National Thought Seminar Assignments
Course information:
Sample Exam to find on canvas
About the presentation:
- It has to be 10 min.
- The pp has to be on a USB-Stick
- In pairs
- Won’t be graded
Assignments:
- If you want to quote in an assignment, always use bookmarks to prevent
plagiarism.
- Try not to miss the point. >250 words, no less. More is OK!
- Structure: Paragraph & Sentence, Grammar, Spelling, Coherence.
- Avoid really basic Spelling & Grammar
- Ask someone to read your text
- Avoid slang and contractions (It’s, doesn’t, etc.)
- Use two, if necessary three paragraphs
- Be consistent with spelling (UK or US) → Look up differences.
- Use Times New Roman, 12 points, 1,5 spacing, justified.
- Footnotes in Chicago Style!! Look up how to do footnotes! In chicago style.
https://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/home.html
bibme.org → chicago
Introduction: In this essay im going to argue the two main differences..
First I’m going to.. Finally.. I’ll end with a note on how they have a similar attitude
on…
Then start with your first differences.
This essay argues….
Your main claim has to be in the end of the essay.
You can also put up things you think are important but have not been discussed in
the text.
,It helps to print out the texts and than after read it out loud!, especially when you
don’t understand the texts.
- Start with a short story/sentence. Set up the question. What is this about,
what is the main issue, what is your argument and why is it different from
others
- Why is it significant, why should we care about this essay, and read it?
- What’s common? Tell the structure! First im gonna do this, than that:
Introduction: In this essay im going to argue the two main differences..
First I’m going to.. Finally.. I’ll end with a note on how they have a similar attitude
on…
Then start with your first differences.
This essay argues….
Your main claim has to be in the end of the essay.
- Every claim has to be referenced.
- A paragraph with One idea. Not 2 or 3 or 4, that’s not clear. How they relate,
what they mean. Set up a thesis: then evidence, examples, details instead of
going on for another idea
- Use biography in a interesting way: only if it adds up for the text. Otherwise,
skip the biography. So not things like.. sep 12 he stepped on the plane.. Then
use things that may have influenced his way of thinking.
- Native speaker!.
- Add provocative leuke kernzin in the end
How to prepare for the exam:
Answer the open questions on the exam just straight to the point: don’t worry about
doing it in a format of an essay. → there’s only one open question
Exam:
25 Multiple choice (50 Points)
1 Assignment question (50 Points)
Put your best effort on all assignments because one of them will be graded.
Assignment → per question 250 words.
Databases uva.nl insteas of wikipedia
→ Oxford handbooks!
Translations
Important terms
Extra information outside of the questions
Information about the writers
,Seminar 1 Test 1, assignment 1
John McCormick, The Idea of Europe (2010)
John McCormick: (born November 30, 1954)
- He spent eight years working in the environmental movement (working for the
World Wide Fund for Nature and the International Institute for Environment
and Development) before becoming an academic.
- His research and teaching interests have moved from environmental policy to
comparative politics and the politics and policies of the European Union.
- His 2010 book Europeanism is an attempt to pin down the political, economic
and social features of Europe and Europeans
1. There is no single answer to the Question ‘What is Europe?’ List how
‘Europe’ (as an idea, political ideal or geographical concept) has been
specified since Classical times.
Classical times = klassieke oudheid = i s the period of cultural h
istory between
the 8th century BC and the 6th century AD centered on the Mediterranean
Sea, [1 beginnen in de 8e eeuw v.Chr. en met de val van het West-Romeinse
Rijk eindigen in 476 na Chr. Centraal staat daarbij de geschiedenis van het
oude Griekenland en Rome.
Treaties = verdragen
1. Europe is a accumulation of national identities.
2. 500 BC. Greek: ‘An area vaguely defined as being to the north.’
(geographical)
3. 1500 = For outsiders the term ‘Europe’ was synonymous to the term
‘Christendom’
4. During second world war = All nations under Hitler’s reign.
5. During cold war = An area with a ideological rift between a capitalist west and
socialist east
In class answers:
1. Governments decide on moral issues
2. Europeans have things in common
3. Major contrast in EU historical foreign & migration politicus
4. Collection of historically christian nations
5. Continent
, 6. Community of shared/common values
7. Huge diversity
8. Geographically ill-defined
9. Institutional framework
10. Self-defined collective culturally/politically
Three common definitions:
- A geographical area
- Culture or rather a network of interconnected cultures
- Postwar: Europe as a set of institutional frameworks (European Union,
Council of Europe, etcetera.)
“Zeus” Myth = Zeus stole Europa (a girl in the myth). She was stole from Libanon
15-star flag design: The stars represent the members of the council. One of the stars
include Turkey.
12-star flag design: The final design for the council of Europe als later for the
European Union.
Great War = World War 1
The prevailing view in France was long time that European Cooperation was an
impossible dream, and that the best hope for peace lay in French strength and
German weakness.
Where is Europe?
Important differences between the countries in Europe:
1. There is no national cultural identity. Few European states are culturally
homogeneous, and there is no such thing as European People or race. Not
only is there no dominant culture, but most Europeans rightly shudder at the
thought of their separate identities being subordinated to some kind of
homogenized Euroculture.
2. The linguistic divisions of Europe are substantial: its natives speak more than
40 languages, which are defended as symbols of national identity. English
grows, and is slowly becoming the language of Europe: This helps reduce the
cultural identities that divides Europeans.
3. While the histories of European states overlapped for centuries, those
overlaps often emphasized their differences rather than giving them the sense
of a shared past.
4. It’s not clear exactly where Europe physically begins and ends. Strictly
speaking: Europe is no more than part of the Asian continent. The western,
