Information About The Center

Introduction and Overview

Understanding the hopes and problems of Europe and the European Union in the twenty-first century requires an awareness of the achievements and disasters that Europe has undergone in earlier centuries. It also requires an appreciation of how identities and cultures were established, how collective memory has developed, and how history has shaped current political and economic issues in European integration. Contemporary Europe can be best understood by exploring how history, culture, law, politics, and economics intersect.

Two centers at the University of Pittsburgh encourage such interdisciplinary thinking – the European Studies Center (ESC) and the European Union Center of Excellence (EUCE) – forming the ESC/EUCE.

The intellectual capacity of the EUCE/ESC is based on its faculty and students in a wide variety of academic departments and professional schools supported by the extensive research capabilities of an outstanding library and archive. These are enhanced by the presence of the European Union Studies Association housed at the University of Pittsburgh.

The ESC, funded under Title VI of the U.S. federal Higher Education Act, provides an intellectual home for those interested in culture and identity, languages, religion, history, and philosophy in addition to business, law, and the social sciences.

The European Union Center of Excellence is one of ten centers designated as such and funded by the European Commission. It highlights issues of applied public policy and the process of European political, economic, and legal integration. The EUCE regularly hosts prominent visitors, including ambassadors and leading policy makers.
Drawing on the resources of the ESC/EUCE, both undergraduate and graduate students at the University of Pittsburgh are able to learn about Europe from a linguistic, literary, artistic, historical, economic, political, sociological, legal and public policy perspective. Most important, they are able to examine linkages among these perspectives in creative and unusual ways. Using the resources of the European Studies Center, the European Union Center of Excellence, and the University they can deepen a specialized knowledge while broadening intellectual questions.

In addition, students with an interest in Europe’s wider role in the world can draw on the resources of the Center for Russian and East European Studies (REES), also a Title VI Center, and the Ridgeway Center for Security Studies. Close cooperation with both centers provides students focusing on EU enlargement, NATO, or EU-NATO relations an extraordinary range of faculty, library, and electronic resources.

As the director of both the ESC and the European Union Center of Excellence, I am delighted to take this opportunity to welcome you.

PROFESSOR ALBERTA SBRAGIA
Director, European Union Center of Excellence
Director, European Studies Center
Jean Monnet Chair ad personam
UCIS Research Professor of Political Science

The EUCE/ESC

Combined the ESC and the European Union Center of Excellence  are a constituent of the University Center for International Studies (UCIS), identified by the Council on Learning as one of the exemplary international studies programs in the United States.

The ESC was established in 1984 and is charged with a university-wide responsibility for coordinating and developing scholarship and teaching related to Europe. As a constituent of UCIS, the Center promotes the study of Europe at the University of Pittsburgh by developing new courses, lectures, symposia, and conferences with international participants. In addition, the Center offers Certificates in European Union Studies and West European Studies that enhance students’ overall academic achievements and degree programs. Through its outreach efforts, the Center also builds relationships within the University community, the business community, policy-makers, and community organizations, complementing the work and goals of the European Union Center of Excellence (EUCE). Center research foci include comparative public policy, social and intellectual history, multiculturalism in Europe, questions of identity, and Europe’s historical and contemporary role in the world.
The European Union Center of Excellence (EUCE) is charged with promoting the study and knowledge of the European Union (EU), including its institutions and policies, to further the EU-U.S. relationship and the establishment of an EU presence in the U.S. 

The EUCE was established in 1998, when the University of Pittsburgh won a national competition to host a European Union Center. The European Union Center was rededicated in 2001 by Dr. Guenter Burghardt, Head of the European Commission Delegation to the U.S., as one of fifteen European Union Centers in the U.S. In 2005, the University of Pittsburgh was chosen to be one of only ten European Union Centers of Excellence, gaining substantial support for center activities from the European Commission. The EUCE is a member of a Network of European Union Centers (NEUC).