Karla Mallette, associate professor of Italian and Near Eastern studies, is concluding her term as the interim director of CES, a role that she held for the 2011-12 academic year. Karla served during a challenging year for CES, in which the center began a new era after losing funding from the European Commission and its designation as a European Center of Excellence. Despite these challenges, under her direction CES continued its vibrant Conversations on Europe lecture series; started the “Eyes on Europe” blog where campus experts comment on events in Europe; continued offering funding for undergraduate and graduate students for summer projects; and expanded its curricular offering with the graduate certificate in European and European Union Studies.

Prof. Mallette leaves her position at CES to be the 2012-13 U-M Institute for Humanities Helmet F. Stern Fellow. During her fellowship, she will work on a project studying the literary lingua francas of the pre-modern Mediterranean for perspective on language as a marker of geographical and historical identity, and on the capacity of certain languages to transcend geo-historical specificity. 

We sincerely thank Karla for her leadership and wish her continued success.