Council on European Studies

This is an application for Title VI funds to support the operations of a European Studies Center (ESC) at Yale University for the next four years. Yale is located in New Haven, CT. Founded in 1701, it has 11,282 students and is comprised of the College, Graduate School, and 10 professional schools. The European Studies Council is an interdisciplinary unit combining the former REES and WES Councils, each comprised of faculty from several academic departments who work in the EE or WE areas. It is housed in Luce Hall, where it is one of the units of the YCIAS. It is directed by a Chair, a DUS, DGS, and an Outreach Coordinator.

The mission of the ESC is to increase understanding and awareness of our area of the world on campus, in our city, state, and nation. Our immediate goal is to foster trans-European projects that will help integrate and increase the wealth of expertise in West and East European Studies at Yale. The ESC offers a REES Bachelor of Arts (BA), E&RS Master of Arts (MA), and E&RS Graduate Certificate of Concentration. Beyond its degree programs, ESC sponsors conferences, lecture series, faculty development, support for the library, Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) support for graduate students, and community outreach, especially to schools and colleges.

Our academic program draws on 649 faculty that in 2004-2007 teach 1,119 courses with European content in 41 departments and programs and eight professional schools. Yale offers a full range of courses and great faculty strength in the major European languages and courses in Czech, Portuguese, Greek, and Serbian/Croatian as well. History, English Literature, Political Science, History of Art, Music, Philosophy, and Comparative Literature have the strongest Europeanist components among the non-language disciplines. ESC's own REES program includes courses at all levels on Russian history, as well as numerous courses in Central and East European history and political science. We also offer a wide range of courses on Russian and EE culture through the Slavic Department. Our E&RS MA is now offered as a joint degree with SOM, the Law School, F&ES, and EPH.

Among the goals to be achieved with FY 2006-2010 funding are: 1) language curriculum development, especially reinstatement of a reorganized Polish language program, expansion of our Serbian/Croatian program, and their permanent incorporation into the Yale curriculum; 2) development of trans-European curriculum and research through lectures, film festivals, and especially international conferences, drawing on Yale's academic strengths East and West, focused on three cross-European themes: atrocity and modern war, colonialism and European identity, and post-Communist "colored" revolutions; and 3) strengthening a new, pivotal Central Asian/Transcaucasian focus by expansion of library holdings. A new post-doctoral teaching fellow position will bolster goals 2 and/or 3.

Yale's library is the second largest university library in the world, with over 11 million volumes. European collections are vast in both humanities and social sciences. Our large Slavic Collection has its own reading room and a full-time curator with three assistants. The Beinecke Rare Book Library holds the private papers of numerous major writers including Rebecca West and Czeslaw Milosz.

ESC's extensive outreach program includes a summer institute for teachers, an innovative after school language program for area high schools, and a large resource collection. Over the next four years, it will deepen its emphasis on teacher training by new collaborations with Yale's Teacher Preparation Program and expand its business-oriented programs by new collaborations with the University of Connecticut (UConn) Center for International Business Education and Research (CIBER).