220019 Tracing patterns of counterinsurgency in the Americas during the Cold War (S) (WiSe 2026/2027)

The seminar is designed as an interdisciplinary and practice-oriented research project involving all seminar participants; this means that every student’s contribution plays a key role and constant attendance is required, starting with the kick-off meeting on October 12, 2026.

Beginning with primary-source-based study cases from the Americas, students will first work together to identify overarching patterns and distinctive features in the available materials, applying source critique and content analysis while taking intersectional and human rights perspectives into account. In a second step, students learn to examine the identified patterns from the perspective of various schools of counterinsurgency and within the context of the Cold War. In a third step, the study cases will be contextualized and localized based on secondary literature. Building on these three course assignments (Studienleistungen), in the fourth step, an individual case study can be developed as a term paper (Prüfungsleistung).

The goals of the seminar are (1) to shed light on the Americas as a theatre of the Cold War through the lens of counterinsurgency and (2) to enable students to critically examine established perspectives based on their own primary-source-based empirical research, as well as (3) to raise their awareness of the iterative nature of the historical research process.

Please always have writing tools with you (pen and paper or laptop).