Major Requirements

Designed for students who seek to broaden their awareness of the European experience and to prepare for international careers or advanced study, the program in European Studies (EUS) offers the major disciplinary breadth as well as expertise in a specialty of their choosing. Most EUS majors also participate in a study abroad program in Europe and/or reside in the International House on campus. The interdisciplinary major consists of 30 hours of course work, to be distributed among various disciplines as indicated in the following. Emphasis is on political, cultural, economic, and related trends or events, especially since the early modern period.

Advising is crucial to the successful completion of the major in EUS. Advising forms and declaration of major forms are available in the Max Kade Center for European and German Studies (MKC). In consultation with the director and/or associate director of the Max Kade Center, students choose a thematic focus and specific courses that will fulfill the requirements for the major. This focus can consist of a thematic or comparative topic (such as culture and society during a particular epoch), a regional or sub-regional topic (such as European integration, the Iberian Peninsula, the Baltic region), or the culture and society of a particular nation (such as France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain). In addition to the core requirements, majors take relevant courses in history, the social sciences, and the humanities, as well as a foreign language of the student’s choice. Special activities of the MKC include a visiting lecture series, international symposia, and informal faculty-student luncheon seminars. Both academic scholars and public figures are invited to campus to address European and transatlantic affairs.

Major Declaration Form

Major Contracts

Required Credits for the Major - 30 Hours

Required Courses (12 hours)

EUS 2201, European Society and Culture (3 hours), or EUS 2203, The Idea of Europe (3 hours)
EUS 4960, Senior Seminar (3 hours)
Six hours in European Studies courses or equivalent approved by major advisor

Foreign Language Requirement (6 hours)

The foreign language requirement is to be satisfied in one of the following ways:

Six hours of course work at the intermediate (second-year) level in one European language;
Course work through the beginner (first year) level in two European languages;
Demonstration of proficiency equivalent to either of the preceding options; or
Participation in one of the Vanderbilt intensive-language programs in Europe (students participating in Vanderbilt's predominantly English-language program in Europe must complete course work through the intermediate level in one European language, or demonstrate equivalent proficiency).

Electives (12 hours)

The remainder of the 30 hours required for the major may be selected from the list of courses below or from among approved courses taken abroad. Students majoring in EUS are advised to select courses from the social sciences and humanities that complement their areas of special interest and their thematic focus.

ANTHROPOLOGY:

3371 Social and Health Consequences of Pandemics

CLASSICS:

3120 Humor, Ancient to Modern

COMMUNICATION STUDIES:

3600 The Rhetorical Tradition

ECONOMICS:

3160 Economic History of Europe
3600 International Trade
3610 International Finance

ENGLISH:

1111 First-Year Writing Seminar (approved topics)
2310 British Writers to 1660
2311 British Writers 1660–Present
3310 Anglo-Saxon Language and Literature
3314 Chaucer
3316 Medieval Literature
3330 Sixteenth Century
3332 English Renaissance: The Drama
3335W English Renaissance Poetry
3336 Shakespeare: Comedy and Histories
3337 Shakespeare: Tragedy and Romance
3340 and 3340W Shakespeare: Representative Selections
3346 Seventeenth-Century Literature
3348 Milton
3360 Restoration and the Eighteenth Century Early
3361 Restoration and Eighteenth Century Late
3364 The Eighteenth-Century English Novel
3370 The Bible in Literature
3610 and 3611 The Romantic Period
3614 The Victorian Period
3618 The Nineteenth-Century English Novel
3630 The Modern British Novel
3634 Modern Irish Literature
3640 Modern British and American Poetry: Yeats to Auden
3681 Twentieth-Century British and World Drama
3683 Contemporary British Literature
3740 Critical Theory
3890 and 3890W Movements in Literature (approved topics)
3892 and 3892W Problems in Literature (approved topics)
3894 and 3894W Major Figures in Literature (approved topics)
3898 and 3898W Special Topics in English and American Literature (approved topics)

EUROPEAN STUDIES:

2208 Conspiracy Theories and Rumors in European and US History
2220 Religion and Politics in Modern Europe, 1648–Present
2240 Topics in European Studies
2260 European Cities
2800 Pursuing Utopia: Social Justice & Romanticism in the Alps

FRENCH:

2501W French Composition and Grammar
2614 Advanced Conversational French
2891 Cross Cultural Communication
3101 Texts and Contexts: Middle Ages to the Enlightenment
3102 Texts and Contexts: Revolution to the Present
3111 French for Business
3112 Medical French in Intercultural Contexts
3113 Advanced French Grammar
3180 La Provence
3181 Contemporary France
3188 The Contemporary Press and Media
3222 The Early Modern Novel
3223 The Querelles des femmes
3224 Medieval French Literature
3230 French and Francophone Cinema
3281 Provence and the French Novel
3286 Cultural Study Tour
3620 Age of Louis XIV
3621 Enlightenment and Revolution
3622 From Romanticism to Symbolism
3623 The Twentieth-Century Novel
4025 From Carnival to the “Carnivalesque”
4027 Emile Zola: From Naturalist Novels to Social Activism
4029 Twentieth-Century French Literature
4030 French and Italian Avant-garde
4221 Literature of the Fantastic
4232 Literature and Law
4284 Art and Literature of the Nineteenth Century
4285 Art and Literature of the Twentieth Century
4320 French Feminist Thought: Literary and Critical
4322 Adultery and Transgressions in Literature
4430 Jews & Arab-Muslims in France
4432 French Intellectual History

GERMAN:

1111 First-Year Writing Seminar (approved topics)
1482 Borders and Crossings: German Literature and Culture from Romanticism to the Present
2310W Introduction to German Studies
2320 Conversation and Composition: Current Events
2321 Conversation and Composition: Contemporary Culture
2341 and 2342 German Culture and Literature
2441 Great German Works in English
2442 War on Screen
2443 German Cinema: Vampires, Victims, and Vamps
2444 German Fairy Tales from Brothers Grimm to Walt Disney
2445 Nazi Cinema: The Manipulation of Mass Culture
2552 Topics: 18th and 19th Century Culture and Literature
2553 Topics: 20th and 21st Century Culture and Literature
2554 Topics in Visual Culture and Media
3323 From Language to Literature
3343 The Aesthetics of Violence: Terror, Crime, and Dread in German Literature
3344 Women at the Margins: German-Jewish Women Writers
3345 Love and Friendship
3375 Art and Rebellion: Literary Experiment in the 1960s and 1970s
3378 Dreams in Literature
4458 Business German
4535 German Romanticism
4537 Women and Modernity
4548 German Lyric Poetry—Form and Function
4563 The Age of Goethe-Weimar 1775 to 1805
4564 Pleasures and Perils in Nineteenth-Century Theatre
4565 Revolutionizing Twentieth-Century Theatre
4566 Nineteenth-Century Prose
4567 The German Novel from Kafka to Grass
4569 Writing under Censorship
4574 Who Am I? German Autobiographies
4576 Tales of Travel in Modern German Culture

HISTORY OF ART:

1100 History of Western Art I
1110 History of Western Art II
1111 First-Year Writing Seminar (approved topics)
1500W Impressionism
2220 Greek Art and Architecture
2270 Early Christian and Byzantine Art
2285 Medieval Art
2310 Italian Art to 1500
2320W The Italian Renaissance Workshop
2325 Great Masters of the Italian Renaissance
2330 Italian Renaissance Art after 1500
2360 Northern Renaissance Art
2362 Fifteenth-Century Northern European Art
2390 Seventeenth-Century Art
2600 Eighteenth-Century Art
2620 Nineteenth-Century European Art
2622 Neoclassicism and Romanticism
2650 Nineteenth-Century Architecture: Theory and Practice
2652 French Art in the Age of Impressionism
2680 British Art: Tudor to Victorian
2708 Twentieth-Century British Art
2710 Twentieth-Century European Art
2720 Modern Architecture
2722 Modern Art and Architecture in Paris
3224 Greek Sculpture
3226 Greek Vases and Society
3228W Gender and Sexuality in Greek Art
3274 Art and Empire from Constantine to Justinian
3320 and 3320W Early Renaissance Florence
3332 Raphael and the Renaissance
3334 and 3334W Michelangelo’s Life and Works
3364W The Court of Burgundy
3366 16th-Century Northern European Art
3605W French Art in the Age of Louis XV: From Rococo to Neoclassicism
3790 Monumental Landscapes of Provence

HISTORY:

1111-08 European Imperialism: Colonizer and Colonized in the Modern World
1350 Western Civilization to 1700
1360 Western Civilization since 1700
1390 America to 1776: Discovery to Revolution
1480 The Darwinian Revolution
1500 History of Modern Sciences and Society
1510 The Scientific Revolution
1580 Crime and Punishment in Early Modern Europe 1400–1800 CE
1584W Foreigners and Citizens: Law and Rights in Modern Europe
1600 European Economic History, 1000–1700
1700 Western Military History to 1815
1730 The US and the Cold War
1760 History of Christian Traditions
2130 Russia: Old Regime to Revolution
2135 Russia: The USSR and Afterward
2220 Medieval and Renaissance Italy, 1000–1700
2230 Medieval Europe, 1000–1350
2250 Reformation Europe
2260 Revolutionary Europe, 1789–1815
2270 Nineteenth-Century Europe
2280 Europe, 1900–1945
2290 Europe since 1945
2293 Muslims in Modern Europe
2295 The Migrant Crisis in the Netherlands
2300 Twentieth-Century Germany
2310 France: Renaissance to Revolution
2340 Modern France
2380 Shakespeare’s Histories and History
2382 The Rise of the Tudors
2383 A Monarchy Dissolved? From Good Queen Bess to the English Civil War
2385 The Real Tudors
2410 Victorian England
2450 Reform, Crisis, and Independence in Latin America, 1700–1820
2595W The English Atlantic World, 1500-1688
2720 World War II
2800 Modern Medicine
2835 Sexuality and Gender in the Western Tradition to 1700
2840 Sexuality and Gender in the Western Tradition since 1700
3010 Pornography and Prostitution in History
3120 Weimar Germany: Modernism and Modernity, 1918–1933
3150 Cities of Europe and the Middle East
3180 Making of Modern Paris
3230 The Art of Empire
3260 Revolutionary England, 1603–1710
3270 Religion and the Occult in Early Modern Europe
3275 Religion and Popular Culture in Nineteenth-Century Europe.

ITALIAN:

1111-01 First-Year Writing Seminar: Italian History and Culture Through Cinema
2203 Italian Journeys
2501W Grammar and Composition
2614 Conversation
3000 Introduction to Italian Literature
3041 Italian Civilization
3100 Literature from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance
3240 Dante’s Divine Comedy
3242 Dante in Historical Context
3340 Famous Women by Boccaccio
3500 Baroque, Illuminismo, and Romanticism in Italy
3600 Twentieth-Century Literature: Beauty and Chaos
3640 Classic Italian Cinema
3641 Contemporary Italian Cinema
3642 Italian Visual Culture
3701 City Fictions
3702 Topics in Contemporary Italian Civilization
3802 Contemporary Italian Society and Culture

JEWISH STUDIES:

1002 and 1002W Introduction to Jewish Studies
1200 Classical Judaism: Jews in Antiquity
1220 Jews in the Medieval World
1240 Perspectives in Modern Jewish History
2210W Hebrew Literature in Translation
2250W Witnesses Who Were Not There: Literature of the Children of Holocaust Survivors
2270 and 2270W Jewish Storytelling
2320 Freud and Jewish Identity
2340 Jewish Philosophy after Auschwitz
2450 The Jewish Diaspora
2640 Jews and Greeks
3100 The Holocaust

MUSIC LITERATURE AND HISTORY:

1220 The Symphony
1230 Survey of Choral Music
2200W Music in Western Culture
3220 Opera in the 17th and 18th Centuries
3221 Opera in the 19th Century
3222 Mahler Symphonies: Songs of Irony
3223 Music in the Age of Beethoven and Schubert
3224 Haydn and Mozart
3225 Brahms and the Anxiety of Influence
3227 Music in the Age of Revolution, 1789–1848
3228 J S Bach: Learned Musician and Virtual Traveler
3229 Robert Schumann and the Romantic Sensibility
3230 Music and the Construction of National Identity
3890 Selected Topics in Music History (approved topics)

PHILOSOPHY:

1111 First-Year Writing Seminar (approved topics)
1200 and 1200W The Meaning of Life
2102 Medieval Philosophy
2103 Modern Philosophy
2104 Nineteenth-Century Philosophy
2109 Twentieth-Century Continental Philosophy
2110 Contemporary Philosophy
2660 Philosophy of Music
3005 Jewish Philosophy
3007 French Feminism
3009 Existential Philosophy
3010 Phenomenology
3011 Critical Theory
3013 History of Aesthetics
3014 Modernistic Aesthetics
3103 Immanuel Kant
3104 Kierkegaard and Nietzsche
3105 Hegel
3602 Philosophy of History
3620 Political and Social Philosophy
3621 Early Modern Political Philosophy
3622 Contemporary Political Philosophy
3623 Modern Philosophies of Law

POLITICAL SCIENCE:

1101 Introduction to Comparative Politics
1102 Introduction to International Politics
1103 Justice
2202 Ancient Political Thought
2203 History of Modern Political Philosophy
2210 West European Politics
2220 Crisis Diplomacy
2221 Causes of War
2223 European Political Economy and Economic Institutions
2225 International Political Economy
2226 International Law and Organization
2274 Nature of War
3211 The European Union
4238 Comparative Political Parties

PORTUGUESE:

2203 Intermediate Portuguese
3301 Portuguese Composition and Conversation
3892 Special Topics in Portuguese Language, Literature, or Civilization (approved topics)

RELIGIOUS STUDIES:

1111 First-Year Writing Seminar (approved topics)
1820 Religion, Sexuality, Power
2210W Constructions of Jewish Identity in the Modern World
2940 Great Books of Literature and Religion
3229 The Holocaust: Its Meanings and Implications
3316 Christianity in the Reformation Era
3940 The Nature of Evil
3941 Religion, Science, and Evolution
4834 Post-Freudian Theories and Religion
4835 Freudian Theories and Religion
4836 The Religious Self according to Jung

RUSSIAN:

1111 First-Year Writing Seminar (approved topics)
1874 Russian Fairy Tales
1910W 19th Century Russian Literature
1911W 20th Century Russian Literature
2210 Russia Today: Politics, Economics, and Culture
2230 Russia at War
2273 Russian Science Fiction
2310 and 2311 Survey of Russian Literature in English Translation
2434 The Russian Cinema
2435 Leo Tolstoy: Anna Karenina and Other Masterpieces
2436 Tolstoy’s War and Peace
2438 Dostoevsky’s Major Novels: Philosophy and Aesthetics
2537 Vladimir Nabokov
2639 The Story of Siberia
2745 Art After Zero: The Russian Avant-Garde
2800 Viewing Communism in Eastern Europe

SOCIOLOGY:

3851 Independent Research and Writing (approved topics)
4961 Seminars in Selected Topics (approved topics)

SPANISH:

1111-03 First-Year Writing Seminar: Travel Matters
2990 Images of the Feminine in Spanish Cinema
3301W Intermediate Spanish Writing
3302 Spanish for Oral Communication through Cultural Topics
3325 The Way of Saint James
3340 Advanced Conversation
3345 Spanish for Business and Economics
3355 Advanced Conversation through Cultural Issues in Film
3360 Spanish Civilization
3365 Film and Recent Cultural Trends in Spain
4340 History of the Spanish Language
4345 The Languages of Spain
4400 The Origins of Spanish Literature
4405 Literature of the Spanish Golden Age
4410 Spanish Literature from the Enlightenment to 1900
4415 Spanish Literature from 1900 to the Present
4440 Development of the Short Story
4445 Development of the Novel
4450 The Contemporary Novel
4455 Development of Drama
4465 Theory and Practice of Drama
4470 Development of Lyric Poetry
4475 Contemporary Lyric Poetry
4620 Love and Honor in Medieval and Golden Age Literature
4640 Don Quixote
4670 Spanish Realism
4690 Alterity and Migration in Spain

GENDER AND SEXUALITY STUDIES:

1272 Feminism and Film