European Studies - Study Abroad - 2024

  Bet van Beeren, also known as Queen of the Zeedijk, was the very flamboyant owner of the Café ‘t Mandje in Amsterdam Netherlands which was created to be a safe haven for the queer community in the early 20th century. She was born Elisabeth Maria van Beeren on the 12th of February 1902 in Amsterdam. She worked in a canning factory for a time but soon left to work at her uncle’s pub called the Amstelstroom. She later purchased the pub, which was very unusual for the time, and renamed it the Café ‘t Mandje, (The Basket Café). Due to her own outspoken lesbian sexuality and her acceptance of a wide range of clientele, her pub became legendary in her neighborhood and the early lesbian and gay community. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bet_van_Beeren) She donated to charity and her community often and when the Nazis occupied Amsterdam during WWII she let her pub be used as an arms depot for the Dutch resistance. It was also a safe haven for the gay and lesbian community because, due to i...

  Marie Popelin was a Belgian journalist, feminist campaigner, and the first woman to receive a law doctorate in Belgium. She was born on December 16, 1846, in Brussels and received a better education than was typical for women at the time. She started teaching at a girl's school, but at the age of 37, she changed her career and began studying law. She graduated with a degree in law but when she applied for admission to the bar, she was denied. In the absence of any law forbidding women to do so, she appealed her case several times but ultimately was denied. She then turned to advocating legal reform to allow women to practice law, among other things. This was called the “Popelin Affair.” Her argument was basically that sure, it is possible for women to receive an education, but the law prohibits women from actually using it. She established the Belgian League for the Rights of Women (Ligue belge du droit des femmes) in 1892 with the assistance of Isala Van Diest and Léonie La Font...

  Marie Laurencin was born in Paris, France on the 31st of October in the year 1883 and was known for her paintings and her prints. She made a name for herself among the Cubists and avant-garde art (meaning new or innovative art for her time). When she turned 18, she started to study porcelain painting in Sèvres, France but when she returned to Paris to study art at the Académie Humbert, she changed her focus to oil painting. Working in circles with individuals such as Pablo Picasso, she contributed to the LGBTQ community with works of art described as “queer femme with a Gallic twist” (Pilcher, Alex (2017). A Queer Little History of Art. London: Tate Publishing. p. 37. ISBN 978-1-84976-503-9.). She died in Paris on the 8th of June 1956. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie_Laurencin) I think her contributions to the world of art and the city of Paris come in two different ways. First, she was a magnificent artist. Her 1923 piece Portrait de Mademoiselle Chanel with its airy brushs...

  A brief and breezy walk down the street from our Lisbon hostel was a curious and eclectic museum. It was called the Calouste Gulbenkian Museum and it held exquisite yet focused collections of art from Ancient Egypt all the way to William Turner. One painting that caught my eye was Diego Velázquez’s Portrait of Philip IV completed in 1644. Sporting a robe so richly embroidered it would make your grandma swoon and a white neckpiece thing that would remind your other grandma to get new furniture doilies, King Philip sits regally with a scepter in his hand and sword at his hip. Set against a dark background, the viewer's eyes are directed to the serious and mustached face of the ruler of Spain. Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez was named the Spanish court painter to Philip IV in 1623 and likely completed this painting to serve as a piece of propaganda for the Spanish ruler. In 1644, Velázquez accompanied the king on his military quest to quell a Catalonian uprising. The painter li...

  In the heart of the city of Madrid, Spain lies an impressive archeological museum. It is a multistory building with an immense, yet (relatively) plain facade that holds many treasures pertaining to the history of the Iberian Peninsula. One display in particular caught my eye. Within a glass display case in one of the first rooms on the ground floor was an assortment of potsherds. Many of them had faded runes carved into them which were then transcribed on neat, little plaques. Before me was the origins of Iberian language. I was struck by how similar they seemed to Nordic runes and I decided to linger and learn more. The Palaeo-Hispanic runes were based on the Phoenician and Greek alphabets and engraved into legal, funerary, commercial, political, religious, etc. objects long before larger civilizations like the Romans arrived and survived after they began to colonize. These individual pieces of pottery were dated to between the 8th century BCE and the 1st century CE, meaning the...

The Brussels City Hall sits right on its beautiful, historic city square which we crossed several times in search of tasty food. During our tour, we were taken through beautiful room after stunning room while our guide explained a little bit of his town’s history. The lavishly ornate, neoGothic and Neoclassical interiors spoke to Begium’s immense wealth and power during the time that this city hall was active and each delicate (and RIDICULOUSLY expensive) tapestry told a story. Throughout the compound, the archangel Micheal, the patron saint of Brussels, was depicted in bronze, marble, or precious wood slaying a surely allegorical Lucifer representing enemies of the state. The town hall was built in three segments as they raced to outdo a neighboring town and claim the title of “capital of the Holy Roman Empire” for themselves. For that reason, the spire atop the building appears to be a little off-center. In the year 1695, Brussels was bombed nearly to complete destruction in a petty ...

  Within Brussels lies the House of European History. It is a museum dedicated to the history of Europe, especially the European Union, located in the capital of the European Union: Brussels. It's a multi-story complex where each floor tells a different story about the history of Europe. The first floor starts with the somewhat problematic Roman story of Europa and the beginnings of the concept of Europe. The second floor then addresses history from the beginnings of European Christian history up to the World Wars. The next few floors deal with World War I, World War II, the European perspective on the Cold War, and up to about the present day. A whole wing is dedicated to chronicling the proceedings of World War II and strived to humanize the victims of Hitler’s brutality as much as possible. While Belgium is a fairly small country, its relative neutrality throughout European conflicts made it the ideal candidate for the new European alliance's capital. Within this city often ...

  Notre Dame is one of the monuments in Europe known throughout the world. Its impressive towers soar up into the Parisian sky and its dark stone bricks have reminded Parisians and visitors alike of the Medival roots of Europe for generations. Above each of the three front doors sit incredibly ornate, multi-layered tympanums depicting the Virgin Mary, Christ enthroned on Judgement Day, and Saint Anne, the apocryphal mother of Mary. The enormous rose window was resplendent even in its mid-restoration condition. Flying buttresses classic to the Gothic style reinforce the heavy but relatively thin side walls and its pointed arches direct the viewer’s eyes heavenward. Notre Dame is not just a church but a cathedral. This means it is the seat of a catholic Bishop with jurisdiction over a large geographic area (in this case Paris), but when in the year of our Lord two thousand and nineteen the Cathedral caught fire the whole world looked on in horror. This cathedral is an icon of Paris a...

Simone de Beauvoir, also known as Simone Lucie Ernestine Marie Bertrand de Beauvoir, was a French writer and social theorist who greatly impacted the French Feminist Movement. Though she never considered herself as such, after her death, she was remembered as an important philosopher concerning feminist theory and feminist existentialism. She was born on the 9th of January in the year 1908, lived 78 years, and died in the same city on the 14th of April in the year 1986. Here is a picture of me by her and her lifelong partner’s lipstick-covered tombstone from when we visited their final resting place at the Montparnasse Cemetery in the center of Paris, France. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simone_de_Beauvoir) Some of her more famous literary works are The Second Sex which talks about how women have been treated during her time and throughout history and The Insepearbles which discusses the importance of not only womanhood but girlhood and the struggles and potential social contribution...

In the rocky folds of the Sierra de Guardarrama mountains near Madrid lies a massive, marble monument with a troubled past. A huge cross sits near the peak and beneath it lies the entrance to a basilica. Inside is a deep, tunnel-like chamber with a barrel-vaulted ceiling. Two winged guardian angels flank the entrance with their swords pointed down. The curved walls are lit by only a few gas lamps (now electric) and there are no windows at all. An alcove shelters a statue of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, the patron saint of the Navy. On the central altar stands Christ crucified on the cross and dwarfed by the immensity of the room and the four looming angels looking down from their alcoves high above your head.  Christ enthroned in mosaic beckons to fallen souls and they approach Him led by hooded angels. Angels of victory point their swords at you. You can see the Savior but not any exits. The arches have no obvious keystone. The natural, disorderly stone is held back by symmetrical ri...

  If I had a nickel for every time I saw a piece of monumental sculpture that I loved only to find out that it was dedicated to fascism, I would have two nickels. It isn't a lot but it's definitely weird that it happened twice. This is the Padrão dos Descobrimentos, in English the Monument to Discovery or Monument to the Navigators. This colossal sculpture was commissioned by Portuguese dictator António de Oliveira Salazar and executed by Cottinelli Telmo and Leopoldo de Almeida (https://pt.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Padr%C3%A3o_dos_Descobrimentos). It's a 100- to 150-foot-tall tower with larger-than-life depictions on either side of prominent explorers, inventors, and other prominent Portuguese figures who contributed to the Portuguese Age of Exploration. At the point of this line of figures is Prince Henry the Navigator, often heralded as the father of the Age of Exploration. The whole structure is made of concrete and white stone that shone brightly in the sun. It is an impr...

  Amália Rodriques was a famous Portuguese Fado (FAH-doo) singer, one of the best in the world, and today we went to her house museum. The house itself is about 300 years old and survived the devastating earthquake, tsunami, and subsequent fire of All Saints Day 1755(?). She began her Fado career by putting famous poems to music, which nobody had tried before, and she quickly became the most famous Fado singer in the world, a beloved icon of Portugal, and had, perhaps, the greatest singing voice of all time. Some fun facts about her: interestingly, her exact birthday is unknown. She was only told she was born during "cherry season," a three-month period during the summer. She was passionate about flowers, she was deeply religious, and she was the first woman to be reburied in the Lisbon pantheon, a resting place for the country's most beloved and influential figures. With Amália, the local Portuguese tradition of Fado music became a worldwide phenomenon. She set trends in...

The International Criminal Court, also known as the ICC, is where criminals suspected of genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and crimes of aggression are put on trial. The building itself was an interesting combination of sterile and living elements. White steel panels alternated with squares of glass to create a monochromatic, irregular checkerboard pattern, perhaps referencing the black-and-white nature of justice. There are also irregular squares of green ivy, however, perhaps referencing the constant need for growth and adaptation in our growing and changing world. Inside, visitors are allowed to observe court proceedings. We watched as a witness, from behind a screen and with a voice modifier, testified against crimes committed in Africa.  The fact that there is an international court of law supported by over a hundred different countries is a testament not only to European unity but worldwide cooperation. After World War II, the creation of an international court w...

Anne Frank is known the world over as a principal voice describing the horrors of the Holocaust and today we went to the Secret Annex, her home in hiding. Her diary became her best friend where she would write what she was experiencing, letters to her friends, and sometimes humorous fictitious names for other flatmates. In 1932, the Nazis won elections and Anne couldn't sit next to Germans at her school in Frankfurt. So her family fled to Amsterdam where her father, Otto, started a factory for a jam thickening agent like pectin. In 1940, the Netherlands surrendered after the bombing of Rotterdam, the Franks had to go into hiding, and they would spend the next 761 days in the Secret Annex before their arrest on August 4th, 1944. In February 1945 Anne and Margot died in Auschwitz of exhaustion along with all those who hid in the secret annex except her father who published Anne's diary in 1947. Through her diary, Anne Frank was not only able to chronicle the fear and anxiety she ...

      The first thing I noticed was the depth of the restaurant. The exciting but narrow storefront gave way to a deceptively large establishment with several rooms filled with places to sit and one very long line of tables placed end to end. This is where we sat: all thirty-four of us at what was essentially one long, continuous table. There were metal trays in the center heated from beneath by candles on which the various dishes would be placed so they would keep warm throughout the meal. They brought out large bowls of rice--one for every four or five of us--and then they brought out about five different dishes made with lamb, chicken, tofu, and veggies drizzled in peanut sauce, coriander, spicy peppers, and many other delicious combinations. It was superb.     It was an interesting choice on the part of our professors to go to a Balinese restaurant in the heart of the Netherlands, but after spending some time here I think it highlights an interesting aspect ...

     The Threatened Swan is a large oil painting made by the Dutch Golden Age painter Jan Asselijn around the year 1650. Dominating the composition is a bright white, delicately painted swan spreading its wings and standing between its eggs and an approaching dog. The perspective is low to the ground from a so-called frog's-eye perspective which combined with the life-sized rendering of the swan makes it an imposing figure. Great care was taken to paint the swan as naturalistically as possible. Interestingly, the inscriptions "the grand pensioner," "enemy of the state," and "Holland" can be found by the swan, the dog, and the swan's eggs respectively making the painting an allegory for a political struggle between the de Witt family and the Dutch House of Orange. Seeing as Johan de Witt didn't become the grand pensioner until 1653, the inscriptions were likely added later.     This painting is important for many reasons, among them the fact th...

Agnès Varda was a revolutionary and well-respected photographer and film director. She specialized in feminist films and directed such titles as her debut film  La Pointe Courte  (1955), Cléo from 5 to 7  (1962), Vagabond  (1985),  Kung Fu Master  (1988), and many more. She was born on the 30th of May in the year 1928 in Brussels, Belgium, and worked for much of her life in Paris. We visited her workshop on Rue Daguerre where she worked on series such as Daguerréotypes (1975) and where a mural was painted in her memory. She died fairly recently on the 29th of March in the year 2019 at the age of 90 and was interred in Paris, France. In her photography career, Agnès Varda was a prominent member of the Left Bank Cinema and the French New Wave movements. She began with simple commissions--weddings, friend's photoshoots, etc.--but eventually progressed into more advanced applications of her skills. Her work as a photographer was influential in its own rig...