The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill was named one of 11 European Union Centers of Excellence by the Delegation of the European Commission in Washington, D.C. UNC’s Center for European Studies will receive a $650,000 grant to fund activities over the next three years.
The Centers of Excellence, located at universities across the United States, promote the study of the European Union, its institutions and policies and EU-U.S. relations through teaching programs, scholarly research and outreach activities in their local and regional communities.
“This underlines the continuing tremendous interest in the EU and EU-U.S. relations within American universities,” said Ambassador John Bruton, head of the EU Commission Delegation to the United States. “The EU Centers of Excellence have the crucial task of preparing the students who will take a leading role in the future of the transatlantic relationship, and play a vital role in educating their local communities regarding those developments.”
UNC will serve as network and outreach coordinator to promote cooperation and sharing of best practices within the network. UNC will also maintain the network’s Web site (www.euce.org), providing easy access to research and teaching materials the centers produce.
The other centers are Georgia Tech, Florida International University/University of Miami, and the universities of California at Berkeley, Colorado, Michigan, Pittsburgh, Texas, Washington at Seattle, Wisconsin, and Washington Consortium (American, George Mason, George Washington, Georgetown and The Johns Hopkins universities).
The EU Centers program, launched in 1998, has helped create a foothold for EU studies in U.S. higher education and served as an information resource for a broad U.S. audience, with extensive outreach to regional audiences and the policy community. Award recipients are recognized for the high quality, variety and depth of their programs.
Center for European Studies contact: John D. Stephens, (919) 962-4634, jdsteph@unc.edu; Ruth Mitchell-Pitts, (919) 962-6765, rmpitts@email.unc.edu
News Services contact: Susan Houston, (919) 962-8415, susan_houston@unc.edu