While few undergraduate fellowships are available through area
studies centers, IES, through its Portuguese Studies Program, annually
awards
Fellowships for undergraduates majoring in topics related to Portugal.
IES also provides significant funding and sponsorship for undergraduate
courses on European topics. Since 1995, the University has offered
at least two undergraduate courses per year on European integration
funded by the programs of the Institute. These courses focused
on
topics as general as an overview of the European Union, and as
specific as European Environmental Policy and Regulation, the Adaptation
of Institutions to the "Deepening" of the EU, and EU
Social Policy. CGES was pivotal in the development of the undergraduate
Minor in
European Studies at Berkeley in 1996. It serves to encourage undergraduates
majoring in the Social Sciences to take focused courses dealing
with Europe.
The principal option for undergraduate area students,
especially those in the social sciences, is the major in Political
Economy
of Industrial Societies (PEIS). The program in PEIS addresses issues
relevant to the political and economic institutions of advanced
societies, focusing on problems of both domestic and international
policy. The former Centers played an active role in the development
of the curriculum of the PEIS program; the faculty who serve as
Coordinators and Faculty Advisors for the PEIS major include the
Centers' former Chair, Richard Buxbaum, Advisory Board members
and
core faculty. The undergraduate population is further served by
the European Studies Undergraduate Association (ESUA). This student-run
forum, first introduced by the Centers, and actively supported
by
IES (with the co-sponsorship of the Institute for Slavic and Eastern
European Studies), allows for informal exchanges among undergraduates
from a range of disciplines as well as the opportunity to sponsor
formal events such as film series, art exhibitions, and lectures.
IES academic staff meets regularly with students to offer assistance
in ESUA planning activities. In 1999, ESUA co-sponsored several
public lectures that commented on the present state of Europe (e.g. "Perspectives on the European Labor Movement," by EU
Representative, Baroness Crawley). IES has funded other extracurricular
interests
and activities that focus on undergraduate participation in Europe-focused
activities. In the past, the Centers have earmarked funds for undergraduate
participation in the nation's oldest annual conference on Celtic
Studies, which alternates between Berkeley and UCLA. IES also encourages
undergraduates to explore the UC Education Abroad Program (EAP).
EAP has Western European program is 10 countries at 56 schools
and
approximately 46% of all Berkeley EAP students study in this world
area.
In Fall 2007 IES launched a new competitive grant for the support of undergraduate and graduate student working groups on topics relating to European Studies. These groups establish interdisciplinary forums for collaboration and exchange across the various European area studies programs and disciplines on campus, thus providing opportunities for students to both explore a European issue or event in depth, and acquire new perspectives from fields outside their major or scholarly focus. This year IES is supporting two student working groups:
The Berkeley-Tuebingen-Vienna-Harvard Student Working Group on German Modernity.
Housed in the Department of Theater, Dance and Performance Studies
Coordinators: Brandon Woolf – bwoolf [@] berkeley.edu and Shane Boyle – mshaneboyle [@] berkeley.edu
This group comprises the Berkeley chapter of an international network of scholars based at Berkeley, Tuebingen, Vienna, and Harvard. It was founded ten years ago under the sponsorship of Professor Anton Kaes of UC Berkeley’s Department of German Studies and Gotthart Wunberg, then Director of the International Research Center for Cultural Studies in Vienna). Bringing together scholars from such disciplines as history, literature studies, film and media studies, art history, music studies, anthropology, linguistics, and architecture, the group offers graduate students at Berkeley an unparalleled opportunity to engage in international exchange and research on cutting-edge topics in German cultural studies. Each year on of the four chapters hosts a conference where members present the results of work conducted over the course of the previous year. This year’s conference entitled “Confession and Judgment,” will be held at IFK and the University of Vienna in June 2009. The Berkeley group’s activities involve biweekly meetings during which they discuss works pertinent to the year’s conference topic – this year this will include the German film Sophie Scholl – The Final Days (2005), Franz Kafka’s short story “The Judgment (1912), UCB Professor Niklaus Largier’s book “In Praise of the Whip: A Cultural History of Arousal (2007), Peter Weiss’ film The Investigation (1965) and Venus in Furs (1870 by Leopold von Sacher-Masoch. In addition, a guest from the Tuebingen or Vienna chapter will be invited to give a public talk at Berkeley with the aim of strengthening the interpersonal ties the group endeavors to foster and sharing its work with the wider campus community.
Twentieth Century European Performance and the Postdramatic Theatre
Housed in the Department of German
Working Group Coordinators: Sabrina Rahman – skrahman@berkeley.edu and Paul Dobryden – pdobryden@berkeley.edu
This working group addresses evolving interdisciplinary arts practices in a European context as they converge around performance. It explores ways in which a constellation of twentieth-century theatre artists tackle aesthetic, philosophical, and political issues that shape relationships between text, representation, spectatorship, and embodiment. The ongoing shifts in these relationships have developed in such a way that, at the start of the twenty-first century, “the drama” as a genre threatens to be displaced entirely. As graduate students who intend to teach contemporary European drama, theatre, and performance, the group aims to re-conceptualize the twentieth-century European drama syllabus to reflect shifting configurations of the field as it responds to innovations in late-twentieth and early twenty-first century performance practice. This year the group will build upon the momentum and foundation established for discussing postdramatic theatre in 2008 with a working group grant from IES: It plans on holding regular discussions of theoretical texts and performance objects and organizing a day-long interdisciplinary symposium involving campus faculty, students, performance artists, and outside scholars that will serve as a cornerstone for future conversations. The group will also use its funding to continue building UC Berkeley’s collection of visual and textual documentation of contemporary performance.
