FOUNDATIONS OF CRITICAL EUROPEAN CULTURE STUDIES
The EU aspires to political, economic, and cultural union, making it unique among the world's globalist projects. Yet the mechanisms of cultural union remain seldom explored in the studies of the EU and within the field of Cultural Studies in general. The University of Pittsburgh is one of the few places in the world that introduce students to the methods of critical European culture studies. The course will begin by exploring the processes of European unionization that have emerged in the post-WWII era, the institutions that drive political, economic and cultural union in the contemporary EU. It will introduce students to the study of cultural policy and ask them to consider a variety of cultural forms. It will set the contemporary project of the EU in relation to longer histories of Europeanization and it will set them in relief to other models like Paneurope, the Europe of Nations, Eurasia, Eurafrica, and so on. Specific attention will be given to border regimes, migration histories, (post)colonial and broad geopolitical relations.