EU-DIGEST

The University of Pittsburgh's European Union Center (EUC) and its director were both recently honored by the European Commission. Director Alberta Sbragia was named Jean Monnet Chair ad personam, and the center was designated a European Union Center of Excellence (EUCE). Sbragia, a Pitt professor of political science and director of the Center for West European Studies (CWES), of which EUC is a part, was one of only two academics to be named Jean Monnet Chair ad personam this year. The new chairs join a group of seven elite American academicians whose careers exemplify excellence in teaching and research related to the European Union. According to the European Commission, “The title Jean Monnet Chair ad personam is reserved for professors showing evidence of a high level European commitment that is recognized by the academic world, at both national and international levels.” “Pitt's successful bid to renew its European Union Center is all the more remarkable since the number of funded centers has dropped from 15 to 10. It is testimony to the extraordinary leadership of Alberta Sbragia that our EUC was re-funded in such a competitive environment,” said William Brustein, senior executive director of Pitt's University Center for International Studies and a professor of sociology, political science, and history. “The strength of our European Union studies program would not be what it is without Alberta's international reputation as a scholar, and so I am doubly pleased that the European Commission has awarded her the Jean Monnet Chair ad personam.”