Learning to understand diverse cultures and international issues.

The goals of the Contemporary European Studies Minor Program at Drury University are shaped according to the university’s Mission Statement and correspond to the aims and objectives of the university’s Global Perspectives 21 curriculum.

1. The Program seeks to cultivate the imagination and critical insight of its students by centering the curriculum on the concept of identity formation, which implies a fluidity in forms of self-understanding and thus an analytical need to constantly isolate and investigate the development of European identities, the forces that contribute to these, and what consequences this will have on existing social trends and problems.

2. The Program seeks to encourage the integration of theory and practice through a program of study that offers courses that range from the theoretical (Core Courses) to the applicatory (Elective Courses, Europe & the World Courses, and Foreign Language) to the experiential (Study Abroad).

3. The Program affirms the importance of intellectual liberation and individual responsibility as part of a liberal arts education. By offering a dynamic curricular architecture that allows students to design a course of study that meets their specific educational needs, combined with the personal enrichment that attends study abroad opportunities and foreign language education, the Program advances the belief that intercultural enrichment through various avenues is an essential element of contemporary education in a liberal arts institution.

These goals are only attainable by adopting the same philosophical position toward education that underlies the Global Perspectives 21 curriculum: that students in an increasingly globalized world are best prepared to understand diverse cultures and international issues through an interdisciplinary, cross-cultural approach to learning. The Program thus adopts these modes of instruction and encourages students to adopt them as they progress.