Catalog of Courses for European Studies
This course introduces students to a variety of disciplinary approaches to the study of Europe (history, anthropology, sociology, political science, economics, and culture). Stress will be laid on how combining perspectives from different fields of study can help deepen understanding of specific problems of European life. Emphasis on student interpretation of readings and analysis of central issues in Europe's development across time.
We will explore the historical context of serial media, from the journal projects of the German Romantics to the second golden age of television. After a historical survey and a discussion of the terminology ("series," "serial") we will apply our knowledge to medial "events," like Charles Dickens' Pickwick Papers. We will connect medial "events" with theoretical work that has been done on seriality, like Paul Kammerer's (1919) Law of Series.
This course focuses on questions of vital importance for democratic political life: legislators, legislative parties, and legislatures translate citizen preferences into public policy. To investigate how varying political and socioeconomic conditions affect legislatures and legislative decision-making, we compare established and new democracies in Europe, the Americas, Asia, and Africa.
Modern German history offers lessons in both disaster and recovery. It is also a tale of radical reinvention: Imperial Germany, Weimar Germany, National Socialist Germany, and Divided Germany--on each transition, the historical shock was sufficiently traumatic to force the country upon a new path. This course explores the repeated fundamental transformations of modern Germany.
This course will offer critical perspectives on selected issues related to European Studies. Topics vary.
This course provides the opportunity to offer a new topic in the subject area of European Studies.
Study of the various aspects of the nineteenth-century French literature. Topics vary. May be repeated for credit with different topics.
This course examines the encounter between Nazi Germany and Europe's Jews between 1933 and 1945, resulting in the death of almost six million Jews. We aim to clarify basic facts and explanations for the origins and unfolding of the Holocaust. We will ask why Germans, Jews, and other Europeans did what they did during the Holocaust. We will read a Holocaust survivor memoir and will also examine relations between US and Nazi race laws.
This course examines the history of Christianity in Africa from its roots in Egypt and the Maghreb in the 2nd c. CE, to contemporary times when nearly half the continent's population claims adherence to the faith. We will attempt both to position the Christian movement within the wider context of African religious history, and to understand Africa's place in the larger course of Christian history
This interdisciplinary course introduces students to advanced research methods for investigating issues in European Studies. Each student will develop a research proposal and paper on a specific disciplinary topic under the supervision of a faculty member in that discipline, with the requirement that the paper include significant insights from at least one other discipline.
Explores the history and legacies of European overseas empire from the eighteenth century to the present. Themes include strategies of conquest and rule, political economies of empire, race and gender in colonial societies, "civilizing missions" and imperial cultures, violence and decolonization, postcolonial migration and memories of empire.
This course considers some of the leading accounts of the origins, growth, and persistence of nationalism. Among other topics to be considered are ethnicity and nationalism; religion and nationalism; gender and nation; empire and nation; multiculturalism and national identity; non-western nationalism; globalization and the nation-state.
For master's thesis, taken under the supervision of a thesis director. Students work closely with a primary and a secondary Faculty Advisor, representing two distinct disciplinary approaches, to develop a detailed proposal for their M.A. thesis. Students will work closely with their Faculty Advisor(s) in person, or by e-mail and video-conferencing (e.g., Skype). The proposal must be submitted and approved by the beginning of the final semester.
Composition and defense of a master's thesis. Students will work under the direction of their primary faculty adviser to complete the writing their M.A. thesis. To be taken in the final semester of enrollment in the European Studies MA program. Prerequisite: graduate standing and instructor permission.
This course is intended uniquely for European Studies Master's students who need this course to reach full-time registration status while completing other degree requirements.