European Studies

The European Studies minor provides an intellectual meeting ground for students interested in exploring Europe from a variety of disciplinary and interdisciplinary perspectives. Drawing courses from a number of different departments, the program in European Studies allows students to integrate their study of a European language and off-campus experiences in Europe with a coherent set of courses on campus to achieve a greater understanding of both new and old Europes.

Minor Requirements – 44 Total Credits

Additional Departmental Information

Minors must normally participate in an off-campus study program in Europe.

The overall balance of courses must include a mix of disciplines and course levels (100s, 200s, 300s). While this balance will be established for each individual student in consultation with the minor coordinator, no more than half of the required minimum of courses may be in one department, and at least half of the required minimum of courses must be above the 100-level.

• EUST 100.01 America Inside Out

  "America" has often served as a canvas for projecting European anxieties about economic, social and political modernity. Admiration of technological progress and democratic stability went hand in hand with suspicions about its–actual and supposed–materialism, religiosity and mass culture. These often contradictory perceptions of the United States were crucial in the process of forming European national imaginaries and myths up to and including an European identity. Accordingly, this course will explore some of the most important examples of the European imagination of the United States–from Michel de Montaigne to Hannah Arendt.

  • Offered: Fall 2025
  • Credits: 6
  • Liberal Arts Requirements: AI/WR1, Argument & Inquiry/WR1 IS, International Studies
  • Prerequisites:

    Student is a member of the First Year First Term class level cohort. Students are only allowed to register for one A&I course at a time. If a student wishes to change the A&I course they are enrolled in they must DROP the enrolled course and then ADD the new course. Please see our Workday guides Drop or 'Late' Drop a Course and Register or Waitlist for a Course Directly from the Course Listing for more information.

  • Tags: CL: 100 level EUST Core Course HIST Modern HIST Pertinent Courses POSI Elective/Non POSC EUST Transnational Support HIST Early Modern/Modern Europe
  • Faculty: Paul Petzschmann 🏫 👤

• EUST 102 Elementary Italian II

  Building on Elementary Italian, this course focuses on developing student skills in speaking, reading, and writing in Italian. After a brief review of earlier material, the course will orient students to remaining elements of Italian grammar, develop more advanced reading skills, and develop greater listening comprehension and speaking ability. The course will meet three times a week.

  Not offered in 2025-26

  • Grading: S/CR/NC
  • Credits: 3
  • Liberal Arts Requirements: No Exploration
  • Prerequisites:

    Student has completed any of the following course(s): EUST 101 with a grade of C- or better.

  • Tags: CL: 100 level

• EUST 110 State of the Nation: the Politics of Citizenship

  This course explores the politics of citizenship in Modern Europe. Students will be introduced to the history of the European nation-state with a special focus on France, Germany and the UK. They will become familiar with basic concepts such as state, nation, ethnic and civic citizenship and how these are used by scholars and practitioners. This historical and conceptual backdrop will prepare them to understand post-war developments in West European politics, most importantly the politics of welfare and migration and their continued salience. Students will be challenged to think critically about larger questions about national and non-national identity and political membership.

  EUST 110 is cross listed with POSC 110.

  • Offered: Winter 2026
  • Credits: 6
  • Liberal Arts Requirements: HI, Humanistic Inquiry IS, International Studies WR2 Writing Requirement 2
  • Tags: CL: 100 level EUST Core Course EUST Transnational Support POSI Elective/Non POSC
  • Faculty: Paul Petzschmann 🏫 👤

• EUST 159 “The Age of Isms” – Ideals, Ideas and Ideologies in Modern Europe

  “Ideology” is perhaps one of the most-used (and overused) terms of modern political life. This course will introduce students to important political ideologies and traditions of modern Europe and their role in the development of political systems and institutional practices from the mid-nineteenth century to the present. We will read central texts by conservatives, liberals, socialists, anarchists and nationalists while also considering ideological outliers such as Fascism and Green Political Thought. In addition the course will introduce students to the different ways in which ideas can be studied systematically and the methodologies available.

  Not offered in 2025-26

  • Credits: 6
  • Liberal Arts Requirements: IS, International Studies SI, Social Inquiry
  • Tags: CL: 100 level FFST Social Science FREN XDept Elective POSI Elective/Non POSC EUST Transnational Support

• EUST 207 Rome Program: Italian Encounters

  Through a range of interdisciplinary readings, guest lectures, and site visits, this course will provide students with opportunities to analyze important aspects of Italian culture and society, both past and present, as well as to examine the ways in which travelers, tourists, temporary visitors, and immigrants have experienced and coped with their Italian worlds. Topics may include transportation, cuisine, rituals and rhythms of Italian life, urbanism, religious diversity, immigration, tourism, historic preservation, and language. Class discussions and projects will offer students opportunities to reflect on their own encounters with contemporary Italian culture.

  Not offered in 2025-26

  • Credits: 3
  • Liberal Arts Requirements: HI, Humanistic Inquiry IS, International Studies
  • Prerequisites:

    Acceptance in the Carleton OCS History in Rome Program.

  • Tags: CL: 200 level EUST Country Specific

• EUST 249 The European Union from Constitution to Crisis

  It is difficult to overestimate the importance of the experience of war and conflict for the founding of the European Union. The enlargement of the EU to include the much of Eastern Europe has brought this kind of “History” once again to the fore of policy-making in Brussels and in Europe’s national capitals. It has also exposed the contradictions that have made a coherent European Foreign and Security Policy so difficult to achieve. In this course we will examine the history of the EU’s founding alongside an introduction to the history and politics of Eastern Europe, culminating in an examination of the ongoing war in Ukraine. We will benefit from multiple class visits by Ukraine scholar Prof Komarenko of Tarras Shevchenko University, Ukraine.

  • Offered: Spring 2026
  • Credits: 6
  • Liberal Arts Requirements: IS, International Studies SI, Social Inquiry
  • Tags: CL: 200 level POSI Elective/Non POSC EUST Transnational Support
  • Faculty: Paul Petzschmann 🏫 👤

• EUST 278 Cross-Cultural Psychology Seminar in Prague: Politics & Culture in Central Europe-Twentieth Century

  This course covers important political, social, and cultural developments in Central Europe during the twentieth century. Studies will explore the establishment of independent nations during the interwar period, Nazi occupation, resistance and collaboration, the Holocaust and the expulsion of the Germans, the nature of the communist system, its final collapse, and the post-communist transformation.

  Not offered in 2025-26

  • Credits: 6
  • Liberal Arts Requirements: HI, Humanistic Inquiry IS, International Studies
  • Prerequisites:

    Acceptance in Cross-Cultural Studies in Prague Program and student has completed any of the following course(s): PSYC 110 with a grade of C- or better.

  • Tags: CL: 200 level

• EUST 398 The Global Panorama: A Capstone Workshop for European Studies and Cross-Cultural Studies

  The work of Cross-Cultural Studies and European Studies traverses many disciplines, often engaging with experiences that are difficult to capture in traditional formats. In this course students will create an ePortfolio that reflects, deepens, and narrates the various forms of experiences they have had at Carleton related to their minor, drawing on coursework and off-campus study, as well as such extracurricular activities as talks, service learning, internships and fellowships. Guided by readings and prompts, students will write a reflective essay articulating the coherence of the parts, describing both the process and the results of their pathway through the minor. Considered a capstone for CCST and EUST, but for anyone looking to thread together their experiences across culture. Course is taught as a workshop.

  • Offered: Winter 2026
  • Grading: S/CR/NC
  • Credits: 2
  • Liberal Arts Requirements: HI, Humanistic Inquiry IS, International Studies
  • Tags: CCST Capstone CL: 300 level EUST Capstone
  • Faculty: Paul Petzschmann 🏫 👤