European Studies

Program Offerings

Offering type
Minor

The Program in European Cultural Studies (ECS), housed in the Humanities Council, and the Program in Contemporary European Politics and Society (EPS), housed in the Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies (PIIRS), offer a joint Minor in European Studies.   

The Program in European Cultural Studies (ECS) was established in 1975 on the joint initiative of faculty members in history, comparative literature, romance languages and literatures, politics and architecture, under the leadership of the eminent cultural historian Carl E. Schorske (1915-2015). Its first certificate class graduated in 1979. Now housed on the second floor of Scheide Caldwell House within the Andlinger Center for the Humanities, ECS enjoys the administrative support of the Council of the Humanities. Committed since its founding to encouraging students' engagement at an international level, ECS now also endeavors to situate the study of Europe in broader global contexts. 

The Program in Contemporary European Politics and Society (EPS), an affiliate of the Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies, encourages the interdisciplinary study of modern Europe, with a particular focus on politics, economics and society in western and central Europe since World War I. It also oversees the European Union Program at Princeton (EUPP), founded in 2004, which sponsors events and activities relating to the European Union, including an active seminar series, an annual research workshop, policy meetings, public commentary, visiting fellows, graduate and undergraduate student activities, a Senior Thesis prize, and formal partnerships with Humboldt University, Sciences Po, and the University of Geneva. EPS is housed in the PIIRS Suite in the Louis A. Simpson International Building. 

The new Minor in European Studies (EUS) offered jointly by ECS and EPS provides a global study of Europe, historically and synchronically, bringing the humanities and the social sciences together, giving students the opportunity to develop a more comprehensive picture of Europe. Required coursework and required extracurricular activities cover a wide array of time periods, specific national cases, and topics in European history, literature, art, architecture, music, cinema, theater, politics, sociology, economy and philosophy.  

Goals for Student Learning

The key learning goals for the EUS minor are:

  • To deepen students’ understanding of Europe, a region with a long history and global impact for millennia.
  • To strengthen students’ command of cultural interpretation through interdisciplinary research.
  • To situate the study of Europe in broader global contexts, from early modern colonialism to present-day regional integration and globalization.
  • To study the ways in which European societies, past and present, order reality, make sense of life, and communicate meaning across a range of disciplines and in a wide variety of media.
  • To observe and study social, political and economic trends generated in Europe that are relevant to the world at large.
  • To engage critically with current scholarship on European culture, society and politics, and to encourage participation in extracurricular public lectures organized by the two programs.
  • To understand the connection between current cultural production and critical work, encouraged by participation in extracurricular activities, such as the ECS Schorske lectures and Junior Excursions to cultural events.
  • To acquaint themselves and interact with a broad range of European political figures and current issues through the EPS spring lectures.
  • To create an esprit de corps among classmates across disciplines, to help them communicate clearly their research, and to participate in scholarly debates, through their participation in the EUS Senior Thesis Colloquium.

Program of Study

The EUS minor requires the completion of five courses:

  • One of the following core courses is required as a prerequisite: ECS 301 or EPS 302. Students who are unable to take either ECS 301 or EPS 302 may petition the directors for other courses that offer an introduction to the study of Europe from a similarly interdisciplinary point, such as HUM 216-217, HUM 218-219 or HIS 212/EPS 212.
  • In addition to the prerequisite course, students will be required to take four elective courses in ECS or EPS; at least one of these courses should be in ECS and one in EPS, core or cross-listed.
  • Students who have taken a full year of the double-credit HUM 216-217 and HUM 218-219 (the Western Humanities Sequence) satisfy two of the elective courses. Students who have taken one semester of the double-credit HUM 216-217 or HUM 218-219 satisfy one of the elective courses.
  • Up to two courses may be double-counted with the student’s major.
  • No independent work is required for the minor and there is no language requirement.

Additional Requirements

The following extracurricular activities are required for the completion of the EUS minor:

  • Participation in the EUS Senior Thesis Colloquium: For a period of 6-8 weeks during the senior year, EUS seniors meet once a week to address common problems of research, conceptualization, organization and writing under the supervision of the directors of the minor. In advance of each weekly session, two or three students submit a sample of their thesis work for close, critical reading by all members of the colloquium. During the sessions, students make introductory presentations of their projects, followed by discussions of the submitted work. Active participation in discussion is expected of all members of the colloquium each week. Students from the natural sciences or engineering who do not address European topics in their theses may submit a paper written for an EUS course for circulation and discussion, or they may opt to share material drawn from their thesis research and discuss aspects of their projects that intersect with the broader concerns of the colloquium.
  • Participation in at least one ECS Faber lecture and Faber colloquium or in an EPS Spring lecture and students meeting event with the Speaker at least once during the four years.
  • Participation in at least one excursion organized by ECS or EPS (usually to NYC) during the four years. 

Faculty

    European Cultural Studies

  • Director

    • Efthymia Rentzou

  • Executive Committee

    • David A. Bell, History
    • Sandra L. Bermann, Comparative Literature
    • Eduardo L. Cadava, English
    • Brigid Doherty, German
    • Rubén Gallo, Spanish & Portuguese
    • Daniel Garber, Philosophy
    • Anthony T. Grafton, History
    • Wendy Heller, Music
    • Joshua I. Kotin, English
    • Jan-Werner Müller, Politics
    • Serguei A. Oushakine, Anthropology
    • Spyros Papapetros, Architecture
    • Efthymia Rentzou, French & Italian
    • Kim Lane Scheppele, Schl of Public & Int'l Affairs
    • Esther H. Schor, English, ex officio
    • Thomas A. Trezise, French & Italian

    Contemp Euro Pol and Society

  • Director

    • Harold James

  • Executive Committee

    • Edward G. Baring, History
    • David A. Bell, History
    • Rafaela M. Dancygier, Schl of Public & Int'l Affairs
    • Sophie Meunier Aitsahalia, Schl of Public & Int'l Affairs
    • Andrew Moravcsik, Politics
    • Jan-Werner Müller, Politics
    • Kim Lane Scheppele, Schl of Public & Int'l Affairs
    • Iryna Vushko, History
    • Natasha G. Wheatley, History
    • Andreas B. Wiedemann, Schl of Public & Int'l Affairs

For a full list of faculty members and fellows please visit the department or program website.

Courses

ECS 320 - Cultural Systems Not offered this year

Symbolic systems and social life in specific historical eras. Topics will vary. Recent courses include, for example, magic, art, and science in Renaissance culture, political discourse and nationalism, culture and inequality, history of technology, and the rhetoric of new media. Staff

ECS 321 - Cultural Systems (also COM 389/SPA 333) Spring LA

Symbolic systems and social life in specific historical eras. Topics will vary. Recent courses include, for example, magic, art, and science in Renaissance culture, political discourse and nationalism, culture and inequality, history of technology, and the rhetoric of new media. R. Gallo

ECS 330 - Communication and the Arts Not offered this year LA

The arts and the media in different cultures. Topics will vary, for example, history of the book, art/architecture and society, opera and nationalism, literature and photography, theater and politics. Staff

ECS 331 - Communication and the Arts (also COM 317) Not offered this year LA

The arts and the media in different cultures. Topics will vary, for example, history of the book, art/architecture and society, opera and nationalism, literature and photography, theater and politics. A. Grafton

ECS 342 - Literature and Photography (also COM 352/ENG 349) Spring LA

Since its advent in the 19th century, photography has been a privileged figure in literature's efforts to reflect upon its own modes of representation. This seminar will trace the history of the rapport between literature and photography by looking closely at a number of literary and theoretical texts that differently address questions central to both literature and photography: questions about the nature of representation, reproduction, memory and forgetting, history, images, perception, and knowledge. E. Cadava

EPS 300 - European Politics and Society in the 20th and 21st Centuries Not offered this year SA

The critical developments of 20th-century Europe and the consolidation of democracy in European countries, including the legacy of the two world wars, Nazism, Stalinism, the Cold War, colonialism and decolonization, the birth and development of the European Community, the development of the welfare state, the problems confronting the European Union (immigration, enlargement, political institutions, military role), and the varieties of democratic institutions in Europe. Two lectures, one preceptorial. E. Suleiman, D. Moak

ANT 326 - Language, Identity, Power (also ECS 315/TRA 326) EC

Language determines our expressive capacities, represents our identities, and connects us with each other across various platforms and cultures.This course introduces classical and contemporary approaches to studying language, focusing on three main areas: 1) language as a system of rules and regulations ("structure"), 2) language as a symbolic mechanism through which individuals and groups mark their presence ("identity") and 3) language as a means of communication ("sign"). In addition to this, the course examines various ways through which language molds our individual selves: from organizing dreams and desires to shaping autobiographies. S. Oushakine

ART 448 - Seminar. 17th- and 18th-Century Art (also ECS 448) Not offered this year LA

Topics in 17th- and 18th-century art and architecture. For department majors, this course satisfies the Group 2 distribution requirement. Prerequisite: a course in the art of this period or instructor's permission. One three-hour seminar. T. Kaufmann

ART 458 - Seminar. Modern Architecture (also ARC 458/ECS 458/FRE 458) Not offered this year LA

A study of some of the major themes and movements of modern architecture from the late 19th century to the present day. Students will be encouraged to examine the social and political context, to probe the architects' intellectual background, and consider issues of class and gender in their relation to architectural and urban form. For department majors, this course satisfies the Group 3 distribution requirement. One three-hour seminar. Staff

COM 318 - The Modern Period (also ECS 319) Not offered this year LA

Modern Western literature in the perspective of its development since the Industrial Revolution. The peculiarity of "modernist'' style exemplified by various genres. Significant philosophical trends that define the parallel development of modern art and thought. Texts from English, German, French, and other literatures. Two lectures, one preceptorial. S. Draper

COM 341 - What is Vernacular Filmmaking? - Rhetoric for Cinema Studies (also ECS 341/HUM 341/VIS 339) LA

In this course we will study films that address global audiences yet ground themselves in particular, local, vernacular sources of artistic creation. Our focus will be on three exciting postwar cinematic movements (Italian Neorealism, Iranian New Wave, the Danish Dogma 95), but we will also discuss parallels in American filmmaking. Familiarity with Homer's Ulysses, Virgil's Aeneid and Shakespeare's Hamlet will be helpful since they serve as the frame of reference for many of the examined films. E. Kiss

COM 349 - Texts and Images of the Holocaust (also ECS 349/GER 349/JDS 349) Not offered this year EM

In an effort to encompass the variety of responses to what is arguably the most traumatic event of modern Western experience, the Holocaust is explored as transmitted through documents, testimony, memoirs, creative writing, historiography, and cinema. In this study of works, reflecting diverse languages, cultures, genres, and points of view, the course focuses on issues of bearing witness, collective vs. individual memory, and the nature of radical evil. One three-hour seminar, plus weekly film showings. Staff

COM 369 - Beyond Crisis Contemporary Greece in Context (also ECS 369/HLS 369/HUM 369) Fall SA

This course examines an emergent historical situation as it unfolds: the ongoing financial, social, and humanitarian "crisis" in Greece, including the "refugee crisis." It offers a comparative approach to current Greek cultural production, through literature and film of the past decade and writings drawn from history, anthropology, political science, economics, news sources, and political blogs. We also probe terms like "crisis," exploring how language shapes our understanding of events and how our perceptions of an unfamiliar culture, history, and society are mediated not just by linguistic translation but by market forces and media spin. K. Emmerich

COM 370 - Topics in Comparative Literature (also ECS 386/HUM 371) Not offered this year LA

Study of a selected theme or topic in comparative literature. Subjects will range from historical and cultural questions (literature and politics, the literature of the avant-garde) to the study of specific literary themes or topics (feminine autobiography, the grotesque in literature). Staff

ECO 372 - Economics of Europe (also EPS 342) Fall SA

Europe is at a crossroads. Political and economic integration in the European Union (EU) exceeds levels reached in the rest of the world. Economic integration affects trade, migration, agriculture, competition, regions, energy and money. Most euro area economies have been struggling with interlocking crises involving debt, banking and growth, which challenge the viability of monetary union. The EU is now facing a migration crisis. This course studies economic integration in Europe, the ongoing crises, and economic challenges facing EU member countries. It uses economic analysis to study policy issues. Two 90-minute lectures. S. Weyerbrock

ENG 330 - English Literature of the 18th Century (also ECS 368) Not offered this year EMLA

A study of major figures from the Augustan Age through the Age of Johnson: Swift, Pope, Fielding, Boswell, Johnson, Sterne, and Blake. Selections include a wide range of literary types from Gulliver's Travels and Joseph Andrews to Boswell's London Journal and Blake's Marriage of Heaven and Hell. Two lectures, one preceptorial. C. Johnson

ENG 331 - The Later Romantics (also ECS 382) Spring LA

A study of the young writers who defined English literary culture, especially the Romantic movement, in Regency and late Georgian England. Course material will include poetry, prose, and fiction, with emphasis on close reading as well as cultural contexts. Among the major figures to be studied are the Shelleys, Byron, and Keats. Two 90-minute seminars. S. Wolfson

FRE 217 - Revisiting Paris (also COM 258/ECS 327/URB 258) Fall HA

The City of Light beckons. Beyond the myth, however, this course proposes to look at the real sides and "lives" of Paris. Focusing on the modern and contemporary period, we will study Paris as an urban space, an object of representation, and part of French cultural identity. To do so, we will use an interdisciplinary approach, through literature, history, sociology, art history, architecture, etc. To deepen our understanding, we will actually travel to Paris. Not only will students (re)visit the city, but also meet guest speakers and conduct personal projects they will have designed in Princeton. Prereq: FRE 207 A. Benhaïm

FRE 367 - Topics in 19th- and 20th-Century French Literature and Culture (also ECS 367) LA

Topics will range from the oeuvre and context of a single author (for example, Balzac, Baudelaire, or Beckett) to specific cultural and literary problems (modernism and the avant-garde, history as literature, women's writing). Prerequisite: a 200-level French course or instructor's permission. Staff

GER 308 - Topics in German Film History and Theory (also ART 383/ECS 308/VIS 317) Fall/Spring ECLA

What is film? Is it a language? Can one speak of cinematic literacy? Does film transform perception? Is there filmic thinking? This seminar on the theory and poetics of cinema will examine the varieties of ways -- semiotic, psychoanalytic, narratological - that filmmakers, philosophers and critics have analyzed film form, the cinematic experience, the construction of cinematic subjectivity, questions of aesthetic politics and notions of medium specificity. Staff

GER 370 - Weimar Germany: Painting, Photography, Film (also ART 331/ECS 370) Not offered this year LA

The visual arts in Germany during the Weimar Republic (1918-1933). Works of art, cinema, and literature in historical context. Topics include: modernism and modernity; Expressionism, Dada, New Objectivity in painting, photography, cinema, and literature; historical conditions of bodily experience and visual perception; emergence of new artistic and technological media; expansion of mass culture; place of politics in art; experience and representation of metropolitan life; changes in the conceptualization and representation of individuality, collectivity, embodiment, race, class, gender, sexuality. Two 90-minute seminars, one film screening. B. Doherty

HIS 212 - Europe in the World: From 1776 to the Present Day (also EPS 212) Spring HA

The emergence of modern societies from the Europe of the Old Regimes. Emphasis on problems and themes, including the French and Industrial Revolutions, nationalism, science and its discontents, popular culture, the mass movements of revolution and war. Intended as an introduction to Europe for students with little background in history. Two lectures, one preceptorial. H. James

HIS 281 - Approaches to European History (also ECS 304) Not offered this year HA

An intensive introduction to the methods and practice of history, designed to prepare students for future independent work through the close reading of sources on three different topics in European history. This year these will be: 1) the Galileo affair; 2) the trial and execution of Louis XVI; and 3) the trials of Nazi leaders at Nuremberg. The class combines lecture with discussion, to introduce students to the basic vocabulary of European historiography and to develop their skills in the interpretation and analysis of documents, the framing of historical questions, and the construction of effective arguments. Y. Mintzker

HUM 450 - Empathy and Alienation (also ARC 450/ART 482/ECS 450) Fall HALA

In 19- and 20-c. debates that crossed borders among disciplines including psychology, sociology, anthropology, art history, philosophy, and political theory, empathy and alienation emerged as key terms to describe relations among human beings, works of art, and commodities. This seminar addresses the dynamics of empathy and alienation across a range of discourses and artifacts in European culture. Our explorations of how relationships between empathy and alienation were variously conceptualized in psychological aesthetics, psychoanalysis, and critical theory will aim to open up new perspectives on recent debates about identity and affect. B. Doherty, S. Papapetros

ITA 309 - Topics in Contemporary Italian Civilization (also COM 386/ECS 318/HUM 327) CDLA

The evolution of Italian contemporary civilization through the study of historical, sociopolitical, and cultural topics. The approach will be interdisciplinary; each year a different topic will be selected and studied as portrayed in representative samples of slides, films, and pertinent reading material. One-hour lecture, two-hour precept. Prerequisite: a 200-level Italian course or instructor's permission. Offered in alternate years. Staff

PHI 303 - Descartes, Spinoza, and Leibniz (also ECS 306) Not offered this year EC

Readings in continental philosophy of the early modern period, with intensive study of the works of Descartes, Spinoza, and Leibniz. Topics to be specially considered include: knowledge, understanding, and sense-perception; existence and necessity; the nature of the self and its relation to the physical world. Two 90-minute classes. Staff

PHI 332 - Early Modern Philosophy (also ECS 305) Fall EC

Detailed study of important concerns shared by some modern pre-Kantian philosophers of different schools. Topics may include identity and distinctness, the theory of ideas, substance, the mind/body problem, time, and causation. Philosophers may include Descartes, Spinoza, Hobbes, Hume, or others. One three-hour seminar. D. Garber

POL 403 - Architecture and Democracy (also ARC 405/CHV 403/ECS 402) Not offered this year EM

What kind of public architecture is appropiate for a democracy? Should public spaces and buildings reflect democratic values - such as transparency and accessibility - or is the crucial requirement for democratic architecture that the process of arriving at decisions about the built environment is as particpatory as possible? The course will introduce students to different theories of democracy, to different approaches to architecture, and to many examples of government architecture from around the world (the U.S., Germany, and China in particular), via images and films. Might include one or two field trips. Staff

SLA 415 - Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace: Writing as Fighting (also COM 415/ECS 417/RES 415) Spring EM

The course is primarily about War and Peace, framed by some earlier and later fiction and by Tolstoy's essays on art and religion. Tolstoy's radical ideas on narrative have a counterpart in his radical ideas on history, causation, and the formation of a moral self. Together, these concepts offer an alternative to "The Russian Idea," associated with Dostoevsky and marked by mysticism, apocalypse, and the crisis moment. To refute this idea, Tolstoy redefined the tasks of novelistic prose. Seminar. I. Vinitsky

SPA 227 - Contemporary Issues in Spain (also EPS 227/URB 237) LA

This course will focus on current political, social, and cultural issues in Latin America and/or Spain, including social movements, new artistic developments, economic changes, environmental debates, globalization and culture, politics of memory, immigration and cultural conflicts, nationalist movements, etc. Each semester, the course will focus on one of two particular regions and countries, such as the Southern Cone, the Andean region, Central America, Brazil, Mexico and the borderlands, Spain, etc. This course will also strengthen the students' conversational skills through team discussion and oral presentations. G. Labrador Méndez