Director’s Statement, Fall 2020

Over the past 8 months, three events have changed the world in which we live inexorably.  First, the COVID-19 pandemic swept across Europe and the United States, exposing weaknesses in our globalized economy, altering our way of life, shifting the political calculus of both the forces of democracy and the forces of authoritarianism, and further

Welcome to a new year with the Institute for European Studies

Welcome back to a new school year with the Institute for European Studies at Indiana University! We have undergone several changes over the summer and are excited for you to get to know the new EURO. With our new director, Professor Timothy Hellwig of the Political Science department, we have many new events and opportunities

Is the Euro Moving towards an Endgame?

In the past few days, the stability of the euro has again become a hot topic in Europe.  There is now concern that Germany will no longer support a bailout of Greece and that it will soon be time for an “orderly default.”  The result has been that stock markets across Europe and Asia have

EU Workshop in Cincinnati

On Wednesday, June 29, the EU Center organized a workshop for K-12 teachers at Princeton High School in Cincinnati, OH. Following the format of our previous teachers workshop in Indianapolis, the event was intended to deepen teachers’ overall knowledge of the EU, introduce them to some important theoretical debates within the field of EU studies,

Comparing European and American Debt Crises

When talking about the euro, commentators cannot help themselves from comparing the euro to the other major currency, the US Dollar.  In fact, we examined this tend to compare the two currencies over a year ago in the blog Comparing the Dollar and the Euro.  Since then, the comparisons have continued, and recently NPR had an

Ohio Exports to a Wide Range of EU Countries

As I recently wrote in Ohio’s Exports to the EU Grow in 2010, Ohio’s exports to the 27 member states of the EU rebounded in 2010 after falling in 2009.  However, the Buckeye State’s export growth was not uniform across the 27 countries.  Despite Greece, Ireland, and Portugal all being in the news for receiving bailouts,

Workshop enables K-12 teachers to deepen knowledge of EU

On Friday, April 1, the European Union Center at Indiana University sponsored a workshop in Indianapolis for K-12 teachers from across the state. The workshop, entitled “The European Union and Why it Matters to the Midwest,” was designed for social studies and language teachers who wished to broaden their knowledge of the European Union and

IU Shows More DEFA Films

Yesterday, the DEFA film project returned to IU, with the showing of Verriegelte Zeit (Locked-up Time).  Released after the fall of the German Democratic Republic, Locked-up Time is a documentary about filmmaker Sibylle Schoenemann’s arrest by the STASI, East Germany’s secret police, and her subsequent expulsion to West Germany in the 1980s.  In 1990, she

WEST’s Outreach Efforts Receive Award

West European Studies is pleased to announce that International Studies In Schools (ISIS) recently received a Pinnacle Award Honorable Mention for the quality of its presentations from the Center for Interactive Learning and Collaboration (CILC).  Created in 1995, ISIS is a free videoconferencing project that connects K-12 schools and community groups across the U.S. with

WEST creates partnership between Hoosier and English Schools

A partnership that WEST has orchestrated between a middle school in Bloomington, Indiana and Hampshire, England was highlighted yesterday on the front page of the local newspaper, The Herald-Times (“Batchelor students to make trans-Atlantic ties”).  WEST will be helping Batchelor Middle School and Bourne Community College in Hampshire, England create a trans-Atlantic blog where students