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About the Center
The Center for German and European Studies (CGES) is a consortium of the University of Minnesota (Twin Cities) and the University of Wisconsin (Madison). Established in 1998 with major funding from the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) and matching funds from the two universities, CGES is one of only five such centers supported by the DAAD in the United States and the only one located in the Midwest.
CGES is vitally concerned with enhancing knowledge about all aspects of Europe. We promote research, teaching, training, and community education on Germany and Europe in a trans-Atlantic context. Trans-Atlantic for us means that in an era of accelerating globalization the most productive attempts to understand Europe require a model that is dynamic and that brings together Europeans and Americans from a wide variety of disciplines and perspectives to research and discuss topics of common concern. We also strongly believe that the best assessments of future opportunities and developments in the relations between America and Europe are grounded in a thorough understanding of Europe's past.
Major CGES Programs
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Research Collaboratives
This annual program supports innovative research—on German and European economics, politics, history, and culture—among faculty and graduate students from multiple disciplines and institutions.
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European Symposia
This yearlong lecture and workshop series is a showcase for some of today’s most exciting scholarly work on Germany and Europe.
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Trans-Atlantic Summer Institutes (TASI)
This fellowship program, meeting alternately in Minneapolis and Germany, helps develop the next generation of experts on Germany and Europe through intensive summer seminars for 12 North American and 12 European graduate students.
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Undergraduate Curriculum
This program helps faculty develop exciting new interdisciplinary courses on Germany and Europe.
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Akademie DeutschlandStudien Wittenberg
Unique in the United States, this fellowship program each year sends ten K–12 teachers from the Midwest and other areas in the continental United States to historic Lutherstadt Wittenberg (Germany) for an intensive professional development program, enabling them to integrate new knowledge of Germany and Europe into their language, history, and social science curricula.
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Community Engagement
CGES supports dynamic Twin Cities projects such as the Children's Theatre Company's Neighborhood Bridges initiative, the International Film Festival, and cultural exhibitions such as the "Coexistence" exhibit.
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Special Events
This program brings leading international experts on German and European politics, economics, history, and culture to the University and to venues in the greater community.