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.
EUS 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, introducing new democratic and egalitarian possibilities. Yet it also brought counterrevolution and new authoritarian rulers, a cycle that seemed to repeat itself in 1848, “the first time as tragedy, the second as farce,” as Karl Marx lamented. We consider these revolutions together with the Communist uprisings waged in Marx’s name, the “velvet” revolutions of 1989, and the relationship between these last European revolutions and the populism that engulfs the continent today. We investigate 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.
EUS 105 Germany and the “New Europe:” The Cultures of Central and East-Central Europe after 1989
In this course, students explore the historical and cultural relations between Germany, the most prominent political and economic power in Central Europe, and the countries of East-Central Europe. The coursework focuses on “New Europe,” a group of post-communist countries after 1989, investigating how they are viewed in Germany and how they positioned themselves in relation to Germany. By analyzing a wide range of fictional and non-fictional texts, students integrate insights from historical, political, and artistic discourses in Europe in the 19th and 20th centuries to develop an understanding of the region’s past, the current dynamics, the narratives that shape mutual perceptions and attitudes, and the ongoing processes of European integration.
EUS 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.
EUS 112 Gangsters and Gulags: Crime in Russia and Eastern Europe
This course explores the history and shifting contexts of crime and punishment in Russia and Eastern Europe from the nineteenth century to the present. Central questions for the course include how crimes against the state, against property, and against individuals differ; how gender, religious, and ethnic identities impact ideas about criminality; and how legality and morality are related. As students explore literary texts, first-person narratives, films, and other media depicting crime and criminals, they discuss what kinds of norms and values are reinforced or undermined by ideas and actions surrounding crime.
EUS 206 The Empire Strikes Back: The Ends of European Empires in the Twentieth Century
In 1927, Katherine Mayo wrote a scathing report on public health and religious custom in India; the study was meant to support British rule as a modernizing force. Indian women, among others, responded immediately, tacking carefully between outrage at Mayo’s argument for imperial oversight and desires for reform. The battles for and against European empires included battlefields and soldiers. As this course underscores, however, the logics of empire and anti-imperialism were deeply entwined in ideas about how those under imperial rule should live, as well. Such rationales underwrote social incursion; condensing visions drove resistance movements, too. As we will see, the makings of many of these campaigns began as early as the rise of modern European empires themselves. We focus on the British Empire, and India and Ireland especially, while taking close stock of what would become a truly global anti-colonial wave in the twentieth century.
EUS 215 Jewish Lives in Eastern Europe
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 interwar 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?
EUS 216 Nature in the Cultures of Russia
This course explores the connections among environment, culture, and identity in the Eurasian landmass that has been home to Russians, Siberians, and Central Asians. After a brief consideration of the ways in which Russian identities have been grounded in deeply conservative understandings of land and peasantry, students consider alternative and revisionist versions that draw on “nature” to explore gender, sexuality, and ethnicity, often in direct opposition to the state. Conducted in English.
EUS 217 Fortress Europe: Race, Migration, and Difference in European History
Race in Europe has seemed to be a 20th-century importation, the product of new migrations from the “outposts” of European empires in the wake of WWII. The “migrant crisis” of the present era doubles down on this sense of racial, ethnic, and religious difference as externally imposed. This account has served as a comforting narrative, just as it’s been intended to fuel reaction. In this course, we examine changing views on racial, ethnic, and religious differences in European thought and politics since the eighteenth century. In contrast to populist claims, there has been a long history of European difference-making — of “othering” along racial, ethnic, and religious lines that has produced a seemingly white and Christian European identity. Together, we will situate our investigation of difference-making alongside primary sources and recent scholarship which highlight the experiences of the individuals who built their lives and communities in the midst.
EUS 230 Cold War Identities: Competing Images of Self and Society in the US and the Soviet Union
Cold War Identities explores the ways the combative and competitive culture of the Cold War impacted discourses surrounding race, sexual and gender identities, and national and ethnic identities in the United States, the Soviet Union, and in their respective spheres of influence. Working with materials from across cultural, political, and commercial spheres, students will engage with a fundamental contradiction of the Cold War: the ways superpowers both self-represented as bastions or freedom and progress, while simultaneously using the context of international competition as a justification for persecution of minoritized people within their own countries. With a focus on primary documents, the course builds students’ skills in evaluating and understanding discussions and representations of identity and their impacts across a broad range of media and popular culture.
EUS 241 The European Union
This course investigates the politics of European integration and disintegration, with a specific focus on the European Union. Students examine the origins and development of the European Union and its future prospects. Will Europe grow closer together or further apart? What are the trade-offs between “social” and “market” models of integration? What are the impacts of enlargement? What is the future of the Eurozone? Does the E.U. promote regional nationalism, e.g., in Scotland and Catalonia? Why did Britain decide to “leave” the E.U.?
EUS 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.
EUS 247 Contemporary Russia on Film
The course engages students with contemporary Russia through cinema and discusses a European culture that is, at the same time, non-Western in its political make up. Topics discussed include the colonial center and its contemporary political and cultural ambitions, imperial periphery and Russia’s “quiet others,” the Russian Idea in New Auteurism, Putin’s blockbusters, Russia’s alterities (minorities, sexualities, taboo Russia), Global Russia (the United States, Europe, Russia, and Ukraine).
EUS 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.
EUS 281 Upstairs, Downstairs, and Outside: Gender, Class, and the Household in British History
If the home was the “Englishman’s castle,” its walls were porous. Liberal culture called for separating private from public life, yet households were key sites for negotiating classed, gendered, and racial relationships. Fear that family units might break down spurred social movements and governmental reform. Modern life tends to be understood as the rise of the presumptively white, male individual, someone independent of his surroundings. By flipping the script, this course demonstrates the centrality of women, family, and community in defining and redefining society. Topics explored include work, motherhood, property rights, and the everyday life of politics, capitalism, and empire.
EUS 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.
EUS 301R Mere Words? Honor, Reputation, and the Freedom of Speech
Free speech has long been a centerpiece of modern, liberal institutions. Dictators have feared it, of course, but it chronically troubles democratic societies, too. Words have fanned racial and religious hatred and destroyed personal reputation, bringing neighbors to the courts over women’s sexual honor and drawing men into deadly duels. This course draws students into the intertwined histories of freedom of speech and the protection of reputation. The course is rooted in early modern and modern European histories, drawing connections and comparisons not only over time, but also with American, colonial, and postcolonial contexts. Note: As part of History’s 301 series, the course is designed to guide students through the research and writing process.
EUS 302 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 moral fears. This course examines these developments by focusing on sex, gender, and new urban spaces in the decades around the turn of the twentieth century. We will explore the writings of Sigmund Freud and Gustav Le Bon, investigate middle-class fascination with urban voyeurism and new media, and read about sensational cases like those of Jack the Ripper and the “discovery” of an international sex trade. Note: As part of History’s 301 series, the course is designed to guide students through the research and writing process.
EUS 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?
EUS 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.
EUS 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.
EUS 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.
EUS 314 European Integration: Politics, Society, and Geography
The European Union (E.U.) represents one of the most remarkable achievements of the contemporary world. This seminar first reviews the history and structure of the E.U. It then examines a series of topics related to the political, social, and geographical dimensions of European integration. These topics include the drivers of integration, the transformation of domestic policies and institutions, the demands of E.U. law, the rise of a European identity, the consequences of expansion in Eastern and Central Europe, the salience of regions, and the E.U. on the international scene. Comparisons with other trade blocs conclude the seminar. Students are exposed to numerous theoretical tools and methodologies, including institutionalism, rational choice theory, intergovernmentalism, and comparative methods. Prerequisite(s): one course in sociology or politics, or EUS 101.
EUS 317 Beyond Human: Cyborgs and Technology
What is a cyborg and how does this political and cultural concept evolve through various historical periods? How are transformative relations between humans, animals, and machines imagined across cultural texts? What is post- and transhumanism? The course examines changing ideas of constructing, enhancing, and technologizing body and mind in the Soviet Union and modern Russia. Students engage with ideas of the biopolitical remaking of humans, rejuvenating bodies surgically, prosthetically, pharmacologically, and digitally. Topics discussed include technologies of gender and gender technologies, identity politics, immortalization narratives, geopolitics. Taught in English. Recommended background: prior coursework in literature or film.
EUS 322 Mountains and Modernity
Once regarded as impenetrable barriers dividing Europe, the Alps and Carpathian Mountains were transformed into international meeting places with the arrival of mass tourism in the late nineteenth century. At the same time, these mountain ranges began to be claimed in the constructions of national and ethnic identities that reshaped Central and Eastern Europe in the first half of the twentieth century. The course examines the role ascribed to the Alps and Carpathians at a pivotal time in European history, when the demise of empires and rising nationalism, but also new ideas about class, gender, ethnicity, and race, fundamentally restructured dynamics of power on the continent. Recommended background: a 200-level course focused on the study of literature and/or film in any department.
EUS 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.
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.
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.
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.
EUS 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.
EUS S33 Central European Theater and Politics
A study of Hungarian and Czech history, politics, and theater since about 1945. Our focus is on the impact on theater of the cataclysmic social and political changes in Central Europe since the Hungarian uprisings of 1956. Other seminal events bearing on this study are the Prague Spring of 1968, the collapse of the Soviet bloc in 1989, and the subsequent rebuilding of politics and culture in the region up until today. In conjunction with our study of history, politics, and drama, students read an array of secondary sources on the social and cultural history of post-war Central Europe. Classes will be conducted as discussions, led by the Bates instructors and Hungarian, Czech, and other Central European artists and scholars. Students maintain a journal describing and analyzing the plays, readings and other academic materials studied. Recommended background: one course in European studies, theater, or politics.
EUS S50 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 during a Short Term.
HIST 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.