13 March 2019

Privacy IARU Summer Course

Privacy challenged in past, present and future: a multi-disciplinary approach (12 - 23 August 2019)

Everybody agrees that privacy is essential, but no authoritative definition exists. Notions of privacy and private concern the confrontation between the individual and his or her surroundings and the boundaries drawn in this context. Recent technological innovations have incited a general concern with privacy, but also narrowed our understanding. We associate privacy with data protection and consider it as a value that is relevant only for our age. 

Privacy, however, has deep historical roots. When we study privacy across the gap between past and present, we gain a better sense of the rich and complex implications of the evasive term ‘private’ which is the opposite not only of ‘public’, but also of ‘professional’, ‘common’ and ‘evident’. A multi-perspectival view shows how notions of privacy past and present shape and are shaped by a broad range of societal factors.

This course will take a multidisciplinary approach to privacy past and present. The course will introduce the students to a broad array of approaches and analytical skills. It will teach them to examine how delineations of privacy permeate widely different dimensions of Western culture, while opening a view towards a global perspective and discussing if, where and how privacy can be protected in the future. Bridging the gap between past and present, the course introduces a new approach both to historical studies and to studies of contemporary culture and society.

Among the topics treated in the course are:

  • Privacy and surveillance: from early modern Quartermasters to the tracking of digital footprints
  • Privacy and citizen archives: from parish registers to DNA-registers
  • Privacy in society: from potential societal threat to human right
  • Privacy and the self: subjectivity past and present
  • Architectural framing of private space: from communal alcoves to glass facades
  • Politics and diplomacy between public and private: from princely mirrors to tweeting presidents
  • Representing privacy: art, theater, literature 

The students’ different backgrounds will be used as the point of departure for a global perspective on privacy. 

Course details 2019 - open pdf

Delivery method and learning outcome
Classes include lectures, discussions and group work. After completion of the course, the students will have learned analytical skills suited to a broad range of materials; have been trained to work across different periods and societal contexts; and, finally, have experienced an open and inquisitive scholarly atmosphere.

Literature
Chartier, Roger with Philippe Ariès and Georges Duby (eds), A History of Private Life, Volume III: Passions of the Renaissance (Harvard; Belknap Press, 1989)

Rössler, Beate, The Value of Privacy (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2014)

Sloot, Bart van der and Aviva de Groot (eds), The Handbook of Privacy Studies: An Interdisciplinary Introduction (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2018)

Centre for Privacy Studies https://teol.ku.dk/privacy/

Field Trip
Fieldtrip: Canal tour by boat/walking; Holmen and Christianshavn; Copenhagen private architecture past and present; Privacy at Hirschsprung’s Samling.

Who can benefit from this course?
The course aims at students interested in history, literature, media and communications, art history, law, philosophy, religion, theology, architecture and social science, though all disciplines are welcome. This course is open to 3rd and 4th year undergraduate students as well as first year graduate students. You must have completed 120 ECTS points before the summer course begins.

Credits: 7.5 ECTS 

Exam
The assessment is based on two parts:

Course participation: Active class attendance (75% attendance). Active course participation is a prerequisite for writing the exam paper.

Undergraduate requirements:  Familiarity with a reading list (primary and secondary literature) of 600 - 750 pages. A written paper of 16,800 – 21,600 characters approx. 7-9 pages (formally, 2400 characters per page, including spaces), based on 250-300 pages of primary literature. 

Master requirements: Familiarity with a reading list (primary and secondary literature) of 600 - 750 pages. A written paper of 19,200 – 24,000 characters approx. 8-10 pages (formally, 2400 characters per page, including spaces), based on 450-600 pages of primary literature.

Assessment: Danish 7-point grading scale and ECTS letter grading scale. 

Final Paper due 15 September.

Tuition fees

Applicant status

7.5 ECTS courses

15 ECTS courses

Students enrolled at University of Copenhagen and other non-tuition-paying students enrolled at a Danish university

No tuition fee

No tuition fee

Tuition-fee-paying students enrolled at a Danish University

Tuition fee is   DKK 4,000

Tuition fee is   DKK 8,000

Students and non-students from EU/EEA countries and non-students from Denmark

Tuition fee is   DKK 1,875

Tuition fee is   DKK 3,750

Students from EU/EEA and non-EU/EEA countries with a permanent Danish residence permit

Tuition fee is   DKK 1,875

Tuition fee is   DKK 3,750

Students from non-EU/EEA countries without a permanent Danish residence permit

Tuition fee is   DKK 4,000

Tuition fee is   DKK 8,000

 

Application
First application deadline: 1 April 2019

  • If you are a non-Danish citizen, you must apply before this deadline.
  • Also note that housing can only be booked via the UCPH Housing Foundation (see below) if you apply for the summer course before 1 April 2019. You must apply for the accommodation manually in addition to applying for the summer course.
  • If you apply for the summer course after 1 April 2019, then you must arrange for your own accommodation.

Second application deadline in case of available seats: 1 June 2019

  • Please note that it will not be possible to apply for accommodation via the UCPH Housing Foundation if you apply for the summer course after 1 April 2019.

Application form

In order to be eligible for the summer course, you must meet at least one of the following requirements:

  • You must be enrolled at a university at the time of the summer course, and have completed studies equivalent of at least 120 ECTS points.
  • If you are not enrolled at a university at the time of the summer course, you must hold a university degree, either a bachelor's degree, a master's degree or a professional master's degree, AND you must be a citizen of a European Union-membership country.


Accommodation

Housing will be available for international students through the UCPH Housing Foundation. If you apply for the summer course before the first deadline (1 April), then you can also choose to apply for accommodation via the UCPH Housing Foundation. 
Please note that the application for the summer course and the application for accommodation are two seperate applications.

If you apply for accommodation, and you are accepted into the summer course, then you will receive an email from the UCPH Housing Foundation in May with an invitation to book the accommodation through their online system. The available housing is typically single rooms in a student dormitory with access to kitchen/cooking equipment.

It will not be possible to book housing through the UCPH Housing Foundation if applying after the first application deadline.

Insurance
Please refer to: https://studies.ku.dk/welcome/living-in-copenhagen/health-and-safety/insurance/

Contact
Please contact us by email: international@teol.ku.dk