EU4A9
European Politics, Conflict and Culture: LSE-Columbia European Seminar
This information is for the 2025/26 session.
Course Convenor
Dr Denisa Kostovicova
Availability
This course is compulsory on the MSc in Culture and Conflict in a Global Europe (LSE & Columbia). This course is available on the MSc in Culture and Conflict in a Global Europe and MSc in Culture and Conflict in a Global Europe (LSE & Sciences Po). This course is not available as an outside option to students on other programmes. This course uses controlled access as part of the course selection process.
To apply for a place, ALL students should submit a statement via LSE for You outlining your specific reasons for applying, how it will benefit your academic/career goals, and how you meet any necessary pre-requisites (maximum 200 words).
For queries contact: ei@lse.ac.uk.
This course is only available to European Institute students.
Course content
Faculty from LSE and Columbia alternate to lead workshop sessions, presenting their research and leading critical discussion with students on topics in the fields of European politics, conflict and culture, or facilitating discussions with guest speakers (scholars or practitioners) on these topics. The range of potential topics covered in the workshop matches the wide thematic range of the double degree programme. Students will be introduced to some of the long-standing debates over the origin and dynamics of contemporary European politics, economies, societies, and cultures. They will also explore how culture structures conflicts across political, economic, and social domains and frames effort at their resolution.
Teaching
7.5 hours of seminar (online)s in the Autumn Term.
7.5 hours of seminar (online)s in the Winter Term.
This course has a reading week in Week 6 of Autumn and Winter Term.
The workshop convenes 5 times a term in Autumn and Winter Term. The sessions are 90 minutes long. They will be hosted on-line at the LSE jointly with Columbia, where the seminar participants are connected via a video link).
Formative assessment
This course is unassessed.
Indicative reading
- S Glendinning, Europe: A Philosophical History, Part 1: The Promise of Modernity (Routledge 2021)
- J Jackson Preece, Minority Rights: Between Diversity and Community (Polity 2005)
- J White, Politics of Last Resort: Governing by Emergency in the European Union (Oxford University Press 2019)
- T Petrova, From Geopolitics to Solidarity (Cambridge University Press 2014).
- A Tooze, The Wages of Destruction: The Making and Breaking of the Nazi Economy (Allen Lane 2006)
- D Kostovicova, Reconciliation by Stealth: How People Talk About War Crimes (Cornell University Press 2023)
Additional reading
- B Anderson, Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin & Spread of Nationalism (Verso, 2016)
- Z Bauman, Wasted Lives: Modernity & its Outcasts (Wiley, 2003)
- L Colley, The Gun, the Ship and the Pen: Warfare, Constitutions and the Making of the Modern World (Profile 2021)
- A Pagden, The Idea of Europe, from Antiquity to the European Union (Woodrow Wilson 2010)
- R Scruton, The West and the Rest, Globalization and the Terrorist Threat (Bloomsbury, 2003)
- R Wodak, Right-wing Populism in Europe (Bloomsbury, 2013)
- S L Woodward, The Ideology of Failed States: Why Intervention Fails (Cambridge University Press, 2017)
Assessment
This course is unassessed.
Key facts
Department: European Institute
Course Study Period: Autumn and Winter Term
Unit value: Non-credit bearing
FHEQ Level: Level 7
CEFR Level: Null
Total students 2024/25: 9
Average class size 2024/25: 9
Controlled access 2024/25: NoCourse selection videos
Some departments have produced short videos to introduce their courses. Please refer to the course selection videos index page for further information.
Personal development skills
- Self-management
- Application of information skills
- Communication
- Specialist skills