About
The Center for the Study of Europe at Boston University provides institutional support for European studies across Boston University. We bring together faculty, students, international visitors, and others with interests in Europe across a variety of disciplines and coordinates the European Studies BA and minor. We also sponsor talks by leading scholars in the humanities and social sciences on political, economic, and social challenges facing Europe, as well as on European art, literature, and music.
The Center for the Study of Europe was established in 2011 and became part of the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies in 2014. It was preceded by the Institute for Human Sciences (2002-2010), which promoted research and discussion of public policy issues among European and American intellectuals and policymakers.
The Center is a member of the European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR) and the Council for European Studies. All Boston University faculty involved in the study of Europe through research or teaching, regardless of the school or college in which their appointments are based, are welcome to affiliate.
Vivien Schmidt, Jean Monnet Professor of European Integration, served as director of the Center through December 2016. She was succeeded by Cathie Jo Martin, Professor of Political Science, who directed the Center between January 2017 and December 2019. Daniela Caruso, Jean Monnet Chair and Professor of Law, became the Center’s third director in January 2020.
The mission of the Center for the Study of Europe is to promote a deeper understanding of Europe through its cultural heritage; its political, economic, legal, and religious histories; its art, literature, music, and philosophy; as well as through its emergence as a new kind of supranational entity, the European Union. Operationally, the Center provides a focal point and institutional support for the study of Europe across Boston University through coordination of teaching missions, support of research, community-building among faculty and students, and outreach beyond the University.
Each year the Center offers a rich program of activities ranging from public lectures and panel discussions, international symposia and conferences, film screenings and concerts, to seminars, round-tables, and lunch talks. Participants have included well-known academic researchers, politicians, policy experts, and journalists as well as artists, poets, activists, and public intellectuals. We work closely with other centers, departments, and schools here at BU; with local universities and cultural organizations; with European Consulates and Embassies; and with publishers of literature in translation, among others.
The European Studies program offers a 10-course major and a 6-course minor, both of which draw on the resources of the Pardee School of Global Studies, the College of Arts & Sciences, BU Study Abroad programs in Europe, as well as on BU’s other schools and colleges. The program combines a unifying regional focus with a multidisciplinary approach, enabling students to bring together courses that develop language skills; social, historical, and cultural knowledge; and political, economic, and international relations expertise. Both the major and the minor require written and spoken knowledge of a European language other than English.
News, Events & Opportunities
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Event Highlights: The Political Afterlives of Migration in Europe
This lecture by Osman Balkan, Associate Director of the Huntsman Program in International studies & Business at the University of Pennsylvania, took place at Boston University's Center for the Study of Europe on Monday, February 5, 2024. The subject of discussion was Balkan's book, Dying Abroad: The Political Afterlives of... [ More ]
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Challenges and Opportunities for the European Union as a Global Actor (04/30/24)
Join us for a lecture by Jan Wouters, Full Professor of International Law and International Organizations, Jean Monnet Chair ad personam EU and Global Governance, and founding Director of the Institute for International Law and of the Leuven Centre for Global Governance Studies, an interdisciplinary research centre with the status... [ More ]
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Writing across Borders: A Reading and Conversation with Selma Asotić (04/04/24)
Join us for a Reading & Conversation with Bosnian poet Selma Asotić. Moderated by Stacy Mattingly. Thursday, April 4, 2024 • 5 to 6:30 PM Pardee School of Global Studies, 121 Bay State Road [Add to calendar] Selma Asotić is a bilingual poet from Bosnia and Herzegovina. Her poems and essays have appeared in... [ More ]
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Event Highlights: Education for All? Literature, Culture and Education Development in Britain and Denmark
This ”Author Meets Critics” panel with Cathie Jo Martin, Professor of Political Science at Boston University, as well as a former Director of BU’s Center for the Study of Europe, took place on Wednesday, February 7, 2024. This event was a celebration of the release of Prof. Martin’s new book:... [ More ]
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The Bosniaks: Nationhood after Genocide—A Book Talk by Jasmin Mujanović (03/20/24)
Join us for a book talk by Jasmin Mujanović. The Bosniaks: Nationhood after Genocide is “a compelling exploration of Bosniak political identity, chronicling the development of a nation and its people in the wake of catastrophe.” “Jasmin Mujanović illuminates the sources of contemporary Bosniak political identity, tracing the evolution of a... [ More ]
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“Inheriting the Bomb:” Ukraine’s Nuclear Disarmament and Why It Matters (04/11/24)
Join us for a lecture by Mariana Budjeryn, Senior Research Associate at the Harvard Kennedy School Belfer Center, Project on Managing the Atom (MTA). Mariana is a senior non-resident fellow at the Brookings Institution and a member of the Committee on International Security and Arms Control of the National Academies... [ More ]
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García Lorca, ‘along deep roads of the guitar’: a recital by Samuel Diz (03/04/2024)
Join us for a recital by Spanish classical guitarist Samuel Diz. Samuel Diz researches and performs the role of the guitar in García Lorca’s life through music by Manuel de Falla, Robert Gerhard and others composers who contributed to the renaissance of the Spanish musical language during the interwar period. Monday, [ More ]