My first interaction with the Council for European Studies was during the 2015-16 EPIIC year on "The Future of Europe" at my Institute. I selected this theme in 2013 as my very last theme before I was to become Emeritus in 2016, because it was already apparent to me that serious threats to democracy and the cohesion of the European Union were brewing from xenophobia, racism, and radical populist nationalism in Europe. 

I invited Columbia University Professor Sheri Berman to the symposium in recognition of her scholarship on democracy, and awarded one of that year's Institute Dr. Jean Mayer Awards, a program I created in 1999, to John Bowen, a foremost scholar on Muslims in Europe. I soon realized that I had invited the incoming and outgoing Chairs of CES, and asked Sheri herself to present the award to John.

Following the symposium Sheri wrote me:

I wanted to say how stimulating and impressive I found the conference.  All the invited speakers were of course great but I was most impressed by the enthusiasm and professionalism of your students.  Talking to them in the breakout session and hearing them at the panels, I was very jealous. Those are the type of young people I wish I met more! I am sure they will all go on to do amazing things.

That year, Jerome, and I attended the CES’ Conference of Europeanists in Philadelphia, and was asked by Sheri to become an advisor to CES. Later that year, I met with Nicole Shea, CES Executive Director, at Columbia University. She asked me to become a regular contributor to EuropeNow.

I joined the Strategic Development Board at Nicole’s invitation, where by serendipity — that concept again — I realized I will be working with my wonderful alumnus of the Institute’s Synaptic Scholars program, Duncan Pickard, CES Treasurer. Duncan participated in our Convisero conversation with the Fellowship at Auschwitz for the Study of Professional Ethics.

In light of Nicole relocating to Berlin in 2019, I introduced her to my friend Peter Droege, with whom I had conducted an interview for CES’s EuropeNow two years prior (see below). Nicole is now Chair of an “Action” of the European Cooperation in Science and Technology, on the “Dynamics of Placemaking and Digitization of Europe’s Cities.” Peter is a world expert on sustainable urban design, and will become a valued participant in the Action, which will have a presence at the CES 50th Anniversary Conference in Reykjavik in 2020. (The conference was to be held in June, but has been postponed due to COVID-19.)

Knowing of my interest in culture and historical memory, Nicole called my attention specifically to a workshop she will convene for the Action at Humboldt University on "Memory and Digitization.” This is an interest that Peter and I share, as well as my alumna Dacia Viejo Rose, with whom I conducted my first EuropeNow interview on her research on cultural memory and politics.

My contributions to EuropeNow have given me an opportunity to feature the work of my alumni and the expertise of old and new professional friends. My first interview was conducted with Institute alumnus Mike Niconchuk on his research and grassroots advocacy on neurology, conflict, and social belonging in the Za'atari refugee camp.

Mike’s interview was featured in a EuropeNow issue co-edited with another of my alumni from my very first 1985/86 EPIIC year, Turhan Canli, whom I introduced to Nicole to plan the edition. I am a strategic adviser for his developing Mind Brain Center on War and Humanity at Stony Brook University.

I am returning to this wonderful opportunity and will soon be creating a series of interviews on Ukraine.