UCI European Thought & Culture About the program
Degrees offered
The M.A. in European Thought and Culture is a rare interdisciplinary program that focuses on intellectual and cultural history across the European continent, as well as on its receptions and transformations in non-European contexts. Students emerge with a deep and broad understanding of major works and developments in the European tradition. As a one-year program it is ideal as either a final advanced degree for a variety of careers or as a bridge to further academic study.
- M.A.
Application deadline - December 1 Apply online: apply.grad.uci.edu/apply
Key opportunities The program is organized around three goals:
Advantages of UCI’s M.A. in European Thought and Culture:
1. Attentiveness to the formal structures and languages in which ideas are expressed 2. Location of ideas in larger historical contexts, be they social, economic, or political institutions, cultural developments, or in conversation with other ideas 3. Exploration of ideas and texts that are crucial for understanding the formation of modern critical theory
1. A wide selection of courses from across the disciplines 2. Completion within one year 3. Thesis or exam option to complete the program 4. Extensive one-on-one instruction with a faculty mentor 5. UCI’s long tradition as a leader in the field of critical theory
Sample course topics include: Europe and the foundations of modernity; the European Enlightenment; representing migration in contemporary film and literature; global Kafka; Hegel in the world; Negritude and modernist poetics; and what is ‘Baroque’?
An interdisciplinary opportunity “We designed this M.A. for students who as undergraduates enjoyed learning about European ideas and culture, or maybe came upon this field late in their studies, and now want to take their knowledge to the next level. Our attention to culture distinguishes our curriculum. Because our teaching faculty represents a wide range of approaches, students will be exposed to works, issues, and methodologies from many disciplines, including literature, history, philosophy, cultural studies, and art history. Just as important, the program attends to critical readings of the European tradition—or better, traditions— that have emerged out of the legacy of feminism, colonialism, and postcolonial studies.” - John H. Smith, Professor of German
Faculty mentors Core faculty Anke Biendarra, Ph.D. - Cultural studies, film, GDR culture, German lit & culture of the 20th/21st century, literary sociology, literature of unification, new media, pop culture James Chiampi, Ph.D. - Italian Renaissance literature, Dante Kai Evers, Ph.D. - Catastrophic imagination and representations of war, European studies, film, modernist literature, risk, violence Peter Frei, Ph.D. - Sixteenth-century and modern French literature and philosophy Glenn Levine, Ph.D. - Applied linguistics, foreign language pedagogy, German-Jewish literature, theoretical linguistics, Yiddish language and literature Christophe Litwin, Ph.D. - Modern French literature, philosophy, and political theory Catherine Malabou, Ph.D. - German idealism, contemporary French philosophy, critical theory, neurobiology, epigenetics
David T. Pan, Ph.D. - 18th and 19th-century German literature, intellectual history Deanna Shemek, Ph.D. - Archives, archival practices; digital humanities; Italian; Italian studies; literature; Renaissance studies; gender studies John H. Smith, Ph.D. - 18th- to 20th-century European literature, intellectual history, literary theory, philosophy
Interdisciplinary faculty from: Department of African American Studies Department of Art History Department of Comparative Literature Department of English Department of Philosophy Department of Spanish & Portuguese To see a full list of affiliated faculty, visit: http://bit.ly/UCI-ELS-Faculty
Carrie Noland, Ph.D. - Avant-garde, critical theory, dance and performance studies, poetry and poetics, twentieth-century French literature
Connect with us UCI M.A. European Thought & Culture 243 Humanities Instructional Bldg. Irvine, CA 92697-3150 (949) 824-6406 www.humanities.uci.edu/els/euro/ma.php Facebook.com/EuropeanLanguagesandStudies/ Twitter.com/ucihumanities Instagram.com/ucihumanities