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
- European Studies Major Contract
- French and European Studies Major Contract
- German and European Studies Major Contract
- Italian and European Studies Major Contract
- Program of Concentration in European Studies: Russia and Eastern Europe Major Contract
- Spanish and European Studies Major Contra
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