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

  • One of the following gateway courses:
    • EUST 110 The Nation State in Europe
    • EUST 111 The Age of Cathedrals (not offered in 2018-19)
    • HIST 141 Europe in the Twentieth Century

  • 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 125 New African Migrations (not offered in 2018-19)
    • ARTH 101 Introduction to Art History I
    • ARTH 102 Introduction to Art History II
    • ARTH 172 Modern Art: 1890-1945 (not offered in 2018-19)
    • ARTH 235 Revival, Revelation, and Re-animation: The Art of Europe's "Renaissance"
    • ARTH 236 Baroque Art (not offered in 2018-19)
    • ARTH 240 Art Since 1945
    • ARTH 245 Modern Architecture
    • ARTH 255 Islam in the Eyes of the West
    • ARTH 263 Architectural Studies in Europe Program: Prehistory to Postmodernism (not offered in 2018-19)
    • ARTH 264 European Architectural Studies Program: Managing Monuments: Issues in Cultural Heritage Practice (not offered in 2018-19)
    • ARTH 341 Art and Democracy
    • CAMS 100 Epic Films in World Culture
    • CAMS 211 Film History II (not offered in 2018-19)
    • CAMS 214 Film History III
    • CCST 270 Creative Travel Writing Workshop
    • ENGL 114 Introduction to Medieval Narrative
    • ENGL 135 Imperial Adventures
    • ENGL 350 The Postcolonial Novel: Forms and Contexts (not offered in 2018-19)
    • EUST 100 Allies or Enemies? America through European Eyes
    • EUST 159 "The Age of Isms" - Ideals, Ideas and Ideologies in Modern Europe
    • EUST 231 Cambridge Program: Britain in Europe: The Path to Brexit
    • EUST 232 Cambridge Program: The Great War in Poetry, History and Memory
    • EUST 233 Cambridge Program: Capitalism and Crisis: Political Economy for Marx to Hayek
    • FREN 206 Contemporary French and Francophone Culture (not offered in 2018-19)
    • FREN 243 Food in French Fiction (not offered in 2018-19)
    • FREN 255 Paris Program: Islam in France: Historical Approaches and Current Debates
    • FREN 259 Paris Program: Hybrid Paris
    • FREN 308 France and the African Imagination
    • FREN 309 Communication and Stylistics
    • FREN 353 The French Chanson (not offered in 2018-19)
    • FREN 357 French and Francophone Autofiction (not offered in 2018-19)
    • GERM 241 Crisis of Identity/Identity of Crisis: Introduction to German Jewish Literature and Thought (not offered in 2018-19)
    • HIST 100 Migration and Mobility in the Medieval North
    • HIST 137 Early Medieval Worlds
    • HIST 138 Crusades, Mission, and the Expansion of Europe (not offered in 2018-19)
    • HIST 139 Foundations of Modern Europe
    • HIST 141 Europe in the Twentieth Century
    • HIST 142 Women in Modern Europe (not offered in 2018-19)
    • HIST 202 Icons, Iconoclasm, and the Quest for the Holy in Byzantium and Its Neighbors (not offered in 2018-19)
    • HIST 204 Jews, Christians and Muslims in the Medieval Mediterranean
    • HIST 209 The Revolutionary Atlantic (not offered in 2018-19)
    • HIST 231 Mapping the World Before Mercator (not offered in 2018-19)
    • HIST 236 Women and Gender in Europe before the French Revolution (not offered in 2018-19)
    • HIST 237 The Enlightenment
    • HIST 238 The Viking World (not offered in 2018-19)
    • HIST 247 The First World War as Global Phenomenon
    • HIST 249 Two Centuries of Tumult: Modern Central Europe (not offered in 2018-19)
    • HIST 287 From Alchemy to the Atom Bomb: The Scientific Revolution and the Making of the Modern World (not offered in 2018-19)
    • HIST 330 Ideas Incarnate: Institutional Formation, Reform, and Governance in the Middle Ages
    • HIST 341 The Russian Revolution and its Global Legacies (not offered in 2018-19)
    • HIST 347 The Global Cold War
    • MELA 230 Jewish Collective Memory
    • MUSC 211 Race, Gender, and Classical Music (not offered in 2018-19)
    • PHIL 272 Early Modern Philosophy
    • PHIL 274 Existentialism
    • POSC 120 Democracy and Dictatorship
    • POSC 255 Post-Modern Political Thought (not offered in 2018-19)
    • POSC 265 Public Policy and Global Capitalism
    • POSC 268 Global Environmental Politics and Policy (not offered in 2018-19)
    • POSC 276 Imagination in Politics
    • POSC 283 Separatist Movements (not offered in 2018-19)
    • POSC 284 War and Peace in Northern Ireland
    • POSC 325 Corruption, Clientelism, and Political Machines* (not offered in 2018-19)
    • POSC 352 Political Theory of Alexis de Tocqueville*
    • POSC 358 Comparative Social Movements*
    • POSC 359 Cosmopolitanism*
    • RELG 329 Modernity and Tradition (not offered in 2018-19)
    • WGST 243 Women's and Gender Studies in Europe Program: Situated Feminisms: Socio-Political Systems and Gender Issues Across Europe
    • WGST 244 Women's & Gender Studies in Europe Program: Issues in Feminist Methodologies
    • WGST 325 Women's & Gender Studies in Europe Program: Comparative Feminist, Queer and Trans Theories

  • 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.
    • ARTS 116 Ireland Program: Visualizing Ireland (not offered in 2018-19)
    • CAMS 237 Russian and Soviet Film in Context
    • ECON 221 Cambridge Program: Contemporary British Economy
    • ENGL 144 Shakespeare I
    • ENGL 207 Princes. Poets. Power
    • ENGL 208 The Faerie Queene
    • ENGL 210 From Chaucer to Milton: Early English Literature
    • ENGL 213 Christopher Marlowe (not offered in 2018-19)
    • ENGL 214 Revenge Tragedy (not offered in 2018-19)
    • ENGL 216 Milton
    • ENGL 218 The Gothic Spirit
    • ENGL 222 The Art of Jane Austen
    • ENGL 244 Shakespeare I
    • ENGL 249 Modern Irish Literature: Poetry, Prose, and Politics (not offered in 2018-19)
    • ENGL 256 Ireland Program: Irish History and Culture (not offered in 2018-19)
    • ENGL 274 Ireland Program: Irish Literary Pasts and Presents (not offered in 2018-19)
    • ENGL 279 London Program: Urban Field Studies
    • ENGL 281 London Program: Reading London, Writing London
    • ENGL 282 London Program: London Theater
    • ENGL 310 Shakespeare II
    • ENGL 319 The Rise of the Novel
    • ENGL 323 English Romantic Poetry
    • ENGL 327 Victorian Novel (not offered in 2018-19)
    • ENGL 395 Yeats and Heaney
    • EUST 207 Rome Program: Italian Encounters
    • EUST 231 Cambridge Program: Britain in Europe: The Path to Brexit
    • EUST 232 Cambridge Program: The Great War in Poetry, History and Memory
    • FREN 204 Intermediate French
    • FREN 208 Paris Program: Contemporary France: Cultures, Politics, Society
    • FREN 233 French Cinema and Culture
    • FREN 241 The Lyric and Other Seductions (not offered in 2018-19)
    • FREN 242 Journeys of Self-Discovery
    • FREN 243 Food in French Fiction (not offered in 2018-19)
    • FREN 250 French History in 10 Objects (not offered in 2018-19)
    • FREN 254 Paris Program: French Art in Context
    • FREN 259 Paris Program: Hybrid Paris
    • FREN 308 France and the African Imagination
    • FREN 309 Communication and Stylistics
    • FREN 340 Arts of Brevity: Short Fiction (not offered in 2018-19)
    • FREN 341 Madame Bovary and Her Avatars (not offered in 2018-19)
    • FREN 351 Love, War and Monsters in Renaissance France (not offered in 2018-19)
    • FREN 352 The Arthurian Legend
    • FREN 353 The French Chanson (not offered in 2018-19)
    • FREN 354 The World Beyond
    • FREN 359 Paris Program: Hybrid Paris
    • GERM 175 Berlin Program: Berlin Field Studies in English (not offered in 2018-19)
    • GERM 254 Berlin Program: The World's a Stage -- Theater in Berlin (not offered in 2018-19)
    • GERM 372 The Latest--Current Themes in German Literature, Film and the Media (not offered in 2018-19)
    • HIST 100 Soot, Smog and Satanic Mills: Environment & Industrialization
    • HIST 201 Rome Program: Building Power and Piety in Medieval Italy, CE 300-1150
    • HIST 206 Rome Program: The Eternal City in Time: Structure, Change, and Identity
    • HIST 241 Russia through Wars and Revolutions
    • HIST 243 The Peasants are Revolting! Society and Politics in the Making of Modern France (not offered in 2018-19)
    • HIST 248 Berlin Program: A German Crucible of European and Global Culture (not offered in 2018-19)
    • HIST 250 Modern Germany
    • HIST 250F Modern Germany-FLAC German Trailer
    • POSC 284 War and Peace in Northern Ireland
    • RUSS 205 Russian in Cultural Contexts
    • RUSS 226 Moscow Program: Russia's Hallowed Places
    • RUSS 237 Beyond Beef Stroganoff: Food in Russian Culture (not offered in 2018-19)
    • RUSS 244 The Rise of the Russian Novel
    • RUSS 266 The Brothers Karamazov (not offered in 2018-19)
    • RUSS 267 War and Peace (not offered in 2018-19)
    • RUSS 337 Russian Kitchen Culture (not offered in 2018-19)
    • RUSS 345 Russian Cultural Idioms of the Nineteenth Century (not offered in 2018-19)
    • RUSS 351 Chekhov
    • RUSS 395 Senior Seminar: The Cult of Stalin
    • SPAN 229 Madrid Program: Current Issues in Spanish Politics
    • SPAN 244 Spain Today: Recent Changes through Narrative and Film (not offered in 2018-19)
    • SPAN 247 Madrid Program: Spanish Art Live (not offered in 2018-19)
    • SPAN 326 Muslims, Christians, and Jews in Early Modern Spain
    • SPAN 328 The Contemporary Spanish Fictional Essay (not offered in 2018-19)
    • SPAN 330 The Invention of the Modern Novel: Cervantes' Don Quijote (not offered in 2018-19)
    • SPAN 349 Madrid Program: Theory and Practice of Urban Life
    • SPAN 358 The Spanish Civil War (not offered in 2018-19)
    • SPAN 366 Jorge Luis Borges: Less a Man Than a Vast and Complex Literature
  • 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.

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

European Studies Courses

EUST 100 Allies or Enemies? America through European Eyes During the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, America often served as a canvass for projecting European anxieties about economic, social and political modernization. Admiration of technological progress and political stability was combined with a pervasive anti-Americanism, which was, according to political scientist Andrei Markovits, the "lingua franca" of modern Europe. These often contradictory perceptions of the United States were crucial in the process of forming national histories and mythologies as well as a common European identity. Accordingly, this course will explore the many and often contradictory views expressed by Europe's emerging mass publics and intellectual and political elites about the United States during this period. 6 credits; AI, WR1, IS; Fall; Paul Petzschmann
EUST 110 The Nation State in Europe This course explores the role of the nation and nationalism within modern Europe and the ways in which ideas and myths about the nation have complemented and competed with conceptions of Europe as a geographic, cultural and political unity. We will explore the intellectual roots of nationalism in different countries as well as their artistic, literary and musical expressions. In addition to examining nationalism from a variety of disciplinary perspectives--sociology, anthropology, history, political science--we will explore some of the watershed, moments of European nationalism such as the French Revolution, the two world wars, and the Maastricht treaty. 6 credits; HI, IS; Winter; Paul Petzschmann
EUST 111 The Age of Cathedrals Arising over a period of two medieval centuries, the gothic cathedrals of Europe symbolize at once faith, political and economic power, local identity, and technological and artistic achievement. Later generations commemorated them in literature and art, destroyed them in their political and religious zeal, and restored them (and continue to restore them) out of different sort of political zeal as well as a sense of duty and opportunity to preserve a national and European cultural inheritance and tourist treasure. In this course, we seek to understand the cathedral and its enduring legacy in Europe, and especially in France, from a variety of interdisciplinary perspectives and using a variety of media and sources.  6 credits; HI, IS; Not offered 2018-19
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; Spring; Paul Petzschmann
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; Spring; William L North, Victoria Morse
EUST 231 Cambridge Program: Britain in Europe: The Path to Brexit This course will introduce students to the institutions of the European Union and of Britain through reading, discussion and on-site visits in Brussels and London. The institutions of European Union grew out of settlements between its original member states (without Britain) and in response to specific problems--the legacy of the world wars and of economic crises. It is with their fears of war and with their shared interpretations of the causes of war and crises that we must begin in order to understand Britain’s awkward tenure as a member of the EU. Prerequisite: Participation in OCS Cambridge Program. 4 credits; SI, IS; Summer; Paul Petzschmann
EUST 232 Cambridge Program: The Great War in Poetry, History and Memory The memory of World War I looms large in the European Project. While memory of the conflict has done much to unite European elites around the idea of shared governance, it also continues to divide historians and the general public. Beginning with a tour of the battlefields of the Somme we will be reading some of the literature written by “trench poets” like Wilfred Owen, Siegfried Sassoon and Robert Graves alongside visits to the Imperial War museum in Manchester and to Orchard House in Grantchester, immortalized in Rupert Brook’s poem. Prerequisite: Enrollment in Cambridge OCS Program. 3 credits; LA, IS; Summer; Paul Petzschmann
EUST 233 Cambridge Program: Capitalism and Crisis: Political Economy for Marx to Hayek Britain was at the forefront of the Industrial Revolution during the eighteenth and nineteenth century. That rapid economic growth unleashed by free competition brought with it the constant threat of crisis was an insight developed by Marx and later Keynes. Britain was home to capitalism’s cheerleaders as well as to its most important critics. Its economic dominance was accompanied by a tradition of tolerance, of open public discussion and free academic enquiry that made London and Cambridge attractive to students of political economy from Europe and across the world. Readings from the most important representatives will be supplemented by visits to industrial sites and museums in Manchester. Prerequisite: Enrollment in OCS Cambridge Program. 3 credits; SI, IS; Summer; Paul Petzschmann
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; Not offered 2018-19
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; Fall; Ken Abrams
EUST 398 Senior Colloquium Culminates in a final oral presentation that will allow concentrators to synthesize and reflect upon their diverse European studies, including on-campus and off-campus classwork, internships, and cross-cultural experiences. 2 credits; NE; Winter; David G Tompkins