College of Liberal Arts & SciencesUniversity of Florida

About the Center for European Studies

Background

The Center for European Studies (CES), housed within the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences (CLAS) at the University of Florida (UF), is a Title VI National Resource Center funded in part by the US Department of Education. The CES is funded by the US Department of Education, with substantial additional support from the Commission of the European Union as well as the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences, the Division of Research and Graduate Programs and the Office of the Provost of the University of Florida.

The CES was created in August 2003 and is currently one of just ten Europe/West Europe Title VI National Resource Centers in the country. In August 2010 the Title VI status of the CES was renewed and it was granted "comprehensive" status including significant Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) resources for graduate student funding through the FLAS fellowship program.

Mission Statement

As a Title VI Center, the primary goal of the CES is to assist in the development of area and language skills among the country's best students through fostering rich academic and cultural environments including broad language and areas studies courses, degree options and study abroad opportunities. To accomplish this goal the CES also provides a wide array of development opportunities to faculty members from across the university. These opportunities insure that faculty members have the resources and skills necessary to provide students with the highest quality education possible while at the same time help to support the realization of their own research agendas. As a Title VI center, the CES also plays a critical role in fostering greater international awareness in the broader community through educational and outreach programs for state and local government, business organizations, K-12 students and teachers, the media and the general public.

Title VI Centers

Title VI Centers are funded by the Department of Education in three-year renewable cycles and must re-apply each cycle to maintain funding and official status as a Title VI Center. The University has already been home to Title VI centers in Latin American Studies and African Studies and this year was fortunate to receive two new Centers, the CES as well as the new Trans-global Studies Center. The University of Florida was the only university to receive two new centers this grant cycle and is now one of only 19 universities across the country to house four or more Title VI centers.

In accordance with the primary goals of the Title VI program as defined by the US Department of Education the CES can only fund activities related directly to contemporary Europe. For the purposes of the Title VI program and the current mandate of the CES "Europe" is defined as all Western European countries and all formally accepted European Union accession and applicant countries and the "contemporary" periods dates from the 20th century. Topics focused on other regions/countries or earlier time periods can only be funded if the relevance for some aspect of "contemporary Europe" is an explicit and central theme.

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