About Us

CENTER STATEMENT

EUROPEAN CENTERS | DIRECTOR

A constituent of the University of Michigan International Institute since 1996, the Center for European Studies (CES) is the focal point for the interdisciplinary study of Europe at U-M. In 2001, CES received a grant from the European Commission to establish a European Union Center (EUC) and since 2005 the U-M's EUC has been designated one of eleven European Union Centers of Excellence in the United States. The centers comprise a multidisciplinary research, education, and outreach program that promotes the understanding of an integrated Europe at the University and in the community. In collaboration with academic and research units across the University, EU centers at other universities in the U.S., and institutions of higher education in Europe, the centers offer an array of public programs, funding opportunities, and innovative curricular outreach on Europe, and sponsor the visits of European scholars, artists, and professionals to U-M and southeastern Michigan.

THE EUROPEAN CENTERS:

• Partners with a broad spectrum of U-M departments as well as other universities and scholarly institutions in the U.S. and Europe;
  
• Brings together over 100 tenured or tenure-track faculty in 17 departments of the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts and eight other schools and colleges who teach and conduct research on modern Europe and the European Union;
• Offers an interdisciplinary minor in Modern European Studies for undergraduate students (through CES);
  
• Awards CES Summer Research and Internship Grants and the EUC Jean Monnet Graduate Fellowship and Post-doctoral Fellowships;
  
• Administer the Netherlands Visiting Professorship, a 55-year-old partnership between the University of Michigan and the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (through CES);
  
• Benefit from the University's libraries which contain over 800,000 Europe-focused titles in English and more than 700,000 in other languages, including one of the largest research collections on EU law and member countries;
  
• Organize over 25 public events per year such as lectures, conferences, workshops, and film series;
  
• Profit from over eighty agreements with European institutions of higher learning and research involving student exchange and international collaboration (more than with any other world region);
  
• Serve as a regional resource for expertise on Europe and the EU to schools, colleges, and business in Michigan and the Midwest.

The University of Michigan has a distinguished European studies faculty, with its traditional strengths in the disciplines of history, languages and literatures, political science and professional schools, especially law. Current and past directors include:

• Kathleen M. Canning, professor of history (modern Germany, European women and gender);
• Dario Gaggio, associate professor of history (modern European history, history and political economy);
• Daniel Halberstam, professor of law (European Union law and comparative constitutional law);
  
• Michael D. Kennedy, professor of sociology (East Central European social change and cultural politics);
  
• Ken Kollman, professor of political science (comparative and American government and politics);
  
• Steven M. Whiting, associate professor of musicology (18th and 19th century European concert music).