The curriculum for the Minor in European Studies is divided into three components: elective courses that qualify as European Studies, competency in a European language beyond college requirements, and a directed research essay on a topic related to European Studies.

Completion of the curriculum will involve a minimum of 18.0 credit hours of study and research (typically, but not always, fulfilled in six separate 3.0 credit hour segments).  The parts of the curriculum can be completed in any sequence, except for the European Studies essay, which must be written during the student’s senior year.  The MES advisor is available to help students plan their completion of the program, but students should monitor their own progress using the MES Tracking Sheet or by periodically running a Degree Audit.

Requirement 1: Elective Courses in European Studies
(Total Credit Hours = 12.0)

MES students must complete and pass at least four upper-level courses from three different subjects/departments.  For a course to qualify as an MES elective it must clearly be related to European Studies, count for at least 3.0 credit hours, be graded with the normal grading system, be an upper-level course (though some exceptions apply), and be from an accepted subject/department.  These courses can be taken either at Notre Dame’s main campus or at any European campus offered in arrangement with the Office of International Studies.

Courses taken as MES electives may not count toward any other major or minor.  However, one MES course is allowed to double-count as a university requirement, but MES students should keep in mind that only one university requirement can double-count during their entire university career.  Students who double-count a university requirement toward another minor may not double-count a different university requirement toward their MES curriculum.

Prior to registration for each term, students can consult the List of MES Electives for courses offered in the coming semester that will count toward fulfillment of the minor.  Lists of qualifying courses from previous academic semesters are available at the Nanovic Institute.

If students have courses that they believe should qualify, but that are not on the electives list, they should first consult the MES Electives Criteria.  If the course appears to meet all criteria, students should then contact the MES advisor at the Nanovic Institute with a course description and syllabus that demonstrate qualification.  The MES advisor will review the course material in cooperation with the assistant director of the institute.  If the course is deemed acceptable, the Nanovic Institute staff will take the appropriate steps with the Office of the Registrar to get the course added to the MES program.

Requirement 2: Additional Study of a European Language
(Total Credit Hours = 3.0)

MES students must take and pass at least one semester of European language study beyond the College of Arts & Letters requirement.  The College of Arts & Letters currently requires that students complete three courses in the foreign language selected, so the MES requirement represents a fourth semester of overall study in a single, modern European language.  Currently, acceptable languages for fulfilling this MES requirement include French, German, Greek, Irish, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish.

Because students must demonstrate intermediate competency in a modern European language (defined as the equivalent of four semester-long courses of study in the selected language), the actual amount of language study will differ depending on each individual student’s college of enrollment.  Students enrolled in the College of Arts & Letters must already take three courses to fulfill their Arts & Letters requirements and will therefore only need to complete one additional semester of the same language to earn a minor in European Studies.  Students from other colleges who wish to complete the MES curriculum should plan their schedules carefully in order to complete all the language study necessary for both Arts & Letters requirements and MES requirements (i.e. to reach the four-semester mark).

For more details on the college language requirements, see the degree requirements section of the College of Arts & Letters web page or contact the Arts & Letters Office of Undergraduate Studies.

Requirement 3: Area Studies Essay on Europe
(Total Credit Hours = 3.0)

MES students must complete a supervised essay in some subject area of European Studies during either semester of their senior year.  The actual research and writing may begin in advance, but students may register for the credit hours only once, either in the fall semester or the spring semester of their senior year.  Students receive a standard letter grade for this essay, assigned by the same faculty member who supervises its completion.  All essay grades are collected by Nanovic Institute and reviewed by the institute’s director, who then submits them to the Office of the Registrar for inclusion on the students’ transcripts.

For their essay, students may choose any topic of interest to them within the field of European Studies.  Students are also free to choose any member of the Notre Dame faculty to direct their essay, though the Nanovic Institute recommends choosing an advisor from the institute’s List of Faculty Fellows because of their established interest in European Studies.  Both the chosen topic and director must be approved by the MES advisor before permission for credit hour registration will be granted.  MES students are also encouraged to apply for Nanovic Institute undergraduate grants to help with the research and travel costs associated with the writing of their essay.

Once their essay topics and advisors have been approved, the Nanovic Institute will grant MES seniors permission to register for the credit hours.  Approved students must register for these directed essay credits when they register for their other senior classes.  The current semester’s CRN for this “course” (AL 48007—Area Studies Essay: Europe) can be found in the Hours of Instruction Booklet published by the Registrar’s Office.

Essay requirements—including due date, required length, and formatting specifications—and advice on researching and writing are available in the “Guidelines for the MES Essay” section of this booklet.  All students preparing the essay are strongly encouraged to review these guidelines with their essay director.

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