Catalog
European Studies
Professors Decker (German and Russian Studies), López (Spanish), and Richter (Politics); Associate Professor Browne (German and Russian Studies); Assistant Professors Cernahoschi (German and Russian Studies), Kazecki (German and Russian Studies), and Shaw (History); Visiting Assistant Professor George (Spanish, chair)
The Program in European Studies reinforces the college's mission to engage students in a journey of intellectual discovery and informed global citizenship. European studies is a multifaceted interdisciplinary program that broadens students' understanding of the region and encourages them to question assumptions about Europe's role in the world.
The establishment of the European Union and the intricate processes of negotiating national identities are recent and contentious steps toward greater political, economic, and cultural collaboration. At the same time, national politics, cultures, histories, sports and entertainment, arts, economies, and languages continue to play a role in defining what Europe is today and what it will become in the future.
The contemporary complexities of European history, society, politics, and languages can only be fully understood by transcending disciplinary boundaries. Courses offered by a variety of departments and programs provide a rich resource for European studies and ensure an interdisciplinary approach to cultural texts and their sociopolitical contexts.
Major Requirements
The major in European studies consists of ten courses plus a thesis. The courses are distributed as follows:Foundation Courses
Majors complete the interdisciplinary gateway course, EUS 101 (Introduction to European Studies), and HIST 104 (Europe, 1789 to the Present). FYS 297 (The Idea of Europe) may be taken in place of EUS 101.Language Courses
Majors complete either four courses above the 100 level in French, German, Russian, or Spanish, or two courses above the 100 level in two of these languages.Electives
Majors complete three elective courses, in at least two different disciplines, from the list below.Seminar and Thesis
Majors complete an upper-level seminar from the list below. The seminar and the thesis (EUS 457 and/or 458) must be completed at Bates.Double Majors
Students who are double majors in European studies and French, German, Russian, or Spanish must complete at least seven distinct courses (plus the thesis) that count toward the European studies major.Study Abroad
Study abroad in Europe is encouraged but not required to complete the major. Up to four courses from approved study-abroad programs may be counted toward the language or elective courses, with the approval of the program chair.Pass/Fail Grading Option
Students may count either one 100- or 200-level elective or one 200-level language course taken pass/fail toward the major.Elective Courses
AVC 280. The Art of the Eighteenth Century.
AVC 281. Realism and Impressionism.
AVC 282. Modern European Art.
AVC 284. Revolutions and Romanticisms.
AVC 290. Modern Architecture.
AVC s28. Desiring Italy.
ECON 221. The World Economy.
ENG 121H. The Brontës.
ENG 121K. Frankenstein's Creatures.
ENG 220. Dickens Revised.
ENG 238. Jane Austen: Then and Now.
ENG 243. Romantic Literature (1790–1840.
ENG 245. Sexuality in Victorian Literature.
ENG 254. Modern British Literature since 1900.
ENG 264. Modern Irish Poetry.
ES/RU 216. Nature in Russian Culture.
ES/RU s20. Environment and Culture in Russia.
EUS 120. Kusturica: Gentle Barbarian or Barbaric Gentleman?
EUS 248. Narratives of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire.
EUS 261. Russian Culture.
EUS s20. Transylvanian Journey: Myth, Reality, and the Traveler "beyond the Forest."
EUS s26. Russian and Soviet Film.
FRE 251. Introduction to French Literature II.
FRE s36. The Evolution of French Cinema.
GER 241. German Modernisms.
GER 244. Staged Marriages.
GER 262. The Split Screen: Reconstructing National Identities in West and East German
Cinema.
GER 264. World War I in German Culture.
GER 270. Living with the Nazi Legacy.
HIST 217. Race in Modern Europe, 1750 to Today.
HIST 234. The Enlightenment.
HIST 235. Britain in the World/The World in Britain, 1790–1990.
HIST 254. Revolutionary Europe and Its Legacies, 1789–1989.
HIST 256. British Modernity, 1688–to the Present.
PHIL 273. Philosophy in the Nineteenth Century.
PLTC 125. States and Markets.
PLTC 222. International Political Economy.
PLTC 232. The Politics of Post-Communism.
PLTC 260. Nationalism and Nation Building.
PLTC 295. Reading Marx, Rethinking Marxisms.
PLTC 333. State Formation, State Development, State Collapse.
SPAN 251. Spanish Short Story.
SPAN 345. Twentieth-Century Spanish Drama.
SPAN 362. Culture in Franco Spain.
SPAN 368. Realism.
SPAN s20. Envisioning Catalan Modernity.
SPAN s29. Cinema in Spain.
THEA 220. The Modern Stage: Ibsen to O'Neill.
THEA 222. The Modern Stage: Beckett to the Present.
THEA s33. Central European Theater and Film.
European Studies Capstone Seminars
AVC 390B. Pre-Raphaelitism to Modernism.
ENG 395A. Godard and European Film.
ENG 395D. Victorian Crime Fiction.
FRE 373. Close-up on the Enlightenment: Film, Text, Context.
FRE 374. Ècrire la Rèvolution: French Literature in the Nineteenth Century.
FRE 375. The French Dis/Connection in Contemporary Literature.
FRE 376. Femmes, Ècrivanies
GER 356. Representing Austrian Fascism.
GER 357. Austrian Literature.
GER 358. Literature and Film of the German Democratic Republic.
HIST 390A. Belle and Beleaguered: European Culture at the Fin de Siècle.
HIST 390X. "Self-Evident Truths": A History of Human Rights and Humanitarianism.
PLTC 344. Ethnicity and Conflict.
SOC 395A. European Integration: Politics, Society, and Geography.
SPAN 444. Gendering Social Awareness in Contemporary Spain.
SPAN 447. Building Memory: Narratives of the Spanish Civil War.
Courses
EUS 101. Introduction to European Studies.
This course introduces students to major themes in European studies, considering the dynamic processes by which Europe and European identities have been defined since the cold war. They examine, among other questions, how Europe has changed in the wake of new economic and political realities, with the formation of international organizations, and in the face of shifting ethnic, religious, and cultural landscapes. By investigating these topics from various perspectives, students gain the interdisciplinary tools to understand the intricacies of an ever-changing Europe. Not open to students who have received credit for FYS 297. Normally offered every year. D. Browne.EUS 120. Kusturica: Gentle Barbarian or Barbaric Gentleman?.
Emir Nemanja Kusturica is one of the most celebrated contemporary filmmakers in Europe; he is also one of the most controversial. His films have brought him numerous festival awards including two Golden Palms at Cannes and a César, the French Oscar. But they have also brought severe criticism from some of Europe's intellectual celebrities such as Alain Finkielkraut and Slavoj Zizek. In this course, students examine all of Kusturica's feature films, and look at the social and political furor his work has generated since the mid 1990s. Conducted in English; all films are subtitlted in English. Not open to students who have received credit for RUSS 120. Enrollment limited to 60. Staff.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
EU/GR 220. Remembering War: The Great War, Memory and Remembrance in Europe.
The course focuses on ways in which the experience of the First World War changed established narratives of violence and armed conflict in Central Europe. It further investigates how the new narratives became sites of memory, mourning, and remembrance in the 20th and 21st centuries on the examples of Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Hungary. New course beginning Fall 2014. Normally offered every other year. J. Kazecki.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
EUS 240. Daily Life under Hitler and Stalin.
In this course, students examine everyday life in two of the twentieth century's most brutal political systems: Hitler's Nazi Germany and Stalin's USSR. They pay particular attention to how these two totalitarian regimes dominated the public sphere from the late 1920s to the end of World War II, and examine the question of agency: To what extent were the citizens of the Third Reich and the USSR manipulated, willing participants, or sympathetic fellow travelers?Course reinstated beginning Fall 2014. Not open to students who have received credit for INDS s13. Enrollment limited to 30. D. Browne.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
EUS 248. Narratives of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
Created by the Compromise of 1867 as a dual monarchy, the Austro-Hungarian Empire comprised more than a dozen linguistic and many more ethnic and religious groups. While Vienna was the undisputed cultural capital of the Empire, local urban centers produced a remarkably diverse cultural landscape. Through readings, films, and art by Austrian, Polish, Czech, Romanian, Hungarian, and Jewish artists, students explore this multicultural periphery and consider national, ethnic, class, religious, and gender identities; conflict and cooperation in an age of nationalism; the relationship between center and margins; colonial and postcolonial attitudes; and the legacies of the Empire in today's Central and Eastern Europe. Conducted in English. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 30. [W2] R. Cernahoschi.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
EUS 261. Slavic Europe.
A topical survey of Slavic culture as realized in a number of social institutions including the family, the church, the popular media, and the arts. Particular attention is given to texts, which examine both real and imagined communities and the unities and disunities that shape the identities of Europe's largest language family and the peoples who occupy more than half of the European continent. Conducted in English. Not open to students who have received credit for RUSS 261. Open to first-year students. [W2] D. Browne.EU/SP 351. Iberian Modernisms: Modernity, Literature and Crisis in Portugal and Spain.
This course explores literary and artistic responses to the social, political, and cultural crises of modernity in Portugal and Spain from 1890 to 1934. It traces the emergence of the concept of the "modern" in early twentieth-century Europe, and examines the particular forms and content of Iberian modernism in terms of key themes: language, the unconscious, sexuality and gender, religion, liberalism, Europe as other, empire, and cosmopolitanism. Students discuss works by Portuguese and Spanish authors such as Antonio Machado, Fernando Pessoa, Pio Baroja, Concha Espina, and Mário Sá-Caneiro as well as contemporary film, art, and critical readings in history and cultural theory. Conducted in English.New course beginning Fall 2014. Enrollment limited to 15. Normally offered every other year. D. George.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
EUS 360. Independent Study.
Students, in consultation with a faculty advisor, individually design and plan a course of study or research not offered in the curriculum. Course work includes a reflective component, evaluation, and completion of an agreed-upon product. Sponsorship by a faculty member in the program/department, a course prospectus, and permission of the chair are required. Students may register for no more than one independent study per semester. Normally offered every semester. Staff.EUS 457. Senior Thesis.
This course involves research for and writing of the senior thesis, under the direction of a faculty advisor. Students register for EUS 457 in the fall semester. Majors writing an honors thesis register for EUS 457 in the fall semester and EUS 458 in the winter semester. [W3] Normally offered every year. Staff.EUS 458. Senior Thesis.
This course involves research for and writing of the senior thesis, under the direction of a faculty advisor. Students register for EUS 458 in the winter semester. Majors writing an honors thesis register for EUS 457 in the fall semester and EUS 458 in the winter semester. [W3] Normally offered every year. Staff.EUS s20. Transylvanian Journey: Myth, Reality, and the Traveler "beyond the Forest.".
Transylvania—"The Land beyond the Forest"—is known in popular culture as the mythical home of Dracula and the locale of awe-inspiring adventures. This course offers students the chance to investigate some of the persisting myths about Transylvania, their origins and their transmission, as well as the reassessment of the province's image since the removal of Romania's communist government in 1989. On campus, students familiarize themselves with the complexities of Transylvania's image through readings and discussions of travel narratives before traveling to Transylvania for a two-week tour in preparation for their own collaborative travel account. Enrollment limited to 14. Instructor permission is required. R. Cernahoschi.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
EU/GR s21. Weimar and Berlin: German Culture in European Context.
The course traces the sociopolitical transformations that inform Germany's current role in the European Union through the example of two very different capitals: Weimar, the sleepy hamlet turned Germany's premier intellectual center, and Berlin, the once-divided city reinvented as intercultural meeting place. Using selected sites in the two cities, students focus on key moments in German history, which absorbed international trends and, in turn, reverberated across Europe. On campus and in Germany, students learn about important intellectual developments from the Reformation to the presnt day, cultural personalities and artifacts, and the crises and cooperations that produced them. New course beginning Short Term 2014 Enrollment limited to 16. Normally offered every other year. R. Cernahoschi, J. Kazecki.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
EUS s26. Russian and East European Film.
From the early years of the Russian avant-garde to the post-Communist era of blockbusters, Russian and East European cinema offers an intriguing and important perspective on life in Europe. This course introduces students to the avant-garde cinema of Eisenstein and Vertov, the Soviet propaganda films of the 1930s, the Czech New Wave, the Yugoslav Black Wave, the Polish Film School, the aesthetic and moral questions of post-Communist filmmakers, and new directions in filmmaking of the twenty-first century. Films are in the original languages, with subtitles. All reading and writing is in English. Not open to students who have received credit for RUSS s26. D. Browne.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations