St Antony's 75th Anniversary Logo

The European Studies Centre: 2000-2025

Dr Othon Anastasakis

The ESC story

In 2026, the European Studies Centre (ESC) at St Antony’s College celebrates its 50th anniversary, and the College itself marks its 75th year. This double milestone invites reflection not only on the institutional history of the ESC, but also on how it has contributed to the evolving character of St Antony’s as a hub of area studies and global scholarship. Over five decades, the Centre has grown from its beginning in the Cold War into a fully-fledged, interdisciplinary pan-European hub, studying the entire continent in all its diversity and complexity.

From its origins as the West European Studies Centre to its later expansion and rebranding, the ESC’s story is one of adaptation, intellectual investigation, and the forging of links with academic and policy making communities within Oxford and beyond. The following outline traces this journey, highlighting key personalities, programmes, and achievements, with particular emphasis on the period after 2000.

The first 25 years

The European Studies Centre was established in 1976 with a generous grant from the Volkswagen Foundation. When it was founded, the Centre was called the West European Studies Centre and was formally opened on 22 April 1976 by Walter Borst, General Secretary of the Volkswagen Foundation.

As a college founded by a Frenchman, and with its first two Wardens, Bill Deakin and Raymond Carr both deeply involved in European affairs, St Antony’s had been from the outset committed to the academic study of Europe. However, the need for a specialist Centre only became apparent after the creation of regional centres for Russia and Eastern Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America. The College realised that a formal Centre dedicated to West European studies would consolidate and develop its work in this area while stimulating wider interest in European affairs within the University.

In 1965, the College had secured, among other grants related to European studies, a substantial Volkswagen Foundation grant to support a programme of visiting professors and doctoral students from Germany. This initiative proved so successful that, in the early 1970s, the Volkswagen Foundation responded favourably to St Antony’s proposal to fund a physical Centre for West European studies in the refurbished house at 70 Woodstock Road, which remains the Centre’s home today.

Anthony (Tony) Nicholls was the inaugural Director of the ESC, serving from 1976 until his retirement in 2001. A distinguished historian of modern Germany, he was instrumental in founding the Centre. The original vision was to create a space within Oxford for interdisciplinary engagement on initially focused on the ‘West’—particularly in politics, history, and international relations, while gradually drawing in economists, sociologists, anthropologists, and cultural scholars.

From the beginning, the Centre hosted permanent Fellows and relied on Visiting Fellows from across Europe, alongside graduate students working on European questions from around the world. The seminar room, with its modest reference library, became a material token of that vision, serving as a gathering point for Oxford researchers interested in European affairs.

With the collapse of the Soviet bloc and the effective end of the East/West divide, the Centre underwent both symbolic and substantive transformation. In 1990, it was renamed from the West European Studies Centre to the European Studies Centre. Increasingly, post-communist states of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe were studied, from social science and historical perspectives, by the Centre, including their European Union trajectories.

Into the millennium: the next 25 years

Entering the new millennium, Europe faced both remarkable achievements and profound crises—from the introduction of the euro and the EU’s enlargement to Central and Eastern Europe, to contentious debates over the Constitutional Treaty, the financial and sovereign debt crises, Brexit, and Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine. Against this backdrop, the ESC grew in size, scope, and ambition, actively engaging with Europe’s recent past and evolving landscape, expanding its thematic remit, and hosting an ever-increasing number of permanent and visiting Fellows.

The Centre hosted high-profile lectures, workshops, and conferences, bringing together academics, policymakers and public intellectuals to debate Europe’s achievements and failings with a strong sense of the past, present and future. New faculty positions, fellowships and programmes were established in areas such as EU politics, economic integration, contemporary European history, law, social policy positioning the ESC as a global hub for European studies.

ESC Permanent Fellows

The ESC has been guided by its Directors and permanent Fellows, collectively forming the executive body known as the ESC Management Committee. This group has been central to shaping research priorities, fellowships, and term programmes, ensuring both continuity and innovation. Through their research, publications and lectures, the Permanent Fellows of the Centre enriched the Centre’s global profile and attraction.

All Directors contributed to introducing new programmes, fundraising for fellowships, and steering the Centre towards wider visibility and partnerships.

Permanent members of the Management Committee during this period included:

Fellows joining the Centre in the 2010s included:

During the 2020s:

Finally, the College has secured funding for the Rathbone Chair of Contemporary European History, further strengthening the historical research capacity of the ESC.

Collectively, the Directors and Fellows—both long- and short-term—have steered the ESC’s intellectual and administrative agenda, balancing continuity with innovation. Through these contributions, the Centre has maintained its position as a hub for interdisciplinary European studies at Oxford, engaging with both scholarly and policy-relevant debates across the continent.

ESC Programmes and Visiting Fellowships

SEESOX

South East European Studies at Oxford (SEESOX) was established in 2002 to study the political, economic, and social transformation of South East Europe in the context of European integration and post-conflict reconstruction. SEESOX has been engaging with the region’s turbulent past and complex present, researching themes such as ethnic politics in the Western Balkans, democratisation, state-building, migration and diasporas, political economy, and the enduring legacies of history.

SEESOX has built strong networks across the Balkans, Greece, Turkey, and Cyprus, combining scholarly research with policy-relevant debate, and regularly convenes international conferences, workshops, and public lectures in Oxford and in the region. It has also developed a distinctive profile through projects such as the SEESOX diaspora, the Eastern Mediterranean, Migration diplomacy or the SEESOX political economy and the region’s Central Banks network. The study of Turkey was included at SEESOX in 2004 as part of the country’s European vocation.

Under the Directorship of Othon Anastasakis and the Chairmanship (until 2020) of Kalypso Nicolaïdis, SEESOX, with the assistance of faculty, students, and volunteering practitioners, cultivated networks and collaborations, hosted a new generation of young researchers, and established postdoctoral fellowships. Over two decades, it has become a bridge between Oxford and the region, embodying the ESC’s and the College’s mission of combining rigorous academic inquiry with real-world impact. Among its most prestigious fellowships, SEESOX has hosted, through the years, the Alpha Bank Fellowship, the A.G. Leventis Fellowship, and the Programme on Contemporary Turkey visiting academics scheme, hosting both established and early- to mid-career scholars.

Dahrendorf Programme

The Dahrendorf Programme at the European Studies Centre was established in 2009 in honour of Ralf Dahrendorf, the College’s third Warden and one of Europe’s most influential liberal thinkers, to carry forward his lifelong commitment to freedom, democracy, and public debate. Since its creation, the Programme has combined a research agenda, an annual memorial lecture, and a Dahrendorf Scholars’ scheme for competitively selected College students, making it one of the ESC’s most visible initiatives, under the leadership of Timothy Garton Ash.

Its projects have evolved in response to Europe’s changing challenges: from Free Speech Debate and Freedom in Diversity, to Europe’s Stories, which explored the narratives young Europeans tell about their continent, and most recently Europe in a Changing World, which examines how Europe is perceived in key countries abroad and how it might adapt to a multipolar order. Through high-profile lectures, international conferences, publications, and the work of Dahrendorf Scholars, the Programme engages both academic and policy audiences while nurturing the next generation of thinkers.

Under the chairmanship of Paul Betts and with Dimitar Bechev as its new director, and enjoying continued support from Stiftung Mercator and other partners, the Dahrendorf Programme remains a flagship of the Centre’s mission to connect rigorous scholarship with the pressing questions of Europe’s place in the world.

Visiting Fellows

An essential component of the European Studies Centre has long been its Visiting Fellowships, which have created a continuous flow of scholars and practitioners through Oxford and helped shape the Centre’s intellectual identity as a meeting ground for Europe’s many voices. Supported by a diverse range of benefactors, these fellowships have each left a distinctive imprint on the Centre’s work.

The Stifterverband Fellowships, building on the earlier Volkswagen Foundation grant, created a tradition reaching back all the way to the 1960s of hosting leading German historians and political scientists, whose work was often published in the German Historical Perspectives series, enriching English language scholarship with German perspectives. The Richard von Weizsäcker Fellowship (2012–) continues this tradition, bringing prominent German historians to the Centre annually. German studies have also been strengthened by the Dahrendorf postdoctoral Fellowship, which supports younger and mid-career academics.

With a strong connection to France from the College’s foundation, and leading scholars such as Theodore Zeldin, it is only natural that the Deakin Fellowship, created in 1969 in honour of St Antony’s founding Warden, has consistently connected the Centre to the study of France across history, politics, and society, complementing the work of the Maison Française of Oxford. Its focus for the most part is towards early career academics on France.

The Monte dei Paschi di Siena Fellowship (2002–2008) opened the Centre to specialists in Italian politics, culture, and society, anchoring a strong comparative focus on Italy and its European context. The Centre’s work on Italy continues with other visiting scholars and speakers.

Spanish studies, with a long tradition at St Antony’s College established by such scholars as Raymond Carr, have been strengthened this century by the creation of the Santander Fellowship (2008–2019), followed by the Ramón Areces Fellowship (2024–), both of which have expanded knowledge of Spain and the Iberian Peninsula. The Basque Fellowship (1985–2016), funded by the Basque regional government, brought leading social scientists, historians, and legal scholars to Oxford, ensuring that questions of identity, autonomy, and regionalism in Spain and Europe found a natural home at the ESC.

Poland has been a major focus for the ESC ever since the 1990s. This has been clearly visible in the Programme on Modern Poland (2013–2017), the Knowledge Bridges UK-Poland-Europe project and the Leszek Kołakowski Lecture, which continues to bring distinguished speakers from and about Poland to the Centre every year.

More recently, the Centre has established a visiting fellowship in Baltic studies, beginning in the 2025–26 academic year, funded by the Estonian Research Council.

The EU Visiting Fellowship (2008–), open to senior EU officials from the European Commission and European Parliament, enriched the Centre’s knowledge and connectivity with the European Union. While Brexit posed challenges for scholars and academic departments in the UK, it did not dampen the Centre’s commitment to EU studies or its networks with EU scholars and policymakers.

The visiting Fellows are complemented by a series of Academic Visitors every year, who are sponsored by the permanent fellows of the Centre, to conduct their research on Europe and benefit from the Centre and the College’s intellectual environment and facilities.

Together, these programmes and fellowships have sustained a vibrant research and seminar culture, generated influential publications, and embedded the ESC within a dense web of wider academic transnational networks. Year after year, they have renewed the Centre’s intellectual energy, ensured its openness to new currents of European thought, and made it a true hub of comparative and interdisciplinary scholarship.

The ESC Annual Lecture

Since its inauguration in 2002, the European Studies Centre Annual Lecture has become one of the Centre’s most visible public platforms, bringing to Oxford a remarkable array of European leaders, policymakers, and thinkers to reflect on the continent’s challenges and prospects. Conceived as a flagship event to bridge academia and practice, the Annual Lecture has addressed themes central to Europe’s evolving story: from the challenges of the European continent to crises of democracy, integration, and globalisation, and to the study of recent European history and its impact on the present.

Over the years, lectures have been delivered by high-profile politicians, senior European officials, and prominent academics, making the series both a record of Europe’s shifting agenda and a testament to the Centre’s convening power. Early lectures included:

Others included (among others):

The series has also featured leading academics such as Claus Offe, Mark Mazower, Ivan Krastev, Vivien Schmidt, and Nathalie Tocci, reflecting history, politics, and critical scholarship. Each year, the Lecture attracts a wide audience from across the University and beyond. As such, the Annual Lecture has become a cornerstone of the ESC’s public life and one of the College’s signature contributions to European debate.

Our ESC community

Housed in a handsome Victorian building with a large garden, the European Studies Centre is not just an intellectual hub for the study of Europe; it is also a living community of scholars – permanent members, visiting Fellows, academic visitors, students and, not least, alumni. The Centre takes pride in sustaining an environment that is both academically rigorous and socially vibrant. A particular focus is the regular Tuesday seminar, followed by High Table. Its administration, secretarial support, and assistants have consistently maintained a functional, friendly, and hospitable environment. Special mention should be made of Julie Adams who since 2003, initially administrator of SEESOX and subsequently European Studies Centre administrator, along with the other ESC administrators, have provided overall stability as well as continuity during important transition periods.

The ESC’s success would not have been possible without the support of the College’s administration and staff, from the Warden, the Bursar and the Accountant to the Human Resources, Senior Members’ Manager, dining staff, IT backing, and maintenance personnel, all of whom have supported the Centre’s activities consistently.

Finally, in 2024 the ESC inaugurated the ‘Timothy Garton Ash library’ comprising some 6000 books on Europe’s recent history and politics which he has collected over the last 50 years and donated to the Centre on becoming emeritus. The collection, which has particular strengths on Germany and Central and Eastern Europe, is housed in the extensive bookshelves of the Centre and may be consulted – on prior application to the ESC administrator – by researchers with a special interest in the areas it covers.

Conclusion

Over the past 25 years, the ESC has broadened its agenda to include new areas, themes, and national studies. It has built a strong reputation within and beyond Oxford for bridging academic and policy-relevant debates. The Centre has weathered challenges common to area studies centres, including securing sustainable funding, ensuring relevance in shifting scholarly landscapes, attracting younger scholars and students, and balancing depth with breadth. Despite Brexit, it has continued to advocate strongly the UK’s relevance in Europe.

A particular challenge for the 50th anniversary is articulating the ESC’s mission in a Europe that is increasingly fragmented, contested, and globally entangled. This milestone invites reflection on how to deepen interdisciplinarity, strengthen academic partnerships (within Oxford, across Europe, and beyond), and expand public engagement (policy, media, civic). It also presents the opportunity to deepen into new thematic nodes, such as climate, energy, digital sovereignty, migration and diaspora, and defence, or thematic collaborations across regional centres.

The European Studies Centre at St Antony’s has evolved through time into a vibrant, outward-looking, and intellectually plural institution. As it marks its 50th anniversary in 2026, alongside the College’s 75th, it is well placed to reflect not only on the past but also on how it can continue to shape scholarship on and engagement with Europe, at Oxford and well beyond.

Author: Dr Othon Anastasakis, ESC Director
October 2025

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

St Antony’s College 75th Anniversary