Center for European Studies

The Program in European Studies at the University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill was founded in the wake of the 1989 revolutions in Europe. The Center aims to promote scholarship and instruction both on our campus and throughout the nation at large in contemporary movements and events that shape Europe.

CES is one of only five National Resource Centers to also be named a European Union Center of Excellence for 2008-2011. We also serve as the National Network Coordinator and Outreach Coordinator for the ten EU Centers in the country. In 2005 we launched our new major in Contemporary European Studies, housed in CES and we run a certificate program in EU Studies using video-conferencing to connect courses across three campuses: North Carolina State University, UNC-Charlotte, and UNC-Chapel Hill. The Center is the lead institution for the Transatlantic Masters Program, which is the only graduate degree program in the United States in transatlantic studies. We run TAM in consortium with European universities in the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the Czech Republic.

Due to strong General College language requirements and the popularity of double majors, more than three-quarters of Carolina undergraduates complete fifteen or more credit hours in European Studies area and language courses before graduating in a wide array of disciplines, including: West European/EU track within International and Area Studies, Interdisciplinary German Studies, Germanic Languages, and Romance Languages and Literatures. Over 1,200 of our undergraduates study abroad each year, around 60 percent of them at European sites. Carolina has numerous Masters, Doctoral, and Professional degree programs with substantial European studies content, many of them with exchange programs in Europe.

Over 90 Carolina area studies faculty in 21 departments or professional schools teach or research principally in European Studies and an additional 120 devote part of their time to Europe either through teaching or research. More than 60 faculty members teach European languages and literatures (not including the English Department) and cover all the major European languages: Dutch, French, German, (Modern) Greek, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish. Other languages - Irish, Gaelic, and Catalan - are taught on demand.

CES coordinates the UNC Languages Across the Curriculum (LAC) program, offering 15-20 LAC courses each year. In all our LAC courses, the target language is the vehicle of instruction for all section work. CES also offers a Graduate Certificate in LAC Instruction, a unique training program that provides graduate students a means to document their ability to teach in an interdisciplinary multilingual context.

Carolina's library ranks 16th among North American universities and houses some 10 million items. Specialized research collections are compiled in collaboration with the Duke University library to provide cost-effective coverage of the field.

The Center for European Studies leverages every kind of media for Center visibility and impact - print, web, radio, T.V., workshops, video-conferencing, and web-based courses. CES staff members have been effective in impacting regional audiences through teacher workshops and materials, and national audiences through shaping content in Middle School social studies textbooks and by developing original web-based pedagogical materials on "The Veil," "Francophone Identities," and "Modern Europe Through Art," among others.

Our plan for 2006-2010 strengthens the Center by supporting original research and data collection among faculty members and graduate students, funding the development of new West European undergraduate and graduate courses in the Arts and Sciences as well as in the professional schools, and contributing to the nation's supply of specialists by organizing PhD workshops, a Languages Across the Curriculum Program, and curriculum development on Islamic Societies in Europe.

The Center's web site is a rich source of information and links to historical and primary materials on Europe.