reality? Home, place, wandering in Romani culture. 12. Time and identity. Readings: Issues: the image of Jews as ‘builders of time’, the concept of time in Jewish tradition, the inclusion of religious time in the constructive dimension of history, the meaning and purpose of history, the empirical understanding of time in Judaism, Europe as individual and collective history, the Central European understanding of the past and the future, being in history as a component of identity. 13. Time and the present day. Readings: Issues: sources of contemporary ideas about time: concepts of time before Darwin – mathematical time intertwined with religious time, the Darwinian revolution – change, development and progress as aspects of the perception of time, the opening of linear time, the time of modern man: free time, gained and lost time, lack of time as a cultural phenomenon, the society of acceleration and its characteristics. 14. The person and personality: Readings: Issues: the evolution of the concept of the person, from identification with a mask, through the legal, moral and spiritual person to a philosophical category, the basic structure of personality and social character, key integration systems and the process of basic personality formation. 15. Constructions of the person and personality in the cultures of the region. Readings: Issues: the noble and intellectual construct of personality, awareness of cultural determinants of personality, the role of the family in shaping personality, created personality, the problem of the symbiosis of power and religion, Byzantium as a source of Russian cultural models, the idea of parallelism between the monarch and God, methods and manifestations of the sacralisation of the monarch. Student workload: |
Mode
Prerequisites (description)
Course coordinators
Term 2025Z: | Term 2024Z: |
Learning outcomes
Learning outcomes:
[knowledge] the graduate knows and understands:
1) in depth, the terminology of cultural studies, including the research perspective of Central and Eastern Europe (trends, texts, researchers in the field of cultural studies) and the specific nature of the development of these sciences in the countries of the region; has an advanced knowledge of the terminology of related disciplines necessary for learning about and understanding cultural phenomena in the countries of the region (K2_W02; reference to P7S_WG Scope and depth)
2) in depth, the specificity of various cultural models from an anthropological perspective (traditional, aristocratic, bourgeois, mass), the processes of their transformation and interrelationships, as well as their manifestations in the symbolic and semiotic sphere, i.e. in the realm of culture and art, literature and language, and the history of Central and Eastern European countries (K2_W03; reference to P7S_WG Scope and depth)
3) in depth, the broadly understood intercultural context; has in-depth knowledge of humans as entities constructing social structures and cultural products, is aware of the principles of their functioning and the resulting differences in the perception of social life by representatives of different nationalities, ideological and religious groups, and variously understood minorities (K2_W07; reference to P7S_WG Scope and depth, P7S_WK Context/conditions, effects)
[skills] the graduate is able to:
4) develop their research skills, independently and with the support of a scientific supervisor, acquire knowledge, formulate their thoughts skilfully, present research results in oral or written form (of various types) in unpredictable conditions (K2_U03; reference to P7S_UW Use of knowledge/problems solved and tasks performed)
5) use theoretical approaches, research paradigms and concepts specific to cultural studies in typical and atypical professional situations (K2_U04; reference to P7S_UW Use of knowledge/problems solved and tasks performed)
[social competences] the graduate is ready to:
6) critically assess their knowledge, continuously improve their skills and supplement their knowledge (K2_K01; reference to P7S_UO Work organisation/planning and teamwork, P7S_UU Learning/planning their own development and the development of others, P7S_KK)
7) communicate effectively and live in society, including in a society culturally different from their own, lead a group, cope with typical and exceptional situations, verify their views through factual discussion and evaluate their knowledge (K2_K02: reference to P7S_KK)
Assessment criteria
Assessment methods and criteria – 1st and 2nd semester:
Compulsory attendance at classes in accordance with the Detailed Rules of Study at the Faculty of Applied Linguistics (Resolution No. 114 of the Faculty Council of 19 December 2017) is a prerequisite for passing the course.
Classes will take the form of discussions on assigned readings or material presented by the lecturer in the form of a presentation. Active participation in the discussion means substantive participation in at least 50% of the class.
At the end of the semester, students should consult with the lecturer on the topic and scope of the written assignment, which will form the basis for the final grade for the entire year. The final deadline for submitting the written assignment is the date set by the lecturer during the first or second class. Students who are absent from these classes are required to obtain information from the lecturer.
First semester
The requirements for passing the course are:
Active and substantive participation in classes (40%).
Presentation in writing of the topic and outline of the written assignment and a detailed discussion of it during consultations with the lecturer, with reference to the issues raised in class (60%).
Second semester and final annual assessment:
The final grade consists of:
Active and substantive participation in classes throughout the year (20%)
Written paper on a previously agreed and consulted topic in the field of cultural anthropology (80%)
Grading scale:
0%-49% - 2
50%-60% - 3
61%-70% - 3+
71%-80% - 4
81%-90% - 4+
91%-100% - 5
Additional knowledge - 5+
Bibliography
Literatura (poza tekstami wymienionymi w programie zajęć):
Barnard A. i Spencer J. (red.), „Encyklopedia antropologii społeczno-kulturowej”, Warszawa 2012.
Deliège R., „Historia antropologii. Szkoły, autorzy, teorie”, Warszawa 2011.
Dziamski G, „Kulturoznawstwo czyli wprowadzenie do kultury ponowoczesnej”, Gdańsk 2016.
Kłoskowska A., „Kultury narodowe u korzeni”, Warszawa 1996.
Krawczak E., „Antropologia kulturowa. Klasyczne kierunki, szkoły i orientacje”, Lublin 2007.
Mencwel A., Godlewski G., Kołakowski A. i inni (red.), „Kulturologia polska XX wieku”, tom 1: A-K, Warszawa 2013.
Mencwel A., Godlewski G., Kołakowski A. i inni (red.), „Kulturologia polska XX wieku”, tom 2: L-Ż, Warszawa 2013.
Nowicka E. i Głowacka-Grajper M (red.)., „Świat człowieka – świat kultury. Antologia tekstów klasycznej antropologii”, Warszawa 2009.
Olszewska-Dyoniziak B., „Człowiek – Kultura – Osobowość. Wstęp do klasycznej antropologii kulturowej”, Wrocław 2001.
Paluch A. K., „Mistrzowie antropologii społecznej. Rzecz o rozwoju teorii antropologicznej”, Warszawa 1990.
„Perspektywy refleksji kulturoznawczej”, red. Jacek Sójka, Poznań 1995.
Staszczak Z., „Słownik etnologiczny: terminy ogólne”, Warszawa 1987.
Szacki J. „Historia myśli socjologicznej”, Warszawa 2002.
Additional information
Additional information (registration calendar, class conductors, localization and schedules of classes), might be available in the USOSweb system: