European Studies

This course covers the major themes of European cultural history since the end of the 18th century. It studies institutions (schools, universities), vectors (books, press), actors, and audiences. This study is also part of the political history of the continent, through the commitment and birth of the “intellectual”, as well as the debates and polemics of the time.

This course provides an overview of the process of European integration from the post-World War II era to the present. Students study the functions and power distributions of the EU legislative, executive, and judicial branches of government. Students also analyze the politics of policymaking in different areas, such as the single market, the Euro, and external trade policy. Current dissensions and dysfunctions within the EU are examined and debated from the perspectives of democratic theory and collective action theory. Noneconomic policy areas, such as foreign and security policies, also are addressed.

This is an independent research course with research arranged between the student and faculty member. The specific research topics vary each term and are described on a special project form for each student. A substantial paper is required. The number of units varies with the student’s project, contact hours, and method of assessment, as defined on the student’s special study project form.

As a sui generis system or system of its own kind, the European Union has been the subject of research and scholarship since its founding days in the 1950s. Not only did it develop from the Coal and Steal Community into a fully-fledged economic and partially political union, it also attracted ever more members to join over time, which is specifically true today: Following Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine, the EU showed unprecedented unity in standing up against Putin and opening its membership door to Ukraine, Moldova, and Georgia. In this course we focus on both developments: in the first part of the course, we examine they key historical stages to understand how the EU became an ever-deeper Union and learn about European integration theory, which can explain the deepening of integration to us. What does the EU regulate and how can we explain the expansion of competences under EU rule? The second part of the course covers different perspectives on the widening of EU integration – why, if at all, should the European Union enlarge? How does widening affect the deepening of EU integration? And how can EU integration support/impede the democracy and security of its candidate countries? Overall, the course combines perspectives on how the EU became what is it with discussions on the potential new Member States in order to allows students to understand the implications of new EU integration.

This course examines social, political, economic, and cultural aspects of Spain during the 20th century, contextualizing the historical evolution that took place and shaped Spanish society during that period. It starts with the crisis of 1898 and the consequences of defeat during the early 1900s on Spanish social transformation, the oligarchic monarchy of Alfonso XIII, from 1902 through 1914, and the parliamentary collapse from 1914 through 1923. The course also covers the dictatorship of Primo de Rivera (1923-30), the Second Spanish Republic (1931-36), and the cultural Silver Age of that ran from 1898 though 1936. It finally looks at the impact of the civil war (1936-39), the resulting Franco dictatorship (1939-75), and the restoration of democracy in Spain following Franco's death in 1975.

The European Union is an important actor when it comes to law-making. While this often appears to be very abstract, it does impact our lives as European citizens very much, also on the national level. In 2021, the European Commission opened a series of citizen-led debates, the Conference on the Future of Europe. These meetings, taking place in various formats, allowed citizens from all over Europe to share their ideas and provide suggestions on how to improve their future in Europe. This seminar will offer students the opportunity to investigate this process more closely, its results, achievements and implications for all inhabitants of European member states. Connecting them in a better was with EU institutions is crucial considering that European elections will take place in May 2024 and that Eurosceptical voices are rising in many European societies. At the end of the seminar, students will have fostered their background on theoretical perspectives to critically analyze Europeanization, integration and multi-level governance, including institutional, feminist and sociological approaches.

What is at stake in reading, writing, depicting and telling the histories of Berlin’s architectural and urban landscape? How do historical and analytical frameworks shape scholarly understandings of the city? How does the architecture of Berlin shape its history and theory? Conducted as a discussion seminar, this course uses recent architectural and urban histories of 20th century Berlin to explore different ways of narrating the city’s history. Each week, students will approach Berlin’s urbanity through different textual and visual media to discuss the themes and methods—from femininity to migration, politics to privatization—by which they narrate the entanglement of Berlin’s physical and social landscape. Over the course of the semester, students will develop their scholarly reading techniques, and their fluency in the multipolar and manifold circumstances of the city. The premise of the course is that engaging the narrative can lead to ‘changing the narrative,’ thereby opening the door for students to develop an original final project, situating their worldly experience in the past, present and future of Berlin.

This course introduces the language, culture, and society of Catalonia and builds basic linguistic and cultural competence. It provides a study of the Catalan language, as well as general information about the culture and society: traditional festivals of Catalonia, customs, and distinctive characteristics of this autonomous community, which has its own language and culture.

This course will investigate the ways in which the policing of gender and sexuality intersected with the policing of (ethno) national boundaries in Central-Eastern Europe, with a focus on the state-socialist period (1945-1990) but including the interwar period and the post socialist period as contextual bookends. At the same time, it will explore the ways in which the socialist ideologies of gender equality and internationalism were actually (and selectively) implemented in these countries, the effect this had on women and men from both ethnic majority and minority populations in these countries. Finally, it takes a transnational approach, looking at the role of gender and sexuality in positioning Central Eastern Europe within the (white) West, and in the West’s perception and ‘othering’ of the region.

This course explores the city of Barcelona from a historic, artistic, literary, and cinematographic perspective. Topics include: the roman city; the Gothic Quarter; a bohemian and modernist city; a global city-- Universal Exposition, Olympic Games, and Universal Forum of Cultures.