For over forty years the Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies has been a meeting place for Harvard faculty and students, academics in the Boston area, visiting scholars, public servants, and journalists with an interest in modern Europe. The Center is concerned to foster the understanding of European history, politics, society, and culture. Cast an eye over our busy program in any given year and you will find events that examine key aspects of contemporary Europe- elections, the euro, environmental issues, the institutional development of the EU. But a regular visitor will also find a lecture , a study group presentation, or a colloquium on gender history, music, or multiculturalism. This breadth is our hallmark . The Center seeks to nurture the exchange of ideas , across the disciplines, across the generations , and across the Atlantic. We take pride in the intellectual diversity of our program.

The Center's Busch Hall, originally the site of the University's Germanic Museum, provides offices for faculty, affiliated graduate students, and staff. It also houses visiting scholars from Europe and North America. In welcoming these visitors we encourage them to share their interests and projects, both informally and in a visiting scholars' brown-bag lunch series. The Center sponsors seminars, lectures and conferences. We also grant competitive fellowships to graduate students who need to spend a year in Europe engaged in dissertation research as well as dissertation completion fellowships. Since 2010-11 CES has, additionally, supported first-year graduate students . We also support many undergraduates across a variety of disciplines who need to spend time in Europe undertaking senior thesis research. Other events, such as talks on how to put together a research proposal, reflect the Center's strong commitment to serving the needs of undergraduates with an interest in Europe.

The Center is a vibrant intellectual community, which continues to thrive because of the expertise and commitment of those who organize or attend our events and the colleagues who serve on committees , including the steering committee that plays an essential part in Center governance. We draw on the talents of an active undergraduate board, and we enjoy the support of a dedicated staff. The Message from the Director in recent years has inevitably, and rightly, noted the impact of difficult financial times on both centers and departments, as the Faculty of Arts and Sciences looked to close a large budget deficit. The effects of straitened university finances will continue to be felt this year. But I firmly believe what I wrote in this space last year. Everything that is most important in what we do remains unchanged: the teaching and learning , the intellectual debates and exchanges of ideas that make the Center for European Studies what it is.

On behalf of the Center, I invite members of the Harvard and Greater Boston university communities as well as other interested individuals to take part in our activities. Our website and an electronic monthly calendar offer a guide to events, fellowship opportunities, and the wide- ranging research of colleagues at the Center. The Center for European Studies is one of the leading forums in the world for debating the past and present of modern Europe. We look forward to seeing you again, or to welcoming you for the first time, in this new academic year.

David Blackbourn
Coolidge Professor of History and Director of the Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies