ECES Curriculum
Click here to view the short description of the Minor and the ECES Curriculum in the pdf format.
Note:
Refers to a course Offered in Spring 2009
Refers to a course NOT Offered in Spring 2009
Click here to view the Spring 2009 schedule in the pdf format.
EUH 3330 Late Modern Central and Eastern Europe
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Short Course Description:
A cultural, social and political survey of the Hapsburg Monarchy, Poland, and the Balkans from 1700 to 1918. Topics include absolutism, revolutionary nationalism, modernization, cultural flowering, ethnic violence, socialism and WWI.
For more information, please contact the instructor: Dr. Alice Freifeld
EUH 3564 Central and Eastern Europe in the Twentieth Century
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Short Course Description:
This course studies the emergence of six small European successor states (Austria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Romania and Yugoslavia) through a tumultuous period of nationalist rivalry, holocaust, and forced cooperation. The first focus of this course will be the violent ethnic division that divided and divides this area. After being the battlefield and slaughterhouse of Europe, Eastern Europe seemed to disappear from European concern for nearly fifty years. What happened in Central Europe while it was in the icebox of Communism? Our last focus will be the immediate and long-range causes of the unexpected chain of revolutions that swept through the region in 1989.
For more information, please contact the instructor: Dr. Alice Freifeld
EUS 3930/ANT 3930 Anthropology of Eastern Europe
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Short Course Description:
This course looks at the postsocialist societies of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union in the midst of rapid and momentous change. It examines the processes and particulars of what have become known as a “transition from socialism to capitalism”. To what extent do the so-defined “transitional” projects launched by Eastern European governments in the wake of 1989, projects which meant to bring the postsocialist countries within the orbit of democracy and market economy, mimic Western institutional experience? Or else, do they rather represent unique “postsocialist” experience? How are Eastern Europeans now made members of their transforming states and societies, and how are postsocialist countries claiming membership in the post-Cold War geo-political space?
For more information, please contact the instructor: Dr. Maria Stoilkova
EUS 3930/CPO 3614 Eastern European Politics
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Short Course Description:
This class will provide a survey of the politics of post-Communist Eastern Europe. Just as the collapse of the region's Communist regimes took social scientists by surprise a decade ago, so too has the remarkable divergence of political and economic outcomes since. In some of the region's countries, democratic institutions were swiftly consolidated; in others, however, free elections produced "illiberal democracies" – and sometimes even new forms of authoritarianism. Likewise in the economic sphere, there has been wide variation in outcomes: while some governments have managed difficult reforms and laid the conditions for growth, others have faced sustained economic contraction. This range of outcomes makes the region an ideal laboratory for testing the explanatory power of major theories of comparative politics. Our survey of political and economic developments in this region over the last decade will cover democratization and political participation; privatization and macroeconomic reform; nationalism and ethnic conflict; as well as state-building and institutional development. The countries that will receive primary consideration are Poland, the former Czechoslovakia, Hungary, the former Yugoslavia, and Romania.
For more information, please contact the instructor: Dr. Conor O’Dwyer
European Language Core Courses
Students should select two semesters (6-10 credits; the number of credits varies by language and level of instruction) of one of these languages beyond the CLAS language requirement.
Click on the language below to view its course descriptions:
- Czech (language courses are offered under CZE prefix)
- Hungarian (language courses are offered under HNG prefix)
- Polish (language courses are offered under POL prefix)
- Russian (language courses are offered under RUS prefix)
- German (language courses are offered under GER prefix)
EUS 3100/CZT 3930 Czech Cinema
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Short Course Description:
This course will introduce students to the Czech cinematic tradition – from the establishment of the Barrandov Studios “Dream Factory” in the 1930s to the Czech New Wave to recent post-transition hits like Kolja (aka „Coca-Kolya“). We will analyze the cinematic language of storytelling and explore the uniquely Czech approaches to film narrative. We will also examine how Czech cinema has responded to foreign influences – from the Aryanization of the Nazis to the normalization of the Soviet Union to the genre system and big budgets of Hollywood -- and compare Czech trends to their Western counterparts.
For more information, please contact the instructor: Holly Raynard
EUS 3930/CZT 3930 Culture in Crisis: The European Avant-Garde Between the Wars
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Short Course Description:
World War I. The Russian Revolution. The rise of Hitler and the Nazi party. Freud and the unconscious. Marx and class-consciousness. Airplanes, automobiles, and industrialized factories. Radio, telegraph and the movie camera. How did these radical developments and contributions change life in interwar Europe? What role did art play in these revolutions: How did this new era inspire innovation in art, and, conversely, how did art shape life? The European avant-garde, arising out of the cultural crisis before the First World War, presents a unique opportunity to explore the interstices of art, politics, and ideas. This course will approach the avant-garde in a comparative and interdisciplinary light, showing the cross-fertilization of ideas between cultures and the interdependence between traditionally distinct media. The course is an introduction to the ideology and aesthetics of the major movements of the 20th-century avant-garde, focusing on developments in Paris, Berlin, Prague and Moscow (with occasional excursions beyond the capitals). We will draw from several disciplines and media to present the avant-garde in all the dynamics of its development.
For more information, please contact the instructor: Holly Raynard
EUS 3930 Secret Police Under Communism
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Short Course Description:
The general aim of this course is to provide an overview of the secret-police forces and the political use of terror in the Central-European countries (Germany, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Romania, Bulgaria and Yugoslavia) between 1945-90. The focus of each country is the nature and extent of internal terror and repression, the range of internal intelligence functions, and the effect of secret-police interference in internal policymaking process. We will be learning about the postwar history of these countries and we’ll examine their relationships with each other and with the Soviet Union.
For more information, please contact the instructor: Edit Nagy
EUS 3930 Stalinist Communism
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Short Course Description:
TBA
For more information, please contact the instructor: Edit Nagy
EUS 4211/POS 4931 European Union's Enlargement
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Short Course Description:
This course is designed to provide students with a unique perspective on the on-going process of European Union enlargement. It combines the study of the history and politics of the European Union with the social, economic and political transformation of Eastern Europe, with a focus on the intersection and interaction of the two. The class begins with a summary of the historical development of the European Union and a review of its formal and informal institutions. The second part of the class overviews the recent history, political and economic transitions of Eastern Europe, including the role of the EU in determining the shape of those transitions. The third section of the class focuses on the process of European Union enlargement, summarizing recent enlargement experiences, as well as offering perspectives on the far-reaching social, economic and political effects of enlargement from representatives of both ‘old’ and ‘new’ Europe. The final portion of the class is devoted to a practical simulation where students, divided into several teams representing various national and institutional actors involved in the process, ‘play out’ the future enlargement of current European Union applicant counties.
For more information, please contact the instructor: Dr. Petia Kostadinova
EUS 4930/SYD 4701 Nationalism & Ethnicity in Europe
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Short Course Description:
The purpose of this course is to provide students with a comparative understanding of the role played by nationalism and ethnic identity in Europe. The first objective of this class is to introduce students to a variety of approaches and perspectives that explain nationalism and ethnicity. The second objective is to analyze select cases of national identity and ethnic conflict in contemporary Europe, both West and East. We will look at several important theoretical problems (for example, the modernity of nationalism/national identity as a factor in state formation and dissolution/secession; ethnic politics and conflict management; the post-1989 national contexts and the enlargement of the European Union further East; citizenship issues and the challenges of large-scale migration) and case studies (e.g., regionalisms in Spain; Muslim minorities in Europe; the dismemberment of communist ethno-federations and the process of identity formation in the successor states; the Romany community as a trans-national European people lacking a country of their own).
For more information, please contact the instructor: Dr. Alin Ceobanu
EUS 4930/SYA 4930 Culture and Identity in Europe
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Short Course Description:
The purpose of this course is to acquaint students with some key themes on the ever-changing socio-cultural European realities, past and present. The first objective of this class is to introduce students to several relevant discourses on culture and identity in contemporary Europe. The second objective is to explore the regional, national and transnational dimensions of socio-cultural identification. This course also looks at these identities in the context of supranational unification and eastward extension of the European Union, as well as at their role in the process of shaping a European self. By the end of this class, students will be able to: (a) identify some key cultural issues in contemporary Europe; (b) evaluate the role played by various local and regional cultures in the future architecture of Europe; and (c) make the connection between the multitude of European identities and the ideal of a unified Europe.
For more information, please contact the instructor: Dr. Alin Ceobanu
EUS 4930/ANT 4930 Rural Cultures in Contemporary Europe
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Short Course Description:
This course (a combination of seminar and lecture) will discuss theory and specific case studies in an effort to answer the following core questions: Who works the land in contemporary Europe?, How do rural peoples fit in the economic policies and political ideologies of Europe?, Can we talk of a rural-urban analytical divide in Europe?, How do rural communities negotiate, adapt, and resist the logic of European integration? Of market capitalism?, What can the rural peoples of Europe teach us about development, the State, and identity in a globalized world?
For more information, please contact the instructor: Antonio de la Pena
EUS 4930/PSY 4930 Muslims in Modern Europe: Psychology, Peace & Conflict
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Short Course Description:
Our aim in this class will be to explore together the modern history and current role(s) of Muslims in Europe through various lenses – the rich lenses of knowledge, multicultural experience, and interest you bring, and a few that I and the others we will explore together in the negotiation and conflict resolution literature offer us. This course is reading intensive, discussion centered, and I hope educational for you as a whole person. If you show up, pay attention, and really try to engage the material, you might come away with 1) a greater understanding of relationship focused negotiation and what influences cultures of peace and conflict, both intra- and inter-personally (psychologically), and intra- and inter-nationally (politically) 2) a historically rooted appreciation of the modern story of Muslims in Europe and 3) an ability to apply these two knowledge-tools to better understand contemporary Europe (including recent and current events in England, France, Spain, and Turkey) and your relationships with friends, family, and colleagues.
For more information, please contact the instructor: Brian Mistler
EUS 4930/GEO 4938 Geography of Central and Eastern Europe
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Short Course Description:
The course will use the geographic analysis of contemporary Europe to present it as a diverse region in terms of natural landscapes, resources, economic systems and cultures. Although the program will be focused on Central and Eastern Europe, and specifically on the area of former Eastern Block, the introduction to the material will be presented in an extensive European context. The following four broad topic areas will be explored: (1) Overview of the physiographic regions of Europe, major components of the landscape, as well as climate and vegetation zones; (2) Current political map, demographic characteristics of the population, religions, ethnic groups, languages and major migrations before and after the EU expansion in 2004; (3) Transition process of the new EU members before and after the succession with the emphasis on the benefits and issues of privatization, GDP composition and annual growth, employment as well as changes in exports and imports. New trends in tourism under the influence of easier human flow and the rapidly rising budget airline market; and (4) The last and most extensive section of the class will explore the case studies of individual countries from the former East Block, to highlight their distinct character.
For more information, please contact the instructor: Anna Szyniszewska
EUS 4930/CCJ 4934 Human Trafficking in Europe
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Short Course Description:
This course will provide an in-depth analysis of human smuggling stemming from eastern European countries. Members of the European Union which are affected by human smuggling will also be an area of concentration. Human smuggling operations with Europe as a final destination will also be analyzed. Attention will be given to how trafficking of humans from Europe affects the global community. To analyze the problem of human smuggling in Europe, this course will cover the nature and extent of the problem, policies aimed at preventing human trafficking at both domestic and international levels, and the involvement of non-governmental agencies.
For more information, please contact the instructor: Allison Timbs
EUS 4931/POS 4931 The Domestic Politics of EU Enlargement
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Short Course Description:
This course will provide an in-depth examination of how EU expansion reconfigures domestic politics -- with a particular emphasis on its growing role in the consolidation of democratic institutions in new democracies. In order to contextualize the contemporary transformations (most of which are occurring in the formerly Communist countries of Eastern Europe), the course will look historically at the experience of earlier rounds of expansion, especially those incorporating what at the time were also comparatively backward economies and closed societies -- particularly Greece, Spain, and Portugal.
For more information, please contact the instructor: Dr. Conor O’Dwyer
GET 3501 History, Literature and Arts of Berlin
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Short Course Description:
TBA
For more information, please contact :Branislav Kovalcik
GET 3580 War in Literature and Visual Media
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Short Course Description:
TBA
For more information, please contact the instructor: Dr. Eric Kligermann
GET 3581/JST 3930 Literature and the Art of the Holocaust
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Short Course Description:
This course is designed to give students an understanding of the historical, political and aesthetic import surrounding the attempted destruction of the European Jewish community by Nazi Germany. Through an analysis of Holocaust literature, film and visual media, we will investigate the connections between history, trauma, witnessing and representation. Part of this class will focus on how the Holocaust functions as a mark of collective memory not only for a reunified Germany but throughout the EU. We will extend the problematic concept of Vergangenheitsbewaltigung, “mastering the past,” to how the countries of the EU examine their own roles (complicity, detachment or resistance) in relation to the crimes of genocide. How has the Holocaust been appropriated and reconfigured in a unifying Europe entering the 21st century?
For more information, please contact the instructor: Dr. Eric Kligermann
GET 3930 German Folk and Fairy tales
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Short Course Description:
TBA
For more information, please contact the instructor: Dr. Barbara Mennel
GET 4291 Women and German Cinema
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Short Course Description:
TBA
For more information, please contact the instructor: Dr. Barbara Mennel
CPO 3633 Politics in Russia
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Short Course Description:
What happens to a global superpower once it collapses? How does a European backwater become a global superpower in the first place? What will it take for democracy to take root in a country, like Russia, with such a long history of authoritarian and totalitarian rule? The course begins by covering early Soviet-era politics, the major political and social events that occurred during Soviet rule, and the economic and political reforms under Gorbachev. Following a discussion of the collapse of the Soviet Union, the course will focus on the initial struggle for power in post-Soviet Russia and the continuing evolution of its political institutions. After establishing the institutional framework structuring Russian politics, the course addresses the various political issues facing post-Soviet Russia today as well as the governmental policies meant to address these issues.
For more information, please contact the instructor: Dr. Bryon Moraski
RUT 3600 The Twentieth Century through Slavic Eyes
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Short Course Description:
Eastern and Central Europe underwent social and political change in the 20th century that by far exceeded the more gradual and progressive transitions that affected other “Western” cultures. This course gives students an opportunity to explore the major historical, social and cultural upheavals of the twentieth century through the eyes of a large community of European Slavs. We will do this through the medium of literature, film and other contemporary art forms. The course will take its lead from the assumption that it is not so much events as perceptions of events that influence the thoughts and ideas of subsequent generations. The course will place special emphasis on how these perceptions changed in the course of the last century. Taught entirely in English; no knowledge of any other language required.
For more information, please contact the instructor: Dr. Galina Rylkova
RUT 4400 Pushkin & Gogol
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Short Course Description:
This course focuses on major works of two of Russian literatures most renowned authors, Pushkin and Gogol, who wrote most of their novels and poems in the first half of the nineteenth century. Readings and discussions are in English.
For more information, please contact the instructor: Dr. E.C. Barksdale
GEA 3500 Geography of Europe
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Short Course Description:
The objective of this course is to provide students with a knowledge of spatial patterns in Europe (physical, national, urban, cultural, etc.) to be used in the analysis of past and present European affairs. The instructor will use many different sources of information to represent Europe as a dynamic home to differing peoples who must face the same universal challenges to stability, economic success and happiness that confront us all.
For more information, please contact the instructor: Dr. A.J. Lamme III
EUS 3930/CZT 3564 Modern Czech Culture and Society
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Short Course Description:
This course provides a Czech cultural history from the optimism of the First Czechoslovak Republic to the betrayal at Munich and subsequent Nazi occupation, through the turmoil of the communist era to the 1989 Velvet Revolution and recent entry into the European Union. We will examine such periods of cultural transition through the prism of literature, art and film and explore the role of the artist as chronicler, critic and agent in these historical developments.
For more information, please contact the instructor: Holly Raynard
EUS 3930/CZT 3930 Contemporary Czech Literature: The Notion of ‘Europeanism’
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Short Course Description:
The course surveys contemporary Czech literature, with ‘contemporary’ referring to the period starting after WWII and extending to the present. The political turmoil of this period left an indelible mark on the Czech literature, which will naturally lead to some discussions of the historical and political circumstances of this period. They will motivate the close connection between literature and politics, and the role of the ‘conscience of the nation’ that Czech writers have often assumed, voluntarily or despite their other intentions. The course aims at emphasizing the notion of ‘Europeanism’ in the Czech national identity, and its role in the integration of the Czech Republic into the European Union.
For more information, please contact the instructor: Dr. Hana Filip
EUS 3930/CZT 3930 Selling Central Europe
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Short Course Description:
TBA
For more information, please contact the instructor: Dr. Hana Filip
EUS 3930/CZT 3930 Czech Literature and Politics: Intellectual History from 1948 to the Present
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Short Course Description:
This course is an introduction to Czech intellectual history starting with the communist coup in 1948, focusing on the precarious negotiations between artists and the political establishment trying to curtail their expression and impact on the society as a whole. Topics include legal and illegal literary institutions (censorship, Charter 1977, writers’ unions, literary magazines, the ‘samizdat’ underground publications of Edice Petlice (‘Padlock Editions’); official, underground and exile writers; the dissident movement and its key role in the Velvet Revolution in November 1989; the most recent developments post 1989, including the new dilemmas coming with political freedom and its effects on artists, publishing and the book trade in the Czech Republic. Readings will be assigned from Havel, Hrabal, Kundera, Škvorecký, Vaculík, and others.
For more information, please contact the instructor: Dr. Hana Filip
EUS 3930/PLT 3504 19th Century Polish Literature
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The general aim of this course is to provide an overview of the major literary, cultural and social movements of 19th --Romanticism, Positivism and Young Poland—in a European context. We will be reading fiction, poetry, essays and political writings of the era and interrogate them from two perspectives. First, we will study these texts within their historical context. Second, we will consider the purpose of these texts from an artistic or rhetorical perspective. In addition we will consider how Polish identity survived though Poland as a state which lacked geopolitical borders for over a century. We’ll examine the responses of poets, writers, journalists, painters and philosophers to their own unique political circumstances as they shaped Polish culture against the odds of censorship, exile, and “depolonization.” We will also take a special look at the debates surrounding the November Uprising of 1830, the January Uprising of 1863 and the 1905 Revolution and explore how these discussions are integral to modern Polish cultural identity. Readings include: Adam Mickiewicz, Maurycy Mochnacki, Boleslaw Prus, and Aleksander Swietochowski.
For more information, please contact the instructor: Dr. Ewa Wampuszyc
EUS 3100/PLT 3520 Modern Polish Cinema
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Short Course Description:
This course is an examination of the work of three Polish directors of international renown, with special focus placed on the artistic representation and transformation of the Polish cultural and historical imaginary in three separate cinematic contexts: the Polish domestic industry, European cinema, and the cinema of Hollywood. The films of Andrzej Wajda, the premier director of postwar Polish cinema, mold a vibrant strain of Polish popular Romanticism to an eclectic blend of international cinema styles, from surrealism and neorealism to the New Wave and postmodernism, with each film restaging anew the problem of artistic means and narrative ends. The work of Agnieszka Holland, a “cinema of identities,” finely embeds narrative conflicts that cross gender, ethnic, and confessional boundaries into a variety of historical and cultural contexts ranging from the nineteenth century in Poland, France, and the US, through World War II and communism in Poland, to the contemporary US and Europe. The controversial career of Andrzej Żuławski, a maverick European director, has ranged widely over a number of genres from science fiction, fantasy, and horror/cult films to historical drama, melodrama, and opera, while consistently representing and probing extremes of violence and sexuality.
For more information, please contact the instructor: Dr. Chris Caes
EUS 3930/PLT 3564 Modern Polish Culture and Society
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Short Course Description:
This course introduces and examines central issues in Polish culture and society of the last one hundred years. During this period, stretching from the outbreak of anti-czarist strikes and socialist terrorism in Russian-ruled Poland in 1905 to the country’s entry into the European Union in 2004, Poles have lived under no less than eight different political regimes. The course will place an emphasis on the peculiar dialectic of continuity and change that this political history has impressed on Polish culture and society. As parliamentary democracy, war, and authoritarianisms and totalitarianisms of both the right and of the left have alternated variously across the political landscape, how has culture in Poland worked to fashion stable national, ethnic, and gender identities?
For more information, please contact the instructor: Dr. Ewa Wampuszyc or Dr. Chris Caes
EUS 3100/PLT 3930 Polish Sci-Fi and Fantasy
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Short Course Description:
This course introduces and examines one of the most imaginative and currently vibrant artistic currents of modern Polish culture – fantastyka, or “the fantastic,” in two of its most popular guises: science fiction and fantasy. Our focus in the course will be twofold. Firstly, developing a conceptual “tool kit” from the writing of Polish science fiction grandmaster Stanisław Lem, we will inquire into (and experience) the pleasure-giving dimensions of these genres, attempting some structural definitions and highlighting the peculiar blend of cognitive or metaphysical ambition and horror that defines the Polish fantastic. Secondly, considering representations of other worlds as unique reflections of this world, we will attempt to identify and reflect on specific historical and social factors – from wartime catastrophe and communist censorship to the commercialization of publishing and availability of new computer technologies – that have led Poles to practice the genres of the fantastic.
For more information, please contact the instructor: Dr. Chris Caes
EUS 3930/PLT 3930 Cultural Transition in Contemporary Poland
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Short Course Description:
Throughout the 20th/21st c., Poland has been confronted by numerous transitional events, such as those from war to peace and a socialist system, from a command economy to a capitalist one, from being eclipsed by the Iron Curtain to peacefully tearing down the Curtain in 1989 and joining the European Union in 2004. Organized around the concept of “cultural transition,” this course will consider the response of writers to such issues as censorship and the imposition of a Socialist Realist aesthetic in the 1950s; the mechanisms of propaganda; dissent and assent during the 1960s; the art of peaceful resistance and peaceful resistance as art in the 1980s; the “McDonaldization” of Polish culture and the growth of the mass media; and the rise of pop-culture in a capitalist context. More broadly, this course will also consider (among others) the following questions: What is the relationship between historical events and cultural production? How do transitional moments in the economic or political spheres spark new artistic forms and transformations in the cultural sphere? How do writers and artists contribute to changing definitions of local, national, and European identity?
For more information, please contact the instructor: Dr. Ewa Wampuszyc
PLT 3930/EUS 3930/HIS 3931 Magical Realism
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Short Course Description:
One of the most oxymoronic terms of contemporary literary criticism is “magical realism.” Popularized through the works of such authors as Gabriel García Márquez, Isabel Allende and Toni Morrison, the inherent contradiction of the marriage between the “magical” and the “real” has been often misconstrued. As a result, the label “magical real” has been casually adopted and even confused with fantasy, science-fiction and fable. Today, the term has become both a point of intrigue and contention for literary scholars around the world. What are the roots of this marriage and why has this mode of writing become common, particularly among authors of postcolonial cultures or societies that define themselves as peripheral to the mainstream? This course will attempt to answer these and other related questions by studying Polish literature in a world context. The reading list includes works by the Polish authors Stanisław Wyspiański, Bruno Schulz and Olga Tokarczuk, as well as works by such non-Polish authors as García Márquez and Jorge Luis Borges. We will also study various artists to examine the genesis of Magical Realism in Polish and non-Polish visual arts.
For more information, please contact the instructor: Dr. Ewa Wampuszyc
EUS 3930/EUH 3206 Europe Since 1914/Europe in the 20th Century
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Short Course Description:
Since 1900 Europeans have witnessed an astonishing number of changes. In fact, some of the most dramatic transformations of this century have come about in the past decade as a result of the sudden and unexpected collapse of communist systems in the Soviet Union (1991) and Eastern Europe (1989). Among the far-reaching consequences of these recent developments have been the resurgence of nationalist and regionalist sentiments -- Scotland, Basque country, Lombardy, are examples -- the redrawing of state boundaries, and the acceleration of the movement towards transnational economic and political integration (EU). Although this is not a course in current affairs, we will be studying the major historical events of the past one hundred years that have given rise to the contemporary European scene. Some of the themes we will be exploring are: the origins and outcomes of the two world wars, the varieties of European social and political ideologies, and the ever-changing pattern of national and trans-national identities.
For more information, please contact the instructor: Dr. Peter Bergmann
EUH 3673/JST 3930 Modern East European Jewry
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Short Course Description:
Not available.
For more information, please contact the instructor: Dr. Alice Freifeld
EUH 3575 History of Imperial Russia, 1700-1917
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Short Course Description:
This course will explore the major events and topics of the political, social, and cultural history of the Russian Empire in the 18th and 19th centuries, from the reign of Peter the Great to the Revolution and fall of the Romanov dynasty. Important themes will include the empire's national make-up and the nature of imperial rule; Russia's complex relationship with and self image vis-à-vis "the West"; the growth and development of the autocracy and its relationship with the Orthodox Church; the nobility, peasants, and the institution of serfdom; the birth and special significance of the Russian intelligentsia; the Great Reforms and Russia's "delayed" modernization; and the onset of the revolutionary period at the start of the 20th century.
For more information, please contact the instructor: Dr. Stuart Finkel
EUH 3576 Twentieth-Century Russia to 1991
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Short Course Description:
This course will explore the major events and topics of the political, social, and cultural history of Russia since 1900. Important themes will include Russia's delayed modernization and its pre-Revolutionary political order and social structure; the origins of the revolutionary movement, the Revolution of 1905, and the briefly lived semi-constitutional monarchy; World War I and the collapse of the Tsarist Empire; the Revolutions of 1917, the Bolshevik triumph, and the Civil War; the construction of the Soviet system; Soviet nationalities policies; collectivization, the five year plans, and the "cultural revolution"; the purges and the Great Terror; the Second World War and late Stalinism; Khrushchev's Thaw; "mature socialism" and the Cold War; Brezhnev, the era of stagnation, and the advent of dissent; the Gorbachev years – Glasnost' and Perestroika; and the collapse of the Soviet Union and the prospects for its successor states.
For more information, please contact the instructor: Dr. Stuart Finkel
EUS 43930/HIS 3931 Nationalism and the Idea of Europe
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Short Course Description:
The course traces the tension between nationalism and the concept of Europe. The course explores how a European identity arose along with the emergence of nationalisms during the Reformation, the wars of religion, and the Enlightenment. The course examines on the rise and fall of the Napoleonic system; the German bids for hegemony under Bismarck, Wilhelm II, and Hitler; and the success of European integration after 1945.
For more information, please contact the instructor: Dr. Peter Bergmann
EUH 3931 Jews in Russia and Eastern Europe
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Short Course Description:
This course is a comprehensive survey of the history of the Jewish communities of Russia and Eastern Europe from the middle of the eighteenth century until today. Economic, societal, religious, cultural and political developments contributing to the course of Jewish history in Eastern Europe will all be examined in detail. The course focuses on the modern period, but begins by explaining how Jews initially came to settle in Eastern Europe and the reasons for their demographic expansion. After describing some characteristics of Jewish life in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the course covers the partitions of Poland and the absorption of the majority of European Jewry into the tsarist empire. Much of the course focuses on the nineteenth century, and in particular, the effects of urbanization, modernization, and government policies on Jewish life in Eastern Europe. The course moves on to discuss the rise of Jewish politics, the emergence of Jewish nationalism, and the impact of World War I and the Russian Revolution on East European and Russian Jewry. The topic of the Holocaust is discussed in the context of its impact on Jewish life in independent Poland and the Baltic states. The course concludes with an overview of Jewish life in the Soviet Union, post-communist Russia, and Eastern Europe. In exploring the evolution of the Jewish communities of Eastern Europe, it is hoped that students will learn the historical context crucial to a proper understanding of the Jewish experience in the modern era.
For more information, please contact the instructor: Dr. Simon Rabinovitch
EUH 4563 Habsburg Monarchy
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Short Course Description:
A study of the multiethnic dynastic state from its formation through its revitalization under Maria Theresa, conservative retrenchment under Metternich, and the challenge of nationalism from its peoples, to Austro-Hungary's collapse in World War I.
For more information, please contact the instructor: Dr. Alice Freifeld
EUH 4586 Soviet History through Soviet and post-Soviet Film
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Short Course Description:
A study of selected themes and topics of Soviet history explored through film, including the relationship between revolution and state-building, the complex place of terror in it, efforts to rewrite the social structure of the new state, WWII as a new cultural revolution, the Brezhnev stagnation and the crisis of socialist values and Gorbachev's new revolution.
For more information, please contact the instructor: Dr. Stuart Finkel
EUH 4610 Society and the Sexes in Modern Europe
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Short Course Description:
In this overview of European history since the eighteenth century we will concentrate on issues of gender with respect to politics, sexuality, class, science, imperialism, war, the modern nation-state, and the European Union.
For more information, please contact the instructor: Dr. Sheryl Kroen
JST 3930/EUH 3033 History of the Holocaust
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Short Course Description:
Terrorism and warfare have dominated the headlines of the 21st century so far, which makes the study of hatred all the more important. The Nazis themselves tried to bring Germans to believe that martyrdom (in fact, to die for Hitler) was the noblest thing they could do. This course explores the roots of the Holocaust in European anti-Semitism, and traces the development of discriminatory attitudes toward their horrible outcome during the Second World War. The goal of studying what is arguably the most crucial event in twentieth-century history is to provide students with a solidly-grounded appreciation of the need for the respect and tolerance of others. The irrational basis of anti-Semitism will be analyzed, as will the methods by which the murderous rhetoric was literally put into practice, not simply by SS thugs, but also by the German army, by the police, and by “ordinary men.” The main victims of the Holocaust were unquestionably the Jews, but this course will also consider Nazism’s murderous intentions toward other victims. If it can be arranged, a survivor will come and speak to the class during the semester.
For more information, please contact the instructor: Dr. Geoffrey Giles
JST 3930/HIS 3931 Genocide & Ethnic Cleansing in 20th Cent. Eastern Europe
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Short Course Description:
Every major war in the twentieth century ended in genocide and ethnic cleansing. The Armenian massacres were a harbinger of the extraordinary tragedy to come. This course will focus on the Holocaust as a cataclysm within Central (Eastern) European society. World War II was followed by the largest mass migration of people's in world history. We will read about the human dilemma of Holocaust survivors, the millions of German expellees, POWs, and traumatized residents as the victorious powers redrew borders, deported minorities, and cared for "stateless" peoples. We will conclude with the ethnic cleansing in the former Yugoslavia.
For more information, please contact the instructor: Dr. Alice Freifeld
SYA 4930 European Population Issues
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Short Course Description:
This course is designed to introduce students to major issues related to population size, growth, and composition in Europe. The course is recommended for students in any discipline who have an interest in better understanding European social issues – students in sociology, political science, international relations, and economics, as well as those who have a professional or personal interest in Europe. The course will explore the demographic processes that have shaped the countries of Europe and the European Union. We will discuss some of the social, political, and economic concerns currently facing Europe and the European Union, as well as historical trends including the demographic transition. The course will also introduce students to some basic measures and sources of data used to study populations.
For more information, please contact the instructor: Dr. Tanya Koropeckyj-Cox
For German and Russian courses not listed above, please visit http://web.germslav.ufl.edu/index.html or http://www.registrar.ufl.edu/catalog/programs/courses/world.html.
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