By Mitchell A. Orenstein
Penn’s European Studies Institute (ESI) trains the next generation of experts in European studies. Founded in 2024 with a grant from Penn Global and drawing together leading Penn faculty experts in its Advisory Council, ESI organizes the European Studies Minor at Penn, promotes study abroad in Europe, and sponsors an annual trip to Brussels and elsewhere in Europe for senior thesis writers.
The flagship ESI Trip brings a select group of senior thesis-writing undergraduate students to Europe each year around a common theme, currently the securitization of EU policy after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Led by Professor Mitchell A. Orenstein from the Department of Russian and East European Studies and Political Science, trip participants conduct in-person interviews with European leaders and analysts during the January break in London, Brussels, Budapest, and elsewhere. These trips offer students an opportunity to conduct primary interviews for their thesis research, but also professional opportunities to observe EU policy in action. Students represent a wide variety of majors from the social sciences and humanities.
ESI also cosponsors the Philadelphia Area Research Workshop (PHEW), a project of the Penn-Temple European Studies Consortium (PTESC) established by Mark Pollack of Temple University and Julia Lynch of UPenn. PHEW brings together Philadelphia-area Europeanists to discuss current research in an annual day-long seminar hosted at Temple University or Penn in cooperation with the Council for European Studies.
University of Pennsylvania has a deep and impressive commitment to study abroad in Europe, with dozens of opportunities for students from a wide variety of disciplines. Penn’s European Studies Minor provides interested study abroad students with recognition of their European studies background and a focus on European Union institutions.
Penn’s ESI continues to build student-centered research and programming on Europe, a region that is not only the top overseas destination for Americans, but also America’s largest trade partner, a powerful cultural influence, and where, more than ever, Americans see much to love and to emulate.
Articles in this Spotlight:
A Home Away from Home: Penn’s European Cultural Clubs
Understanding Europe Means Understanding the EU: A Conversation with Professor Brendan O’Leary
From Penn to Moldova: One Fulbright Scholar’s Path to the Front Lines of European Security
Inside the Radical Right: A Conversation with Dr. Valeriya Kamenova
Penn’s European Studies Institute: Where Undergraduate Research Meets the Heart of European Policy
Somewhere New Every Weekend: Penn Students on Studying Abroad in Europe
“We Are Humans First”: Professor Julia Lynch on Welfare, Inequality, and What Europe Gets Right
All articles in the spotlight were written by Niklas Romberg, a Bachelor’s of Arts in International Relations candidate at the University of Pennslvania, Class of 2027.
Author Bio:
Mitchell A. Orenstein is Professor of Russian and East European Studies and Political Science at University of Pennsylvania. He is a Senior Fellow of the Foreign Policy Research Institute, a think tank based in Philadelphia.