European Studies in the University of Wisconsin–Madison has received four new grants as of fall 2022, which will provide more than $2.325 million to undergraduates, graduate students, faculty, and outreach communities.
These grants, authored by Jean Monnet Chair and Professor of Political Science and Public Affairs Mark Copelovitch, CGES Director and Professor of German, Nordic & Slavic+ Sonja Klocke, and Dr. Elizabeth Covington Executive Director of European Studies, come from the U.S. Department of Education, the European Union (EU), and the German Academic Exchange Service (or DAAD, part of the German Federal Foreign Ministry).
The largest grants were awarded by the U.S. Department of Education to continue our Center for European Studies, one of only six such “Western European” National Resource Centers in the country. These federal “Title VI” grants fund National Resource Centers and Foreign Language and Area Studies fellowships for Western European less-commonly-taught language training. NRC and FLAS grants produce new foreign area and strategic language experts, which are essential to strengthening U.S. national security and competitiveness. CES engages students and faculty on campus, and importantly provides resources to institutions and organizations statewide in Wisconsin. Our outreach to the K-12 community in particular, run by Assistant Director Eleanor Conrad and her colleagues in other Title VI area studies centers in the UW-Madison Institute for Regional and International Studies, is notable. This substantial investment in international education develops the next generation of leaders who will engage across business, government, education, art and culture, and other sectors, both domestic and worldwide. Over the years, UW–Madison has trained close to 6,500 FLAS fellows, has awarded over 5,500 degrees and certificates through UW NRCs, and teaches up to 80 languages each academic year.
European Studies has attracted not just federal, but European funds. Professor Sonja Klocke has just won her first round of competitive Center for German & European Studies funding from the DAAD. The University has maintained a very fruitful partnership with the DAAD since 1998, when it first landed funds for the specific study of Germany in the world. At the time of this writing, our grant for 2022-2023 has been awarded, and a new series of projects is well underway (2022-2023 Transatlantic Research Exchanges). While we anticipate a grant totaling somewhere around $200,000, the exact sum is contingent upon German reduced expenditures due to energy insecurity and the war in Ukraine. The DAAD funds only 20 such centers in the world. Professor Klocke has focused on Turkish immigration into the Federal Republic of Germany most recently, and will continue to lead faculty cohorts in interdisciplinary German studies. “The CGES faculty themes cover aspects of migration in a world characterized by globalization,” said Klocke. “This is particularly exciting since fruitful interdisciplinary dialogue will be the result.”
Finally, Professor Mark Copelovitch has been awarded a 2022-2025 Jean Monnet Chair in the European Union and the Global Economy by the European Commission. The Jean Monnet Chair is a teaching post with a specialization in European Union (EU) Studies. Based on a competitive global selection process, the Commission awards the Chair to qualified professors who enhance EU studies through their teaching, research, and outreach activities. The Jean Monnet Chair is co-financed by the EU’s Erasmus + Programme, and there are currently only ten Chairs in the United States. As Jean Monnet Chair, Copelovitch will pursue a multi-faceted program of teaching and research, with an emphasis on the political economy of European Monetary Union, political conflict within the EU and its member-states over policy responses to economic crises, and the EU’s increasingly prominent role in international trade, monetary, and financial governance. “The Jean Monnet Chair in the EU and the Global Economy comes at a crucial time,” said Copelovitch, “with both the EU and the global economy facing serious challenges, including the war in Ukraine, high inflation, authoritarian threats to democracy, climate change, and the rise of China.”
Contact: Elizabeth Covington, executive director, European Studies, (608) 265-4778, eecovington@wisc.edu