Check out these Winter Term courses on topics related to Europe and the languages spoken there!

Check out these Winter Term courses on topics related to Europe and the languages spoken there!

Courses related to the study of Europe

Central, Eastern, and Northern European Studies

  • CENS_V 201-101 – The Dark Enlightenment

    • Today’s chaotic political landscape didn’t come out of nowhere, and it’s important to trace the lineages of prominent politicians’ stances and statements to their often unlikely roots. In this course, we will find out how to better track these intellectual lineages that echo in the daily statements of today’s political thought leaders and their intellectualizers. From neo-reactionary thought and accelerationism to techno-feudalism and fascism, we will want to account accurately for the concepts and ideas that seem to flow easily from the mouths of currently powerful figures in our political midst. The term “dark enlightenment” is one of the terms that have arisen to describe this phenomenon: both the appropriation of Enlightenment-era thought for anti-egalitarian purposes as well as the dismissal of European Enlightenment thought as naïve and unrealistic in the first place. Of course, European Enlightenment thought has been wielded as a weapon in colonial and genocidal processes the world over. This course will be an opportunity to examine these contradictory facts squarely, and to dig deep into their implications for our daily lives in 2025.

  • CENS_V 201 101 – Tales of Self and Social Transformation
    • How do cultural forces shape individual desires, and how do each of us resist or adapt to social change? Reading world-shaking fictional writings and non-fiction works from the late 18th century to the present, our course will consider the many ways in which science, technology, capitalism, and colonialism have transformed our very sense of who and what we are.
  • CENS_V 202 102 – Modernisms & Their Lessons
    • This course focuses on works of literary modernism from the period (roughly) 1890-1930. We’ll get the chance early on to talk about modernist culture more generally – i.e., including visual art, architecture & design, and music – and we’ll finish the term with two films. That being said, we’ll spend most of our time together on literature, reading, analyzing and writing about prose, poetry and drama. We will also, whenever possible, discuss the enduring relevance of these texts, the ideas they treat, and the questions they raise, for us in the present day.
  • CENS_V 202 201 – Echoes of War: Slavic Voices on Page and Screen
    • This course explores how writers, filmmakers, and artists from Eastern Europe respond to the pressures of violent conflict through powerful stories and bold forms of expression. Drawing on literature, film, digital media, and visual art, it examines how technology reshapes the experience of war and blurs the boundaries between battlefield and home front. These works reveal acts of resistance, strategies of survival, and the ongoing struggle to make sense of life in wartime.
  • CENS_V 308 101 – Comics and Graphic Novels in Central, Eastern, and Northern Europe

    • This course explores comics and graphic novels that thematize Central, Eastern, and Northern Europe to examine the relationship between politics, culture, society, and graphic storytelling. Students analyze various texts spanning historical and contemporary contexts, exploring themes such as identity, memory, nationalism, migration, gender, and urban life. They will refine their critical thinking and visual analysis skills within broader socio-historical frameworks by connecting their assessment of the comics as an art form and cultural artifact to other disciplinary perspectives in German studies, literary studies, cultural studies, art history, and museum studies. In addition to the work of visual analysis, this course will encourage students to use the drawn image critically by producing visual notes and making comics themselves.

  • CENS_V 319 201 – Language, Place, and Power
    • Fulfills the Arts Place and Power designation for Breadth Requirements. This course focuses on the role that languages play in our understand of place, power, Truth and Reconciliation, and settlers’ multilingual history on Indigenous land. Perhaps you are learning an additional language at UBC; how can that language help you engage meaningfully with this Indigenous land? Perhaps you are interested in multilingualism and multiculturalism in society; how do these values intersect with Indigenous-led priorities? What lessons do we learn from languages about “place” and “power” themselves, especially in this place colonially known as British Columbia? This project-based workshop is designed to help these inform students studies about justice, communication, and accountability.

German Studies

  • GMST 335 101 – Contemporary German Cinema
    • This course is dedicated to the study of contemporary German films that reflect on current social issues and historical debates. In particular, we will consider the legacy of the German Democratic Republic (GDR, Eastern Germany), the ongoing efforts to represent a multicultural society, and the memory of World War II. Our discussions will focus on the challenges of representing minorities, cultural difference, gender hierarchies and memory cultures. Your skills in film analysis and your ability to articulate critical responses will be challenged and trained throughout the semester. This course is taught in English, and there are no prerequisites.
  • GMST_V 371 201 – Marx, Nietzsche and Freud in Cultural Context
    • This course examines key publications by Karl Marx, Friedrich Nietzsche and Sigmund Freud, focusing on their respective critiques of Western culture. We will investigate the cultural and historical environment in which these authors produced their writings, and we will explore the reception of these texts in the literary arts. Our goal is to appreciate the historical impact of these authors as well as their ongoing relevance for social, cultural and aesthetic theory.
  • GMST_V 424 201 – Time and Terror – On Extreme Chronopolitics
    • The course will explore how societies organize and impose the collective experience of time and history under extreme conditions. Topics include:
      • Theories of multiple times: Kairos, Chronos and Chronocenosis
      • Ruptures and Singularities: Time(s) of Revolutions
      • Fascist Chronopolitics (“The Nazi Chronobscene”)
      • Breaking Times: The Rise of Accelerationism
  • GMST_V 445 101 – Words and Music and German Literature
    • This course examines the relationship between words and music in German and Austrian works from the nineteenth and early twentieth century. This is the period in which German and Austrian composers became an unparalleled driving force in the evolution of the Western musical canon. It is the period of Mozart’s monumental operas, Beethoven’s groundbreaking symphonies, Wagner’s revolutionary Gesamtkunstwerk and finally Brecht’s deconstruction of the entire tradition. This wave of musical innovation precipitated a response from the world of literature and philosophy: Many of the era’s key writers critically and productively engaged with the compositions of their contemporaries, among them the radical thinker Friedrich Nietzsche and Thomas Mann, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Nordic Studies

  • NORD_V 332A 101 – Postmigrant Perspectives: Identity and Belonging in the Nordic Countries
    • This course investigates the construction of postmigrant and transcultural identities through themes of race, gender, and belonging within Nordic societies by exploring multiple areas of cultural production, such as texts, film, art, and literature against the backdrop of current social and political developments in the North.
  • NORD_V 334 101 – Nordic Fiction
    • The Nordic societies today are best known for their rankings on the global happiness scale, but what makes them so happy? Is it the constant state of anxiety they endure? Is it their not-so-healthy relationship with death? Could it be their insistence on exposing their children to scary and taboo subjects? In this course we scour the strange and unsettling world of Nordic fiction through themes like death, anxiety and folklore to find the key to true Nordic happiness.
  • NORD_V 337 201 – Nordic Cinema
    • In this course you will be watching and analyzing contemporary Nordic film and will discover the multifaceted aspects of Nordic cinematic cultures. This region is often considered to rely on a very realistic (or even hyper-realistic) approach to filmmaking and storytelling, but it will become clear that there are some very unique directorial approaches which will broaden our expectations of what Nordic cinematography has to offer. Recognizable themes as social structures, gender equity, and environmental concerns will be highlighted.
  • NORD_V 340 201 – Sámi Histories and Cultures
    • This survey course explores the diverse histories and cultures of Sámi people—the Indigenous peoples of Norway, Sweden, Finland, and the Kola peninsula of Russia. From reindeer to religion, from folklore to Frozen II, this course examines Sámi traditional culture, the impacts of settler colonialism upon it, and the ways revitalization and activism work as agents of decolonization today.
  • NORD_V 414 201 – Issues and conflicts in Danish and Nordic Societies

    • NORD 414 explores how topics like equality, immigration and childhood are dealt with in politics, legislation and literature and media in the Nordic countries. This course counts as a literature requirement and also falls under ‘Ways of Knowing’ humanities & Art requirement and/or Social and Behavioural Systems Requirement.

Slavic Studies

  • SLAV_V 323A 101 – Stories We Can’t Trust
    • This course explores the dynamic relationship between politics and culture through the critical analysis of films and translated literary works by Eastern European writers. It focuses on how artistic expression engages in the struggle between democracy and autocracy, examining storytelling as a strategic tool for cultural resistance, shaping collective memory, and asserting national identity.
  • SLAV_V 325 201 – War and Peace in Slavic and Eastern European Life
    • This course explores how writers, filmmakers, and artists from Eastern Europe respond to the pressures of violent conflict through powerful stories and bold forms of expression. Drawing on literature, film, digital media, and visual art, it examines how technology reshapes the experience of war and blurs the boundaries between battlefield and home front. These works reveal acts of resistance, strategies of survival, and the ongoing struggle to make sense of life in wartime.
  • SLAV 347A 101 – Soviet and Russian Science Fiction
    • For centuries, science fiction has captivated people’s imaginations. In the context of Russia and the Soviet Union, 18th- and 19th-century writers described visions of utopia and fantastic voyages to the moon, but in the 20th century, which saw extreme scientific and technological advances, the devastation of modern war, the pressure of the Cold War, and the establishment of the Eastern bloc, science fiction came into its own. This course will explore this rich tradition, learning how political ideology, scientific research, and fiction writing influence each other and how we might consider science fiction as a genre in our own context.

History

  • HIST 206 – Magic, Miracles, and Witchcraft
  • HIST 220 – History of Europe
  • HIST 240 – Health, Illness and Medicine I: From the Ancient World to the Early Modern Period
  • HIST 259 – Science, Medicine, and Technology in the Ancient and Medieval Worlds
  • HIST 300 – Vikings: Then and Now
  • HIST 342 – Modern Jewish History
  • HIST 348 – History of the Holocaust
  • HIST 349 – Imperial Russian History, 1800 to 1917
  • HIST 356 – Twentieth-Century German
  • HIST 360 – International Relations, 1900-1945
  • HIST 361 – International Relations Since 1945
  • HIST 363 – Europe in the Early Middle Ages
  • HIST 370 – Europe Since 1950
  • HIST 375 – The Second World War
  • HIST 392 – Scientific Revolution: Circulation of Knowledge in the Early Modern World (Circulation of Knwl in Early Mod Wld)
  • HIST 393 – Introduction to History and Philosophy of Science
  • HIST 394 – Darwin, Evolution, and Modern History
  • HIST 490-C – Global Medieval Heritage

Geography

  • GEOG 391 – Modern Europe: Places and Borders
  • GEOG 329 – Introduction to Political Geography

Political Science

  • POLI 333M-001 – Issues in Comparative Politics: Race and Politics in a Comparative Context

Romance Studies

  • RMST 140 – Explore the history and global impact of Italian fashion from WWII to today. This course examines fashion capitals, identity, branding, and cultural issues like appropriation and sustainability through media, literature, and art. No prior knowledge of Italy or fashion required. View full description.
  • RMST 201 – This interdisciplinary course explores literary works from the Romance world (13th–18th c.) across five continents. Through texts, maps, music, and art, we examine themes like travel, colonization, gender, race, nature, and identity, with a focus on cross-cultural exchange. View full description.
  •  RMST 250 – Explore how cinema has shaped our perceptions about the mafia and unravel representational complexities, intentions, and agendas of the genre and movies. Learn how to conduct a formal film analysis while considering the socio-historical contexts of each film’s production. View full description.  
  • RMST 300 – An introduction to the historical description and linguistic comparison of Romance languages, from the variants of late-Antiquity spoken Latin to the modern varieties of Romance languages. View full description.
  • RMST 301 – In this course, students will study major works of speculative fiction from France, Argentina, Italy, Mexico and Brazil (in English translation). Readings cover different genres (short story, movie, novel) and modes of fiction (Afrofuturism, Gothic Horror, the Weird). View full description.
  • RMST 302 – This course explores theatrical and poetic works from the Romance World, focusing on the connections and key differences between poetry and theatre. We examine how gender, race, colonialism, and power are expressed in performative, poetic, and audiovisual forms across time and cultures. View full description.
  • RMST 306 – Discover how language evolves through community interaction, how some languages are minoritized, and how contact languages reflect complex innovation. Explore how language contact and multilingualism shape French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, and other Romance language varieties. View full description.
  • RMST 321 – What is the Grail? Where does it come from, and what does it represent? This course explores the origins and evolution of the Grail legend by studying some of the earliest Grail Quest stories from medieval France and Wales, tracing how the myth transformed through the ages. View full description.
  •  RMST 340 – Explore cultural representations of Italian or Italian-derived foods and how they reflect social issues like regionalism, globalization, identity, tourism, and immigration. No Italian language skills required—just a passion for Italian food and culture! View full description.
  •  RMST 341 – If you are planning a trip to Italy at some point in the future, don’t miss this course! Explore the visual and literary arts in Italy from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance—from Dante, Petrarch and Boccaccio to Pico, Machiavelli and Castiglione, from Giotto to Leonardo. View full description.
  •  RMST 345 – Gain the analytic tools to condemn and oppose dogmatic self-assurance, the fascisms of yesteryear and today. Obtain foundational knowledge of fascism, with a focus on Benito Mussolini’s regime. View full description.
  •  RMST 347 – Explore nuances of love, sex, desire, and eroticism in Italian cinema within the country’s post-WWII historical, socio-political, and cultural milieus. Discuss tropes and notions of gender and sexuality in cinema. All films have English subtitles. View full description.
  • RMST 355 – Explore how Italian Neorealist films illustrated major social, economic, and political issues to foster a better informed and more humane society. View full description.
  • RMST 372 – Explore Spain and Latin America’s contributions to global culture through popular Hispanic literature in translation. View full description.
  • RMST 374 – Explore how gendered spaces are constructed, negotiated, and contested in Latin American women’s literature and cultural production. Develop critical tools to analyze literature and culture through intersectional, feminist, and spatial frameworks. <a href=”https://fhis.ubc.ca/course-description/rmst374/”>View full description.</a>
  • RMST 420 – In this dynamic and immersive course, we’ll explore the rich musical soundscapes of the Francophone world, from the infectious rhythms of Afrobeats, Konpa and Rumba to the stars of la chanson française, Franco-Rap, V-Pop, and more. View full description.
  •  RMST 455 – Explore the cultural legacy that Byzantium left to the world in and through its waning—a heritage grounded in the ancient wisdom of the Greeks, advocating the golden possibility of achieving a timeless, truly realized human consciousness. View full description. 

 

Courses on languages spoken in Europe

Danish

  • DANI_V 200 101 – Intermediate Danish I

French

  • FREN 401 (In-person) 
    • Communicative proficiency at an advanced and autonomous level: grammatical analysis, efficient reading and writing techniques, vocabulary enrichment, spontaneous discussions. Development of critical thinking and socio-cultural competency through the exploration of a variety of authentic documents of the French-Speaking world. Aligned with CEFR level B2 objectives. 
    • Before registering the course, please complete the French Language Background Survey to determine which course level to start: https://fhis.air.arts.ubc.ca/french-placement-questionnaire-tool/ 
    • Students from French Immersions are strongly encouraged to start from this level. 
    • View full course overview: https://fhis.ubc.ca/course-description/fren401/  
    • Contact us here for placement test and other inquiries: https://fhis.ubc.ca/undergraduate-advising-contact-form/ 
  • FREN 402 (In-person)
    • A continuation of FREN 401. Communicative proficiency at an advanced level: grammatical analysis, efficient reading and writing techniques, vocabulary enrichment, spontaneous discussions. Development of critical thinking and socio-cultural competency through the exploration of a variety of authentic documents of the French-Speaking world. Aligned with CEFR level B2 objectives. 
    • Before registering the course, please complete the French Language Background Survey to determine which course level to start: https://fhis.air.arts.ubc.ca/french-placement-questionnaire-tool/ 
    • Students from French Immersions are strongly encouraged to start from this level. 
    • View full course overview: https://fhis.ubc.ca/course-description/fren402/   
    • Contact us here for placement test and other inquiries: https://fhis.ubc.ca/undergraduate-advising-contact-form/ 
  • FREN 352 
    • Principles of grammar theory and contextualized French grammatical concepts. Emphasis on terminology and analysis of grammatical issues. Aligned with CEFR level B2 objectives. View full description. 
  • FREN 353
    • Advanced grammar theory and critical analysis of difficult French grammatical structures. Emphasis on autonomous examination of complex grammatical issues. View full description. 
  • FREN 311 (Term 1) 
    • Introduction to the fundamentals of literary analysis in French, through a selection of excerpts from canonical and minority works in different literary genres. View full description. 
  • FREN 311 (Term 2)
    • The goal of this course is to study notable examples of French literature through different periods (18th-21st century) and literary genres (fairy tale, short story, poetry, theater, graphic novel). View full description. 
  • FREN 321 
    • Practical tools for university-level writing in French. Apply stylistic devices and rhetorical structures to form questions and arguments, analyse literary and cultural objects, and produce a variety of essay genres. View full description. 
  • FREN 331
    • Ce cours explore la culture et la littérature françaises du Moyen Âge à la Révolution française à travers des thèmes comme la satire sociale, la condition humaine, la quête de savoir, le pouvoir et la critique des institutions. View full description. 
  • FREN 341 
    • Comment des notions comme nation ou citoyenneté ont-elles émergé et défini la France, notamment dans l’art ? Ce cours explore les mouvements intellectuels et artistiques du XIXe siècle à aujourd’hui à travers l’étude de textes littéraires majeurs. View full description. 
  •  FREN 370
    • Ce cours familiarise l’étudiant.e avec les concepts de base en linguistique. Les principaux domaines de la linguistique seront couverts : linguistique générale, phonétique et phonologie, morphologie, syntaxe et sociolinguistique. View full description. 
  • FREN 407A 
    • What did it mean to be an outlaw in medieval France? This course explores criminal figures in medieval French literature—lovers, tricksters, rebels, and real-life rogues—through tales of Tristan and Iseut, Renart, Villon, and more. Discover life on the wrong side of the law. View full description. 
  • FREN 417 
    • Explore French game culture through board games, roleplaying games, and video games that question notions of free will, agency, intent and consequence through storytelling. View full description. 
  • FREN 419 
    • Dans ce cours, nous lirons des textes écrits par des femmes du Moyen Âge au XIXe siècle, en explorant la représentation des femmes, l’écriture, et la réception des œuvres. Nous nous demanderons s’il existe une « écriture féminine » distincte selon genres, thèmes ou styles. View full description. 
  • FREN 443 
    • Ce séminaire explore le roman postcolonial d’expression française à travers l’écocritique, en analysant les formes de résistance poétique et éthique aux héritages coloniaux. Il aborde l’impérialisme écologique, la dégradation des écosystèmes, l’écoféminisme, les imaginaires et la métaphore de l’exploitation. View full description. FREN 457: 
    • Explore the principles of English-to-French translation across literary, legal, economic, commercial, technical, medical, and political fields. Learn to navigate linguistic and cultural challenges, with attention to artistic, ethical, and political implications. View full description. 
  • FREN 476 
    • An engaging intro to sociolinguistics focused on French-speaking societies. Explore language variation, contact, standardization, multilingualism, identity, and ideologies. Understand and reflect on the challenges of linguistic and sociocultural diversity in Francophone contexts. View full description. 

 German

  • GERN_V 101 (all sections) – First-semester German

 Spanish

  •  SPAN 302 
  • SPAN 308
    • SPAN 308 introduces key business vocabulary, documents, concepts, and cross-cultural practices from the Spanish-speaking world. Students will learn to handle basic business tasks in Spanish and explore the economic and business cultures of Hispanic countries. View full description. 
  •  SPAN 321
    • A panoramic view of the history and culture of Spain from prehistoric times to the end of the 17th century. Understand how Spain’s plural identity has been in a constant struggle between centre and periphery, and between tradition and progress. View full description. 
  • SPAN 357
    • Are heroes essential to society? Is unconditional love possible? Is poverty fate or choice? Can fiction reveal truth? This course explores key debates on human existence through Spanish literature from the Middle and Golden Ages. View full description. 
  •  SPAN 358
    • El curso es una introducción panorámica a la historia y los principales movimientos culturales de España durante los siglos XVIII y XIX en el contexto europeo: neoclasicismo, romanticismo, realismo y naturalismo. View full description.  
  • SPAN 402
    • Continued strengthening of fluency, accuracy, and spontaneity in spoken and written communication. Emphasis on contextualized grammar and vocabulary; critical reading and discussion of texts. Aligned with CEFR level B2 objectives. View full description.  
  • SPAN 406
    • Este curso introduce el papel de la mujer en España desde el siglo XVIII hasta hoy, con énfasis en sus aportaciones al discurso feminista. Se analizarán obras de artistas, escritoras y directoras en su contexto histórico, político, social, económico y cultural. View full description. 
  • SPAN 495B
    • Using Spain as a case study, this course explores how drama has promoted or challenged national identity—from 16th-century “national theatre” to today. We’ll analyze plays like tragedy, satire, and farce within their historical, political, and cultural contexts. View full description. 

 Swedish

  • SWED_V 100 – Elementary Swedish I

Italian

 Portuguese 

 Ukrainian

  • UKRN_V 101 101 – Learning Ukrainian 1
    • This 3-credit course offers a beginner-friendly introduction to Ukrainian language and culture. From day one, you’ll practice real conversations and explore Ukrainian culture while building a foundation in a supportive, confidence-building environment.

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Linguistic Insecurity Among Black African English Language Assistants in France” by Nancy Ofori

Nancy Ofori is a first-year master’s student in the Department of French, Hispanic, and Italian Studies at the University of British Columbia. Hailing from Ghana, she holds a B.A. in French and Economics from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology. Nancy’s research centers on linguistic insecurity and discrimination, particularly their connections to racial identity and language ideologies. She explores how societal perceptions often privilege certain groups, framing white speakers as the ‘standard’ or ideal. Her work highlights the challenges faced by marginalized individuals, particularly Black individuals and those for whom English is not a first language, as they navigate systems that marginalize linguistic diversity. By engaging in critical discussions on linguistic justice, Nancy seeks to challenge and dismantle these dominant norms, advocating for more inclusive language practices. She is committed to amplifying the voices of marginalized speakers and fostering a nuanced understanding of the complex interplay between language, identity, and power. Outside academia, Nancy has a strong passion for language revitalization and the history of First Nations in Canada. She also works as a Bilingual Museum Interpreter at the Museum of Vancouver, where she engages visitors in meaningful dialogue to promote cultural awareness and understanding.

What was the main focus of your research project during your time as a fellow in the Centre?

During my time as a student fellow, I engaged extensively with literature on theoretical frameworks and their roles in sociolinguistics. This deepened my understanding of how theory provides direction in research and helps validate or challenge observed phenomena. I was also able to develop theoretical frameworks to guide my own research analysis, including postcolonial theory as a key component. I particularly enjoyed reading works such as Black Skin, White Masks by Frantz Fanon, Orientalism by Edward Said, and The Location of Culture by Homi Bhabha. These readings offered valuable insights that helped me identify elements essential for interpreting and contextualizing the data collected during interviews.

What drew you to this research project?

I worked as an English teaching assistant in France in 2021, where I personally experienced and observed how so-called “non-standard” English speakers are treated. This prompted me to confront difficult and sensitive questions: Was I being perceived this way because I am Black? Or because I didn’t conform to societal expectations of what constitutes “Standard English”? I turned to literature in search of answers but found very little. This gap inspired me to pursue research to explore and better understand the roots of these experiences and the broader questions they raise.

What are your plans after your tenure at CES?

After completing my fellowship, I look forward to finishing my dissertation and pursuing a career in the education sector in a bilingual role following my time at UBC.

What would you consider to be a strength of the Centre for European Studies? 

The end-of-term showcase was an enriching experience. Having the opportunity to present my project to a diverse group of scholars and intellectuals not only helped me articulate my research more clearly but also offered fresh perspectives through their feedback. It was encouraging to see genuine interest in my work, and the discussions that followed helped me think critically about certain aspects I hadn’t previously considered. This experience served as a valuable step in preparing for my formal defense, both intellectually and in terms of confidence.

Research Spotlight: Dr. Babak Amini & Dr. Thomas Kemple

Dr. Babak Amini (he/him) is an Honorary Research Associate who recently completed his SSHRC postdoctoral fellowship at UBC. Professor Thomas Kemple is a CENES Associate Head and Director of Graduate Studies. Dr. Amini and Dr. Kemple recently co-edited a special issue of the Journal of Classical Sociology. 

Here’s what Dr. Amini had to say about the project:

My latest research focuses on the impact of the First World War on the foundations of social sciences. As part of this research, supported by SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellowship, I co-edited (with Prof Thomas Kemple) a special issue of the Journal of Classical Sociology, “Social Theorists and the First World War.” This international collaboration involving some of the leading scholars in the field examines the ways in which emerging or established social theorists from Continental Europe and the United States were personally and politically involved in and affected by the First World War, and considers how the war shaped their sociological theories.

In addition to the introductory chapter, co-authored with Prof Thomas Kemple, I published an article on Antonio Gramsci and the First World War, which delves into his voluminous journalistic work during the war and outlines some of the central themes that he explored in this period.

Janice Ho

Janice Ho is an Associate Professor in the Department of English Language and Literatures. Her fields of research are in British and transnational modernisms; contemporary British literatures; and postcolonial and Anglophone world literatures. She is particularly interested in how literary representations and novelistic forms intersect with, among other things, histories of colonialism and migration; the politics of human rights; and development and infrastructure studies.

Research Spotlight: Dr. Bonnie Effros

Professor and History Dept. Head Bonnie Effros has published two new chapters: “Late Antique Cemeteries” in The Cambridge Encyclopaedia of Late Antique Art and Archaeology and “Sacred Archaeology in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Century” in the Oxford Handbook of the History of Archaeology.

Project Q&A

Q: What are your research interests?

A: My current research is focused on Christian archaeology in the nineteenth and early twentieth century, and the ways in which ideas about early Christianity affected the conduct of archaeological exploration in Europe and European colonies in North Africa and the Middle East.

Q: What are the main goals of your publications?

A: These two chapters are offshoots of my current book project which investigates the career of Père Camille de la Croix (d.1911), a Jesuit archaeologist of Belgian nationality who was active in Poitiers (and the Vienne more generally). I am interested in how de la Croix’s excavations at the Hypogée des Dunes and the baptistère Saint-Jean in Poitiers contributed to disagreements over how to document and commemorate France’s early past. This archaeological activity was deeply entwined with ultramontane controversies related to the revitalization of Christian life in France after the French Revolution.

Q: What are some of the broader implications of your research?

A: My book project generally addresses the divisiveness of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and the impact of the First Vatican Council on Christian activism. Because I found evidence of the publications of Édouard Drumont and Jacques de Biez among the papers of Père de la Croix, I am particularly interested in how antisemitism in the late nineteenth century influenced the publications of clerical scholars working on the early middle ages. My research thus puts medieval archaeological and hagiographical research conducted in southwestern France in its historical context and demonstrates how Christian archaeology helped promote dubious claims for the conversion of France to Christianity in the first century that are not supported by authentic primary sources for the period.

Q: What’s next?

A: Related to this project, supported by a SSHRC Insight Development grant (2023-2025), I am working on several articles on the exportation of catacomb martyrs from Rome to France and North Africa in the nineteenth century.

Project Interview: Sarah Revilla-Sanchez

Sarah Revilla-Sanchez (she/ella) is a PhD candidate in Hispanic Studies at the University of British Columbia. Her doctoral research tracks how contemporary literary works by Mexican women are increasingly engaging with the Gothic mode to grapple with gender-based violence. Drawing on Gothic and Horror Studies, Gender Theories, and Feminist Studies, she demonstrates that the authors in her corpus not only capture and portray the horrors of patriarchal violence, but they do so in ways that expose the entanglement among gender, class, race, politics, and neoliberal logic. Her project will contribute to the study of Gothic literature by shedding light on the legacy of English Gothic writers in the works of Mexican female authors and the evolution and adaptation of this genre in the Spanish-speaking world. Before coming to UBC, she completed a master’s degree in Sociology at the University of Victoria and a master’s degree in Comparative Literatures and Arts at Brock University. Some of her other research interests include Testimony, Sound Studies and Digital Humanities.

Q: What is the title of your research project?

A: My doctoral dissertation is titled, “Monstrous Mexico: Gender Violence in Contemporary Gothic Fiction by Women.”

Q: What was the main focus of your research project during your time as fellow in the Centre?

A: My research tracks how contemporary literary works by Mexican women are increasingly engaging with the Gothic mode to grapple with gender-based violence. During my residency at the CES, I worked on the introduction of my dissertation that sets the foundation for exploring the legacy of English Gothic writers in contemporary Latin American literature.

I began by curating a reading list that included gothic novels from the 18th and early 19th century and works of gothic criticism. Then, I basically spent most of my time reading! I particularly enjoyed Ann Radcliffe’s The Mysteries of Udolpho and Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey. Initially, I envisioned that my literature review would center around the metaphors of the haunted house, “the unspeakable,” and the Gothic body, particularly as they relate to female resistance and violence against the female/feminized body. As I read, I began to disentangle some of these themes, but I also came across interesting insights I hadn’t thought about before.

Q: What drew you to this research project?

A: In the past decade, Latin American horror and gothic fiction written by women has gained global recognition. Notable authors of this “female literary boom” or “new Latin American Gothic” (Llurba, Madrid) from recent years come from the southern globe (Mariana Enríquez, Samanta Schewblin, Mónica Ojeda, and María Fernanda Ampuero, to name a few). Many of the works by these authors address issues of state violence, environmental issues (climate change, pollution), migration and displacement, and gender violence–which is what my research is all about!

As I began to do more research on this topic, I realized two things: (1) there are also a lot of contemporary Mexican women writers who engage in similar themes and styles but many of them are not widely known beyond Mexico; and (2) This turn to horror and gothic metaphors to discuss issues of gender violence and oppression is not new.

So, my research project positions Amparo Dávila (1928-2020) as one of the foremothers of this tradition of horror and gothic fiction in the twentieth century, and I bring her in dialogue with some contemporary Mexican writers. I’m interested in tracing a genealogy but also showing an evolution in how we perceive fear, horror, and its connection to an emerging vocabulary that allows us to recognize and address violence.

As I was writing my first chapter on Dávila’s gothic tales, I realized that I was struggling with some big questions: What (if at all) is the difference between gothic, horror, and terror? How productive is the term “Female Gothic” in my research? What is my working definition of a gothic aesthetic, mode, genre?

Q: What are your plans after the fellowship?

A: After the fellowship, I will continue working on my dissertation!

Q: What would you consider to be a strength of the Centre for European Studies, and how did it help support you/your project?

A: I really appreciate having an office space to work on my research! The end-of-term showcase was also a fantastic experience to share my research and receive insightful feedback.

Sarah was a 2025 CES Graduate Research Fellow. 

Find your next summer read on our Affiliate Bookshelf!

Looking for your next summer read? Check out the CES Affiliate Bookshelf! Covering a broad range of topics related to Europe and the languages spoken there, these books are sure to expand your horizons!

Check out our Spring 2025 Newsletter!

As we begin the summer term, our team here at CES is reflecting on another successful year of scholarship, community, and learning! Check out our Spring 2025 Newsletter to see all of the events, announcements, fellowships, and affiliate publications that have made this year so special.

We can’t wait to continue our work in the 2025-6 academic year, starting with our Summer CES Book Club, which will be discussing Ada’s Room by Sharon Dodua Otoo and translated by Jon Cho-Polizzi. The first meeting is June 25th and will include a guest appearance by the translator! Register here!

Irene Bloemraad

Professor Irene Bloemraad studies the political and civic incorporation of immigrants into Western liberal democracies and the consequences of migration for politics and receiving countries’ sense of national belonging. How do migrants gain voice in the political systems where they live?

One stream of research investigates citizenship: acquiring formal citizenship, as well as the experiential and conceptual contours of citizenship as membership beyond legal status. Other research examines the content and transformation of national identities; immigrants’ engagement in electoral and protest politics; and how non-immigrants’ attitudes about migration and immigrants shift depending on whether we talk about human rights, citizenship, family unity, or appeals to national values. Her work has focused on North America and Western Europe.

She joined UBC in 2024 as the inaugural President’s Excellence Chair in Global Migration, with a joint appointment in Political Science and Sociology. She also co-directs the Centre for Migration Studies.

 

i.bloemraad@ubc.ca

Geoffrey Winthrop-Young

Geoffrey Winthrop-Young is a Professor of German and Nordic Studies in the Department of Central, Eastern and Northern European Studies. His main research areas include German media theory (with emphasis on media archaeology and the theory of cultural techniques), chronopolitics (in particular, accelerationism and catastrophism), Science Fiction (with emphasis on alternate history), and the re-emerging mythologies of Nazism.

 

winthrop@mail.ubc.ca