Subject Area: European Studies
This course can also be studied in the following specialisations: History; German Studies

The course examines how contemporary European societies have handled the difficult legacies of their twentieth-century histories. It explores the various ways in which European societies and projects for European integration have sought to cope with those divisive and contested histories, particularly the experiences of fascism and Nazism, of World War II and the Holocaust, and of Soviet-style communism. The course considers the continuing political, social and cultural significance of the past and introduces students to the interdisciplinary fields of transitional justice and memory studies in the context of contemporary European history. It examines representative attempts to achieve justice and assign blame for state crimes and injustice, to identify perpetrators, victims, collaborators and bystanders, to reconcile former enemies and ideological opponents, and to develop new, usable understandings of the past. Structured chronologically as well as thematically, it considers a range of ways in which the past is addressed, including trials and purges, commemoration practices, memorials, museums and monuments, official and popular memories and histories, and the public and scholarly debates that surround them.