It is no secret that European studies has suffered a setback in the academy. Maligned in some quarters as the superannuated practice of “Eurocentrism”, or glibly sidelined in others as mere “area studies”, the field has clearly slipped from its once prominent place among institutional priorities. How can we revive and sustain a vibrant interest in European societies among those in higher education who have, over time, succumbed to the notion that Europe is passé? The answer, in our opinion, lies not only in making the ongoing argument for the topicality of Europe – which is implicit in all our work – so much as in developing institutional strategies that provide concrete incentives for students and faculty to engage with it.

The “unexpected Europeanists” of our title are, on the one hand, faculty whose research interests include unlikely or unacknowledged investments in European studies, and on the other, students who may be eager to include European studies in their curriculum, but have not yet been offered flexible curricular options that draw meaningful connections to their primary disciplines. Thus, while we would always welcome new faculty hires and fully declared undergraduate majors in the area of European studies, we focus here upon raising interest in Europe among current colleagues and students whose primary interests lie – or appear to lie – elsewhere.

Recognizing that without students there is little point to an enhanced European studies faculty, we propose a two-pronged approach. To cultivate the undergraduate base at both Georgia and Notre Dame, we have in collaboration with other colleagues created new and flexible undergraduate curricula featuring “transnational European studies”. At the University of Georgia, Benjamin Ehlers and Martin Kagel introduced a transnational European studies minor; at the University of Notre Dame, Heather Stanfiel, and William Donahue have introduced a transnational European studies major with multiple points of entry. To foster broader-based faculty interest, we offer an annual interdisciplinary, Berlin-based seminar that convenes a vertically integrated group of scholars ranging from advanced graduate students to established senior scholars.