Minor in European Studies
The College of Arts and Sciences administers an undergraduate minor in European studies, overseen by the program committee.
To earn a minor, a student must complete a total of 36 credits, 24 of which must be at the upper-division level, as well as a paper or project on a European topic as described below.
The courses that satisfy the minor are distributed as follows: two core courses, four elective courses, and two to three years of a European foreign language. Core and elective courses applied to the minor must be taken for letter grades and passed with grades of C– or better.
Students seeking to qualify for a minor should, as early as possible, consult the program director, who will assign the student an advisor. Developing the plan for elective courses with the advisor’s help ensures that the courses selected satisfy the minor requirements.
No later than two terms before graduation, the student must notify the advisor of intent to graduate for verification of European studies course work and transcript evaluation. The student must also indicate the European studies minor on the application for graduation. Students must complete major requirements for an undergraduate degree in another department or school of the university.
| Core Courses 1 | ||
| GEOG 202 | Geography of Europe | 4 |
| HIST 420 | The Idea of Europe (or equivalent) 2 | 4 |
| Electives 1 | ||
| Two 300- or 400-level humanities courses 3 | 8 | |
| Two 300- or 400-level social science courses 3 | 8 | |
| Foreign Language Requirement | ||
| Two to three years of a European foreign language 4 | 12 | |
| Total Credits | 36 | |
| 1 | At least three of the six courses taken to satisfy core and elective course requirements must be taken outside the student’s major. With the advisor’s approval, exceptions can be made for double majors and for certain interdisciplinary majors, especially international studies and humanities. |
| 2 | Four of the 8 credits must be at the upper-division level. |
| 3 | Courses preapproved are listed on the program website. Substitutions may be made only with the approval of the student’s advisor. |
| 4 | Students pursuing a certificate in European studies with an emphasis on German language and culture are encouraged to consider combining it with a major in German with a German studies focus, or a German studies minor. |
Significant Paper or Project
A research paper on a topic appropriate to the student’s interests is the final requirement. For students majoring in disciplines such as music, theater, or the fine arts, a project that draws on these crafts may be substituted for the research paper. The paper or project requirement may be satisfied by work done in the student’s major, such as a seminar paper, as long as the content of the paper or project is focused primarily on Europe. The requirement may also be satisfied by a paper done for any of the courses listed below. Students who want to satisfy the requirement in this way must notify the instructor of their intention at the outset of the term so that the instructor can evaluate the paper with this intent in mind. The requirement may also be satisfied by a research paper done under the supervision of a professor in any field for 3 graded credits, such as a paper for Thesis (403). The instructor’s agreement to supervise must be obtained in advance, and the 403 subject code may be either in that instructor’s department or Thesis (EURO 403).