- Ethnicity and Nationalism in Central and Eastern Europe

Catalog description

This course explores the complex relationship of ethnic and national identity in Central and Eastern Europe from World War II to the present. This region experienced a tumultuous history during this time period, afflicted by war, occupation, dictatorship, and the displacement of populations. The late twentieth-century also witnessed a period of revolution and was at the centerpiece of the demise of the Cold War. In this context, questions of national belonging loomed large. Ethnicity played and continues to play a central role in the development of nationalism and historical memory. This course explores the experience and meaning of ethnicity in the context of shifting political realities and national contexts. Course topics include the impact of World War II on Central and Eastern European ethnic groups, the experience of ethnic minorities in USSR-dominated Cold War Europe, late twentieth-century revolutions in the region, and the dissolution of Yugoslavia.