Mission

The mission of the Duke Center for European Studies (CES) is to encourage interdisciplinary study, debate and discussion regarding Europe. The CES cultivates and supports all manner of intellectual life focused on Europe at Duke, acts as a catalyst for scholarship on Europe, and provides a unifying community for scholars of Europe at Duke. The CES has over 50 affiliated faculty across the humanities, social sciences and several professional schools. The CES sponsors and coordinates events and speakers, hosts visitors, and subsidizes European-focused scholarly activities at Duke and in Europe.

Funding

In the immediate future, the CES will concentrate its resources on activities that meet the following three criteria:

• Substantial scholarly European focus,
• Significant contributions to intellectual life on Duke’s campus, and
• Clear interdisciplinarity

Decisions on supporting activities will be made by the Center Director in consultation with the Program Coordinator and the Advisory Board. To better understand the activities of the CES and what we contribute to Duke, please click here.

We welcome requests for support and invitations to collaborate. We have been fortunate to work with a variety of units and organizations at Duke and nearby, including the Departments of Germanic Languages and Literature and Romance Studies. One of our most productive collaborations is with UNC’s Center for European Studies, which is perhaps the world’s leading center in the field. In the past, we have co-sponsored events and partnered to pursue external funding. In the future, we look forward to many years of further collaboration.

The CES aims to continue its mission of catalyzing the study of Europe at Duke. At a time when the U.S. seems more eager to look inwards and shut out the world, we hope to keep Europe in the conversation, on the minds of scholars and publics, and the source of curiosity and inspiration for students.