COURSE DESCRIPTION

            Scholars often claim that "Europe does not exist."  Yet the continent is there, home toa bewildering puzzle of many different histories, nations, cultures and languages, with more than 450 million people now living in the European Union -- a Union that argues whether it can stay together as part of the "Eurozone" or even expand eastward to include supposedly "non-Christian" countries like Turkey. As the political, social and economic relationships among the member states of that European Union shift on an official level, Europe and European identities have constantly to be (re)defined and renegotiated, and "average Europeans" seek to understand the relationships between official accounts of "their" situations, the histories they were taught in school and by their families, and their everyday experiences. 

            What, then, does it mean to study a Europe that is in flux this way?  This course cannot answer that question straightforwardly, because US scholars in the social sciences and humanities who claim allegiance to "European Studies" all use different disciplines' strategies for understanding "Europe." 

            To resolve that problem in another way, this course will start by introducing several earlier attempts to make a more united, and presumably more peaceful and prosperous, "Europe" out of the nation-states on the continent.  Each "imagined" Europe, as we shall see, was proposed to correct problems with the nation-states -- to change politics and everyday lives in particular ways. 

            A recent history of post-World-War-II Europe by Tony Judt will anchor the class' original work on Europe and its member nations. Judt tells the continent's story from the point of view of the era's global power politics, and then situates individual European states within them.  Judt's text, then, provides accounts of Europe from the top-down and points to moments when those official accounts diverge for particular states and when they place individuals and groups who do not fit the national stereotypes under pressure.  

            The historical account of Europe as seen from the point of view of world politics is an interesting counterpoint to the evolution of European government since World War II, as realized in the Council of Europe and the European Union.  The next part of the course will introduce the evolving structure of European governance as a precursor to discussion of case studies about what this "Europeanization" does to individuals, groups, and nation-states.  

            In the transition from official Europe to Europe's culture, the class will present resources and desiderata for researching issues in the European Studies context.  The largest section of the course is devoted to a workshop on issues in contemporary Europe.  In each case, readings form official sources are juxtaposed with news sources, writings from think tanks, and academic writing. The purpose of using official sources is to give students a springboard for juxtapositions between the "European" points of view and  national ones that they research as the semester goes on.  

            Assignments in this course are designed to introduce students to the materials, research strategies, and forms of professional communication that they will encounter later in specific disciplines' versions of European studies. The assignments build on each other to help each learner acquire a body of skills and knowledge that will aid in their personal studies of Europe and in their major courses.

            This course is the introductory core course for a concentration or major in European Studies at UT, but it requires no prerequisites except for the willingness to work in collaboration with others and to engage in a discovery process rather than seeking "right" answers. 

ASSIGNMENTS AND GRADING:

• Chapter review = 10%
• Webpage: 5 tasks (one in two parts) assigned in syllabus to situate your country = 10%

(2 points each:  one for submitting it on time, one for correctness)

• Source Analysis Assignment = 10%

• Three one-hour online tests @ 10% each = 30%
• Policy Brief= 20%
• Final Evaluative Book Review of Postwar  = 20%

READINGS: BOOK TO BUY

Tony Judt.  Postwar:  A History of Europe Since 1945.  New York:  The Penguin Press, 2005.  ISBN 978-1-59420-065-3. [[ORDERED AT COOP]]

READINGS: Other readings will be available on Canvas

This is the second half of a two-semester survey of Jewish civilization. It begins with a brief discussion of Jewish history from earliest times, but focuses on the period from Spain’s Expulsion of the Jews in 1492 to the present. We will examine the major movements of Jews within an expanding diaspora, the impact of the Reformation, the changing attitudes to Jews, the breakdown of traditional authority in Jewish communities and the trend toward secularization. It will deal with the following transformative events: the rise of eastern European Jewry, the spread of kabbalah (a form of mysticism), the entry of Jews into a capitalist economy, Hassidism, Jewish Enlightenment (Haskalah), emancipation, modern antisemitism, Zionism, Jews in the Muslim world, the rise American Jewry, the Holocaust, the establishment of the State of Israel, and the Arab-Israeli conflict. The thematic core of the course will be the concepts of exile and return – their various meanings and interpretations over time, in a variety of historical contexts.

Texts:
Eli Barnavi, A Historical Atlas of the Jewish People: From the Time of the Patriarchs to the Present. 

Paul Mendes-Flohr and Jehuda Reinharz, eds., The Jew in the Modern World: A Documentary History.

Grading:
Two quizzes (20%), first mid-term (20%), second mid-term (20%), final exam (40%).

Description:

In Fall 2017 we observed the quincentennial of the beginning of the Protestant Reform initiated by Martin Luther’s (1483-1546) 95 theses. Luther was one of the seminal figures of the second millennium whose impact is felt today. We will examine his writings and his activities, the conditions that lead to his rise, and the impact he had on the world after him. Just as importantly, we will study the historical, cultural, and social context in which he lived and whose product he was.

In a broader sense, this course focuses on the transformation of European culture (with special emphasis on Germany) from the late Middle Ages to the early modern age (1450-1600), roughly during Luther’s life time. Humanism and the Protestant Reformation will be the main focus of this course, but we will also discuss political, social, economic, scientific, and philosophical developments as well as architecture, art, music, and literature of the time period. At the end, students will have a good understanding of German and European culture at this particular crossroads.

We will break down the course into the following themes:

*          What is Humanism? Renaissance?

*          The printing press and the first information revolution

*          A new urban culture (literature, architecture, music)

*          Political power and social order

*          Heliocentrism and discoveries: America, Cape of Good Hope

*          Trade networks: the first age of Globalization

*          The Catholic church and monastic life before Luther

*          Luther’s life

*          Luther’s theology: his writings

*          The Protestant Reform: Luther, Zwingli, Calvin, and others

*          Catholic responses

*          Social and political impact of the Reformation

*          How Luther changed the world

Readings:

*          Scott H. Hendrix. Martin Luther: A Very Short Introduction.

*          John Dillenberger (ed.). Martin Luther: Selections From His Writing.

*          R.C. Sproul and Stephen J. Nichols (eds.). The Legacy of Luther.

*          Jerry Brotton. The Renaissance: A Very Short Introduction.

*          Diarmaid MacCulloch, The Reformation: A History

*          other materials on Canvas

Grading:

Attendance, Participation                             10%

Quizzes                                                           10%

Oral presentation                                          10%

Two short writing assignments                   20%

Two examinations                                         50%

Cuisine is an integral component of culture. This course is an in-depth survey of the cultures of Central and Eastern Europe through the lens of food consumption. In our exploration of culture through cuisine, we will focus on certain common features: traditional techniques such as fermenting vegetables, culturing dairy, and smoking meats; production and consumption of various alcoholic beverages; and popular activities such as mushroom collecting and the gathering of medicinal herbs. Additionally, we will consider the role of food in shaping regional identities, and more broadly, the notion of a national cuisine. This survey will take us from the early days of recorded food culture to the present day, as we analyze the consumptive practices of the upper and lower classes, fasting and celebratory meals, the effect of communism on culinary traditions, and the role of globalization in changing national cuisine. Finally, we will examine recent developments in food culture: the popularity of celebrity chefs and cooking competitions, the revival of older traditions alongside more modernist techniques, and the organic and local food movements in contrast with conventional agriculture or the use of GMOs.

TEXT:

Everyone Eats: Understanding Food and Culture, by E. N. Anderson

Food is Culture, by Massimo Montanari

Additional course readings from food journals (such as Gastronomica) and other publications will be distributed on the course website.

GRADING:

Attendance/participation                      10%

Map quiz                                             5%

Midterm exam                                     25%

Final exam                                           25%

Response paper (5 pages)                   15%

Report (6-8 pages) and presentation    20%

Please check back for updates.

Please check back for updates.

This course examines seminal texts and significant episodes in the intellectual and political history of Western Europe and its Atlantic colonies during the later seventeenth, eighteenth, and early nineteenth centuries.  In doing so, the seminar aims to understand the intellectual and cultural revolution known as the Enlightenment as well as the relationship between it and the political revolutions of the period, particularly the English Revolution of the mid-seventeenth century (c. 1640-1660), the Glorious Revolution of 1688-1689, the American Revolution of 1775-1783, the French Revolution of 1789-1815, and the Haitian Revolution of 1791-1804.

Books:
1. Margaret C. Jacob, ed., The Enlightenment: A Brief History with Documents, 2nd edition (Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2017).
2. Gordon S. Wood, The American Revolution: A History (Modern Library, 2003).
3. Lynn Hunt, ed., The French Revolution and Human Rights: A Brief Documentary History (Bedford/St. Martin’s, 1996).
4. John Locke, Second Treatise of Government, ed. C. B. Macpherson (Hackett, 1980).
5. Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Discourse on the Origin of Inequality, trans. Donald A. Cress (Hackett, 1992).
6. Immanuel Kant, Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics, trans. James W. Ellington, 2nd edition (Hackett, 2001).
7. Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais, The Marriage of Figaro, trans. Henry R. Bishop (Digireads, 2011).


Grading:
Attendance and Participation (20%)
Weekly Reading Responses (15%)
Mid-Term Essay (25%)
Term Paper (40%)

The French revolution is one of the most famous events in history. Historians, social scientists, and politicians have studied and debated it for over two centuries, and they still have not resolved the fundamental questions it raises. Why does a regime collapse? How is a new state built? Why are some revolutions peaceful while others become protracted and violent? The human drama, too, of this tumultuous decade and a half is irresistible. How were extraordinary careers made and then lost? How did people take sides? How did ordinary people survive?
            In this course, we’ll use the French revolution to think about all these questions concretely. We have three aims, and they are all related. The first is to help you master the major events and developments of the revolution itself. The second is to understand what those events meant at the time and how their importance has been magnified since – how, in other words, they have produced classic political arguments about the conditions for democracy, the sources of rights, and the process of historical change itself. The required readings represent some of those arguments. Third, we consider how the revolution has shaped the world, and how it compares with other revolutions, including ones going on right now.


Texts:
Rousseau, The Social Contract
William Doyle, The French Revolution: A Very Short History
Timothy Tackett, When the King Took Flight
Timothy Tackett, The Coming of the Terror in the French Revolution
David Bell, Napoleon, A Biography

Grading:
•    2 4-5 page take home papers (25% each)  (total 50% of grade**)
•    1 comprehensive test (25%)
•    group political club assignments (25%).
•     points deducted for more than 2 absences and points added for participation in discussion sessions if we have them.Historians care about writing. It is impossible to separate form from content, and both count in your grade. Check your grammar, sentence structure, and word usage. Go to the writing center. Have someone read and comment on your paper. Give yourself time to revise.

This course reaches back to the first centuries of Protestantism in Central Europe, from about 1400 to about 1700. The Czech Lands, under the names of Bohemia and Moravia, and under the dominion of the Habsburg Emperors of the Holy Roman Empire, were heavily implicated in the various breaks from and returns to Catholicism, as the reformation started by Luther gave way to the counter-reformation of the organized Catholic Church, resisting the fracturing of its One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church. This hotbed of religious dissidence pitted newly emerging Protestant groups on several sides of each doctrinal and political issue that arose as the region sought its religious identity: Utraquists, Hussites, Lutherans, Calvinists, and Czech Brethren, and others.  

The course will explore the theologies, politics, and personal identities that emerged, and passed away in this era through the accounts in primary sources, including the writings of the reformers as well as through the lenses provided by current scholarship. In addition, the course examines the visual arts and music (especially hymns) that played such a huge role in this battle for land, power, hearts, and minds shaping the lives of believers and non-believers alike. The course concludes with an examination of the evolutions within Catholicism reflected in the Catholic catechism as a result of the Counter-Reformation.

Please check back for updates.

This lecture course explores the most significant political, religious, social, economic and cultural developments in seventeenth-century England. The unifying theme of the course is the problem of revolution, and the lectures investigate the causes, nature, and development of the two revolutions of the seventeenth century—the Puritan Revolution of the 1640s and the Glorious Revolution of 1688-89. The lectures are topical and therefore do not follow a strict chronological order.

Roger Lockyer, Tudor and Stuart Britain (3rd ed., 2005)
Brian Levack, Witch-Hunting in Scotland (208)
Barry Coward, Oliver Cromwell  (1991)
Peter Laslett (ed.), John Locke's Two Treatises of Government (2nd ed., 1989)

Britain in the Victorian age has been subject to a great deal of myth-making. It is often seen as a prudish age in which women were kept in the home and children were seen and not heard. This course will offer a more realistic view of the period, as well as exploring how such visions of the Victorian era came about in the twentieth century.

The course is intended to introduce students to the main contours of social and cultural British history both in Britain and in its burgeoning empire. It will examine the paradoxes and contradictions that characterize late eighteenth and nineteenth-century British society, and explore what the idea of “being British” might be said to mean at this time. ‘The World of the Victorians’ offers a broad survey of Victorian social and cultural history, and will include such topics as religion, sexuality, gender, class, family life, the countryside and the city, science and society, and much more.

Please check back for updates.

Our stereotypical image of an early modern woman is a witch - for some good reasons because thousands of witch trials took place.  In this course, we will look beyond that perspective to explore the complex of material, political, and cultural factors that shaped experiences of gender and family and that shaped attitudes about gender and power in early modern Europe.  The early modern centuries between about 1500 and 1800 were years of tremendous change in many ways – including religious reformations, more powerful governments, global colonial empires and the domestic impacts of colonialism that included the rise of racial categories, and the economic transformation we call the transition to capitalism.  Some features were slower to change, however, especially with regard to family life. We will explore how women's experiences compared to men's - whether as workers, consumers, criminals, political subjects and political actors, peasants or nobles, members of racial, ethnic and religious minorities, spouses or parents.  Along the way, we will explore why some of these dynamics fed into a proliferation of "witches."

Discussion of the assigned readings (see below) will be an important element of this class: you will learn more effectively when you take an active part in the analysis of the material to be covered. Consequently you must expect to read every reading assignment very carefully and thoughtfully. You should come to each class ready to ask questions and contribute observations.

You will need to demonstrate mastery of the readings to do well on the exams.

Warning: absence from class will inevitably have a serious impact on your grade because you cannot participate if you are not present. Each of you may be absent twice with no penalty. For every absence after that, three points will be deducted from your participation grade for each absence not justified by a written explanation. Please note, however, that attendance is the only the first prerequisite for participation, so that perfect attendance and complete silence will result in a grade that reflects only partial fulfillment of participation.

Daily class readings are available on Canvas or online through the Library Catalogue. (Deleted last section here.)

Grading:
Midterm 25%
Final 35%
Reading grids 20%
Witchcraft group projects 10%
Preparation and engagement 10%

Please check back for updates.

Please check back for updates.

Note: This course (ITC 348) counts toward the major in Italian.

Course Description

The Divine Comedy offers a remarkable panorama of the late Middle Ages through one man's poetic vision of the afterlife. However, we continue to read and study the poem not only to learn about the thought and culture of medieval and early modern Europe but also because many of the issues confronting Dante and his age are no less important to individuals and societies today. Personal and civic responsibilities, governmental accountability, church-state relations, economics and social justice, Dante's influence on artists and other writers, benefits and limitations of interdisciplinarity—these are some of the themes that will frame our discussion of the Divine Comedy. Although you will read the poem in English, a bilingual edition will enable you to study and learn famous lines in the original Italian. The course is taught in English and contains flags for Writing and Global Cultures.

Danteworlds (http://danteworlds.laits.utexas.edu/): In addition to detailed entries, audio recordings, and study questions, this Web site contains hundreds of images from works by Sandro Botticelli, an anonymous 16th-century artist, John Flaxman, William Blake, Gustave Dorè, and Suloni Robertson.

Through close reading, class discussion, and the use of Danteworlds, you are expected to identify and explain the significance of major characters, references, and ideas in Dante's Divine Comedy (Inferno, Purgatory, and Paradise) and Vita Nuova. You will be tested on this ability in responses to study questions (a low-stakes writing assignment) and two in-class exams. An essay, which you will rewrite and expand based on my feedback, will assess your ability to support an interpretation of a specific aspect of Dante's poetry with detailed textual analysis and scholarly research. A peer-editing activity will help you to revise and edit your own work. I expect you to have read the assigned cantos and reviewed the corresponding material in Danteworlds (including the study questions) before class.

Required Texts: (you must use the editions of these texts ordered for the class)

            Inferno, Purgatorio and Paradiso (Trans. Allen Mandelbaum)

            Vita Nuova (Trans. Barbara Reynolds)

Recommended Text (also ordered for this class): The Complete Danteworlds: A Reader's Guide to the "Divine Comedy" (Raffa)

Canvas: We will use the CANVAS learning management system to organize and provide course content on-line. When you log in to Canvas (http://canvas.utexas.edu/) and select the course, you will have access to the syllabus, assignments, lecture presentations, grades, and a discussion forum. You will be required to submit most assignments on-line using Canvas. For assistance, consult the student tutorials (https://utexas.instructure.com/courses/633028/pages/student-tutorials) or contact support staff (https://utexas.instructure.com/courses/633028).

Assignments and Computation of Grade:

10%: 1500-word essay on the Inferno (credit for successful completion)

25%: Rewrite and expansion of this essay incorporating scholarly research (graded)

5%:   Annotated bibliography of research sources (credit for successful completion)

5%:   Peer-review (credit for successful completion)

10%: Responses to study questions in Canvas Discussion Forum (credit for successful completion)

30%: Two in-class examinations  (graded: 15% each)

15%: Classwork and participation                          

Attendance Policy: Your attendance, which obviously influences your classwork and participation grade, is expected at all class meetings. You are expected to arrive on time to class and to stay for the entire lesson. Repeated late arrivals to—or early departures from—will count as absences. For every class that you miss (for whatever reason) after the fifth absence, your classwork and participation grade (on a 100-point scale) will be reduced by 5 points.

Late Work: Late work will lose a full letter grade for each day it is late except in the case of documented emergencies (e.g., serious illness, death in the family), religious holidays (see university policy below), or university-sponsored events (with prior notification).

Grading and Plagiarism: All graded assignments will be marked on a 100 point scale and converted to letter grades consistent with university policy:

A (94-100) = 4.0, A- (90-93) = 3.67, B+ (88-89) = 3.3, B (84-87) = 3.0, B- (80-83) = 2.67, C+ (78-79) = 2.3, C (74-77) = 2.0, C- (70-73) = 1.67, D+ (68-69) = 1.3, D (64-67) = 1.0, D- (60-63) = 0.67, F (below 60) = 0.0

Please check back for updates.

Please check back for updates.

ITC 338 – Italian Television Advertising

Unique # 36785

Spring 2019

T & TH 9:30am–11:00pm PAR 210

Instructor:    Cinzia Russi

Office:            HRH 3.110B

Phone:           471 7024

Office hours: T & TH 2:00–3:30 and by appointment

E-mail:           russi@austin.utexas.edu (preferred form of contact)

Course Description

Italy is a country associated with “style”—life style (il dolce far niente), fashion style (Valentino, Prada, Gucci, etc.), film style (Fellini and the like), and, for better or for worse, a certain sort of rather effusive political style (Mussolini, Berlusconi, and their ilk, among others). The specific objective of this course is to categorize and analyze the major changes that have taken place in the peculiarly Italian style of television advertising during the past fifty years.

After a general introduction to the language of television advertising, students will compare chronologically ordered versions of Italian TV commercials for a variety of high-use products (for instance, food, house-cleaning products, personal care items, cars) in order to identify changes that have taken place at the level of vocabulary, grammar, and language register as a result of new socio- cultural dynamics that have come to characterize present-day Italy. The Italian commercials will then be compared to/contrasted with equivalent ads broadcasted in US to uncover similarities and differences.

Although the course will focus on language change, it will also draw attention to socio-cultural changes that have taken place in the Italian society since the second half of the 20^th century, particularly with respect to the role and figure of women (and how they are portrayed in TV commercials vis-à-vis to men), and the structure, life style and values of the ‘typical’ (or ‘stereotypical’) Italian family.

Course material

Selected chapters/sections from the texts listed below. All the reading material will be available on Canvas.

Attendance & Class Participation

Regular attendance and active participation in class discussion are required. More than three will lower the final grade; for the fourth absence, three points will be deducted from the final grade; four points will be deducted for the fifth absence, and so forth, up to a maximum of ten points. This policy will be strictly enforced.

Assignments

• Journal entries:Weekly entries (2-3 pages) summarizing and commenting on reading assignments and class lecturers, to be submitted for grading as indicated in the syllabus.
• Five thought pieces (500–750 words) in which students comment on the different versions of a commercial.

*** IMPORTANT ***

            Please make sure that your assignments:

1. a.  have a title;
2. b.  have your name;
3. c.   are stapled;
4. d.  are paginated;
5. e.    typed in 12 points Times New Roman, 1-inch margins.

One percentage point will be deducted from your grade for each of these that is missing.

• Five quizzes.
• One mid-term exam: Short-answer questions on assigned readings and commercials.
• Research project:In groups of three/four, students will:

1. a.     Write a short paper on the ‘history’ of a commercial of their choice;
2. b.     Create an original commercial for the product selected which will be presented in class.

Grading:

• Participation                    15%   
• Thought pieces                20%
• Quizzes                             15%               
• Mid-term exam                25%
• Research project 15%
• Oral presentation            10%

List of readings (tentative)

Danesi, Marcel. 2008. Popular culture: introductory perspectives. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield. Chapter 8, Advertising, branding and fads.

Borrelli, Nicola. 2010. Advertising across Cultures: A Linguistic-semiotic Analysis of British and Italian TV Commercials. Roma: Aracne.

Annunziato, Sarah and Francesco Fiumara. 2015. Targeting the parents through the children in the golden age of Italian television advertising: The case of Carosello. Journal of Italian Cinema & Media Studies 3(1–2). 11–26.

Bacchilega, Christina and John Rieder. 2014. The fairy tale and the commercial in Carosello and Fractured Fairy Tales (pp. 336–349, 358–359). In Pauline Greenhill and Jill Terry Rudy (eds.), Channeling wonder. Fairy tales on television, 336–359. Detroit: Wayne State University press.

Crompton, P. M. and R. McAlea. 2000. Rhetorical devices in television advertising. In Jackie Cannon et al. (eds.), Advertising and identity in Europe: The I of the beholder, 32–41. Bristol, UK/Portland, OG: intellect.

Marshall, Jill and Angela Werndly. 2002. The language of television. London/New York: Routledge. Unit 2: Signs and signification.

Geis, Michael L. 1982. The Language of Television Advertising. New York: Academic Press. Chapter 1: Introduction; Chapter 2: Saying things indirectly; Chapter 5: Some words and phrases on advertising English.

Severgnini, Beppe. 2006. La bella figura. A field guide to the Italian mind, translated by Giles Watson. New York: Broadway Books. Television, where the Semi-Undressed Signorina acquires a cloak of significance, pp. 76–79.

Please check back for updates.

“What kind of music do you listen to?” can be a loaded question. Based on your taste in music, others will invariably place you in a specific (sub)culture, class, lifestyle, and even speculate about your political commitments. Your taste in music can make or break a friendship, produce feelings of camaraderie as well as of repulsion.

For some time now, scholars have viewed popular music as a dynamic cultural field, where various social meanings—attached to race, nationality, gender, and sexuality—are constantly being produced, contested, and negotiated among different communities of listeners.

This insight into music as crucial site of political struggle and collective identity formation will be the starting point in our analysis of popular music genres in the Balkans, a region of Europe that has undergone sweeping historical changes in the 20^th and 21^st centuries, including the fall of Communism and—in the case of former Yugoslavia—the formation of seven new nation-states through a series of bloody and brutal wars. We will begin the class by examining the emergence of Western pop genres, such as punk and new wave rock, in late socialism (in the 1980s), which became associated with urban youth subcultures, sophisticated irony, and liberalization of the one-party state.  From there, we will move to the analysis of “turbo-folk,” a curious mixture of contemporary electronic and traditional folk music that became extremely popular in the 1990s, when the conflict in Yugoslavia was at its peak. Featuring extravagant and scandalous Balkan divas, roughly equivalent to Rihanna and Lady Gaga in the U.S., turbo-folk was (and still is) connected with nationalism, the new mafia elite, and general cultural decline. We will watch videos, examine arguments for and against turbo-folk, and try to pin down its political functions, cultural meanings, and recent transformations. We will end the class by examining new trends in Balkan popular music, such hip-hop and Balkan brass, and their relationship to recent protest movements, minority politics, and claims of cultural (in)authenticity.

In addition to scholarly literature, we will make a substantial use of a class Tumblr blog, featuring music videos, song lyrics, links to other blogs, album covers and other visual and audio materials, which will allow us to fully immerse ourselves in different sounds, scenes, fashion styles, and communities we will be studying throughout this course.

Learning Objectives:

By examining the changes in the production and consumption of popular music in the Balkans, students will gain an understanding of larger historical shifts both in the region and on a more global scale. Additionally, students will refine their analytical and critical thinking skills by situating cultural objects in a dynamic historical and political context and by reflecting on the social effects and assumptions surrounding the consumption of popular music more generally. Our discussion of Balkan popular music will be guided by the following questions:

• How does popular music shape collective identities?
• What is the role of popular music in large-scale social and political transformation?
• How is popular music used as medium of political mobilization by the state and civil actors?
• How do musical tastes produce, reflect, and reinforce social differences and hierarchies?
• Why are claims of cultural authenticity often attached to popular music? Who makes these claims and why?
• How do different music genres function in different political and cultural contexts?

Readings:

Readings in the course pack include selections from:

Simon Frith (ed.), Performing Rites: On the Value of Popular Music, (Harvard UP, 1998).

Jennifer C. Lena, Banding Together: How Communities Create Genres in Popular Music (Princeton UP, 2012).

Sabrina P. Ramet, Social Currents in Eastern Europe (Duke UP, 1995).

Eric Gordy, The Culture of Power in Serbia (The Pennsylvania State UP, 2001).

Catherine Baker, Sounds of the Borderland: Popular Music, War and Nationalism in Croatia since 1991 (Ashgate, 2010).

Carol Silverman, Romani Routes: Cultural Politics and Balkan Music in Diaspora (Oxford UP, 2012).

Marina Terkoufari (ed.), The Languages of Global Hip Hop (Continuum, 2012)

Grading:

10%-class participation and attendance

10% map quiz of the Balkan countries/major historical events

25%-weekly discussion post (250 words or more)

25%-take-home midterm exam (short essay format)

5%-abstract and outline of long essay

25%-one long essay (8-9 pages) or multimedia project

Instructor:  Toth, N

Unique #:  35597

Semester:  Spring 2019

Cross-lists:  EUS 347.7

Restrictions: none

Computer Instruction: No

Prerequisites: Nine semester hours of coursework in English or rhetoric and writing.

Description: If the genre of the novel can be defined at all, then we might say it is a narrative form that does not accept reality as it is, but rearranges the order of things so as to transform them.  To what ends?  This course will ask this question of a series of major European novels from the late 18^thcentury, when the genre came into its own, through to today.  We will examine their narrative innovations and their contribution to the history of the genre.  We will also look at the relationship each novel establishes to illusion and reality in the context of the major social, economic and political upheavals of European history over the last two centuries.  Throughout the course, we will ask how these novels contribute to our understanding of what “Europe” was, might have been, and might be.

Texts may include: Goethe, The Sorrows of the Young Werther; Flaubert, Sentimental Education; Dostoyevsky, Crime and Punishment; Zola, Germinal; Woolf, Mrs Dalloway; Mann, The Magic Mountain; Kafka,The Castle; Duras,The Sea Wall; Kertesz, Kaddish for an Unborn Child; Chamoiseau, Texaco.

Requirements & Grading: The class will be held as much as possible in seminar format.  Students will be asked to prepare, with guidance from their teacher, and lead, one short class session (20%).  They will also write two written assignments (25% each) and sit a final exam (30%).

Please check back for updates.

Please check back for updates.

EUS 348/GOV 365N:
European Environmental Politics

Spring 2019

Unique: 36155/38385

Course concept

Environmental politics is one area where Europe arguably leads the world. Europe has, at both the national and European-Union level, committed itself to achieving reductions in carbon emissions far greater than anywhere else in the world.

This course will examine the history of environmental politics in both the member states of the European Union and the EU itself. Beginning with a conceptual treatment of general environmental politics and policies, the course moves to a history of European environmentalism, before shifting to a discussion on the institutional responses at important ‘traditional’ Member States (Germany, France, Italy and the UK) as well as ‘new‘ Member States (Czech Republic, Poland and Hungary). The final section of the course examines EU environmental policies themselves, such as the EU Emissions Trading System and its institutional commitment to meeting Kyoto Protocol goals. This section examines Europe in light of its relationship to the United States and other global powers as they re-evaluate environmental policy positions.

Assignments and grading

Your course grade will consist of a midterm exam grade, a take-home final exam grade, a short paper grade and a discussion/participation grade. All assignments will be converted to a 100-point scale with no curve. All grades, including final grades, will use the plus (+) and minus (-) system. Grade standards for all assignments are as follows:

Exams: 50%

As this class is an upper-division course, a major portion of the grade for the course will consist of exams, consisting of a midterm exam and a take-home final exam. Both the midterm and the take-home final exam will be worth 25% of your course grade.

Paper: 30%

The paper for this class will be a short (2000 word) exploratory paper on one of the five topics chosen by the instructor. Such a paper should be a reasonably thorough treatment of the topic chosen, including a clear thesis statement, logical consistency in the arguments used to show the validity of the thesis, and a clear and concise conclusion that effectively summarizes your argument. The paper should be no more than 2000 words in length. The paper will comprise 30% of your total grade for the course. The paper grade itself will be divided into four sections:

     Topic choice: due 1 February. Worth 10% of paper grade (3% of course grade).

     Topic outline and list of references: due 15 February. Worth 20% of paper grade (6% of course grade).

     First draft of paper:  due 15 April.  Worth 20% of paper grade (6% of course grade).

     Final draft of paper: due 10 May.  Worth 50% of paper grade (15% of course grade).

Attendance/Participation: 20%

There is a distinction between attendance and participation. Attendance will be managed through Canvas and will take place at five intervals throughout the session. Each of these attendance days will count for 2% of your course grade (for a total of 10%).

Participation will count for 10% of your total grade.

Participation will be divided into two sections:  in-class participation and online discussion. While not everyone enjoys speaking in class, discussion questions will count for as much as in-class participation. Discussion questions will count for 7.5% of your course grade; in-class participation will count for 2.5% of your course grade.

In-class participation will be graded as follows:

• Attending every day, but not participating in class: 80/100
• Attending every day, participating via question answering (from instructor): 90/100
• Attending every day, participating via question answering and active learning (extending discussion, asking follow-up questions): 100/100

Online discussion postings are critical to class participation grades. So that we can discuss points raised in the online postings in Thursday’s class, discussion questions for the week on which I am lecturing will be due by 5:00 pm every Wednesday (unless directed otherwise). They should be drawn from the readings or contemporary news accounts and should reflect any questions, comments, or cries of outrage you may have regarding the arguments set forth by the authors or news stories. Discussion posting will most definitely will help you get the most from the class.

Online discussion postings will be graded as follows:

• •12-15 postings: Full credit
• •8-11 postings: 70% credit
• •5-7 postings: 50% credit
• •Less than 5 postings: No credit

There are no discussion postings necessary for midterm week. The total number of discussion postings will be counted at the end of the semester, and also will be examined throughout the semester for evidence of consistent posting. Do not expect to “catch-up” post only at the end of the semester and receive full participation credit.

A word on late or missed assignments. Over the course of the semester, it is inevitable that some event will cause a time management issue, which might lead to a missed assignment deadline. Though normally handled on a case-by-case basis, there are some baseline penalties for missed or delayed assignments, detailed here:

• Missed exams will receive a 5% deduction per day until made up.

Other important information

Plagiarism / academic misconduct:

Don’t do it. Minimum penalties for cheating are zeros on quizzes or exams where the cheating takes place, and a grade of F on a paper that has been plagiarized. Questions about what constitutes academic misconduct should be brought to my attention.

Undergraduate Writing Center: 

The Undergraduate Writing Center, FAC 211, 471-6222: http://www.uwc.utexas.edu/) offers free, individualized, expert help with writing for any UT undergraduate, by appointment or on a drop-in basis. Any undergraduate enrolled in a course at UT can visit the UWC for assistance with any writing project. They work with students from every department on campus, for both academic and non-academic writing. Their services are not just for writing with "problems." Getting feedback from an informed audience is a normal part of a successful writing project. Consultants help students develop strategies to improve their writing. The assistance they provide is intended to foster independence. Each student determines how to use the consultant's advice. The consultants are trained to help you work on your writing in ways that preserve the integrity of your work.

University of Texas Honor Code:

The core values of The University of Texas at Austin are learning, discovery, freedom, leadership, individual opportunity, and responsibility. Each member of the university is expected to uphold these values through integrity, honesty, trust, fairness, and respect toward peers and community.  Any student found guilty of scholastic dishonesty may receive an “F” in the course and be remanded to the appropriate University of Texas authorities for disciplinary action.  For more information, view Student Judicial Services at http://deanofstudents.utexas.edu/sjs.

Religious Holidays:

According to UT-Austin policy, students must notify the instructor of an impending absence at least 14 days prior to the date of observance of a religious holy day. If a student must miss a class, an examination, a work assignment, or a project in order to observe a religious holy day, the student will be given an opportunity to complete the missed work within a reasonable time after the absence.

Student Privacy: 

The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) requires that student privacy be preserved.  Thus the posting of grades, even by the last four digits of the social security number, is forbidden.  All communication will remain between the instructor and the student, and the instructor will not be able to share details of the student’s performance with parents, spouses, or any others.

Documented Disability Statement:

The University of Texas will make reasonable accommodations for students with documented disabilities. Any student with a documented disability who requires academic accommodations should contact Services for Students with Disabilities at 471-6259 (voice) or 1-866-329-3986 (Video Phone) as soon as possible to request an official letter outlining authorized accommodations.

Emergency Evacuation Policy:

In the event of a fire or other emergency, it may be necessary to evacuate a building rapidly.  Upon the activation of a fire alarm or the announcement of an emergency in a university building, all occupants of the building are required to evacuate and assemble outside.  Once evacuated, no one may re-enter the building without instruction to do so from the Austin Fire Department, University of Texas at Austin Police Department, or Fire Prevention Services office.  Students should familiarize themselves with all the exit doors of each room and building they occupy at the university, and should remember that the nearest exit routes may not be the same as the way they typically enter buildings.  Students requiring assistance in evacuation shall inform their instructors in writing during the first week of class.  Information regarding emergency evacuation routes and emergency procedures can be found at http://www.utexas.edu/emergency.

PREREQUISITES

Students wishing to enroll in this class must have taken a foundational course in government, European studies, or Russian/East European studies. The course also assumes basic knowledge of world history. Students who find themselves lost during lectures or class discussions should see me during office hours immediately.

Course Description

Eastern Europe is home to an ethnically diverse population. And in the past 100 years, the map for Eastern Europe has been redrawn more than a dozen times – often with great consequences for ethnic politics. The course is divided into four parts. We will begin by focusing on the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire at the end of World War 1, the Interwar Period, and World War 2. During these thirty-some years, we see the importance of ethnicity for state-building. We will then continue on to the Cold War, paying special attention to the institutional differences across the otherwise ideologically similar communist states. We will also note how the different governments used these institutions to mute ethnic matters. Next, we will examine how these institutional differences affected subsequent democratic transitions and government policies toward minorities. We will conclude by looking at how the European Union has redrawn Eastern Europe by opening up borders and the implications of these opened borders, namely the rise of right wing nationalism.

Note: The importance of the Soviet Union in Eastern Europe politics cannot be overstated. To this end, we will study the Soviet Union/Russia briefly, but note that the primary emphasis in this course is on the region to the east of present-day Germany and to the west of present-day Russia. We will not spend much time talking about any country formerly in the Soviet Union, i.e., Ukraine and the Baltic states.

GRADING POLICY

Your final grade is composed of the following five parts:

1. Quizzes: 20%
2. Midterm Examination: 20%
3. Final Examination: 20%
4. Coding Assignment: 20%
5. Coding-Based Paper Assignment : 20%

readings

One book is required for this course. You can buy a used copy for as little as $1.20 on Amazon:

• Krenz, Maria. 2009. Made in Hungary: A Life Forged by History. Boulder, CO: Donner Publishing (hereafter referred to as “Krenz”).

I will place most of the assigned readings (e.g., articles and book chapters) on Canvas. You can access them with your EID and password at https://canvas.utexas.edu. Readings not on Canvas can be accessed directly through Google. There are a few assigned videos to watch. Those can be found on YouTube.

Please check back for updates.

Please check back for updates.

Please check back for updates.

Please check back for updates.

Description:

Sport and other forms of physical culture have played important political roles in German history over the past two centuries. The gymnastics movement of the early 19th century promoted an intense German nationalism based on racial/ethnic identity. The late-19th century gymnastics movement was both politically conservative and engaged in an unsuccessful struggle with the foreign “sport” culture that eventually conquered the world in the form of the Olympic Games and global soccer. The 1936 Berlin (“Nazi”) Olympics promoted Hitler’s foreign policy objectives by serving as a propaganda platform that persuaded much of the world that Nazi Germany would not go to war. An anti-Nazi boycott effort in the United States did not succeed. The next German dictatorship to adopt sport as a political strategy was East Germany (1949-1989), which produced huge numbers of internationally successful athletes by creating a system of early recruitment, expert coaching, and a secret doping program that fed anabolic steroids to thousands of young men and women, including children: criminal medicine in the service of sportive nationalism. In recent decades, democratic Germany has pursued a very successful program to become a world soccer power. The 2006 World Cup competition in Germany marked a turning point by producing a politically acceptable form of German nationalism. The German victory at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil has confirmed traditional stereotypes about German efficiency that reflect well on Germany’s political system. The inclusion of players of non-German origin on the national team serves as a symbol of German multicultural policy in an era of troubled race relations across the face of Europe.

Selected Readings:

Léon Poliakov, “Arndt, Jahn and the Germanomanes,” in The History of Anti-Semitism: From Voltaire to Wagner (New York: The Vanguard Press, 1975): 380-391.

John Hoberman, “The Origins of Socialist Sport: Marxist Sport Culture in the Years of Innocence,” in Sport and Political Ideology (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1984): 170-189.

John Hoberman, “Fascism and the Sportive Temperament,” “Nietzsche and the Authority of the Body,” “Fascist Style and Sportive Manhood,” in Sport and Political Ideology (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1984): 83-109.

 John M. Hoberman, “”Nazi Sport Theory: Racial Heroism and the Critique of Sport,” in Sport and Political Ideology (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1984): 162-169.

 Marcel Reinold and John Hoberman, “The Myth of the Nazi Steroid,” The International Journal of the History of Sport  (2014).

Allen Guttmann, “’The Nazi Olympics’,” in The Games Must Go On: Avery Brundage and the Olympic Movement (New York: Columbia University Press, 1984): 62-82.

Richard Mandell, The Nazi Olympics (1971).

Alan Tomlinson, “FIFA and the Men Who Made It,” Soccer & Society 1 (2000): 55-71.

Werner Krauss, “Football, Nation and Identity: German Miracles in the Post-War Era,” in Dyck, Noel and Eduardo P. Archetti, eds., Sport, Dance and Embodied Identities (Oxford and New York: Berg, 2003): 197-216.

John Hoberman, “The Politics of Doping in Germany,” “The German Sports Medical Establishment,” in Mortal Engines: The Science of Performance and the Dehumanization of Sport (New York: Free Press, 1992): 237-252, 252-265.

John Hoberman. "The Reunification of German Sports Medicine, 1989-1992," Quest 45 (1993): 277-285.

Werner W. Franke and Brigitte Berendonk, “Hormonal doping and androgenization of athletes: a secret doping program of the German Democratic Republic government,” Clinical Chemistry 43 (1997): 1262-1279.

Grading:

Examination #1 (25%)

Examination #2 (25%)

Quizzes (5 worth 5% apiece)

Term paper (25%)