The European Cluster for American Studies (ECAS) is a network of higher education institutions across Europe cooperating in research and teaching in the field of North-American Studies.
Current participating institutions are: Université Paris VII Diderot (France), Freie Universitaet Berlin (Germany), Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet Muenchen (Germany), Università di Torino (Italy), Università di Venezia Ca' Foscari (Italy), Università del Piemonte Orientale (Italy), Universiteit van Amsterdam (Netherlands), Uniwersytet Warszawki (Poland), University of Basel (Switzerland).
Over the last 20 years, ECAS member institutions have been active in the exchange of students and staff through the Erasmus program, in the development of teaching curricula and European joint degrees, conferences, and scholarly publications. In 2011, ECAS organised a Summer Program of American Studies at the Freie Univresitaet Berlin, sponsored by the European Union.
The idea for cooperation under Brussels auspices was first mooted in Amsterdam at the time of the EAAS biennial meeting there, in 1980. Brussels money at that time came under the heading of Joint Studies Programs, JSP, which allowed three academic programs, from three different European member countries, to set up programs to be taught at the three participating universities. Later that year things got moving and the JFK in Berlin, Nottingham and Amsterdam applied for money, got it, and after three years produced a text to be used in teaching: The Thirties: Politics and Culture in a Time of Broken Dreams, editors: Heinz Ickstadt, Rob Kroes, and Brian Lee (Amsterdam: Free University Press, 1987). After two years the format of the Brussels Program changed and became the Erasmus program. With the support of Nottingham and Brussels, Rob Kroes then explored a widening of the group of participant programs, which henceforth included Orléans, Munich, Venice, Torino, Copenhagen, Odense, and Basel, on top of the original three. The program's "official" photographer for the first several years was Dominique Marcais.
CONTACTS:
Prof. Gregory Dowling (ECAS Coordinator)
Università di Venezia
dowling.gregory@gmail.com
