Central and East-Central Europe
Prior to the mid-thirteenth century, the territories now
defined as Eastern Europe have only episodically retained the attention
of western historians. It was only at the end of the Middle Ages that westerners
began to conceptualize the existence of an east European area. The idea
of Central Europe is even younger. As a consequence, the interests of the
faculty range chronologically from medieval Bulgaria or Serbia to sixteenth-century
Bohemia, and from the Habsburg Empire to twentieth-century Germany and Soviet
Russia. Equally diverse are the approaches to the history of the region,
ranging from archaeology to social and cultural history. It should be noted
that the department has two faculty members, one early modernist and one
modernist, who specialize in the Habsburg Empire.
Faculty
Peter Bergmann (Germany)
Florin Curta (early Slavs, medieval Bulgaria, Moravia, Kievan Rus)
Alice Freifeld (Habsburg, modern Hungary)
Geoffrey Giles (Holocaust, Germany)
Frederick Gregory (German science)
Mitchell Hart (modern Jewish history)
Howard Louthan (Habsburg, Bohemia, cultural and intellectual history)
Andrea Sterk (Christianity and culture in medieval Serbia, Byzantine missions
to the Slavs)
Related faculty:
Michael Gorham (Dept of German and Slavic Studies)
Willard Hasty (Dept of German and Slavic Studies)
Resources
UF has a good library collection of primary sources for medieval and modern
Balkans, an excellent collection of Soviet periodicals, and one of the country's
best Judaica collections on Central and East European Jewry (for more information,
see Price Library of Judaica at the University of Florida). The library also
has extensive holdings in the Germanic field. There are also approximately
75 journals in the area of Germanic languages and literatures (for more information,
see UF Library Holdings in Germanic and Slavic Studies.)
Courses
EUH 6126 – Readings, the Middle Ages Major themes; readings combine
classic studies that shaped field with current work exploring issues like
gender, textuality and historical memory, popular religion
EUH 6213 – Europe, 1500-1763
EUH – 6296 – Research: Modern Europe Rotating research seminar.
EUH 6342 – Europe since 1763
EUH 6469 – Modern German History Interpretations of and approaches to German history, and introduction to advanced research in the area
EUH 6563 – Habsburg Monarchy
EUH 6564 – East-Central Europe in the Twentieth Century
EUH 6612 – Gender and Power in Europe and the Mediterranean. Problems of gender and power in rural Mediterranean communities during the recent past. Secondary sources, such as ethnographies and ethnohistories, utilized.
EUH 6935 – Readings, Early Modern Europe. Major themes; readings combine classic studies that shaped field with current works exploring a wide range of topics
EUH 6937 – Readings in Mediterranean History. Rotating
readings seminar.
Affiliated centers and programs
Medieval and Early Modern Studies
