The MacMillan Center
242 Luce Hall, 203.432.3107
http://europeanstudies.macmillan.yale.edu
M.A.

Chair
Julia Adams (Sociology)

Director of Graduate Studies 
Isaac Nakhimovsky (History; Humanities)

Professors Bruce Ackerman (Law), Julia Adams (Sociology), Costas Arkolakis (Economics), Lauren Benton (History; Law), Dirk Bergemann (Economics; Computer Science), Paola Bertucci (History), R. Howard Bloch (French), Edyta Bojanowska (Slavic Languages and Literatures), Marijeta Bozovic (Slavic Languages and Literatures; Film and Media Studies; Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies), Dominique Brancher (French), David Bromwich (English), Paul Bushkovitch (History), Ardis Butterfield (English), Francesco Casetti (Humanities; Film and Media Studies), Deborah Coen (History), Carolyn Dean (History; French), Carlos Eire (History; Religious Studies), Fatima El-Tayeb (Ethnicity, Race and Migration; Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies), David Engerman (History; Global Affairs), Emily Erikson (Sociology), Paul Franks (Philosophy; Judaic Studies; Religious Studies), Paul Freedman (History), Bryan Garsten (Political Science; Humanities), John Geanakoplos (Economics), Bruce Gordon (Divinity; History), Philip Gorski (Sociology), Alice Kaplan (French), Paul Kennedy (History), John MacKay (Slavic Languages and Literatures; Film and Media Studies), Ivan Marcus (History; Religious Studies), Millicent Marcus (Italian Studies), Isabela Mares (Political Science), Stefanie Markovits (English), Alan Mikhail (History), Fiesal Mohamed (English), Samuel Moyn (Law; History), Isaac Nakhimovsky (History; Humanities), Fatima Naqvi (German; Film and Media Studies), Paul North (German), Mark Peterson (History), Ayesha Ramachandran (Comparative Literature), Douglas Rogers (Anthropology), Pierre Saint-Amand (French), Nicholas Sambanis (Political Science), Maurice Samuels (French), Kenneth Scheve (Political Science), Peter Swenson (Political Science), Katie Trumpener (Comparative Literature; English), Jane Tylus (Italian; Comparative Literature), Jesús Velasco (Spanish and Portuguese), Miroslav Volf (Divinity), Heather Webb (Italian), Kirk Wetters (German), James Whitman (Law), Jonathan Wyrtzen (Sociology; History), Fabrizio Zilibotti (Economics)

Associate Professors Jennifer Allen (History), Sergei Antonov (History), Molly Brunson (Slavic Languages and Literatures), Morgane Cadieu (French), Marcela Echeverri (History), José-Antonio Espín-Sánchez (Economics), Hussein Fancy (History), Samuel Hodgkin (Comparative Literature), William Rankin (History)

Assistant Professors Jinyi Chu (Slavic Languages and Literatures), Marcel Elias (English), Egor Lazarev (Political Science), Cormac O’Dea (Economics), Giulia Oskian (Political Science), Carolyn Roberts (African American Studies; History), Claire Roosien (Slavic Languages and Literatures), Lucia Rubinelli (Political Science), Sophie Schweiger (German), Nari Shelekpayev (Slavic Languages and Literatures), Erika Valdivieso (Classics), Justin Willson (History of Art) 

Senior Lecturers Marnix Amand (Economics), George Syrimis (Hellenic Studies; Religious Studies)

Lecturers Fadila Habchi (African American Studies; American Studies), Mordechai Levy-Eichel (Political Science), Charalampos Minasidis (Hellenic Studies), Robert Yee (Political Science)

Senior Lectors Marion Gehlker (German), Anna Iacovella (Italian), Krystyna Illakowicz (Slavic Languages and Literatures), Maria Kaliambou (Hellenic Studies), Constantine Muravnik (Slavic Languages and Literatures), Julia Titus (Slavic Languages and Literatures), Olha Tytarenko (Slavic Languages and Literatures)

The European Studies Council at the MacMillan Center promotes innovative research on Europe’s past and present in the context of regional and global interactions. The council collaborates with schools and departments throughout Yale to support faculty, students, and visiting scholars by sharing their interdisciplinary expertise on European affairs with the broader public. The council aims to foster a wider understanding of Europe as both a place and an idea, reflecting the evolving nature of the region and its network of connections throughout the world. The geographical scope of the council’s activities extends from Ireland to the lands of the former Soviet Union (Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, the Caucasus, and central Asia). The council’s definition of Europe transcends conventional divisions between Western, Central, and Eastern Europe, and includes the Balkans and Russia. The U.S. Department of Education has repeatedly designated the council a National Resource Center and a FLAS Center under its HEA Title VI program. Further information on the council and the Graduate Certificate of Concentration in European & Russian Studies is provided under Non-Degree-Granting Programs, Councils, and Research Institutes in this bulletin.

The council administers an M.A. program in European and Russian Studies (E&RS). This M.A. program is unusual in its embrace of all of Europe, east as well as west. The program allows students to choose a regional focus while also ensuring familiarity with those parts of Europe and Eurasia (Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, the Caucasus, and Central Asia) outside of that focus. As an interdisciplinary program, the E&RS M.A. allows for concentration in a variety of humanities (languages, literatures, history, art, music) and social science (political science, economics, sociology, anthropology) disciplines, as well as law. The program is suited both to students who wish to pursue further academic studies and to students interested in pursuing careers in policy, journalism, teaching, human rights, development, and NGOs.

Fields of Study

European and Eurasian languages and literatures; economics; history; human rights; journalism; law; music; policy; political science; sociology; and other social sciences.

Special Requirements for the M.A. Degree

Terminal M.A. Students may apply for a terminal master’s degree in European and Russian Studies. All students must complete sixteen graduate-level term courses (or their equivalent) related to European and Russian studies. When applying to the program, students will specify either Russia, Eastern Europe, and Eurasia, or Western and Central Europe, as an area of primary concentration. For students focusing on Russia, East Europe, and Eurasia two of the sixteen required courses (excluding language courses) must concern the nations of Western and Central Europe. For those focusing on Western and Central Europe, two courses must concern Russia, Eastern Europe, and Eurasia. Students are further required to take at least one course in at least three of the four broadly-defined fields of study relevant to the program: history (including history of art, history of science, and history of music), literature, social sciences, and law. Additionally, in their first year, students must enroll in one course focusing on methodology in a chosen discipline (e.g., history, comparative literature, sociology, anthropology, political science). 

Only one of the sixteen graduate-level term courses may be taken for audit. Courses graded Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory cannot be counted toward the sixteen-course requirement of the program. Students must earn Honors in two courses and achieve an overall average of High Pass.

As a requirement for graduation, all students must demonstrate at least L4 proficiency in two modern European or Eurasian languages other than English. These two languages must include at least one directly related to their area of concentration—i.e. students focusing on Russia, Eastern Europe, and Eurasia will need to demonstrate knowledge of Russian, an East European, or Eurasian language; those focusing on Western and Central Europe will need to demonstrate knowledge of one of the appropriate regional languages.

A maximum of four of the sixteen courses required for completion of the degree may consist of language courses, even though these courses have undergraduate course numbers and undergraduate grading modes. In order to count towards the degree, these language classes must be taken for a grade, not for audit. Further undergraduate-level language classes, beyond these four, can be taken for credit or audited, but will not count towards the sixteen courses required for graduation. Graduate-level seminars taught in language departments are unaffected by this four-course maximum; these are counted as regular graduate courses.

Students already possessing language skills must arrange to receive certification of proficiency by the relevant language department. Most often this involves completing a placement or proficiency examination; in some cases, the director of graduate studies may certify native language skills. Because each language department administers these exams in its own way, students must make arrangements individually with the appropriate departments. Students with Russian competence must receive the grade of 1+ or higher on the ACTFL/ETS Rating Scale as administered by the Slavic Languages and Literatures department at Yale, including reading, oral, and grammar portions. Students who have met the European or Eurasian language proficiency degree requirement may study a non-European or Eurasian language provided the courses are approved by the DGS.

In all cases, students will comply with the Policies and Regulations of the Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, especially regarding degree requirements and academic standing.

The Master’s Thesis

A master’s thesis is required. The topic must be approved by the DGS and the thesis advised by a faculty member with expertise in the chosen topic. M.A. students must register for E&RS 9500, which may not be taken for audit and is counted toward the sixteen required courses. For the purposes of preparatory research, students may register for one additional independent study with their potential adviser in a semester prior to taking E&RS 9500. The master’s thesis must be submitted in accordance with departmental guidelines; it is due in two copies in the student’s second year on a date in April as specified by the council.

Combined B.A. in Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies and M.A. degree 

The European and Russian Studies program does not offer the simultaneous award of the B.A. in Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies and M.A. However, students in Yale College are eligible to complete the M.A. in European and Russian Studies (with concentration in Russia, East Europe, and Eurasia) in one year of graduate work. Students interested in this option must complete eight graduate courses in the area of Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies by the time they complete the bachelor’s degree and earn qualitative grades of Honors, High Pass, or Pass. At least two grades of Honors are required, and all grades must average High Pass in order to fulfill requirements for the master’s degree. Only two courses may be counted toward both the graduate degree and the undergraduate major. 

Interested students should consult with both the DUS in Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies and DGS in European and Russian Studies prior to submitting the online application, which is due no later than the last day of classes in their fifth term of enrollment in Yale College. Students should also review the GSAS Degree-Granting Departments and Programs page and select the relevant program for specific requirements and application information. Successful completion of graduate courses while still an undergraduate does not guarantee admission into the M.A. program. Students must submit the standard application for admission to the M.A. program.

Program materials are available upon request to the European Studies Council, Yale University, PO Box 208206, New Haven CT 06520-8206.

Courses