Free and Open Online Courses
At Off University, the digital realm turns into a space where at-risk scholars, lecturers based at traditional universities, and course participants can exchange and produce critical knowledge freely, protected by a safe online infrastructure. Off University is dedicated to creating an educational space that overcomes traditional classroom hierarchies and enables participants and lecturers to learn together and from each other. This approach empowers participants to actively engage in learning, taking ownership of their educational journey and cultivating a researching habitus.
You can register for our current courses
by logging in to Off University Moodle.
2026 Summer Semester Courses
The Everyday and the Unremembered
Gendered Memories of Conflict
This online laboratory examines how armed conflict is remembered through a gendered lens, shifting attention away from dominant narratives centered on combat, heroism, and spectacular violence. Instead, it focuses on what remains in the background: the everyday practices that sustain life under violence, the invisible labor of survival, and the forms of memory that remain unrecognized or excluded from official narratives.
ENGLISH
13.10.26 – 27.01.27
Tuesdays, 10:00 CET
Law in a Lawless State
This course examines the gradual transformation of law, legal institutions, and governance in contemporary Russia. It considers law through the lens of democratic backsliding, authoritarian legalism, the erosion of the rule of law, and the impact of war on legal and political institutions during the last 5 years. Through interdisciplinary analysis by leading scholars and practitioners, students will critically assess how law operates in an increasingly restrictive political environment.
ENGLISH
RUSSIAN
15.10.26 – 11.02.27
Thursdays, 18:00 CET
The Memory of the Syrian War
Displacement, Gender, and Space
This interdisciplinary online research laboratory explores how the Syrian war is remembered, documented, and contested across personal, spatial, cultural, and digital contexts. Integrating memory studies, oral history, heritage studies, and conflict research, it examines how displacement, destruction, and reconstruction shape collective and gendered memory.
ENGLISH
17.10.26 – 23.01.27
Saturdays, 10:00 CET
