European Studies, Minor
European Studies at Penn is an interdisciplinary minor that trains students to understand European Union institutions and the history and context of their development. It supplements majors in history, political science, sociology and art history as well as in French, German, English, Spanish, Italian and Central and East European languages. It is designed to give students access to:
- The institutions of a today's Europe—European Union, Council of Europe, European Court of Human Rights—reflecting the largest experiment in building a global system of governance in human history.
- An understanding of Europe as a historical and cultural entity and its world leadership in business, politics and culture.
- A great variety of countries, cultures and languages whose interaction with each other and with the United States is an essential part of transatlantic culture.
For more information: https://www.sas.upenn.edu/polisci/node/867
| Code | Title | Course Units |
|---|---|---|
| Minor Requirements | ||
| Core Courses | 1 | |
| European Institutions: | ||
| The European Union | ||
| European History | 1 | |
| Select one of the following: | ||
| The Emergence of Modern Europe | ||
| Modern Europe | ||
| The Enlightenment | ||
| Foundations of European Thought: from Rome to the Renaissance | ||
| The French Revolution and the Origins of Modern Politics | ||
| Belief and Unbelief in Modern Thought | ||
| Tolstoy’s War and Peace and the Age of Napoleon | ||
| World War I | ||
| Origins of Nazism: From Democracy to Race War and Genocide | ||
| European Diplomatic History 1789-1914 | ||
| European International Relations 1914-present | ||
| European Thought and Culture in the Age of Revolution | ||
| Non-English Language | 2 | |
| Two Courses Beyond Language Requirement, Normally at Advanced Level, in Any Non-English European Language | ||
| Advanced French in Residence | ||
| Advanced French | ||
| Advanced French Grammar and Composition | ||
| Advanced French Conversation and Composition | ||
| French History and Culture to 1774 | ||
| French History and Culture 1789-1945 | ||
| Contemporary France | ||
| French for Business I | ||
| French for Business II | ||
| Translating Cultures: Literature on and in Translation | ||
| Water Worlds: Cultural Responses to Sea Level Rise & Catastrophic Flooding | ||
| Forest Worlds: Mapping the Arboreal Imaginary in Literature and Film | ||
| Liquid Histories and Floating Archives | ||
| Sustainability & Utopianism | ||
| Global Sustainabilities | ||
| Texts and Contexts | ||
| Handschrift-Hypertext: Deutsche Medien | ||
| Business German: A Micro Perspective | ||
| Advanced Italian I | ||
| Advanced Italian II | ||
| Business Italian | ||
| Business Italian: Italian for Special Purposes | ||
| Business Italian: Italian for Professions | ||
| Business Italian: Translation and Interpreting | ||
| Italian History on Screen: How Movies Tell the Story of Italy | ||
| Italian History on the Table | ||
| Mafia in the Movies | ||
| Soccer Beyond the Field: Sport and Politics in Italian Culture | ||
| Italian Ecologies and Environments: Stories and Images in the Age of the Anthropocene | ||
| Advanced Portuguese | ||
| Portuguese for the Professions | ||
| Portuguese for the Professions II | ||
| Perspectives in Brazilian Culture | ||
| Perspectives in Afro-Luso-Brazilian Culture | ||
| Topics in Portuguese, African and Brazilian Cultures | ||
| Studies in Brazilian Literature and Culture | ||
| Russian Society Today | ||
| Russia Society Today II | ||
| Advanced Spanish | ||
| Advanced Spanish for the Medical Professions | ||
| Business Spanish I | ||
| Business Spanish II | ||
| Advanced Spanish II: Grammar and Composition | ||
| Spanish for the Professions | ||
| European Electives | 2 | |
| Select 2 course units from the following list: | ||
Other European History Classes Listed Above May Be Used as Electives | ||
Other European studies courses not listed here may be credited at advisor discretion. | ||
| Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian I | ||
| Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian II | ||
| Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian III | ||
| Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian IV | ||
| Freud: The Invention of Psychoanalysis | ||
| Marx, Marxism, and the Culture of Revolution | ||
| Nietzsche's Modernity and the Death of God | ||
| Fascist Cinemas | ||
| German Cinema | ||
| Literature of Dissent: Art as Protest in 20th-Century Poland and Czechoslovakia | ||
| Machiavelli and Modern Political Thought | ||
| Czech Through Film | ||
| Czech I | ||
| Czech through Short Stories | ||
| Czech II | ||
| Czech III | ||
| Czech IV | ||
| French History and Culture to 1774 | ||
| French History and Culture 1789-1945 | ||
| Contemporary France | ||
| Masterpieces of French Cinema | ||
| Perspectives in French Literature: Love and Passion | ||
| Perspectives in French Literature: The Individual and Society | ||
| Francophone Literature and Film | ||
| French for Business I | ||
| French for Business II | ||
| Paris during the German Occupation and its Places of [Non-]Memory | ||
| The Novel and Marriage | ||
| French Identity in the Twentieth Century | ||
| Topics in French Culture | ||
| Literary History | ||
| French Thought After 1968 | ||
| France and the European Union | ||
| Advanced French: Translation | ||
| Medieval Literature | ||
| The Enlightenment | ||
| French Literature of the 19th Century | ||
| Literature of the Twentieth Century | ||
| Animal Words, Animal Worlds: Introduction to Zoopoetics | ||
| Horror Cinema | ||
| French & Italian Modern Horror | ||
| The French Novel of the Twentieth Century | ||
| Modern French Theater | ||
| Paris in Film | ||
| France and Its Others | ||
| Euro Zone Crisis - The EU in a Currency War for Suvival? | ||
| Babylon Berlin: German Crime Books | ||
| Politics of Commemoration | ||
| Freud: The Invention of Psychoanalysis | ||
| Freud's Objects | ||
| Marx, Marxism, and the Culture of Revolution | ||
| Nietzsche's Modernity and the Death of God | ||
| Berlin: History, Politics, Culture | ||
| Metropolis: Culture of the City | ||
| The Fantastic and Uncanny in Literature: Ghosts, Spirits & Machines | ||
| Fascist Cinemas | ||
| German Cinema | ||
| Jewish Films and Literature | ||
| Queer German Cinema | ||
| Comparative Cultures of Sustainability | ||
| Comparative Cultures of Resilience and Sustainability in the Netherlands and the United States | ||
| Is Europe Facing a Spiritual Crisis? | ||
| Topics German Cinema | ||
| Northern Renaissance Art | ||
| Global Modernism Seminar | ||
| Origins of Nazism: From Democracy to Race War and Genocide | ||
| Texts and Contexts | ||
| Handschrift-Hypertext: Deutsche Medien | ||
| Business German: A Macro Perspective | ||
| Business German: A Micro Perspective | ||
| Topics in Dutch Studies | ||
| Handschrift-Hypertext: Deutsche Medien | ||
| Places of Memory. Lieux de memoire. Erinnerungsorte. | ||
| Krautrock und die Folgen | ||
| Seeing Green: Environmentalism in Germany and Austria | ||
| German Youth Cultures | ||
| Writing in Dark Times: German Literature | ||
| German Ideas and Nazi Ideology | ||
| Crime and Detection | ||
| Theater and Language: Staging the 20th Century | ||
| Topics in German Literature | ||
| Kafka's Creatures | ||
| German Literature after 1945 | ||
| Critical Theory of Christa Wolf: What remains? | ||
| Decadence | ||
| Topics in German Culture | ||
| Schelling, Goethe, Nature. Thinking Nature with Schelling and Goethe. | ||
| The Trouble with Freud: Psychoanalysis, Literature, Culture | ||
| Portraits of Contemporary Russia: Politics, Culture, and Conflict | ||
| England and the British Isles to 1707 | ||
| The Rise and Fall of the Russian Empire, 1552-1917 | ||
| The Soviet Century, 1917-1991 | ||
| Warriors, Concubines & Converts: the Ottoman Empire in the Middle East & Europe | ||
| The Foundations of the Early Modern Atlantic World 1450-1800 | ||
| The Enlightenment | ||
| Portraits of Old Rus: Myth, Icon, Chronicle | ||
| National Antiquities: Genealogies, Hagiographies, Holy Objects | ||
| Freud: The Invention of Psychoanalysis | ||
| Berlin: History, Politics, Culture | ||
| Portraits of Russian Society: Art, Fiction, Drama | ||
| Russia and the West | ||
| Portraits of Soviet Society: Literature, Film, Drama | ||
| Foundations of European Thought: from Rome to the Renaissance | ||
| Foundations of Law | ||
| Reading the Classics | ||
| European Diplomatic History 1789-1914 | ||
| European International Relations 1914-present | ||
| Spain: From Civil War to Post-Francoism, 1930-2020 | ||
| The Rise and Fall of the Spanish Empire 1450-1700 | ||
| Medieval and Early Modern Jewry | ||
| Era of Revolutions in the Atlantic World | ||
| Modern Jewish Intellectual and Cultural History | ||
| Revolutionary Ideas, Ideologies of Revolution | ||
| Jews in the Modern World | ||
| Remembering the Holocaust | ||
| Cold War: Global History | ||
| Florence in History | ||
| The City of Rome: From Constantine to the Borgias | ||
| Religious Conflict and Coexistence in Early Modern Europe | ||
| Neighbors and Strangers: Jews and Christians in Premodern Europe | ||
| Machiavelli and Modern Political Thought | ||
| European Intellectual History since 1945 | ||
| Human Rights and History | ||
| WORLD WAR I | ||
| The Russian Revolutions, 1905-1924: Brave New World? | ||
| Russia's 20th-Century: History Through Literature | ||
| Existentialism, Structuralism, Poststructuralism: French Thought Since 1945 | ||
| Jews and the City | ||
| Renaissance Europe | ||
| European Diplomatic History 1789-1914 | ||
| European International Relations 1914-present | ||
| European Thought and Culture in the Age of Revolution | ||
| Twentieth Century European Intellectual History | ||
| Independent Study: Europe after 1800 | ||
| Hungarian I | ||
| Hungarian II | ||
| Independent Study in Hungarian | ||
| Hungarian III | ||
| Hungarian IV | ||
| Italian History on Screen: How Movies Tell the Story of Italy | ||
| Italian History on the Table | ||
| Florence in History | ||
| The City of Rome: From Constantine to the Borgias | ||
| Food and Diet in Early Europe: Farm to Table in the Renaissance | ||
| Cultura E Letteratura | ||
| Black Italy: Transnational Identities and Narratives in Afro-Italian Literature | ||
| Introduction to Italian Cinema | ||
| Contemporary Italy: Pop Culture, Politics, and Peninsular Identity | ||
| Modern Italian Culture | ||
| Michelangelo and the Art of the Italian Renaissance | ||
| Italian Theater | ||
| Palermo: Urban Migration, the Built Environment, and Global Justice | ||
| Mafia in the Movies | ||
| Soccer Beyond the Field: Sport and Politics in Italian Culture | ||
| Italian Ecologies and Environments: Stories and Images in the Age of the Anthropocene | ||
| Historical Eras and Topics: Earlier Periods | ||
| The Holocaust in Italian Literature and Film | ||
| Dante's Divine Comedy | ||
| BFS--Med/Red Dante in English: Creative Responses to the Divine Comedy | ||
| Contemporary Italy | ||
| Italian Film and Media Studies | ||
| Race and Ethnicity in Italy | ||
| Italian Gender Studies | ||
| Italian Fashion | ||
| Italian Visual Studies | ||
| Italian Foods and Cultures | ||
| Italian Literature | ||
| Italian Innovations | ||
| Italian Renaissance Studies | ||
| Mediterranean Studies | ||
| Italian Performance Studies | ||
| Italian Science and Philosophy | ||
| Italian Material Studies | ||
| Italian Digital Humanities | ||
| Boccaccio | ||
| Machiavelli | ||
| Petrarch | ||
| Italian Music | ||
| Italian Histories | ||
| Contemporary Italy | ||
| Italian Film and Media Studies | ||
| Race and Ethnicity in Italy | ||
| Italian Gender Studies | ||
| Italian Fashion | ||
| Italian Visual Studies | ||
| Italian Foods and Cultures | ||
| Italian Literature | ||
| Italian Innovations | ||
| Italian Renaissance Studies | ||
| Mediterranean Studies | ||
| Italian Performance Studies | ||
| Italian Science and Philosophy | ||
| Italian Material Studies | ||
| Italian Digital Humanities | ||
| Boccaccio | ||
| Machiavelli | ||
| Petrarch | ||
| Italian Music | ||
| Italian Histories | ||
| Renaissance Europe | ||
| French & Italian Modern Horror | ||
| Independent Study | ||
| Religions of the West | ||
| Beginning Yiddish I | ||
| Beginning Yiddish II | ||
| Themes Jewish Tradition | ||
| Readings in Modern Yiddish Literature | ||
| Reading Benjamin Reading Kafka | ||
| Composers: Verdi and Shakespeare | ||
| Composers: Mozart/DaPonte | ||
| Composers: Fryderyk Chopin | ||
| Composers: Ludwig van Beethoven | ||
| History of Opera | ||
| Introduction to European Art Music | ||
| Marx's Moral, Social, and Political Philosophy | ||
| Kant I | ||
| Kant II | ||
| Hegel | ||
| Polish I | ||
| Polish II | ||
| Polish for Heritage Speakers I | ||
| Polish III | ||
| Polish IV | ||
| Polish for Heritage Speakers II | ||
| Communism | ||
| Russia and Eastern Europe in International Affairs | ||
| Politics of Post War Western Europe | ||
| Russian Politics | ||
| Comparative Politics of the Welfare State in Rich Democracies | ||
| Christian Thought From 1000 to 1800 | ||
| Sacred Stuff in Medieval & Early Modern Europe | ||
| Portraits of Soviet Society: Literature, Film, Drama | ||
| Putin's Russia: Culture, Society and History | ||
| Prague: The Making of a European Nation | ||
| Europe: From an Idea to the Union | ||
| The Socialist City | ||
| Russia and the West | ||
| The Soviet Century, 1917-1991 | ||
| Masterpieces of 19th-Century Russian Literature | ||
| Masterpieces of 20th-Century Russian Literature | ||
| Russian Short Story | ||
| Literature of Dissent: Art as Protest in 20th-Century Poland and Czechoslovakia | ||
| Dostoevsky | ||
| Tolstoy | ||
| Behind the Iron Curtain | ||
| Russian and East European Film from the October Revolution to World War II | ||
| Cold War: Global History | ||
| Tolstoy’s War and Peace and the Age of Napoleon | ||
| Chekhov: Stage & Screen | ||
| Communism | ||
| Socialism | ||
| Russian Politics | ||
| Russia and Eastern Europe in International Affairs | ||
| Soviet and Post-Soviet Economy | ||
| Population and Public Health in Eastern Europe | ||
| Sex and Socialism | ||
| Foundations of Spanish Culture and Civilization | ||
| Studies in the Spanish Middle Ages | ||
| Don Quijote | ||
| Studies in Spanish Literature and Culture: 1700-Present | ||
| The Evolution of the Don Juan Myth in the Western Literary Tradition | ||
| The Spanish Short Story | ||
| The Gothic Tradition in Spanish Literature | ||
| Studies in Modern and Contemporary Spanish Literature | ||
| The Generation of 1898 | ||
| Spanish Post-Franco Narrative by Women | ||
| Studies in Modern and Contemporary Spanish Culture | ||
| The Spanish Avant-Garde | ||
| Spanish Surrealism: The Works of Salvador Dalà | ||
| Elementary Swedish I | ||
| Elementary Swedish II | ||
| Intermediate Swedish I | ||
| Intermediate Swedish II | ||
| Ukrainian I | ||
| Ukrainian II | ||
| Ukrainian III | ||
| Ukrainian IV | ||
| Beginning Yiddish I | ||
| Beginning Yiddish II | ||
| Intermediate Yiddish I | ||
| Intermediate Yiddish II | ||
| Readings in Modern Yiddish Literature | ||
| Composers: Opera Composers 1600-1900 | ||
| Composers: Mozart/DaPonte | ||
| Film Music in Post 1950 Italy | ||
| Best Sellers in Italian Literature | ||
| Total Course Units | 6 | |
The degree and major requirements displayed are intended as a guide for students entering in the Fall of 2025 and later. Students should consult with their academic program regarding final certifications and requirements for graduation.