Mary Neuburger

This is the introductory seminar to Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies.  It consists of a series of guest lectures by a   diverse cast of CREEES faculty in order to give the students as  broad an overview of the field as possible.

Prerequisites: graduate standing. 

Readings:  Distributed by visiting lecturers a week before each lecture

Grading:   Participation:             10%

              Oral presentation:       40%

               Final research paper:  50%

Please check back for updates.

This is the introductory seminar to Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies.  It consists of a series of guest lectures by a   diverse cast of CREEES faculty in order to give the students as  broad an overview of the field as possible.

Prerequisites: graduate standing. 

Readings:  Distributed by visiting lecturers a week before each lecture

Grading:   Participation:             10%

              Oral presentation:       40%

               Final research paper:  50%

This is the introductory research seminar to Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies.  It consists of a series of guest lectures by a diverse cast of CREEES faculty in order to give the students as  broad an overview of the field as possible.

Prerequisites: graduate standing. 

Readings:  Distributed by visiting lecturers a week before each lecture

Grading:  

• Participation: 10%
• Oral presentation: 40%
• Final research paper: 50%

This is the introductory seminar to Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies.  It consists of a series of guest lectures by a   diverse cast of CREEES faculty in order to give the students as  broad an overview of the field as possible.

Prerequisites: graduate standing. 

Readings:  Distributed by visiting lecturers a week before each lecture

Grading:   Participation:             10%

              Oral presentation:       40%

               Final research paper:  50%

This reading seminar will explore the history of modern Eastern Europe through the prism of national identity politics.  Readings and discussion will first expose students to theoretical works, and various disciplinary approaches, on the concepts of national identity and ethnic conflict. We will then proceed to explore concrete cases of the history of ethnic coexistence and its development into discreet national conflicts in the modern period. We will then analyze patterns of conflict and coexistence in the region as they have been described and explained and debated in the existing literature.  In the northern tier of Eastern Europe the focal point will be on historical tensions between Germans and non-Germans, Jews and non-Jews, as well as the rise of anti-Semitism and the local contours of the Holocaust.  For Southeastern Europe, the course will focus attention on Muslim minorities, Muslim-non-Muslim relations, but also the myriad national identities formed on the basis of language, religion, and historical experience.  Disintegration of the former Yugoslavia will be a major theme.

Texts:

Charles King, Extreme Politics: Nationalism, Violence and the End of Eastern Europe.

Pieter Judson, Guardians of the Nation: Activists on the Language Frontiers of Imperial Austria.

Chad Bryant. Prague in Black: Nazi Rule and Czech Nationalism (2007). 

Kate Brown, A Biography of No Place.

Timothy Snyder, Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin.

Serhii Ploky, Ukraine and Russia. 

Holly Case, Between States: The Transylvania Question and the European Idea during World War II.

Harris Mylonas, The Politics of Nation-Building: Making Co-Nationals, Refugees, and Minorities.

Keith Brown, Loyal Unto Death: Trust and Terror in Revolutionary Macedonia.

Mary Neuburger,The Orient Within: Muslim Minorities and The Negotiation of Nationhood in Modern Bulgaria

Lenard Cohen and Jasna Dragovic-Soso eds., State Collapse in Southeastern Europe: New Perspectives on Yugoslavia’s Disintegration.

F. Bieber and Z. Daskalovski, Understanding the War in Kosovo.

Understanding Communism In Eastern Europe

 This course explores the complicated nature of communist rule in its many forms and lived experience in Eastern Europe from 1945-1989.  Readings will delve into the most recent writings that try and elucidate the “roads to communism” taken from Poland in the North to Yugoslavia in the South. The course will be inherently comparative, with attention to the broader international, that is, Cold War context.  Expect to cover issues ranging from state-society dynamics, to religion, consumer culture, high culture and collectivization.  

The Following are among the Readings for the course: 

Vladimir Tismaneanu, The Devil in History: Communism, Fascism, and Some Lessons of the Twentieth Century.Gail Kligman and Katherine Verdery, Peasants under Siege: The Collectivization of Romanian Agriculture, 1949-1962.Krisztina Fehervary, Politics in Color and Concrete: Socialist Materialities and the Middle Class in Hungary.Paulina Bren, The Greengrocer and His TV: The Culture of Communism After the 1968 Prague Spring.Paulina Bren and Mary Neuburger, Communism Unwrapped: Consumption in Cold War Eastern Europe.Patrick Patterson, Bought and Sold: Living and Losing the Good Life in Socialist Yugoslavia.

 Grades will be based on participation (20%), short response papers (10%), and a final research paper (70% - this breaks down into 10% proposal/bibliography, 20% First Draft, 35% final draft).

 Participation: Students are required to come to class and participate in every session. Each un-excused absence is an automatic -2% of your final grade, and a doctor’s note must be presented for excused absences.  Short response papers (one paragraph and three questions) will be required for each week in which readings are assigned.

Through lecture and discussion this course will provide an in-depth exploration of the key events and developments of Southeastern Europe, the region commonly referred to as the Balkans, in the twentieth century.  After providing some of the basics on geography and pre-20th century developments, we will move on to a detailed investigation of this tumultuous century in a region that was wracked by war, revolution, ethnic conflict, the Holocaust, and 45 years of Communist regimes and Cold War tensions.  We will cover the territories of Romania, Albania, Bulgaria, the former Yugoslavia, and to a lesser extent Greece and Turkey. Key themes will be ethnic identity, nationalism, authoritarianism, resistance, gender and violence. The final chapter of the course will look at the fall of communism in the region and the outbreak of war in the former Yugoslavia.   

Required Texts:

Mark Mazower, The Balkans: A Short History.

John Lampe, Balkans into Southeastern Europe.

Katherine Verdery, What was Socialism and what comes Next

Slavenka Drakulic,  How We Survived Communism and Even Laughed. 

Zlatko Anguelov, Communism and the Remorse of an Innocent Victimizer.

Emir Sujagic, Postcards from the Grave.

Ismail Kadare,  The Successor.

Grading

Grading will be based on a take-home mid-term (30%); an end of quarter in-class exam (30%); a primary document assignment (20%); a map quiz (5%); 5 short quizzes on assigned readings (2% each – 10%); and participation (5%) – based on attendance.  

This graduate seminar will explore the history of modern Eastern Europe through the prism of national identity politics.  Through reading and discussion, students will be exposed to theoretical works on national identity and then explore concrete cases of the historical development of national identities in the region. We will then analyze patterns of conflict and coexistence in the region as they have been described and explained and debated in the existing literature.  In the northern tier of Eastern Europe the focal point will be on historical tensions between Germans and non-Germans, as well as the evolution of anti-Semitism and the local contours of the Holocaust.  For Southeastern Europe, the course will focus attention on Muslim minorities, Muslim-non-Muslim relations, but also the myriad national identities formed on the basis of language, religion, and historical experience.  The conflicts and disintegration of the former Yugoslavia will be a major theme. Students should come out with a well rounded knowledge of historical and to contemporary issues surrounding identity politics in the region. 

Select Required Texts

1. Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities.  Ernest Gellner, Nations and Nationalism. 

2. Pieter Judson, Guardians of the Nation: Activists on the Language Frontiers of Imperial Austria. 

3. Keely Stauter-Halsted. The Nation in the Village: The Genesis of Peasant National Identity in Austrian Poland, 1848-1914 (2001).

4. Tara Zahra, Kidnapped Souls: National Indifference and the Battle for Children in the Bohemian Lands, 1900-1948.

5. Chad Bryant. Prague in Black: Nazi Rule and Czech Nationalism (2007). 

6. Rogers Brubaker, Nationalist Politics and Everyday Ethnicity in a Transylvanian Town.

7. Keith Brown. The Past in Question: Modern Macedonia and the Uncertainties of Nation.

8. Theodora Dragostinova, Between Two Motherlands: Nationality and Emigration among the Greeks of Bulgaria, 1900-1949.

9. Mark Mazower. Salonica: City of Ghosts: Christians, Muslims and Jews 1430-1950 (2006).

10. Mary Neuburger, The Orient Within: Muslim Minorities and the Negotiation of Nationhood in Modern Bulgaria. 

11. Maya Shatzmiller, ed. Islam and Bosnia: Conflict Resolution and Foreign Policy in Multi-Ethnic States. 

12. Brad Blitz, ed. War and Change in the Balkans: Nationalism, Conflict and Cooperation. 

Through lecture and discussion this course will provide an in-depth exploration of the key events and developments of Southeastern Europe, the region commonly referred to as the Balkans, in the twentieth century.  After providing some of the basics on geography and pre-20th century developments, we will move on to a detailed investigation of this tumultuous century in a region that was wracked by war, revolution, ethnic conflict, the Holocaust, and Cold War tensions.  We will cover the territories of Romania, Albania, Bulgaria, the former Yugoslavia, and to a lesser extent Greece and Turkey. Key themes will be ethnic identity, nationalism, authoritarianism, resistance, and violence. The final chapter of the course will be the fall of communism in the region and the outbreak of war in Bosnia and Kosovo.   

Texts

Mark Mazower, The Balkans: A Short History.

Leon Trotsky, The War Correspondence of Leon Trotsky: The Balkan Wars 1912-13.

Slavenka Drakulic,  How We Survived Communism and Even Laughed. 

Kapka Kassabova, Street without a Name: Childhood and Other Misadventures in Bulgaria.

Tzvetan Todorov, Voices from the Gulag: Life and Death in Communist Bulgaria. 

Eric Stover, Witnesses: War Crimes and the Promise of Justice in the Hague.

Grading

Assignments will include a mid-term (25%), an end of quarter exam (25%), a book review (15%) and a short research assignment (30%).  Participation will be 5% of the grade.   

Please check back for updates.

SEMINAR IN HISTORIOGRAPHY: HONORS PROGRAM

Open only to students admitted to the History Honors program.

This seminar introduces students to a range of historical methods, topics, and sources, with no claim to being comprehensive. We will consider how “history” has changed along with other forms of knowledge. We will read different kinds of history (social, intellectual, cultural, and so on). We emphasize research with primary sources that students will be able to use in their theses.

Faculty from the Department of History will lead discussions about their areas of expertise, giving the class examples of documents and sources that historians use, or showing how they generate questions for research.  By the end of the semester, each student will have come up with an advisor and a prospectus for the senior thesis she or he will write next year.

This is a reading- and writing-intensive course, and it moves quickly from introductory to advanced work.

 REQUIREMENTS:

1)   preparation for and participation in each weekly seminar, including short writing assignments (40%). Reading is about 200 pages a week.

2)   the various steps in drafting and revising a 10-12 page research prospectus as described below (60%). The preliminary stages of research entail reading at least 10-15 books, review essays, and articles.

You will meet with me individually to consult on your topic a little over halfway through the semester. Short topic statements and bibliography are due a week later. We will spend the last three weeks of class in editorial session: discussing the structure, prose, style, and subject of each prospectus.

PROSPECTUS

         A prospectus is a “description in advance of a proposed undertaking.” It sets out your topic based on preliminary research. It should identify the problem or event that will be investigated, explain why it is important, survey the historical literature on the subject, describe the primary sources you will use, and discuss how you intend to carry out the work.

 The prospectus is not binding; you will certainly change your topic in some way during your senior year, and you may change it entirely. It is nonetheless very important preparation. It also requires substantial background work. I expect you to have looked at and read in at least 10 books, articles, and review essays.

The prospectus should also include a bibliography and four to six photocopied samples of primary sources. You may discuss the usefulness of the sources in either the text of the prospectus or in notes attached to the copies of the sources.

This is the introductory seminar to Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies.  It consists of a series of guest lectures by a   diverse cast of CREEES faculty in order to give the students as  broad an overview of the field as possible.

Prerequisites: graduate standing. 

Readings:  Distributed by visiting lecturers a week before each lecture

Grading:   Participation:             10%

              Oral presentation:       40%

               Final research paper:  50%

Please check back for updates.

SEMINAR IN HISTORIOGRAPHY: HONORS PROGRAM

Open only to students admitted to the History Honors program.

This seminar introduces students to a range of historical methods, topics, and sources, with no claim to being comprehensive. We will consider how “history” has changed along with other forms of knowledge. We will read different kinds of history (social, intellectual, cultural, and so on). We emphasize research with primary sources that students will be able to use in their theses.

Faculty from the Department of History will lead discussions about their areas of expertise, giving the class examples of documents and sources that historians use, or showing how they generate questions for research.  By the end of the semester, each student will have come up with an advisor and a prospectus for the senior thesis she or he will write next year.

This is a reading- and writing-intensive course, and it moves quickly from introductory to advanced work.

 REQUIREMENTS:

1)   preparation for and participation in each weekly seminar, including short writing assignments (40%). Reading is about 200 pages a week.

2)   the various steps in drafting and revising a 10-12 page research prospectus as described below (60%). The preliminary stages of research entail reading at least 10-15 books, review essays, and articles.

You will meet with me individually to consult on your topic a little over halfway through the semester. Short topic statements and bibliography are due a week later. We will spend the last three weeks of class in editorial session: discussing the structure, prose, style, and subject of each prospectus.

PROSPECTUS

         A prospectus is a “description in advance of a proposed undertaking.” It sets out your topic based on preliminary research. It should identify the problem or event that will be investigated, explain why it is important, survey the historical literature on the subject, describe the primary sources you will use, and discuss how you intend to carry out the work.

 The prospectus is not binding; you will certainly change your topic in some way during your senior year, and you may change it entirely. It is nonetheless very important preparation. It also requires substantial background work. I expect you to have looked at and read in at least 10 books, articles, and review essays.

The prospectus should also include a bibliography and four to six photocopied samples of primary sources. You may discuss the usefulness of the sources in either the text of the prospectus or in notes attached to the copies of the sources.

Please check back for updates.

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Please contact the graduate coordinator for more information.

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Please check back for updates.