Courses

Spring 2020 Courses

EURO-UA 982 The Rise of Green Parties in Europe

Seminar | 4 points
Professor Christian Martin | Tues, 10:00-12:00
KJCC, Rm 324 


“Green”, “environmentalist”, “ecological” – these are labels that have been applied to the most important new addition to the European party systems since the end of World War II. Frequently associated with the phenomenon of “Post materialist value change”, these parties have transformed European party systems and the policies of established democracies. This class introduces Green parties in their programmatic approach to politics and asks why they were successful in some countries but not in others. Furthermore, we will trace their origins to the social movements of the 1960s and ask to what extent these parties are the heirs of the changes these movements have brought about. We will also discuss the idea of a “silent counter revolution” that explains the emergence of right wing populist parties as a reaction to the changes Green parties embody.

EURO-UA 983.001 Crisis of Europe

Seminar | 4 points
Hadas Aron | Thurs, 10:00-12:00
KJCC, Rm 324

In the past decade the countries of Europe, and the European Union as an organization, have been facing multiple challenges. The 2008 financial crisis hit several countries and generated a crisis in the shared Eurozone; Euroscepticism has given rise to populist movements throughout the continent; waves of migration were met with struggle and backlash; Western European countries have been threatened by terror; Russia is increasingly aggressive; and recently the US is increasingly indifferent and even hostile toward its European allies. In this course we will attempt to evaluate the following questions: Do these challenges amount to a crisis? Is the integrity of the EU in danger? What can be done to face these multiple challenges? The course explores the dimensions of the European crisis: sovereignty, democracy, economy, security, and culture. We will explore these questions in the EU, in its relationships, and in key individual cases such as Britain, Germany, Greece, Poland, and Hungary. 

 

 

Fall 2019 Courses

EURO-UA 950 Contemporary Europe

Seminar | 4 credits
Hadas Aron | Wed, 10:00-12:00
KJCC, Room 324
 

Please note: This is a required course for all CEMS majors.

The course examines the liberal order in Europe that was formed after WWII, its institutional design, the challenges it has been facing, and the implications of the liberal order for politics, society, and culture in Europe. The first part of the course reviews the social, economic, and security concerns Europe faced in 1945, and the institutions that were constructed to respond to these concerns. We will also explore the Cold War and its consequences for the politics, and the realities of people throughout Europe. The second part of the course explores the integration of Europe into a social, economic, and identity community, and the expansion of European institutions and identity first to Southern Europe and then to the former Soviet Bloc. The third part of the course addresses the current "Crisis of Europe" from the 2008 financial crisis through the surge of refugee migration and the rise of populism. We will ask whether and to what extent the current crisis threatens the system formed after 1945.

The course is interdisciplinary in nature. To explore political change and continuity in contemporary Europe we will combine theories from international relations, political science, sociology, and economics, as well as readings of historical primary and secondary resources. In addition to scholarly literature we will use contemporary media outlets, cultural resources and video, when available.

EURO-UA 982 History of Postwar German Politics

Seminar | 4 points
Christian Martin | Thu, 10:00-12:00
KJCC, Rm 324

This class introduces students to the political history of Germany after World War II. We will focus on politically, socially and economically relevant episodes of post-War German history and connect them to the state of contemporary Germany. We will discuss structural determinant of the German position in Europe and in the world as well as more short-term developments like the rise of the far-right AfD.

EURO-UA 983.001 The State in History

Seminar | 4 points
Peter Baldwin | Mon, 4:00-6:00
KJCC, Rm 324

From before your birth until long after your death, the state dominates your life: 24/7/365.  Your parents’ willingness to conceive you was likely influenced by tax breaks or social benefits it promised.  Your birth was shepherded by state-trained personnel and promptly attended by official registration.  Your name was likely chosen in accord with its rules, and every other means of identification you must have is its.  Postmortem, your children will inherit the fruits of your efforts according to its rules.  Inbetween, you will spend scarcely a minute outside its orbit.  You will be prodded, poked, vaccinated, inspected, tested, certified, autopsied, and buried as it sees fit.  What you learn, how you are trained, by whom and where – it shapes all.  You inhabit and are surrounded by structures built to its specifications.  Whether nature exists for your enjoyment is largely its decision.  How you commute to work, where you can travel, it decides.  Everything you eat it vets – even whether you’re allowed to consume what hasn’t been through its inspections, like unpasteurized cheese or game.  Relations to your fellow citizens it regulates: whether you marry, adopt, attack, annoy, libel, sue, or report them.  

Today, it is all-powerful, omnipresent, ubiquitous.  But it wasn’t always that way.  The state too has a history.  It emerged for the first time some five thousand years ago, in the Middle East, supplanting the tribes, clans, and chiefdoms that were humanity’s first attempts to organize ourselves.  It has grown fitfully ever since.  After the fall of the Roman empire, it collapsed in Europe and had to be rebuilt starting in the late middle ages.  The absolutist monarchies of the 17C then trumpeted the king’s power in all its glory.  Hegel thought the 19C state – regular, bureaucratic, modern – was the pinnacle of its development.  The totalitarian dictatorships – fascist and communist – of the 20C unleased more raw, savage state power than ever before, combining autocratic decision-making with modern technology.  Our own era has tried to curb the state – whether as neoliberalism from the right, or through an emphasis on civil rights from the left.

Nonetheless, the state is arguably more powerful than ever before.  A strong state can also be subtle.  Rather than rattling sabers and cages, the modern state insinuates itself into our psyches, reshapes our habits, and socializes us into the behavior contemporary society requires.  Besides its uniformed forces, and similar overt power, the modern state has many other means to make us toe the line.  Like gravity, the state is omnipresent, all-powerful – and often invisible.  It influences our lives in countless way, some self-evident, many hardly registered.  It is the single largest, most ubiquitous, most powerful thing in history.  It knows all about you.  Shouldn’t you know about it?

 

Summer 2020 COURSES

EURO-GA 2162.001 The Politics of Immigration and Migration in Europe

Summer 2020 2nd 6-week session, July 6, 2020-August 16, 2020

Seminar | 4 points
Silvia Maier | Tue & Thu, 10:00-12:00
KJCC , Rm 324 

More than 258 million people—3.4 percent of the world’s population—are international migrants seeking safety and opportunity in a country other than that of their birth. At the same time, immigration and migration are among the most highly contested policy areas in Europe and beyond, viewed as principal drivers of public support for right-wing populist/extremist parties and the surge in nationalist, xenophobic attitudes. In this seminar, we will go beyond the slogans and headlines and delve into the actual politics of immigration and migration in Europe, drawing comparisons with other countries, including the U.S., where applicable. With a focus on the immigrant experience in France, Germany, the United Kingdom, and Sweden, we will analyze the laws and politics framing migration management at the EU and national levels; examine the consequences of the “migrants-as-threats” securitization of migration paradigm; study the most—and least—effective social and labor market integration strategies; critically explore how governments accommodate cultural and legal diversity, especially how their policies—think hijab and family laws—affect women and LGBTQ (im)migrants; understand the rise of “femonationalism” and the link between misogyny and Islamophobia; and, finally, learn how to effectively combat xenophobia and racism. A key goal of the seminar will be to shatter existing stereotypes of immigrants and minorities, particularly Muslim women, as being passive objects of state policies and to highlight their social and political agency. At the end of the seminar, students will have a basic understanding of the politics of (im)migration and integration in Western Europe and on the EU level, of the key issues and themes shaping the debates, policies and laws and, finally, of the creative ways in which immigrants and minorities exercise their political agency and create new spaces of citizenship for themselves.

SPRING 2020 COURSES

EURO-GA 3112 Law and Religion in Europe

Seminar | 4 points
Jasmine Samara | Mon, 2:00-4:00
KJCC , Rm 324 

How and why is religious difference managed through law in Europe? Which expressions of religious identity are permitted in public space or reflected in the urban landscape, which are marked as problematic, and why? What principles do courts invoke to support restrictions on religious practice, and what conceptions of religion does this privilege? To examine the complex ways in which law and religion intersect in contemporary Europe, this course integrates anthropological approaches to studying law and culture, including studies of secularism, with geographical approaches to studying space and power. Through a range of case studies from across Europe, we consider how the legal regulation of religion may intersect with other categories such as gender, race, sexuality and ethnicity, and examine the assumptions and impacts of legal doctrines delineating “public” and “private” spheres. We also explore how the regulation of religious practices impacts citizenship and rights for minority members, such as through the regulation of clothing, bodily conduct, places of worship or urban "soundscapes" (e.g. in debates on regulating public prayer calls). To understand the stakes and limits of state efforts to regulate religion, we analyze these dynamics at local, municipal, national, and regional scales, including European-level human rights frameworks, and consider how notions such as religious freedom are invoked in policymaking at the international scale. While the course focuses on contemporary debates on religion and law in Europe, it will also analyze selected U.S and global case studies to highlight diverse policy approaches and their consequences.

EURO-GA 3000 Graduate Research Seminar

Seminar | 4 points
Jasmine Samara |Thurs, 2:00-4:00
KJCC, Rm 324

This course is designed to help students make significant progress towards their final M.A. thesis. We will explore a wide range of methodological and theoretical approaches to topics in European and Mediterranean Studies for students to consider as they decide how to structure, research and write their thesis. Each session will be divided into two parts. The first part will consist of a discussion of assigned scholarly articles and book chapters. Students will be expected to make comments about the strengths and weaknesses of each assigned reading as they asses how effectively the authors use sources to make specific arguments. This is a relatively small class and students will become familiar with each other’s topics. You are therefore encouraged to discuss how a specific methodological or theoretical approach might work (or not work) for your thesis. For the second part of each class, students will make presentations and take part in smaller group activities that are intended to help them further develop their projects. The presentations and activities will help students refine their topics, frame a set of relevant research questions, and determine the most suitable approach for answering these questions with compelling arguments. They will also allow each student to become more effective (and comfortable) at speaking about their projects’ contributions to the scholarly literature on the subject, while also preparing students to explain their works’ significance to people with no background in European and Mediterranean Studies and academia more broadly. Students should be prepared to provide and receive constructive criticism about their writing style, the methodology they have chosen, and their strategies for completing a thesis-length project. Students are to undertake a number of relatively small projects throughout the course. These projects will serve as building blocks that will contribute to a final research project. They are intended to help students think through the different steps of researching and writing their thesis, and to make progress towards completing it. Students will make their final presentations during a simulation of an academic conference, where they will present their work, receive comments from a discussant and answer questions from the audience. 

EURO-GA 3901 Sincerity & Authenticity in European Thought 

Seminar | 4 points 
Tasmin Shaw | Fri, 10:00-12:00
KJCC, Room 324

The course will examine the emergence, in European thought, of the related ideals of sincerity and authenticity. We will investigate the ways in which they have shaped moral and political thought in Europe, particular through their role in debates about identity, nationalism and multiculturalism. We will do so mainly through an examination of primary texts, ranging from political thought to novels and poetry. Alongside these we will also read some of the contemporary literature on the significance of authenticity as an ideal.
Each week the class preparation will involve either an assigned reading and/or listening to a piece of music or watching a film (links will be provided for the latter two). Class will be discussion-based.