Integrating Europe in a Changing World
Siena and Rome, Italy
Program Dates: June 23 – July 11, 2008
Program Director: Dr. Stephen J. Silvia
Core Seminar: 3 credits
Independent Study (optional): 3 credits

Gain rare access to high-ranking EU officials, world-renowned scholars, and experienced practitioners at the Jean Monnet International Summer Seminar. As an AU student, you will join other students from around the world in discussions with these important EU players and together analyze the internal and external dimensions of the EU.

The highly-selective, three-week seminar, organized by the Europe Office of the University of Rome Tor Vergata in collaboration with the Center for American Studies, will begin with a week in Siena dedicated to EU lobbying and decision-making. The second week, taught in Rome, will be devoted to assessing the level of EU domestic integration with a particular focus on the impact of the 2004 and 2007 enlargement processes and the status of the Treaty for a European Constitution. The final week, also in Rome, will focus on the impact of the EU in the world, specifically in regards to the changing nature of transatlantic relations and the role of the EU in the Middle East peace process.

Set in the heart of the Italian peninsula, in the regions of Tuscany and Lazio, the seminar affords students ample opportunity to explore the architectural and artistic treasures of the surrounding regions.

Teri Bjerregaard, a SIS student who attended the program in 2007, wrote, “The academic program and range of seminars was fantastic and challenging. My only wish is that I could have participated in the seminar longer! I do very much plan to stay in touch with all of the practitioners and scholars - particularly the ‘ipeconomists’ (!), as I am entirely committed to continuing my academic and professional career in the realm of European Integration… I hope that future SIS students of EI - or fellow “Europeanists” - will also be able to take advantage of such an outstanding opportunity in the coming years.”

Dr. Stephen J. Silvia is Director of Doctoral Studies at SIS and a Board Member of the American Consortium on EU Studies. He teaches international economics, international trade relations, and comparative politics. He has taught at Yale and Tufts Universities, and has been a resident scholar at Harvard University, The Johns Hopkins University, the Freie Universität Berlin and the Institut für Sozialforschung in Frankfurt/Main. Dr. Silvia has received numerous grants and awards including the Fulbright Research Fellowship, a National Endowment for the Humanities Grant, a Robert Bosch Fellowship, a DaimlerChrysler Fellowship and a Volkswagen Foundation Grant. He has published widely in scholarly journals including Business in the Contemporary World, Comparative Politics, German Politics, German Studies Review, Gewerkschaftliche Monatshefte, Industrial and Labor Relations Review, International Journal of Political Economy, Journal of Public Policy, New German Critique and West European Politics. Dr. Silvia's research specializes in comparative labor markets and comparative industrial relations, with a focus on Germany and the European Union. This is his second year directing the SIS Summer Abroad Program in Italy.

Find out more about the European Union and apply to the program by downloading the program guide [555kb PDF].