People
Yannis A. Stivachtis is Professor of Political Science and Director of the International Studies Program at Virginia Tech. He is also the holder of the Jean Monnet Chair and serves as Director of the Center for European and Transatlantic Studies (CEUTS) - A Jean Monnet Center of Excellence. His research interests include European security; EU’s strategy; EU’s foreign and security policy (including EU-great powers relations and the European Neighborhood Policy (ENP); transatlantic political, security, and defense relations; and European, transatlantic, and Eurasian international organizations and integration.
At CEUTS, Professor Stivachtis is responsible for the Center’s outreach and engagement programs and activities, as well as the management of the academic programs that the Center oversees. Please get in touch at ystivach@vt.edu to explore possibilities for collaboration and learn about the academic programs offered at Virginia Tech (Major in EUropean & Transatlantic Studies; Minor in EUropean Studies; Minor in Transatlantic Studies; and the experiential learning Minor in EUropean Engagement).
119 Major Williams Hall |
540.231.5816 |
Colin Baker in the classroom
Colin G Baker is the Program Director for K-12 Education at CEUTS. He has served as Co-Chair of the College Board's Advanced Placement European History Development Committee, as Exam Leader of AP European History exams and as Department Chair of Social Studies at Blacksburg High School, Virginia where he currently teaches. His academic interests include research and publications resulting from field work at Verdun, France and the UK National Archives in Kew, London. Amongst his degrees he holds a MA (Hons) in Politics and Modern History from the University of Edinburgh, Scotland.
At CEUTS Colin is involved in the planning of materials, events and professional development opportunities for K-12 teachers in Virginia and the mid-Atlantic related to the EU and modern Europe. He also organizes regional events for high-school students related to the EU. Several of the K-12 programs at CEUTS involve collaboration with teachers and students in Europe. Please get in touch with Colin at cbakermcps@vt.edu to explore possibilities for collaboration and learn about the K-12 programs offered at CEUTS and the various partnerships we have with state, regional and European educational organizations.
cbaker@mcps.org |
|
Esther Bauer’s research specializes in German literature and culture since the late nineteenth century, particularly the Weimar Republic and today, and focuses on questions of subjectivity, gender, desire, love, age and aging, and visualizations of bodies. She has published on writers Thomas Mann, Franz Kafka, Vicki Baum, Max Frisch, and Judith Hermann, and on painters Egon Schiele, Christian Schad, and Otto Dix. Her book Bodily Desire, Desired Bodies: Gender and Desire in Early Twentieth-Century German and Austrian Novels and Paintings came out with Northwestern UP in 2014. Her articles have appeared in journals such as the German Quarterly, Seminar, Feminist German Studies, Weimarer Beiträge, and Monatshefte. Recently, her research has focused on the role of images of masculinity in times of crisis and change, including the First World War and the interwar years, and on non-hegemonic masculinities, e.g., gay masculinities. She is now working on a new book on male midlife and quarterlife crises in German literary prose texts and art since 1900. Together with Dr. Chiara Piazzesi (Sociology, Université de Québec à Montréal), she is collaborating on a project on male aging crises in German and North American popular cultures.
330 Major Williams Hall |
540.231.9846 |
Chad A. Hankinson is a Lecturer in the Department of Political Science, and the Associat Director for Administration and Strategic Planning for the center. An Americanist by training, Prof. Hankinson has taught Introductory American Politics and Government classes through a comparative lens - even running a faculty led study abroad program to Italy that compares American and Italian government and politics. Before joining VT, Hankinson was on faculty at Oklahoma State University and the University of Missouri - St. Louis where he was heavily involved in creating and promoting experiential learning opportunities for students.
At CEUTS Prof. Hankinson is responsible for - among other things - maintaining the center’s website, promoting events, working with local media, and publishing the montly newsletter. Please get in touch with him at chadhankinson@vt.edu to explore possibilities for experiential learning, and to discuss promoting the center and its many activities.
512 Major Williams Hall |
504.231.9744 |
Ralph Hall is a Professor in the Urban Affairs and Planning (UAP) program at Virginia Tech, the Director of Undergraduate Studies in the School of Public and International Affairs (SPIA), the Associate Director of the Center for the Future of Work Places and Practices (CFWPP), the Head of Outreach and Engagement for the Center for European & Transatlantic Studies (CEUTS), and is an affiliated faculty member of the Virginia Tech Honors College. He has over two decades of academic and professional experience in applying the concept of sustainable development to socio-technical systems with a specific emphasis on transportation systems in developed regions, and rural water supply and sanitation systems in developing regions. Prof. Hall is currently developing research agendas around new economics, food access and security at institutions of higher education, and agrivoltaics/dual-use solar.
119 Major Williams |
540.231.5874 |
Besnik Pula is Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science. His research lies is in the areas of international and comparative political economy, the study post-communist transformations, and social theory. He is the author of Globalization Under and After Socialism: The Evolution of Transnational Capital in Central and Eastern Europe (Stanford University Press, 2018) and his research has appeared in numerous journals including East European Politics, New Political Economy, Political Power and Social Theory, Comparative Studies in History and Society, Theory and Society, Journal for the Theory of Social Behavior, and as various book chapters. Dr. Pula has been a recipient of fellowships and grants from the National Science Foundation, Fulbright-Hays program, International Research and Exchanges Board, American Council for Learned Societies, National Council for Eurasian and East European Research, and the International Institute at the University of Michigan and his work has been awarded by the American Sociological Association.
Prof. Dimitris Tsarouhas is Head of EU Projects and Partnerships, Program Director for the Türkiye Research Program and a member of the Outreach and Engagement Committee at the Center for European and Transatlantic Studies (CEUTS). A former Jean Monnet Chair Holder in EU Politics, Prof. Tsarouhas is also Adjunct Professor at Georgetown University’s Security Studies Program, a Senior Non-Resident Research Fellow at the Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy (ELIAMEP) in Athens, Greece, and a Scientific Council Member of the Foundation for European Progressive Studies (FEPS).His research has been published in journals such as Regulation & Governance, New Political Economy, Journal of European Integration, Public Administration, Comparative European Politics, Cambridge Review of International Affairs, Social Politics, Social Policy & Administration, Political Studies Review,Armed Forces & Society, and Southeast European and Black Sea Studies.
Glenn R. Bugh is an Associate Professor of Ancient and Byzantine History, Department of History; Co-founder of the Classical Studies Program at Virginia Tech; Head of Education and Chair of the Education Committee of CEUTS and History faculty rep of CEUTS Academic Advisory Board. Extensive European experience: grew up in Austria and Italy as a boy; Chair of the American Research Center in Sofia (ARCS, 2004-2014); Teaching faculty at the Center for European Studies and Architecture (now the Steger Center) 1995-1996, 2006, 2010, 2022; Gertrude Professor of Classical Studies at the American School of Classical Studies at Athens (ASCSA) =Director of three summer sessions, 2000, 2011, 2023); Elizabeth A. Whitehead Visiting Professor, ASCSA 2004-2005; numerous lecture trips for Smithsonian Institution in Mediterranean & Black Sea (1984-). Exchange Faculty at the University of Kent at Canterbury, UK Spring 2014. Director of a study abroad program (Making of England) to the UK, Summer I, 2024
| Name | Title |
| Amy Split | Business Manager and Grant Specialist |
| Chris Price | Administrative Assistant |
| Miabella Wehri | Communication Intern |
| Ellie Van Bduren | EUSO President |
| Erica Martin | SIGIL Administrative Assistant |
| Name | Title |
| Laura Belmonte | CLAHS Dean & CEUTTSS Administrator |
| Farida Jalalzai | CLAHS Associate Dean for Global Initiatives and Engagement |
| Tom Thompson | Associate Dean & Director of Global Programs |
| Glenda Scales | COE Associate Dean for Global Engagement |
| Tom Crawford | Chair, Department of Geography |
| Randy Heflin | COS, Associate Dean for Research |
| Roberta Russell | Iterim Dean, Pamplin College of Business |
| Tim Luke | University Distinguished Professor, Department of Political Science, & Interim Director of SPIA |
| Justice Elizabeth A. McClanahan | Chief Executive Officer, Virginia Tech Foundation |
| Don Hempson | Associate Vice President for International Affairs, Office of Outreach and International Affairs |
| Karen Roberto | University Distinguished Professor, and the Execuitve Director of the Institute for Society, Culture, and the Environment |
| Yannis Stivachtis | Professor of Political Science, Jean Monnet Chair, and CEUTTSS Executive Director |
| Heather Gumbert | Faculty Representative, Department of History |
| Binio Binev | Faculty Representative, Department of Political Science |
| Sharon P. Johnson | Faculty Representative, Department of Classical & Modern Languages & Literatures |
| Name | Title |
| John C. Beghin | Michael Yanney Chair of International Trade & Finance, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, USA |
| Didier Bigo | Professor of International Relations (European/International Political Sociology), Sciences Po, France |
| Thomas Christiansen | Professor of Political Science (European Politics), Luiss University, Italy |
| Thomas Diez | Professor of International Relations, University of Tuebingen, Germany |
| Desmond Dinan | Professor of Public Policy & Jean Monnet Chair, George Mason University, USA |
| Sophie Meunier | Senior Research Fellow (Trade Negotiations); Co-Director, European Union Program, Princeton University, USA |
| Kalypso Nikolaidis | Professor of International Relations, University of Oxford UK |
| Mark Pollack | Professor of Law & Political Science & Jean Monnet Chair, Temple University, USA |
| Grigoris Papanikos | President, Athens Institute of Education & Research, Greece; former Chair, Greek Economic & Social Committee |
| Michalis Psalidopoulos | Professor of Economics (Emeritus), University of Athens, Greece and former Alternate Executive Director at IFM |
| Ben Rosamond | Professor of Political Science (European Politics & Political Economy), University of Copenhagen, Denmark |
| Nathalie Tocci | Director, Institute of International Affairs, Italy & Special Advisor to the former EU HRVP Federica Mogherini |
| Richard Whitman | Professor of International Relations, University of Kent & Academic Fellow at the European Policy Center, UK |
| Nikos Zahariadis | Mertie Buckman Distinguished Professor of International Studies (European Political Econ), Rhodes College, USA |
Richard Shryock is an associate professor of French. As a member of the Academic Affairs Committee, he will provide input regarding French courses and study abroad options with French. He is a specialist of late 19th-century French literature and is particularly interested in the intersections between aesthetics and ideology. His scholarship explores the role of politics in the French symbolist movement in literature. Access to the family archives of the Symbolist writer Gustave Kahn led to publications on this author Lettres à Gustave et Rachel Kahn and Gustave Kahn: Un écrivain engagé (with Françoise Lucbert) as well as co-curating an exhibition on Kahn at the Museum of the Art and History of Judaism in Paris. He is a co-editor of Histoireslittéraires. With Gayle Zachmann, he organizes Cultural Production in the 19th century, an annual workshop for French and American scholars, held at the Université Paris Cité and the American University of Paris.
Sharon P. Johnson is an associate professor of French and Francophone studies in the Department of Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures. She completed her undergrad at Kalamazoo College before contining her education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison obtaining her M.A. and PhD. Her reasearch focuses on 19th-century Literature and Paintings, Paris in the 19th-Century, Flaubert, Maupassant, Zola, Rape in 19th-century Penny Presses, French Jurisprudence and Medical Reports. From August 10 2016-August 10 2022 she held the role of Director of Women’s and Gender Studies.
Max Stephenson, Jr. currently serves as a Professor of Public and International Affairs and the Director of the Institute for Policy and Governance at Virginia Tech. His research and teaching interests include leadership, civil society and democratic theory, social change processes, international development, human rights and refugees and peacebuilding. He is the author or editor of 13 books or monographs, more than 90 refereed articles and book chapters and more than 400 commentaries on democratic politics in the United States and elsewhere. He serves as one of the faculty representatives from the School of Public and International Affairs to the Center for European & Transatlantic Studies (CEUT). He has worked on multiple projects across the years with CEUT and its Director, Dr. Yannis Stivachtis.
Rachel Stauffer, Visiting Assistant Professor of Russian, is a researcher and practitioner in the area of Russian language instruction and education about Russia in the United States in critical historical and social perspectives. She is a co-creator of AATSEEL's Certificate in Diverse and Inclusive Pedagogies (CDIPS) and served on the Executive Council as the organization's Conference Manager from 2013 until 2022. In addition to several years of teaching at Virginia Tech, Rachel has taught Spanish, Russian, and other types of courses about Russia at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, James Madison University, Randolph College, Ferrum College, and the University of Virginia. She is a member of the CEUTS Academic Affairs Committee, to which she lends her experience with Title VI National Resource Centers and other federal programs that support global and area studies in US postsecondary education and scholarship.
Binio S. Binev, Assistant Professor in the Political Science Department and faculty representative of the Political Science Department.
Binio S. Binev is Assistant Professor in the Political Science Department at Virginia Tech, where he teaches courses in comparative politics, political economy and political regimes. At CEUTS, he teaches on European politics and serves as the faculty representative of the Political Science Department. His research covers various topics in comparative politics, including populism, post-communist democratization and institutions, cross-regional perspectives and conceptual development. His work has been published in Comparative Political Studies, Government and Opposition and Studies in Comparative International Development, and his research has been supported by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), Columbia University’s Center for European Studies, Georgetown University and Virginia Tech. He has studied in Germany and Mexico, and carried out fieldwork in Central Europe and the Andes. Dr. Binev completed his education at Georgetown University, earning an M.A. in German and European Studies from the Walsh School of Foreign Service and a Ph.D. in Government.
Georgeta Pourchot has over 20 years of international programming experience in think tanks and institutions of higher education, working both independently and collaboratively on national and
international research projects, policy development, academic program start-up and management, graduate recruitment and advising, alumni relations, teaching and writing. She also helped establish and negotiated MOUs for international graduate program agreements, including a unique double MA in international studies. She has written on democratization processes in former communist countries and served as editor and author of an extensive array of articles and reports published nationally and internationally.
María del Carmen Caña Jiménez is an associate professor of Spanish.
Native of Spain, María del Carmen Caña Jiménez is an associate professor of Spanish.
She is the author of over 20 articles and the editor of Desafíos, diferencias y deformaciones de la ciudadanía: mutantes y monstruos en la producción cultural latinoamericana reciente (A Contracorriente, forthcoming in Fall 2020) and “Beyond Violence (Criticism) in Contemporary Hispanic Narratives and Cinemas” (Hispanófila 178, 2016). She has also co-edited with Vinodh Venkatesh Crisis TV: Hispanic Television Narratives after 2008 (Fortcoming, SUNY Press); Horacio Castellanos Moya: El diablo en el espejo (Albatros 2016) and “Affect, Bodies, and Circulations in Contemporary Latin American Film” (Arizona Journal of Hispanic Cultural Studies 20, 2016).
Caña Jiménez is the Latin American book review editor of Hispanófila.
Caña Jiménez serves as the Spanish representative for the Academic Affairs Committee at the CEUTS.
She is also the faculty advisor, founder, and choreographer of Olé at VT, a flamenco dance student organization.
Nataliya Brantly is an Assistant Professor in the Government and International Affairs (GIA) Program within the School of Public and International Affairs (SPIA) at Virginia Tech. She received her PhD in the Science and Technology Studies (STS) program from Virginia Tech. Dr. Brantly studies complex issues pertaining to electronic health governance, consumer biomedical technology security and the impact of biomedical technologies on the human condition. She is assessing the development and application of norms, principles and procedures that shape the use of biomedical technologies for global health security. Dr. Brantly teaches courses in electronic governance and contemporary complex security systems.
Bestami S. Bilgiç holds a PhD degree in History from the George Washington University. He received his BA and MA degrees in International Relations from Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey. He previously taught in several universities in Turkey, Kosovo and Northern Macedonia. Currently he teaches at the History and Religion & Culture Departments of Virginia Tech. He recently co-edited a volume called Turkish-American Relations Since 1783 from Rowman & Littlefield and wrote several chapters in it. He also published a chapter on American-Ottoman military diplomacy in a new book published by the Marine Corps University Press. Dr. Bilgic’s current research is on the history of Turkish foreign policy toward Europe and the United States.
Shaun Respess is an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Political Science and CEUTS Research Fellow at Virginia Tech. His research explores the intersections between care, public health, and human flourishing, with an emphasis on mental health. Current projects explore relations of depression in distinct ecological and political systems, the emerging policy implications presented by telehealth, regional approaches to psychiatric care and waste, and the viability of a cosmopolitan care framework. As an instructor, he enjoys introducing students to questions of political order and interdependency while also cultivating their technical skills.
Sharon P. Johnson is an associate professor of French and Francophone studies in the Department of Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures. She completed her undergrad at Kalamazoo College before contining her education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison obtaining her M.A. and PhD. Her reasearch focuses on 19th-century Literature and Paintings, Paris in the 19th-Century, Flaubert, Maupassant, Zola, Rape in 19th-century Penny Presses, French Jurisprudence and Medical Reports. From August 10 2016-August 10 2022 she held the role of Director of Women’s and Gender Studies.
Enrico Ciappi is a postdoctoral researcher at LUISS Guido Carli University in Rome, Italy. His main areas of research are International Relations, European Union studies, and history of the Cold War. After earning a Ph.D. from the University of Pavia in the History of transatlantic relations, he is developing a study on the EU external relations in the post-Cold War era. Since 2017 he has published essays in the Journal of Contemporary History, Journal of European Integration History, History of European Ideas Journal, Glocalism Journal, and for Pavia University Press. His first monograph will be soon published by Routledge under the title of Building Europe in New York: from the Munich Conference to the Schuman Plan (1938-1952).
Evanthia Balla is an Associate Professor at the University of Évora and a Scientific Researcher at the Research Centre of Political Science, Portugal. She serves as the coordinator of the Master’s in International Relations and European Studies of the University of Évora. She is also a Committee member of the PhD in Political Theory, International Relations, and Human Rights, created in partnership by the Universities of Évora and the Azores. She has been publishing thoroughly at national and international journals. Her research interests includeEuropean integration; European security; international politics; European governance; citizenship, human rights.
Ebru Turhan is associate professor of European Studies at the Department of Political Science and International Relations, Turkish-German University (TDU), Istanbul. She also serves as a senior research fellow and member of the academic advisory board at the Institute for European Politics (IEP) in Berlin. Previously, she was a visiting professor at TU Chemnitz, Germany and a Mercator-IPC Fellow at the Sabanci University, Istanbul. Turhan is the co-editor of EU-Turkey Relations: Theories, Institutions, and Policies (Palgrave Macmillan). Her articles have been published in the Journal of Common Market Studies, Journal of Contemporary European Studies, Journal of Balkan and Near Eastern Studies, and Journal of Contemporary European Research, among others.
Twitter: @DrEbruTurhan
Sung Eun SHIM is a researcher at National Assembly Research Service (South Korea), specializing in EU’s foreign and security policy and national politics of its Member States (MS). He completed his Ph.D. at Paris-Nanterre University. Main research areas include conventional security issues (EU and its MS’ sanctions and Indo-Pacific strategies), and non-conventional security policies (border security and economic security). His interestes also lie with other political issues including the populist far-right parties, and immigration and refugee policies. Resent publications include “Correlation between EU sanction intensity and socioeconomic factors in targeted countries”and “The impact of COVID-19 on the support for European political parties”.
Dr. John M. Nomikos is the Director of the Research Institute for European and American Studies (RIEAS) (Athens, Greece). He is also the Director of the European Intelligence Academy (EIA) and Founding Editor, of the Journal of European and American Intelligence Studies (JEAIS). He was awarded the "2019 Life Achievement for the Development of Intelligence Studies in Europe" by the International Association for Intelligence Education - European Chapter (IAFIE -Europe). He specializes in issues pertaining to transatlantic security, NATO,, energy security, Greek -Indian relations, Greek-Israel relations, Black Sea and Eastern Mediterranean region, intelligence reforms in the Balkan and Southeastern states, transnational crime, extremism, counter-terrorism studies and national security architecture. He is a member of the Canadian Association for Security and Intelligence Studies (CASIS); the Australian Institute of Professional Intelligence Officers (AIPIO); the Foreign Areas Officers Association (FAOA); International Association of Law Enforcement Intelligence Analysts (IALEIA); and the International Security and Strategy Group/Experts (ISSG). He has conducted research in various research institutions in the US, UK, Germany, Finland, and Norway and published several intelligence-related studies.
Evan Czajkowski is a Master of Public and International Affairs student at Virginia Tech based in Washington, DC. He obtained his Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Virginia Tech in 2022. Evan is researching Greek-US military relations, with a particular focus on American leases to Greek military bases and how those bases, and their geostrategic locations, play a vital role in the West's efforts at assisting Ukraine in its war against Russia. At Virginia Tech, he served as the Graduate Assistant to the Associate Vice President for International Affairs for the 2022-2023 academic year; the Steger Center Fellow during the Fall 2023 term, where he assisted faculty in running the European Affairs in a Global Context study abroad program in Riva San Vitale, Switzerland; and is currently interning on Capitol Hill in the Office of Congressman Nicholas Langworthy.
Ashton Bliss is a Masters of Public and International Affairs student at the Virginia Tech Research Center in Arlington, VA. She obtained her Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and German Studies from Mount Holyoke College in 2021. Her research is focused on democratic backsliding in post-Cold War Europe and using women's rights to measure autocratization. She has performed research that focuses on political resistance in East Germany, the politics of resistance, authoritarianism, election legitimacy and voter suppression following the 2020 election, women’s rights, civil society, and human security, and has had her research featured in the New York Times. Ashton is currently fulfilling a traineeship at the European Union Delegation to the United States in the Press and Public Diplomacy Section, and serving as the Virginia Tech DC-Graduate Student Assembly Social Chair.