European Studies

The European Studies minor provides an intellectual meeting ground for students interested in exploring Europe from a variety of disciplinary and interdisciplinary perspectives. Drawing courses from a number of different departments, the program in European Studies allows students to integrate their study of a European language and off-campus experiences in Europe with a coherent set of courses on campus to achieve a greater understanding of both new and old Europes.

Requirements for the European Studies Minor

The total number of credits required to complete the minor is 45.

  • One of the following gateway courses:
    • EUST 100 America Inside Out
    • EUST 110 The Power of Place: Memory and Counter-Memory in the European City
    • HIST 141 Europe in the Twentieth Century (not offered in 2023-24)

  • Four transnational supporting courses that

    • approach a theme or issue from a pan-European perspective OR
    • compare European countries or regions OR
    • compare Europe (or parts of Europe) with another part of the world.

    These courses will engage in an examination of such overarching issues as the relation between individual and community, cultural and linguistic diversity, and globalization. The list below is not exhaustive; students should consult with the minor director regarding other courses that may fulfill this requirement.

    • AFST 330 Black Europe
    • ARTH 101 Introduction to Art History I
    • ARTH 102 Introduction to Art History II
    • ARTH 172 Modern Art: 1890-1945
    • ARTH 235 Revival, Revelation, and Re-animation: The Art of Europe's "Renaissance" (not offered in 2023-24)
    • ARTH 236 Baroque Art
    • ARTH 240 Art Since 1945 (not offered in 2023-24)
    • ARTH 245 Modern Architecture
    • ARTH 247 Architecture Since 1950
    • ARTH 255 Islam in the Eyes of the West (not offered in 2023-24)
    • ARTH 263 Architectural Studies in Europe Program: Prehistory to Postmodernism
    • ARTH 264 European Architectural Studies Program: Managing Monuments: Issues in Cultural Heritage Practice (not offered in 2023-24)
    • ARTH 341 Art and Democracy (not offered in 2023-24)
    • CAMS 211 Film History II
    • CAMS 214 Film History III
    • CCST 270 Creative Travel Writing Workshop (not offered in 2023-24)
    • ENGL 114 Introduction to Medieval Narrative (not offered in 2023-24)
    • ENGL 135 Imperial Adventures (not offered in 2023-24)
    • ENGL 203 Other Worlds of Medieval English Literature (not offered in 2023-24)
    • ENGL 219 Global Shakespeare (not offered in 2023-24)
    • ENGL 350 The Postcolonial Novel: Forms and Contexts (not offered in 2023-24)
    • EUST 100 America Inside Out
    • EUST 159 "The Age of Isms" - Ideals, Ideas and Ideologies in Modern Europe (not offered in 2023-24)
    • EUST 249 The European Union: Constitution, Crisis and Conflict
    • FREN 206 Contemporary French and Francophone Culture
    • FREN 255 French and Francophone Studies in Paris Program: Islam in France: Historical Approaches and Current Debates
    • FREN 259 French and Francophone Studies in Paris Program: Hybrid Paris
    • FREN 308 France and the African Imagination
    • FREN 353 The French Chanson (not offered in 2023-24)
    • FREN 359 French and Francophone Studies in Paris Program: Hybrid Paris
    • FREN 360 The Algerian War of Liberation and Its Representations
    • GERM 221 (not offered in 2023-24)
    • GWSS 243 Women's and Gender Studies in Europe Program: Situated Feminisms: Socio-Political Systems and Gender Issues Across Europe
    • GWSS 244 Women's & Gender Studies in Europe Program: Cross-Cultural Feminist Methodologies
    • GWSS 325 Women's & Gender Studies in Europe Program: Continental Feminist, Queer, Trans* Theories
    • HIST 100 Exploration, Science, and Empire
    • HIST 137 Early Medieval Worlds in Transformation (not offered in 2023-24)
    • HIST 139 Foundations of Modern Europe
    • HIST 141 Europe in the Twentieth Century (not offered in 2023-24)
    • HIST 231 Mapping the World Before Mercator (not offered in 2023-24)
    • HIST 232 Renaissance Worlds in France and Italy (not offered in 2023-24)
    • HIST 233 The Byzantine World and Its Neighbors, 750-ca. 1453 (not offered in 2023-24)
    • HIST 235 Making and Breaking Institutions: Structure, Culture, Corruption, and Reform in the Middle Ages
    • HIST 236 The Worlds of Hildegard of Bingen
    • HIST 238 The Viking World
    • HIST 244 The Enlightenment and Its Legacies (not offered in 2023-24)
    • HIST 287 From Alchemy to the Atom Bomb: The Scientific Revolution and the Making of the Modern World
    • HIST 332 Image Makers and Breakers in the Premodern World (not offered in 2023-24)
    • HIST 341 The Russian Revolution and its Global Legacies (not offered in 2023-24)
    • HIST 346 The Holocaust (not offered in 2023-24)
    • HIST 347 The Global Cold War (not offered in 2023-24)
    • MELA 230 Jewish Collective Memory (not offered in 2023-24)
    • MUSC 111 Music and Storytelling
    • MUSC 211 Race, Gender, and Classical Music
    • MUSC 215 Western Music and its Social Ecosystems, 1830-Present
    • PE 338 Sport and Globalization in London and Seville Program: Global Athletics
    • PHIL 272 Early Modern Philosophy: Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century Philosophy
    • PHIL 274 Existentialism (not offered in 2023-24)
    • POSC 120 Democracy and Dictatorship
    • POSC 238 Sport and Globalization in London and Seville Program: Globalization and Development: Lessons from Int'l Football
    • POSC 244 The Politics of Eurovision (not offered in 2023-24)
    • POSC 247 Comparative Nationalism (not offered in 2023-24)
    • POSC 253 Welfare Capitalisms in Post-War Europe (not offered in 2023-24)
    • POSC 255 Post-Modern Political Thought (not offered in 2023-24)
    • POSC 257 Marx for the 21st Century: Ecology, Technology, Dispossession
    • POSC 265 Public Policy and Global Capitalism
    • POSC 268 Global Environmental Politics and Policy
    • POSC 276 Imagination in Politics: Resisting Totalitarianism (not offered in 2023-24)
    • POSC 277 Religion in Politics: Conflict or Dialogue? (not offered in 2023-24)
    • POSC 283 Separatist Movements (not offered in 2023-24)
    • POSC 284 War and Peace in Northern Ireland (not offered in 2023-24)
    • POSC 352 Political Theory of Alexis de Tocqueville
    • POSC 358 Comparative Social Movements (not offered in 2023-24)
    • POSC 359 Cosmopolitanism (not offered in 2023-24)
    • RELG 217 Faith and Doubt in the Modern Age (not offered in 2023-24)
    • RELG 222 Trauma, Loss, Memory: Holocaust and Genocide
    • RELG 231 From Luther to Kierkegaard
    • RELG 287 Many Marys (not offered in 2023-24)
    • RELG 329 Modernity and Tradition (not offered in 2023-24)
    • SOAN 108 In & Out of Africa: How Transnational Black Lives Matter (not offered in 2023-24)
    • SPAN 318 Islamic Spain (not offered in 2023-24)

  • Two country-specific supporting courses in the participating disciplines, each of which focuses on a particular European country or region. Country-specific courses need not address pan-European issues, but students will be expected to bring a comparative awareness of Europe to their learning experience.
    • CAMS 212 Contemporary Spanish Cinema (not offered in 2023-24)
    • ECON 221 Cambridge Program: Contemporary British Economy
    • ENGL 144 Shakespeare I
    • ENGL 205 “Passing Strange”: Shakespeare’s Othello and its Modern Afterlives
    • ENGL 206 William Shakespeare: The Henriad
    • ENGL 207 Princes. Poets. Power
    • ENGL 209 Much Ado About Nothing: A Project Course (not offered in 2023-24)
    • ENGL 210 From Chaucer to Milton: Early English Literature
    • ENGL 213 Christopher Marlowe (not offered in 2023-24)
    • ENGL 214 Revenge Tragedy (not offered in 2023-24)
    • ENGL 216 Milton (not offered in 2023-24)
    • ENGL 218 The Gothic Spirit
    • ENGL 222 The Art of Jane Austen
    • ENGL 229 The Rise of the Novel
    • ENGL 244 Shakespeare I
    • ENGL 249 Modern Irish Literature: Poetry, Prose, and Politics
    • ENGL 274 Ireland Program: Irish Literary Pasts and Presents
    • ENGL 279 Living London Program: Urban Field Studies
    • ENGL 281 Living London Program: Reading London, Writing London
    • ENGL 282 Living London Program: London Theater
    • ENGL 310 Shakespeare II (not offered in 2023-24)
    • ENGL 319 The Rise of the Novel
    • ENGL 323 Romanticism and Reform
    • ENGL 327 Victorian Novel
    • ENGL 328 Victorian Poetry (not offered in 2023-24)
    • ENGL 381 Living London Program: Reading London, Writing London
    • EUST 207 Rome Program: Italian Encounters (not offered in 2023-24)
    • FREN 204 Intermediate French
    • FREN 208 French and Francophone Studies in Paris Program: Contemporary France: Cultures, Politics, Society
    • FREN 243 Food in French Fiction
    • FREN 244 Contemporary France and Humor
    • FREN 250 French History in 10 Objects (not offered in 2023-24)
    • FREN 254 French and Francophone Studies in Paris Program: French Art in Context
    • FREN 259 French and Francophone Studies in Paris Program: Hybrid Paris
    • FREN 308 France and the African Imagination
    • FREN 330 Bodies and Borders: Encountering the other in Medieval French
    • FREN 353 The French Chanson (not offered in 2023-24)
    • FREN 359 French and Francophone Studies in Paris Program: Hybrid Paris
    • GERM 156 Introduction to German Cinema: Film, Nature, and Nation
    • GERM 212 Contemporary Germany in Global Context
    • GERM 214 What’s New: The Latest Works in German-Speaking Media (not offered in 2023-24)
    • GERM 216 German Short Prose (not offered in 2023-24)
    • GERM 223 Thinking Green: Sustainability, Literature, and Culture in Germany (not offered in 2023-24)
    • GERM 247 Mirror, Mirror: Reflecting on Fairy Tales and Folklore
    • GERM 260 Love in the Time of Socialism (not offered in 2023-24)
    • GERM 267 Catastrophe! Natural Disaster in German Literature
    • GERM 321 On the Edge: Monsters, Robots, and Cyborgs (not offered in 2023-24)
    • GERM 360 Love in the Time of Socialism (not offered in 2023-24)
    • HIST 100 Food and Public Health: Why the Brits Embraced White Bread
    • HIST 201 Rome Program: Building Power and Piety in Medieval Italy, CE 300-1150 (not offered in 2023-24)
    • HIST 206 Rome Program: The Eternal City in Time: Structure, Change, and Identity (not offered in 2023-24)
    • HIST 240 Tsars and Serfs, Cossacks and Revolutionaries: The Empire that was Russia
    • HIST 241 Russia through Wars and Revolutions (not offered in 2023-24)
    • HIST 243 The Peasants are Revolting! Society and Politics in the Making of Modern France
    • HIST 245 Ireland: Land, Conflict and Memory (not offered in 2023-24)
    • HIST 250 Modern Germany (not offered in 2023-24)
    • HIST 288 Reason, Authority, and Love in Medieval France (not offered in 2023-24)
    • HIST 289 Gender and Ethics in Late Medieval France (not offered in 2023-24)
    • HIST 335 Finding Ireland's Past
    • POSC 284 War and Peace in Northern Ireland (not offered in 2023-24)
    • RUSS 205 Russian in Cultural Contexts
    • RUSS 237 Beyond Beef Stroganoff: Food in Russian Culture (not offered in 2023-24)
    • RUSS 239 The Warped Soul of Putin's Russia (not offered in 2023-24)
    • RUSS 244 The Rise of the Russian Novel
    • RUSS 263 Madness and Madmen in Russian Culture
    • RUSS 266 The Brothers Karamazov (not offered in 2023-24)
    • RUSS 267 War and Peace (not offered in 2023-24)
    • RUSS 280 1917 (not offered in 2023-24)
    • RUSS 293 Advanced Russian Skill Development (not offered in 2023-24)
    • RUSS 331 The Wonderful World of Russian Animation (not offered in 2023-24)
    • RUSS 335 Oral History of Russian-Speaking America
    • RUSS 342 Post-Soviet Film
    • RUSS 345 Russian Cultural Idioms of the Nineteenth Century (not offered in 2023-24)
    • RUSS 351 Chekhov (not offered in 2023-24)
    • SPAN 229 Madrid Program: Current Issues in Spanish Politics (not offered in 2023-24)
    • SPAN 244 Spain Today: Recent Changes through Narrative and Film
    • SPAN 301 Greek and Christian Tragedy (not offered in 2023-24)
    • SPAN 330 The Invention of the Modern Novel: Cervantes' Don Quijote (not offered in 2023-24)
    • SPAN 345 Culture, Capitalism and the Commons (not offered in 2023-24)
    • SPAN 349 Madrid Program: Four Masters of Spanish Art (not offered in 2023-24)
    • SPAN 358 The Spanish Civil War (not offered in 2023-24)
    • SPAN 366 Jorge Luis Borges: Less a Man Than a Vast and Complex Literature (not offered in 2023-24)
  • Minors must normally participate in an off-campus study program in Europe.
  • The overall balance of courses must include a mix of disciplines and course levels (100s, 200s, 300s). While this balance will be established for each individual student in consultation with the minor coordinator, no more than half of the required minimum of courses may be in one department, and at least half of the required minimum of courses must be above the 100-level.

European Studies Courses

EUST 100 America Inside Out "America" has often served as a canvas for projecting European anxieties about economic, social and political modernity. Admiration of technological progress and democratic stability went hand in hand with suspicions about its--actual and supposed--materialism, religiosity and mass culture. These often contradictory perceptions of the United States were crucial in the process of forming European national imaginaries and myths up to and including an European identity. Accordingly, this course will explore some of the most important examples of the European imagination of the United States--from Michel de Montaigne to Hannah Arendt. 6 credits; AI, WR1, IS; Fall; Paul Petzschmann
EUST 110 The Power of Place: Memory and Counter-Memory in the European City This team-taught interdisciplinary course explores the relationship between memory, place and power in Europe’s cities. It examines the practices through which individuals and groups imagine, negotiate and contest their past in public spaces through art, literature, film and architecture. The instructors will draw on their research and teaching experience in urban centers of Europe after a thorough introduction to the study of memory across different disciplines. Students will be challenged to think critically about larger questions regarding the possibility of national and local memories as the foundation of identity and pride but also of guilt and shame. 6 credits; HI, WR2, IS; Winter; Paul Petzschmann, Sandra E Rousseau, William L North, Baird E Jarman
EUST 159 "The Age of Isms" - Ideals, Ideas and Ideologies in Modern Europe "Ideology" is perhaps one of the most-used (and overused) terms of modern political life. This course will introduce students to important political ideologies and traditions of modern Europe and their role in the development of political systems and institutional practices from the mid-nineteenth century to the present. We will read central texts by conservatives, liberals, socialists, anarchists and nationalists while also considering ideological outliers such as Fascism and Green Political Thought. In addition the course will introduce students to the different ways in which ideas can be studied systematically and the methodologies available. 6 credits; SI, IS; Not offered 2023-24
EUST 207 Rome Program: Italian Encounters Through a range of interdisciplinary readings, guest lectures, and site visits, this course will provide students with opportunities to analyze important aspects of Italian culture and society, both past and present, as well as to examine the ways in which travelers, tourists, temporary visitors, and immigrants have experienced and coped with their Italian worlds. Topics may include transportation, cuisine, rituals and rhythms of Italian life, urbanism, religious diversity, immigration, tourism, historic preservation, and language. Class discussions and projects will offer students opportunities to reflect on their own encounters with contemporary Italian culture. Prerequisite: Participation in OCS Rome Program. 3 credits; HI, IS; Not offered 2023-24
EUST 249 The European Union: Constitution, Crisis and Conflict It is difficult to overestimate the importance of the experience of war and conflict for the founding of the European Union. The enlargement of the EU to include the much of Eastern Europe has brought this kind of “History” once again to the fore of policy-making in Brussels and in Europe’s national capitals. It has also exposed the contradictions that have made a coherent European Foreign and Security Policy so difficult to achieve. In this course we will examine the history of the EU’s founding alongside an introduction to the history and politics of Eastern Europe, culminating in an examination of the ongoing war in Ukraine. We will benefit from multiple class visits by Ukraine scholar Prof Komarenko of Tarras Shevchenko University, Ukraine. 6 credits; SI, IS; Spring; Paul Petzschmann
EUST 278 Cross-Cultural Psychology Sem in Prague: Politics & Culture in Central Europe-Twentieth Century This course covers important political, social, and cultural developments in Central Europe during the twentieth century. Studies will explore the establishment of independent nations during the interwar period, Nazi occupation, resistance and collaboration, the Holocaust and the expulsion of the Germans, the nature of the communist system, its final collapse, and the post-communist transformation. 6 credits; HI, IS; Not offered 2023-24
EUST 398 The Global Panorama: A Capstone Workshop for European Studies and Cross-Cultural Studies The work of Cross-Cultural Studies and European Studies traverses many disciplines, often engaging with experiences that are difficult to capture in traditional formats. In this course students will create an ePortfolio that reflects, deepens, and narrates the various forms of experiences they have had at Carleton related to their minor, drawing on coursework and off-campus study, as well as such extracurricular activities as talks, service learning, internships and fellowships. Guided by readings and prompts, students will write a reflective essay articulating the coherence of the parts, describing both the process and the results of their pathway through the minor. Considered a capstone for CCST and EUST, but for anyone looking to thread together their experiences across culture. Course is taught as a workshop. 2 credits; S/CR/NC; HI, IS; Winter; Paul Petzschmann