Dear friends of EURO,
As the new director of the Institute for European Studies, it’s my great pleasure to welcome you into the New Year and introduce the team at EURO.
For those of you who don’t know me, I’m a historian of modern Italy, focusing on fascism and colonialism, and of 20th-century Europe more generally, with interests among other things in empire, borderlands, citizenship, and comparative and transnational history. In addition to the directorship of EURO, I have also taken on the academic directorship of the IU Europe Gateway in Berlin, and I’m excited to work on these two IU projects together. I am delighted that Colton Ames will continue his outstanding and indispensable work as Associate Director, assisted by graduate students Sara Couch and Sarah Hensler. Much of what we do is made possible through the hard work of our administrative liaison, Heysol Buitrago.
It is a real sign of recognition that EURO continues to be a Jean Monnet EU Centre of Excellence awarded by the European Commission, as well as a FLAS-granting center through the US Department of Education. In the latter capacity, we provide student fellowships to study less-commonly taught languages such as Norwegian, Dutch, Modern Greek, Italian, Portuguese, Hungarian, and many others. As a Jean Monnet EU Centre of Excellence, we are able to undertake a diverse array of initiatives offering a multifaceted and interdisciplinary approach to the study of Europe and the European Union. Jean Monnet funds are, for instance, supporting our upcoming European Film Festival in collaboration with the Western Europe centers at the Universities of Pittsburgh and North Carolina-Chapel Hill. These EU funds will also allow us to provide research and travel grants for early to mid-career faculty and graduate students. Look for announcements on all this very soon.As in previous years, our signature event this spring will be the Midwest Model EU simulation, taking place April 12-14. This year marks the 30th anniversary of the event, making it the second longest-running Model EU in the US. We will be hosting approximately 120 students from a dozen universities and look forward to welcoming guests from across the European diplomatic and civil service corps in Washington DC.
Not always visible to faculty at IU is EURO’s proud tradition of outreach beyond the University, particularly at the K-12 level. Through our collaborations with other area studies centers, EURO supports educators around the state of Indiana in diversifying and internationalizing their curricula and encouraging life-long global learning. We continue to spearhead the Windows to the World project – an online resource that connects Indiana educators with global artifacts held in IU museum collections and at the Indianapolis Museum of Art – and includes comprehensive lesson plans and curriculum materials. We are looking forward to working with Vesna Dimitrieska, the HLS Coordinator for Global Education Initiatives, to start offering teacher training workshops called “Teaching the EU”, also supported by our Jean Monnet grant.
I look forward also to continuing another strong EURO tradition of close collaboration with other centers in HLS, supporting faculty research and enhancing student knowledge of Europe and its many connections with the wider world. I would like to encourage you to reach out to us with ideas, suggestions, and proposals for events and projects that EURO might pursue. Already planned for this semester are a screening of Measures of Men in collaboration with Professor Šumit Ganguly of the Department of Political Science, the IU Cinema, and the American Friends of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (April 15th); a roundtable event discussing the 50th anniversary of democracy in Portugal and the Carnation Revolution in collaboration with Professor Estela Vieira of the department of Spanish and Portuguese (April 25th); and a collaboration with the Collins Learning and Living Center to support their Spring 2024 Visiting Artist, Germany-based photographer Christina Stohn.
Please also alert your students to EURO’s new 4+1 Pathway program, starting Fall 2024, which will enable IU undergraduates in the College and HLS to add a one-year Euro MA to their degree. We will of course continue to offer our 2-year MA program and our Minor in European Studies, which is a great addition to many majors across campus. Please encourage interested students to talk to us.
Lastly, please mark your calendar for our faculty wine and cheese event on Feb 1., 5pm in the HLS atrium. We hope this will be an opportunity for Europeanists from across campus to meet, mingle, and chat. A separate announcement will follow. I look forward to meeting many of you there!
Wishing you all a happy and productive 2024 and a great start to the semester, and I look forward to working with you.
Warmly,
Roberta
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