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.

Daniela Caruso, Professor of Law and Jean Monnet Chair, with Vlad Perju, Director of the Clough Center for the Study of Constitutional Democracy at Boston College. “Eastern European Democracies and the EU Rule of Law Framework (Europe and Law Series),” March 17, 2016.

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

  • Event Highlights: Truth, Memory, Reconciliation in the Balkans

    This panel discussion with Andrea Cayley, Executive Director of the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law’s Washington D.C. Programs, and Jelena Subotic, Professor in the Department of Political Science at Georgia State University, took place at Boston University's Center for the Study of Europe on Tuesday, February 25, 2025. It... [ More ]

  • The War in Ukraine and the Future of European Security (04/01/25)

    Join us for a lecture by CSE Visiting Researcher Hans Kundnani. Kundnani was previously the director of the Europe programme at the Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House) in London, a senior Transatlantic fellow at the German Marshall Fund of the United States, and research director at the European... [ More ]

  • The Political Economy of the Eurozone’s Rollercoaster (04/24/25)

    Join us for a book talk with Konstantinos Myrodias, author of The Political Economy of the Eurozone’s Rollercoaster: Greece and Portugal from the Global Financial Crisis to Covid-19 (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2024). Myrodias is Lecturer in International Political Economy at King’s College London and a Visiting Fellow at the... [ More ]

  • Event Highlights: Religion and the Republic

    This book launch and discussion with Carol Ferrara, sociocultural anthropologist and assistant professor at Emerson College, and Kirsten Wesselhoeft, Associate Professor of Religion at Vassar College, took place at Boston University's Pardee School of Global Studies on Thursday, February 13, 2025. The event was moderated by Kimberly Arkin, Associate Professor... [ More ]

  • Workshop in International Theory and History • Spring 2025

    The goal of this workshop is to put BU's historians, political theorists, and theory-oriented comparativists into closer conversation - please join us! Thursday, March 27 • 12:30 to 2 PM A Conversation about Finance and Anti-Democratic Politics Michael McCarthy •  Associate Professor of Sociology & Director of Community Studies at the University of... [ More ]

  • Project Eagle: The Top-Secret OSS Operation that Sent Polish Spies Behind Enemy Lines in World War II (03/20/25)

    Join us for a book talk with John S. Micgiel, author of Project Eagle: The Top-Secret OSS Operation that Sent Polish Spies Behind Enemy Lines in World War II. Micgiel has served as director of the Institute on East Central Europe, associate director of the Harriman Institute, executive director of... [ More ]

  • Montenegro and Serbia: A Velvet Divorce? (04/08/25)

    Join us for a book launch & discussion of Montenegro and Serbia: A Velvet Divorce? with co-authors Vesko Garčević, Director of the Center for the Study of Europe and Professor of the Practice of International Relations at the Pardee School of Global Studies, and Kenneth Morrison, Professor of History (Chair... [ More ]