2017 Summer Teacher Workshop

Thomson Hall 317, University of Washington, Seattle

Coming to Terms with the Authoritarian Past in Europe and Russia

The Jackson School welcomes educators to participate in the 2017 Master Teacher Workshop, which will study issues of 20th century regime transition and consider how legacies of past authoritarianism affect modern Europe and Russia today.

Following the end of the First World War, Europe found itself transformed. France and England emerged intact and victorious, but defeated Germany found itself to be an unhappy neighbor of the revived Polish state. The ancient Habsburg Monarchy divided into a number of precarious and nationally defined states, every one of which contained an unsatisfied minority. Hungary lost the majority of its historic territory and many Hungarians found themselves to be the unwanted citizens of foreign states. The Russian Empire not only lost much of its territory after the October 1917 Revolution, but was upturned as it was re-imagined by the Bolsheviks as a global, socialist beacon to Europe’s peoples.

The interwar state of affairs created circumstances that were right for nationalist and authoritarian regimes as well as interstate conflict. In Great Britain, Irish Republican forces successfully pressed their claims for Irish state, which secured independence but left the counties of Ulster under British rule. Elsewhere on the continent, Germany and neighboring Austria would seek to overcome the interwar order through a policy of Anschluss, biological racism, and eventually world war. Scarred by territorial losses, the Kingdom of Hungary would join the Axis powers during World War II. These geopolitical conflicts also played out in Spain, where Franco’s German- and Italian-supported armies engaged in a civil war with Spain’s Republican forces, backed by the Soviet Union.

At last summer’s workshop, teachers and community college instructors learned about the rise of populist movements across Europe and Russia and discussed how to break down the complex issue for their classrooms.

These periods of flux have had great influence on the development of the European state system, and especially on their polities. How have the various societies responded to periods of civil and ethnic conflict? Do East and West Germany share a common identity? Have the years following the Troubles in Ireland come to mend relations? Has the Hungarian kingdom accepted the loss of its historic lands after the Treaty of Trianon? How are Russians treating the 100^th year anniversary of the October Revolution that welcomed the Bolsheviks? Has Spain successfully addressed the scars of the Spanish Civil War and its aftermath? And how do the states of Central and Eastern Europe, where state borders do not always coincide with ethnicity, regard the 21st century state of European affairs?

During this year’s Master Teacher Workshop, educators will discuss and debate these topics to equip themselves with the tools necessary to teach complicated and controversial subjects in schools and community college settings. Participants will consider how past events influence society today, the way in which societies have developed over time, their levels of development, and their own senses of identity all shape their views and beliefs about the past.

Draft Program

A Draft Program for this year’s workshop is now available:

Draft Program

Workshop Registration

Registration is now closed.

The registration fee is $35. The workshop includes 6 clock hours, parking, teaching materials and lunch. Preference is given to full-time teachers.

Please mail your check (made out to the University of Washington) for the $35 registration fee to:

Attn: Tess Ames
Center for West European Studies
120 Thomson Hall
Box 353650 Seattle, WA 98195

Register Here

Travel Stipends

Limited travel stipends may be available for those coming from beyond the Puget Sound region and outside of Washington State. To apply:

Step 1: Register for the workshop.

Step 2: Complete the travel funding application – closed.

Please note, everyone must pay the $35 workshop registration fee, regardless of travel stipend award status. Recipients of stipends will be notified soon after the application deadline.

This teacher workshop is sponsored by the Ellison Center for Russian, East European and Central Asian Studies, the European Union Center, and the Center for West European Studies, and the Center for Global Studies. The workshop is hosted by the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies. For more information, please email the Center for West European Studies at cweseuc@uw.edu