Catalog
European Studies
Professors Duina (Sociology), López (Hispanic Studies), and Richter (Politics, chair); Associate Professors Cernahoschi (German), Kazecki (German), and Shaw (History); Senior Lecturer George (Hispanic Studies); Lecturer Balladur (French and Francophone Studies)
The Program in European Studies reinforces the college's mission to engage students in 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. Courses offered in European studies (EUS or EU) are taught in English.
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. More information on European studies may be found on the website (bates.edu/european-studies/).
Major Requirements
The major in European studies consists of ten courses plus a thesis. The courses are distributed as follows:1) Foundation Courses. Both of the following:
EUS 101. Introduction to Europe
EU/HI 104. Revolutionary Europe and Its Legacies, 1789 to Yesterday.
2) Languages and Cultures. Four courses, taken in either of the following combinations:
One language: Four courses in French, German, Russian, or Spanish.
Two languages: Two courses above the 100 level in each of two different languages from the list above.
3) Electives. Three elective courses taken from at least two different disciplines from the list below:
AVC 279. Abstract Expressionism.
AVC 281. Realism and Impressionism.
AVC 282. Modern European Art.
BSAG 009. Mapping the City: The Urban Landscape as Text.
BSAG 010. Culture, Controversy, Cryptography, Calculus.
BSAS 003. Spain in the Twentieth Century: National Narratives Old and New.
ENG 234. The Brontë Siblings.
ENG 238. Jane Austen: Then and Now.
ENG 243. Romantic Literature (1790-1840).
ENG 254. Modern British Literature since 1900.
ENG 260. Passages to and from India.
ENG 280. Anti-Semitism, Assimilation, and the European Novel, 1850-1935.
ES/RE 216. Natures in the Culture of Russia.
EU/GR 254. Berlin and Vienna, 1900-1914.
EU/HI 206. The Empire Strikes Back: The Ends of European Empires in the Twentieth Century.
EU/RU 213. Russian Identities and National Values in Russian literature.
EUS 215 Jewish Lives in Eastern Europe: History, Memory, Story.
EUS 240. Daily Life Under Hitler and Stalin.
EU/PT 246. The European Union.
EUS 261. Slavic Europe.
EUS s50. Independent Study.
EU/SO 290. Political Sociology.
FR/GS 151. Gender, Race, and Social Class in French and Francophone Film.
FRE 207. Introduction to Contemporary France.
FRE 240G. Science and Literature.
FRE 250. Power and Resistance through Writing.
FRE s24. Cooking up French Culture.
FYS 297. The Idea of Europe.
FYS 423. Humor and Laughter in Literature and Visual Media.
FYS 425. Politics of Memory in Central and Eastern Europe.
FYS 433. Reimagining Europe in Contemporary Film.
GER 251. The Age of Revolution: The German Enlightenment, Classicism and Romantic Rebellion, 1750-1830.
GER 252. Tracing the Autobiographical: Personal Narratives in Twentieth-Century German Literature.
GER 256. The Age of Materialism, 1830-1899.
GER s26. The Split Screen: Reconstructing National Identities in West and East German Cinema.
INDS s18. Wilde Times: Scandal, Celebrity, and the Law.
MUS 210. Classical Music in Western Culture.
PHIL 272. Philosophy in the Modern Era (1600-1800).
PLTC 191. Western Political Theory.
PLTC 213. Great Power Politics.
PLTC 260. Nationalism and Nation Building.
PLTC 295. Reading Marx, Rethinking Marxisms.
THEA 220. The Modern Stage: Ibsen to the Present.
THEA s33. Central European Theater and Film.
4) Senior Thesis Sequence.
a) One upper-level seminar from the following courses at Bates:
AVC 390B. Pre-Raphaelitism to Modernism.
ENG 395B. Godard and European Film.
ENG 395K. The Arctic Sublime.
EU/PT 306. Economic Liberalism and Its Critics.
EU/PT 322. The Politics of Memory.
FRE 374. Écrire la Révolution: French Literature in the Nineteenth Century.
GER 350. Margins and Migrations.
GER 358. Literature and Film of the German Democratic Republic.
GS/HS 344. Gendering Social Awareness in Contemporary Spain.
INDS 301A. Sex and the Modern City: European Cultures at the Fin-de-Siècle.
PLTC 333. State Formation, State Development, State Collapse.
PLTC 371. International Peacekeeping.
b) Senior Thesis
EUS 457 or 458.
Double Majors
Students who are double majors in European studies and French, German, 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.European Studies majors and minors may not use the Modern Europe GEC (C024) toward meeting General Education requirements.
Courses
EUS 101. Introduction to Europe.
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. Students 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 EUS 200 or FYS 297. Normally offered every year. [AC] [HS] D. George.ConcentrationsInterdisciplinary Programs
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
This course counts toward the following Interdisciplinary Program(s)
EU/HI 104. Revolutionary Europe and Its Legacies, 1789 to Yesterday.
This course examines European revolutions and their legacies—social, cultural, political, and ideological. The French Revolution of 1789 brought unprecedented promises of reform to old Europe. Yet it also brought terror and authoritarian rule, a cycle that seemed to repeat itself, "the first time as tragedy, the second as farce," as Karl Marx lamented. Students consider these revolutions together with the Communist uprisings waged in Marx's name, the "velvet" revolutions of 1989, and the populism that engulfs the continent today. They use these histories as lenses to understand the dynamics of modern revolution; the engagement of ordinary Europeans in these processes; and, not least, the making of modern Europe over the past 300 years. Not open to students who have received credit for HIST 104. Enrollment limited to 39. (History: European.) (History: Modern.) [AC] [HS] C. Shaw.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
EU/RU 111. Protestors, Punks, and Pioneers: Youth in Eastern Europe.
This course examines the role of youth and student culture in shaping East European societies in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Course materials including film, literature, journalism, and music provide an introduction to East European cultural and social history and encourage students to explore themes of identity, activism, expression, and community. As students move from considering the role of youth in the Russian Revolution to contemporary student protests in support of human rights, class discussions bring new perspectives to the ways young people both navigate and foster change in the times and spaces they occupy. Enrollment limited to 39. C. Stephenson.EU/HI 206. The Empire Strikes Back: The Ends of European Empires in the Twentieth Century.
In 1918, Woodrow Wilson famously outlined his Fourteen Points, emphasizing the right of subject peoples to self-determination. While Wilson's was hardly the first critique of empire, it provided a framework for increasingly organized anti-colonial movements. Just as European empires reached their zenith, older rationales for empire became harder to maintain. Yet the end(s) of European empires were long in the making. Many would argue that we have yet to live in a postcolonial world. This course explores the changing arguments over the future of European empires, the contests for power, and their effects on individuals' lives across the globe. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 29. (History: European.) (History: Modern.) [AC] [HS] C. Shaw.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
EUS 215. Jewish Lives in Eastern Europe: History, Memory, Story.
An exploration of the cultural landscape of Eastern Europe in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries with a focus on Jewish experience. What did it mean to be Jewish under the Austro-Hungarian and Russian empires and in the interior war republics that replaced them? How did Jews fashion their lives as political subjects, as members of diverse communities, and as individuals? How do historical research, personal and collective memories, a rich storytelling tradition, and mass media shape our access to a cultural landscape that no longer exists? Enrollment limited to 29. [AC] [HS] R. Cernahoschi.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 subjects, willing participants, or sympathetic fellow travelers? Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 29. (History: European.) [AC] [HS] Staff.ConcentrationsInterdisciplinary Programs
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
This course counts toward the following Interdisciplinary Program(s)
EU/HI 245. Race, Gender, and Power in the Early Modern Atlantic World.
This course approaches Atlantic history through the lens of race, gender, and power. In the early modern world, the Protestant Reformation, the trans-Atlantic slave trade and the rise of the plantation complex, the substantial depopulation of west and central Africa, and indigenous genocide in the Americas significantly reshaped social orders and the meaning of the most salient categories of difference. This course examines the imposition of these categories from above and how socially marginalized groups pushed back against colonial racial, gender, and sexual economies throughout the Atlantic world and in particular societies, including Mexico, Virginia, Barbados, Ghana, and the Congo. Enrollment limited to 29. (History: Africa.) (History: Early Modern.) (History: European.) (History: United States.) One-time offering. M. Becker.EU/GR 254. Berlin and Vienna, 1900–1914.
From the beginning of the twentieth century to the outbreak of World War I, the capital cities of Berlin and Vienna were home to major political and cultural developments, including diverse movements in art, architecture, literature, and music, as well as the growth of mass party politics. The ascending German Empire and the multiethnic Habsburg Empire teetering on the verge of collapse provide the context within which this course examines well-known and lesser-known texts from the period. Topics include urban growth and its social effects, class and gender anxiety, the role of the military, empire and nationalism, and colonialism at home and abroad. Conducted in English. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 29. [AC] [HS] R. Cernahoschi, J. Kazecki.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. Not open to students who have received credit for EUS s24. Open to first-year students. [W2] [AC] [HS] Staff.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
EU/SO 290. Political Sociology.
This course offers an in-depth examination of core issues in political sociology. Attention turns to the formation of nation-states, nationalism, postcolonialism, neoliberalism and welfare states dynamics, international organizations, social movements and revolutions, democracy and regime change, violence, power, and related topics. Students encounter a variety of theoretical perspectives and methodological approaches, with empirical analyses focusing on case studies from across the globe. Recommended background: one or more courses in the social sciences. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 29. [HS] F. Duina.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
INDC 301A. Sex and the Modern City: European Cultures at the Fin-de-Siècle.
Economic and political change during the 1800s revolutionized the daily lives of Europeans more profoundly than any previous century. By the last third of the century, the modern city became the stage for exploring and enacting new roles, new gender identities in particular. This course examines the cultural reverberations of these cataclysmic changes by focusing on sex, gender, and new urban spaces the decades around the turn of the twentieth century. Students consider the writings of Zola and Freud, investigate middle-class flirtations with the occult, and read about sensational crimes like those of Jack the Ripper. Cross-listed in European studies, gender and sexuality studies, and history. Enrollment limited to 15. (History: European.) (History: Modern.) [W2] [AC] [HS] C. Shaw.ConcentrationsInterdisciplinary Programs
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
This course counts toward the following Interdisciplinary Program(s)
EU/HI 301R. Freedom of Speech, a Modern History.
Free speech has long been a rallying cry of reformers and a centerpiece of modern, liberal constitutions. Despite its centrality, free speech has never been absolute. Dictators fear it, but it troubles more democratic societies, too. Words can destroy personal reputation and fan racial or religious hatred. This seminar examines the long history of free speech and its limits. Students focus on the United Kingdom and United States, drawing connections and comparisons with other European, colonial, and postcolonial accounts. The course foregrounds historiographical inquiry, research, writing, and the ever-critical use of history to understand the present, and vice versa. Enrollment limited to 15. [W2] Normally offered every other year. [AC] [HS] C. Shaw.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
EU/PT 305. Money and Power.
This seminar investigates the political power of money and finance: the relationship between money and the state, the emergence of central banks, the creation of international financial institutions, the role of money as an instrument in political lobbying, and the deepening significance of money in contemporary political discourse. How did money and debt become instruments of power and coercion? To what extent and how does money influence politics and vice versa? How are money and financial institutions regulated at the national level? How is international finance governed? What are the economic and social impacts of public debt? Does finance undermine democracy? Enrollment limited to 15. (Politics: Institutional Politics.) (Politics: Political Economy.) [W2] [AC] A. Grahame.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
EU/PT 306. Economic Liberalism and Its Critics.
The 2008 financial crisis, extreme wealth inequality, climate change, and Brexit are a few examples of developments that disrupted what we thought we knew about political economy. For the first time in decades, big political economic ideas are back on the table. This course offers students the opportunity to conduct sustained reading of foundational texts in political economy, including works by Adam Smith, Karl Marx, Karl Polanyi, and Friedrich Hayek. What have these texts yet to teach us about both historical and contemporary political economic dilemmas? Recommended background: prior course work in the philosophical, literary, and legal studies or political economy concentrations of the politics major. Enrollment limited to 15. (Politics: Philosophical, Literary, and Legal Studies.) (Politics: Political Economy.) [W2] [HS] A. Grahame.EU/SO 311. Comparative Sociology.
Comparative sociology studies social institutions, economic systems, political systems, cultures and norms, legal systems, public policy, social change, and behavior in two or more settings. Comparisons can be qualitative or quantitative in nature and are usually driven by a desire to test theories or hypotheses. Topics of study may include the impact of globalization on nation-states, social movements, war and violence, place and cultural specificity, postcolonial dynamics, urbanization, immigration, and regional integration. The seminar introduces students to comparative sociology through an examination of recent exemplary works and the completion of individual projects related to each student's interests. Prerequisite(s): one course in sociology or politics. Not open to students who have received credit for EU/SO 395G. Enrollment limited to 15. [W2] F. Duina.EU/SO 312. Populism in the Age of Globalization.
Populist movements and parties have gained power and prominence in recent years. Often defying traditional left-right distinctions, they have in many cases adopted anti-globalization, nationalist or nativist, and anti-elitist positions. They have enjoyed electoral and other successes in Europe, Latin America, North America, Asia, and Africa. This seminar examines the causes of their rise, nature of their rhetoric and policies, and profound impact on cultural, political, economic, and other social processes and dynamics. Prerequisite(s): EUS 101 or one course in politics or sociology. Not open to students who have received credit for EU/SO 395Q. Enrollment limited to 15. F. Duina.EU/PT 332. The Politics of Memory.
What is at stake when monuments are built or taken down? How do different societies decide what to remember from their past, and what to forget? This course explores the politics of public memory. It examines how the stories that groups tell themselves about themselves help construct, justify, or contest relations of power within the group or between themselves and others. It also asks how such memories can be used to overcome the traumas and conflicts of the past. Specific cases are drawn from a variety of different countries, including the United States. Prerequisite(s): one 100- or 200-level politics course. Enrollment limited to 15. (Politics: Identities and Interests.) (Politics: Philosophical, Literary, and Legal Studies.) [W2] J. Richter.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 and writing 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 and writing 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.INDC s18. Wilde Times: Scandal, Celebrity, and the Law.
Oscar Wilde, an icon today, was popular in his own time as well. His relationship with Alfred Douglas was an open secret despite the fact that homosexuality was at the time a criminal offense. Indeed, Wilde’s sexuality was tolerated until he sued Douglas' irascible father for libel. This course begins with the 1895 trials, seeking to understand cultures of sexuality in a period notorious for sexual repression, and contextualizing issues they raise of scandal and the law, celebrity, gender, and sexuality. Designed to encourage independent research, the course guides students through the research process, drawing to the fore histories often hidden from view. Cross-listed in European studies, gender and sexuality studies, and history. Not open to students who have received credit for INDS 107. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 30. (History: European.) (History: Modern.) [AC] [HS] C. Shaw.ConcentrationsInterdisciplinary Programs
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
This course counts toward the following Interdisciplinary Program(s)