Program Requirements

  • Total Units Required: 36
  • Grade Requirement: Student must receive a grade of C+ or higher in all courses

This concentration focuses on the new Europe and its historical and cultural contexts, attempting to understand the European contribution to world politics and cultural exchange. It involves the study of both traditional and new European cultural products (e.g., literature, film, visual art, electronic media) as well as of European institutions and contexts. This concentration will educate students interested in understanding Europe for its own sake but also help them to discover the ways in which the continent connects with other parts of the world. The concentration is committed to interdisciplinary approaches, and students may take courses in the traditional language-and-literature disciplines as well as in anthropology, art history, economics, film, history, music, philosophy, and political science.

Concentration Objectives

The European Studies concentration defines the geography of modern Europe to include the Atlantic world as well as its Eurasian and Mediterranean neighbors.

General Requirements

One semester of language must be completed before declaring the major.

  • Students must complete a minimum of 36 units in Global Studies, including at least three courses focused on a world area.
  • Students must complete at least 24 units at the 3000 level or above, including at least one course in the social sciences and one course in the humanities.
  • Students must complete at least 6 units at the 4000 level, no more than 3 of which may be directed research or independent study.
  • In addition to the 36 units, students must complete a four-semester sequence of courses in one modern language appropriate to their concentration.

These requirements may be fulfilled only with college-level coursework undertaken during a student's undergraduate enrollment. Courses must be taken for a grade, and a student must receive a grade of C+ or higher in all courses, including courses for the language requirement and study abroad courses.

This concentration requires 36 units of coursework:

  • 3 units of core coursework: GLOBAL 2020 Global Futures
  • 3 units of research methods coursework (3000-4000 level)
  • 3 units of introductory coursework (1000 or 2000 level)
  • 3 units of European history coursework (3000 level or above from history department offerings on Europe [from 1750 forward])
  • 3 units of non-European world area coursework (any level)
  • 3 units of coursework focused on gender, race, or class (3000-4000 level)
  • 18 units of advanced European studies coursework (3000-4000 level)
  • Students must fulfill the standard Global Studies language requirement with a European language consistent with their study abroad location (e.g., French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish).

Note: A single course may satisfy more than one of the distribution requirements (i.e., race, gender, class; or world area). Some of these requirements may be completed while abroad.

Research Methods Courses

Students choose one course from the following list, for a total of 3 units:

APL 4111Linguistics and Language Learning3
COMPLITTHT 3120Introduction to Digital Humanities3
ECON 3150Introduction to Econometrics3
ELIT 3000Introduction to Literary Theory3
ENST 3710Introduction in GIS3
GLOBAL 4007Global Studies Research Methods Proseminar and Assistantship3
HISTORY 3006Historical Methods3
POLSCI 3630Quantitative Political Methodology3
PSYCH 3150Introduction to Social Psychology3
REST 3635Theories and Methods in the Study of Religion3
SOC 3040Statistics for Sociology3

Introductory Courses

Students choose one course from this list, for a total of 3 units:

GLOBAL 2000Crossing Borders: An Introduction to Institutions and Concepts in Global Studies3
GLOBAL 2009Introduction to European Studies (*preferred)3
HISTORY 1020Introduction to Modern European History3
HISTORY 2158First Year Seminar: Outcasts and Outlaws: The History of Othering in Modern Europe3

Non-European Area Courses

Students choose one course, for a total of 3 units. We consider world areas to be Africa, East Asia, Eurasia, Latin America, the Middle East, and South Asia. Courses that may be used to satisfy this requirement may include advanced area-specific courses or the following lower-level courses:

AFAS 2550Introduction to Africana Studies3
AMCS 2700Topics in Asian American Studies (Intro to Asian American & Pacific Islander Studie)3
CHINA 2270Chinese Civilization3
GLOBAL 1104First-Year Seminar: Chinatown: Migration, Identity, and Space3
GLOBAL 2100Sophomore Seminar: The Public Servant and Other Heroes: A History of Japan Through Film3
HISTORY 1124First-Year Seminar: The Meaning of Pakistan: History, Culture, Art3
JAPAN 2260Japanese Civilization3
JIMES 2081Introduction to Jewish Civilization: History and Identity3
JIMES 2100Introduction to Islamic Civilization3
KOREA 2230Korean Civilization3
LATAM 1000Latin America: Nation, Ethnicity and Social Conflict3

Gender, Race, and Class Courses

Students pursuing this concentration are required to complete one upper-level course focused on gender, race, or class that is chosen from the following list, for a total of 3 units:

ANTHRO 3313Women and Islam3
ANTHRO 4134The AIDS Epidemic: Inequalities, Ethnography, and Ethics3
ANTHRO 4365Sex, Gender, and Power3
ANTHRO 4366Europe's New Diversities3
ARCH 3404Community Building3
GLOBAL 3248Intercultural Communication3
GLOBAL 3512Model Minority: The Asian American Experience3
GLOBAL 3890Furies and Die-Hards: Women in Rebellion and War3
GLOBAL 4036Children of Immigrants: Identity and Acculturation3
GLOBAL 4414Gender Analysis for International Affairs3
HISTORY 3049Chinese Diasporas3
HISTORY 3146Topics in European History: Modern European Women3
ITAL 3500Topics: Global Italy: Race, Gender, Migration and Citizenship3
ITAL 4300Divergent Voices: Italian Women Writers3
JIMES 3184A Rainbow Thread: A History of Queer Identities in Judaism and Islam3
RELPOL 3070Islam, Gender, Sexuality3
SOC 3190Gender in Society3
SOC 4170Global Structures and Problems3
SOC 4831Global Racial Systems3
WGSS 3055Making Sex and Gender: Understanding the History of the Body3
WGSS 4150Feminist Literary and Cultural Theory3
WGSS 4245Transnational Feminisms3

Advanced Elective Courses

Students choose seven courses from current European-focused course offerings in the following departments.* All courses must be approved by the student's Global Studies advisor in order to count for the major. Visit the concentration webpage and concentration course list for the most current and full list of options.

African and African American Studies
  • AFAS 3880 Terror and Violence in the Black Atlantic
Anthropology
Applied Linguistics
  • APL 4023 Second-Language Acquisition and Technology
  • APL 4111 Linguistics and Language Learning
  • APL 4692 Reading Across Languages and Cultures: Theory, Research and Practice
Art History
  • ARTARCH 3380 Pleasure and Pain: European Fashion as (Art) History
  • ARTARCH 3500 The Modernist Project: Art in Europe and the United States, 1905-1980
  • ARTARCH 3520 Rococo to Revolution: Art in Eighteenth-Century Europe
  • ARTARCH 3590 Rejecting Reason: Dada and Surrealism in Europe and the United States
  • ARTARCH 3637 Modern Sculpture: Canova to Koons
  • ARTARCH 4545 The Century of Picasso
  • ARTARCH 4575 Gauguin Then and Now: Art, Myth, and Controversy
  • ARTARCH 4605 The Impressionist Landscape: Style, Place and Global Legacies 1870-1920
  • ARTARCH 4610 Impressionism and the Nation in France and Beyond: Painting and Photography 1860-1920
  • ARTARCH 4735 1968 and Its Legacy
Classics
Comparative Literature
Economics
English Literature
  • ELIT 3000 Introduction to Literary Theory
  • ELIT 3107 Topics in English & American Literature
  • ELIT 3111 Topics In Literature: British Fiction 1900-1945
  • ELIT 3113 Topics In Literature: British & Anglophone Fiction 1945 – Present
  • ELIT 3138 Introduction to Postcolonial Literature
  • ELIT 3139 Topics In Literature: Modern British Literature
  • ELIT 3121 Drama Queens: Cleopatra in Elizabethan England
  • ELIT 3157 The Victorian Period
  • ELIT 3163 Shakespeare
  • ELIT 4133 Topics in Irish Literature: Modern Irish Poetry
  • ELIT 4137 English Novel of the 19th Century
Environmental Studies
Film and Media Studies
French
German
  • GERMAN 3060 Topics in Holocaust Studies: Children in the Shadow of the Swastika
  • GERMAN 3080 German Literature and the Modern Era
  • GERMAN 3081 German Thought and the Modern Era
  • GERMAN 4040 Germany Today
  • GERMAN 4061 German Literature and Culture, 1750-1830
  • GERMAN 4062 German Literature and Culture, 1830-1914
  • GERMAN 4063 German Literature and Culture, 1914 to the Present
  • GERMAN 4070 Studies in Genre
  • GERMAN 4080 Topics in German Studies: Kafka and his Contemporaries
  • GERMAN 4080 Topics in German Studies: Telling Tales - The Magical, the Wondrous, and the Strange (1500-present)
  • GERMAN 4080 Topics in German Studies: The Book Was Better Than the Movie: Literary Adaptations in the Age of Multimedia
Global Studies (All GS Home-based courses count for this concentration.)
  • GLOBAL 3006 Global Health and Language
  • GLOBAL 3008 Topics in Global Studies: Modern Indian Literature
  • GLOBAL 3008 Topics in Global Studies: Narrating Violence
  • GLOBAL 3008 Topics in Global Studies: State Building in China and Beyond
  • GLOBAL 3008 Topics in Global Studies: Understanding Today’s Russia
  • GLOBAL 3008 Topics in Global Studies: Who Tells the Future?
  • GLOBAL 3176 Chinese Economy in World History
  • GLOBAL 3248 Intercultural Communication
  • GLOBAL 3511 Global Surveillance Culture
  • GLOBAL 3512 Model Minority: The Asian American Experience
  • GLOBAL 3566 Andean History: Culture and Politics
  • GLOBAL 3602 Borders, Checkpoints, and the Frontiers of Literature
  • GLOBAL 3641 Anarchism: History, Theory, and Praxis
  • GLOBAL 3650 Fascism and Anti-Fascism in Latin America
  • GLOBAL 3730 Intercultural Transpositions: Russian Literature on World Stage and Screen
  • GLOBAL 3740 Russian Literature At the Borders: Multiculturalism and Ethnic Conflict
  • GLOBAL 3750 Topics in Russian Literature and Culture (WI): Childhood
  • GLOBAL 3750 Topics in Russian Literature and Culture (WI): Dostoevsky’s Novels
  • GLOBAL 3750 Topics in Russian Literature and Culture (WI): Madmen or Visionaries?
  • GLOBAL 3750 Topics in Russian Literature and Culture (WI): The Short Story 
  • GLOBAL 3750 Topics in Russian Literature and Culture (WI): The Soviet Experiment through Novels and Novellas
  • GLOBAL 3811 Global Asian Pop Culture
  • GLOBAL 3822 From McDonald's to K-Pop: New Movements in East Asia
  • GLOBAL 3860 Empire in East Asia: Theory and History (WI)
  • GLOBAL 3866 Interrogating Crime and Punishment
  • GLOBAL 4007 Global Studies Research Methods Proseminar and Assistantship
  • GLOBAL 4036 Children of Immigrants: Identity and Acculturation
  • GLOBAL 4200 Islam, Immigrants, and the Future of European Culture
  • GLOBAL 4201 International Relations of Latin America
  • GLOBAL 4204 International Relations of Latin America (WI)
  • GLOBAL 4611 Latin American Populism and Neo-Populism
  • GLOBAL 4622 Labor and Labor Movements in Global History
  • GLOBAL 4633 20th-Century Latin American Revolutions
  • GLOBAL 4644 The Indochina Wars
  • GLOBAL 4868 Russia and the West: Creating and Representing Identity
  • GLOBAL 4869 Reading War and Peace
  • GLOBAL 4897 Global Asias
  • GLOBAL 4985 Preparation for Global Studies Honors Thesis
History
  • HISTORY 3034 Jews in French History and Culture
  • HISTORY 3087 From the Renaissance to Nazi Germany:Ancient Greece and Rome in German Nationalism
  • HISTORY 3092 Vienna, Prague, Budapest: Politics, Culture and Identity in Central Europe
  • HISTORY 3103 The World is NOT Enough: Europe's Global Empires, 1400-1750
  • HISTORY 3109 Riots and Revolution: A History of Modern France From 1789 to the Present
  • HISTORY 3111 Modern Germany
  • HISTORY 3116 Europe in the 20th Century: Unruly Populations
  • HISTORY 3135 Revolution With an Accent: The Haitian and French Revolutions, 1770-1805
  • HISTORY 3138 20th-Century Russian History
  • HISTORY 3146 Topics in European History: Modern European Women
  • HISTORY 3148 The First World War and the Making of Modern Europe
  • HISTORY 3351 Out of the Shtetl: Jewish Life in Central and Eastern Europe in the 19th and 20th Centuries
  • HISTORY 3514 Race, Ethnicity, and Migration: A Transatlantic History
  • HISTORY 3682 The Cold War, 1945-1991
  • HISTORY 4035 The Fascist Challenge in Europe, 1919-1945
  • HISTORY 4092 Humanitarianism and Human Rights: Power, Paradigms, Protection
  • HISTORY 4889 Advanced Seminar: History of the Body
Italian
  • ITAL 3240 Italian Literature II: The Making of Modern Italy, Texts and Contexts
  • ITAL 3320 Topics in Film Studies: Italian Cinema
  • ITAL 3500 Topics: Global Italy: Race, Gender, Migration and Citizenship
  • ITAL 4080 Disease, Madness, and Death Italian Style
  • ITAL 4370 Caffe, Cadavers, Comedy, and Castrati: Italy in the Age of the Grand Tour
Jewish, Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies
  • JIMES 3093 Becoming "Modern" : Emancipation, Antisemitism and Nationalism in Modern Jewish History
  • JIMES 4005 Diaspora in Jewish and Islamic Experience
Philosophy
Political Science
Sociology
Women Gender and Sexuality Studies
  • WGSS 3055 Making Sex and Gender: Understanding the History of the Body
  • WGSS 4150 Feminist Literary and Cultural Theory
*

Students may submit a request to add a course by following the instructions for the Petition Process.

Additional Requirements and Information

Study Abroad

  • We strongly encourage students to study abroad. For those who do not study abroad and receive credit toward the Global Studies General Requirements, an additional 3-unit course at the 3000 or 4000 level is required.
  • Before studying abroad as a Global Studies major, students must consult with the Global Studies Study Abroad Advisor (Dr. Elizabeth Reynolds) about their plan of study and choice of program.
  • We strongly prefer students to select a study abroad location and regional specialization consistent with their chosen language of study (e.g., if a student wishes to study in Latin America, they must satisfy their language requirement with either Portuguese or Spanish).
  • Students may receive a maximum of 6 credits from a single semester, 12 credits from a year, or 3 credits from a summer term of study abroad.
  • Study abroad credit only counts at the 3000 level and must be approved by the Global Studies Study Abroad Advisor prior to departure.
  • Students may apply no more than 12 total credits to the Global Studies major from study abroad, the School of Continuing & Professional Studies, summer school at other U.S. universities, or any combination thereof.
  • To receive credit for a summer course completed at another institution, a student should fill out the Approval for Non-WashU Course Credit form with Arts & Sciences to take the course for "general credit" and then petition to have the course count as an elective toward their Global Studies major.
  • Students may not receive credit for January Intensive Term (J-Term) study abroad programs; these programs are too short in duration.
  • Visit the Study Abroad section of the Global Studies website for more details.

Latin Honors

  • Students must graduate with an overall grade point average of 3.65 or higher to qualify for Latin Honors.
  • Students must submit an intent form and be accepted for candidacy.
  • Students should enroll in GLOBAL 4985 Preparation for Global Studies Honors Thesis during the fall of senior year and in GLOBAL 4986 Global Studies Senior Honors Thesis during the spring of senior year (under the corresponding section number of the faculty member overseeing the student's thesis).

Language Requirement

All Global Studies majors must satisfy a language requirement that entails both the successful completion of four semesters of a modern language for a letter grade and placement into the third year of that language.

Available modern languages include Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Hebrew, Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Persian, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, and Swahili.

Please see the FAQs on the Global Studies website for more information.

Contact Info

Contact:Toni Loomis
Phone:314-935-5073
Email:aloomis@wustl.edu
Website:https://globalstudies.wustl.edu