Interdisciplinary seminar 'Thinking Europe' [ LEUSL2051 ]

None.

The interdisciplinary seminar 'Thinking Europe' aims to propose a comprehensive perspective on Europe as simultaneously a geographic space, a diplomatic organisation of States, a civilizational and cultural entity, as well as a programme of legal and political unification embodied by the European Union.  These different categories cannot be reduced one to another and must be seen in interaction, as examples taken from current events will show (Ukraine and the EU's enlargement; the case of the United Kingdom). In the context of the 2016 commemoration at the UCL of the 500 years of Thomas More's Utopia, this year a number of sessions in the seminar will address the relationship between European integration, utopic thinking and the promise of 'eternal peace'.

Acquire the capacity to confront different categories and models to reflect on Europe. Develop a critical and interdisciplinary understanding of European integration, linking a long-term and short-term perspective.

The contribution of this Teaching Unit to the development and command of the skills and learning outcomes of the programme(s) can be accessed at the end of this sheet, in the section entitled “Programmes/courses offering this Teaching Unit”.

Written or oral examination.

Luuk van Middelaar, The Passage to Europe: How A Continent Became a Union, Yale University Press, paperback 2014 (Prologue).