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Toledo, Spain, on a rare sunny day. My wife, who is an art major, was excited to see some of El Greco's famous paintings here. We traveled from city to city each day, beginning on the west coast at the Spain/France border. We crisscrossed northern Spain, drove halfway through Portugal, then back into to Spain heading toward Madrid. |
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—Jean-Baptiste Prevot, French studies master's candidate, from Lyon, France |
The Center for the Study of Europe aims to become a leading interdisciplinary
community of scholars and students focused on Europe. Through sponsorship
of workshops, speakers, research, study abroad, community outreach,
and novel courses with strong European content, CSE also provides
training for BYU students, regional teachers and students at all
education levels, businesses, media, and the general public.
More
info
View our brochure,
now available for teachers to distribute to their students. For
copies of the brochure contact us at (801) 422-6277 or e-mail
your request.
Who We Are
During the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, BYU closed its doors
to allow students and faculty to use their language skills and cultural
experience to serve as interpreters and hosts for dignitaries, press,
athletes, and coaches from Europe and other regions. Hundreds of students
and faculty volunteered, speaking every language represented by European
Olympic athletes (70 percent of BYU students speak a second language).
Few institutions are as well situated as BYU to prepare students to understand
and nurture ties with Europe. The European experience and language skills
of students and faculty make the campus home to a remarkably sophisticated
and rich discussion about European topics.
Objectives
The Center for the Study of Europe (CSE) aims to become a leading interdisciplinary
community of scholars and students working on Europe. Through its sponsorship
of workshops, speakers, research, study abroad, community outreach, and
novel courses with strong European content, CSE also provides training
for all BYU students, regional teachers, and students at all education
levels, and businesses, the media, and the general public.
Among the many activities to be achieved by NRC funding, CSE has established
five main objectives:
1. Expand language offerings to accommodate growing demand
2. Reinforce non-language offerings in European studies
3. Support scholarly inquiry
4. Develop new linkages and internship opportunities
5. Extend the breadth and depth of outreach efforts
Students
BYU is unique in that around 10,000 of our students speak a European language
other than English with advanced-plus fluency. Europe is a pillar of the
BYU curriculum with upwards of 150 faculty teaching almost 1,000 courses
that have substantially or exclusively European content. Roughly half
of these courses are language courses. Enrollments in these classes—most
of which are offered in multiple sections each year—reached almost
45,000 on the West European side alone during the most recent academic
year. Courses on Russia and Eastern Europe raised enrollment substantially
higher, as BYU continues to host the nation's largest undergraduate Russian
department.
Faculty
Of the faculty in question, over 80 percent speak a foreign language with
at least an intermediate fluency, while 29 percent speak two or more and
93 percent have spent at least one year in Europe. This unique set of
skills and experience has prepared CSE faculty to direct the eleven permanent
European study abroad programs and other internship/research programs
that offer 106 courses with 1,586 enrollments during the 2001–02
academic year, among the very highest in the nation. CSE also offers a
Summer Language Institute in six European languages.
Outreach
BYU's various outreach programs have a remarkable scope. The
Lee Library's Western European Collection contains over one million holdings
in over twenty Western European languages, and these resources are open
to the general public and all Rocky Mountain educational institutions.
Furthermore, over 4,000 high school students of French, German, and Spanish
come from Utah, Idaho, and Wyoming to compete in one of the largest Foreign
Language Fairs for K–12 language study in the West. Currently 513
post-secondary institutions use BYU language programs (CAPE, CLIPS, FLATS,
and OTS).
Location
CSE is housed with the David M. Kennedy Center for International Studies
in the Herald L. Clark building. In its first few months with the new
Title VI grant, the center has offered Foreign Language Area Studies (FLAS)
Internships to graduate students, has funded new library acquisitions,
language modules in the social sciences, outreach programs for public
school educators, faculty research projects, guest lecturers, and conferences.
CSE News
Latest newsletter The EuroFiles
(PDF)
"Islam in the European Public Sphere"
27-28 January 2006
Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah
Scholars from various disciplines will share their work on Islam in Europe and its implications for national security, religious freedoms, and the future of multiculturalism in a European context. The workshop aims to develop an understanding of the dynamics of these controversies in the European public sphere. Interested scholars and members of the general public are invited to attend. Check back for updates on workshop details.
Center for Study of Europe at BYU hosts high school teacher training in July
PROVO, Utah (Jul 11, 2005)—Brigham Young University's Center for the Study of Europe will host a high school teacher training seminar July 18, 20 and 22 in 257 Herald R. Clark Building. The title of the seminar is "My Country Europe: Explorations of European Identity."
More
CSE organizes Shakespearean festival trip
PROVO, Utah (Jun 29, 2005)—The Center for the Study of Europe has joined with Amy Jensen in the Theatre and Media Arts Department at BYU to sponsor the second annual Shakespeare course for secondary teachers July 5-7.
More
CSE receives grant money from European Commission
PROVO, Utah (Jun 23, 2005)—The Center for the Study of Europe (CSE) at Brigham Young University (BYU) received $10,000 in additional funding this week from the Delegation of the European Commission, bringing the total grant including previously received support to around $25,000.
More
Area elementary, secondary students winners in Kennedy Center-sponsored art, essay contests
PROVO, Utah (May 11, 2005)—Seventeen Wasatch Front elementary and secondary students were honored for their winning entries in an art and essay contest during a reception on Thursday, May 12, hosted by the David M. Kennedy Center for International Studies at Brigham Young University.
More
BYU Teams Win MEU Competition
Six BYU students brought home awards from a Model European Union competition
held 11–12 February at the University of Washington. The delegates
from BYU represented the United Kingdom and the Czech Republic. The British
team consisted of Mark Utley, Cindy Otis, and Don Cordell. The Czech team
consisted of Jay Stirling, Dan Duckworth, and Camille Jackson.
More
Faculty Research Grants Awarded
In February 2005, CSE awarded Title VI grants to ten BYU faculty members
for research on European-related topics. The grants can be used to cover
the cost of travel to Europe for collecting research. The recipients of
the grants are as follows:
- Christian Asplund - Music
- Gary Burlingame - Clinical Psychology
- Doug Bush - Music
- Eric Dursteler - History
- David Hatch - English
- Paul Kerry - History
- Nathaniel Kramer - Humanities, Classics, and Comparative Literature
- David Laraway - Spanish and Portuguese
- Robert McFarland - Germanic and Slavic Languages
- Mark Wrathall - Philosophy
Good Governance
Consortium—Subsized Student Exchanges
The Good Governance Consortium (GCC) program will help students
study political processes and policy outcomes as exchange students with
one of four European universities, including: Vienna University of Economics
and Business Administration (Austria), University of Cagliari (Italy),
Catholic University of Louvain (Belgium), and University of Turku (Finland).
Students will examine adherence to accepted principles of good governance
and compare the best practices on both sides of the Atlantic. GCC is funded
by the U.S. Department of Education through the Fund for the Improvement
of Post-Secondary Education. At least three BYU students each year will
receive $3,000 for study in Europe and $1,500 for language preparation.
During fall semester, students participate in an introductory course in
public policy at BYU, interacting with students at all eight campuses
in the U.S. and abroad. Students spend the second semester at one of the
GCC partner institutions in Europe. The application deadline is at the
end of winter semester. This year’s deadline is March 16, 2006. For more information, please see the GGC web
site or contact Thomas Plummer.
More
Winners of the CSE Art and Essay Contest Announced
Over 75 essayists and 200 artists participated
in the first annual Center for the Study of Europe Art and Essay contest.
Students were challenged to cultivate an understanding of Europe’s
past, become knowledgeable about important current events, and consider
developments in Europe’s future and generally understand their world
better by learning about Europe. Click here for more information about
the Art and Essay Contest or to view the winning works.
More
Internship opportunities
in the Scottish Parliament
BYU's Center for the Study of Europe is seeking students to intern with
members of the Scottish Parliament.
Interns will work as researchers and personal assistants to representatives
in the Scottish Parliament.
Students will live in Edinburgh, Scotland for the length of their internship.
Internships are also available with Scottish Parliament members in Westminster,
London and Brussels.
Once selected, interns are paired with a parliamentarian who is focusing
on issues that match the student's interests and academic background when
possible.
For more information visit the Scottish Parliament Internship website or e-mail Meredith Stockman
Have you ever considered an internship
in Europe?
The Center for the Study of Europe would like to measure student
interest in volunteer internships in Europe. If you have an interest in
a European internship, we invite you to help us by filling out a survey.
Your answers will help us set priorities for developing new internships.
If you wish, you may add your name to our contact list at the bottom of
the survey.
GO TO SURVEY
NOW
Events
International
Outreach
Intercultural Outreach fosters open cultural exchange within the education and business communities,
promoting increased global understanding.
BYU
International Cinema
The International Cinema provides opportunities both to hear native speakers
of foreign languages and to experience the art and culture of those countries
by showcasing quality films from the canon of world cinema. Schedule
PDF
Sophie’s Daughters IV
An evening of music and conversation featuring works by Germanic female composers. Friday, October 21, 7:30 P.M. in the Madsen Recital Hall. Free Admission.
Getting Married
In George Bernard Shaw’s engaging comedy of desperate enticements, passionate trivialities, and secret trysts, confusion ignites on a young couple’s wedding day. The clergy, a lovesick fool, and the coal-maker’s wife join with a family to ask the question, "Is a marriage a tiresome abyss, or a worthy ideal?". 26 October12 November, 7:30 P.M in the Margetts Theater. More Info.
See the Kennedy Center online
calendar for other international events.
Archived Lectures
March 2004
Peter Katzenstein, the Walter S. Carpenter Jr. Professor
of International Studies at Cornell University, addressed students
and faculty at BYU by invitation of the Center for the Study of Europe.
His lecture entitled “American Primacy and Anti-Americanism
in World Politics” filled the HBLL auditorium to capacity.
PDF
January 2004
Vincent Pecora, professor of English and director of both the Humanities
Consortium and the Center for Modern and Contemporary Studies at UCLA,
spoke to BYU students and faculty by invitation of the Center for the
Study of Europe on 8 January. His lecture, entitled "Religion in
the European Enlightenment," began with the observation that much
teaching on the Enlightenment had astonishingly little to say about religion.
Summary, flyer
PDF
October 2003
David Edgar, a Tony Award-winning British playwright, addressed
students and faculty at BYU by invitation of the Center for the Study
of Europe. Edgar's speech, "From Pentecost to Babel," covered
the issues of political theatre and the experiences that led him to begin
writing in that arena. A transcript of the speech he delivered in the
MOA auditorium is found at this link. flyer
PDF
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