Russia and the European Union (EU) are engaged in a battle for influence in Eastern Europe. EU foreign policy towards its Eastern neighbors is based on economic integration and the carrot of membership. With the application of this powerful incentive, Central and Southeastern European countries such as Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, and Croatia have progressed rapidly towards integration with the EU (and NATO). Yet, given Russias opposition to the further enlargement, membership is off the table for the large semi-Western powers such as Russia itself and Turkey and the smaller countries inhabiting an emerging buffer zone between Russia and the EU, such as Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Moldova, and Belarus. These in-between countries find themselves subject to intense competition for influence between Eastern and Western powers. In this context, EU countries must balance their energy dependence on Russia and need for new markets and geopolitical stability with concern for human rights, democratic governance, and self-determination. What are the trade-offs implicit in the foreign policies of Russia, EU member states, and Eastern Europe? What are the best policy approaches? What are the main opportunities and obstacles?

The Cold War was more than simply a military confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union; it was the frame within which the entire world developed (for better or worse) for nearly five decades. This course will examine the cold War as a global phenomenon, covering not only the military and diplomatic history of the period, but also examining the social and cultural impact of the superpower confrontation. We will cover the origins of the conflict, the interplay between periods of tension and detente, the relative significance of disagreements within the opposing blocs, and the relationship between the "center" of the conflict in the North Atlantic/European area and the global "periphery".

The Intermediate Hungarian I course builds on and continues the course material in Elementary Hungarian I-II. Course activities, authentic audio and video material along with Hungarian online resources will enable students to further develop their reading, writing, listening comprehension and conversational skills. Students will practice their skills by discussing and writing about their interests, student lives, travel and cultural experiences, life on campus as well as learning about Hungarian seasonal traditions, cultural events, and Hungarian student life. Offered through the Penn Language Center.

The Intermediate Hungarian I course builds on and continues the course material in Elementary Hungarian I-II. Course activities, authentic audio and video material along with Hungarian online resources will enable students to further develop their reading, writing, listening comprehension and conversational skills. Students will practice their skills by discussing and writing about their interests, student lives, travel and cultural experiences, life on campus as well as learning about Hungarian seasonal traditions, cultural events, and Hungarian student life. Offered through the Penn Language Center.

The elementary Hungarian I course focuses on providing reading, writing, listening and reading-comprehension skills on basic level Hungarian. Interactive class activities and authentic Hungarian material will enable students to develop language skills so they could talk about themselves and their families, discuss every day and weekend routines, express likes and dislikes, converse about school and family activities, and get acquainted with Hungarian holidays and cultural traditions. Offered through Penn Language Center.

This course has two separate but related components: a series of Czech films, shown with subtitles and open to the entire University of Pennsylvania community, and a Czech language class which relies on the films for content. Each film screening will be preceded by introductory remarks and followed by a discussion, with optional reading material made available in advance. In this way, the film series can but need not also be offered as a for-credit course, cross-listed through REES and Cinema and Media Studies. The films will be sequenced chronologically through Czech history, as opposed to film history, so that the series will double as a survey of Czech history. For example, we will begin with films set in the medieval period, such as Marketa Lazarova (dir. Frantisek Vlacil, 1967) and Cisaruv pekar-Pekaruv cisar (Emperor's Baker-Baker's Emperor, dir. Martin Fric, 1955). Eventually we will progress to recent films that deal with the current moment. Classic and contemporary films will be intermingled to simultaneously present a variety of important historical eras and cinematic techniques. Concurrently, students enrolled in the language course will learn basic Czech using custom-made materials drawn from the films. As their vocabulary and grasp of grammatical concepts increases, we will be able to work with longer and more complex sections of the film-texts. The films will provide the material for listening and reading exercises, and the students' oral and written work will be anchored by their responses to the films. We will advance from picking out simple statements to analyzing dialogue and identifying irony in film and composition, developing skills of intercultural communication and competence. By the end of the course, students will be able to read about Czech cinema using authentic materials, and discuss the films' aesthetic, historical and political importance.

This course has two separate but related components: a series of Czech films, shown with subtitles and open to the entire University of Pennsylvania community, and a Czech language class which relies on the films for content. Each film screening will be preceded by introductory remarks and followed by a discussion, with optional reading material made available in advance. In this way, the film series can but need not also be offered as a for-credit course, cross-listed through REES and Cinema and Media Studies. The films will be sequenced chronologically through Czech history, as opposed to film history, so that the series will double as a survey of Czech history. For example, we will begin with films set in the medieval period, such as Marketa Lazarova (dir. Frantisek Vlacil, 1967) and Cisaruv pekar-Pekaruv cisar (Emperor's Baker-Baker's Emperor, dir. Martin Fric, 1955). Eventually we will progress to recent films that deal with the current moment. Classic and contemporary films will be intermingled to simultaneously present a variety of important historical eras and cinematic techniques. Concurrently, students enrolled in the language course will learn basic Czech using custom-made materials drawn from the films. As their vocabulary and grasp of grammatical concepts increases, we will be able to work with longer and more complex sections of the film-texts. The films will provide the material for listening and reading exercises, and the students' oral and written work will be anchored by their responses to the films. We will advance from picking out simple statements to analyzing dialogue and identifying irony in film and composition, developing skills of intercultural communication and competence. By the end of the course, students will be able to read about Czech cinema using authentic materials, and discuss the films' aesthetic, historical and political importance.

This first-year seminar provides an introduction to the histories, cultures, and societies of Central and Eastern Europe, including Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Albania, and the successor states of Yugoslavia. Through a selection of articles and essays written by anthropologists and sociologists and based on their extended fieldwork in the region, students will explore both the ethnographic method and the experience of everyday life during and after the communist era. Topics will include: popular music under socialism, food and wine, environmental concerns, the status of Muslim minorities, socialist aesthetics, public memory and cultures of commemoration, privatization, advertising, women's rights, gender and sexuality, emergent nationalisms, and the rise of income inequality and homelessness. All readings and assignments in English.

The intermediate Hungarian II course continues EEUR123. Class documents and activities enable students to develop functional intermediate Hungarian competency by exploring Hungary and its culture, reading authentic online news sources, practicing listening and comprehension skills via video and audio material, researching cultural events and traditions, and exploring Hungarians' everyday lives. At the end of the semester, students will be able to participate and pass their Oral Competency Exit Interview on intermediate level and discuss topics, such as student life, family, friends, academic and student life activities/interests, travel, shopping, and cultural events. Offered through Penn Language Center.

The intermediate Hungarian II course continues EEUR123. Class documents and activities enable students to develop functional intermediate Hungarian competency by exploring Hungary and its culture, reading authentic online news sources, practicing listening and comprehension skills via video and audio material, researching cultural events and traditions, and exploring Hungarians' everyday lives. At the end of the semester, students will be able to participate and pass their Oral Competency Exit Interview on intermediate level and discuss topics, such as student life, family, friends, academic and student life activities/interests, travel, shopping, and cultural events. Offered through Penn Language Center.