The UO’s European studies program, an interdisciplinary curriculum designed to explore the complex dimensions of the United States’ oldest and most significant global alliance.
Each year, the UO sends a team of outstanding undergraduates to the Model EU convention, a once-a-year simulation of a European Council Summit. It’s a plum assignment for students associated with the UO’s European studies program.
At the 2012 Model EU, held at the University of Washington in February, two UO students negotiated on behalf of the Netherlands, and two others on behalf of Luxembourg. This year’s themes: a new EU treaty prompted by the euro crisis and the reform of Europe’s Common Agricultural Policy.
UO senior Erin Altman, who played the role of Luxembourg’s minister of agriculture, was one of ten students recognized for their superb negotiation skills.
“The summit requires students to master details of complicated European policies,” said UO history professor George Sheridan. The students submit position papers, “and then they get up and passionately defend the interests of their assigned country in front of a roomful of people they don’t know. It’s a tremendous learning experience.”
Sheridan is a member of the core faculty for the UO’s European studies program, an interdisciplinary curriculum designed to explore the complex dimensions of the United States’ oldest and most significant global alliance.
While China looms large on the international horizon, ties to Europe continue to be more important to the U.S. than relations with any other region, claims Craig Parsons, director of the European studies program.
Parsons cites a few economic facts: The European Union’s GDP is currently larger than that of the United States. It’s the world’s largest export market, the world’s second largest import market and the recipient of the vast majority of U.S. foreign investment. Overall, business, diplomatic, nongovernmental and legal connections between the U.S. and Europe comprise the most influential international network in the world.
The university’s ties with Europe are also extensive. It’s the region of choice for more than half of all study-abroad students and approximately three-quarters of foreign language enrollments at the UO are in European languages.
Starting in 2010 the UO began offering students the opportunity to pursue a minor in European studies, an upgrade from the program’s previous offering of a certificate in the field.
The UO European studies program distinguishes itself by its inclusive interdisciplinary approach—combining social sciences (history, geography and political science) with several other disciplines (classics, comparative literature, music, religious studies, art history and more) and a required European language to promote a comprehensive understanding of Europe’s identity and role in the world.
And the timing couldn’t be better. “We believe that in the European Union we have the opportunity to study the progress of a great social experiment in all its lived reality,” said Parsons. “Our students will be able to consider the interaction of the full range of human forces combining to create twenty-first-century Europe.”
Whether students are majoring in languages, business, international studies or another field, a minor in European studies offers them a chance to hone their appreciation for the relevance of modern Europe, both past and present.
—Patricia Hickson
study by UO economists, released just before the Rose Bowl, has been picked up by the media far and wide.