WVU history professor works with European universities to secure large grant

August 4th, 2009


West Virginia University history professor Robert Blobaum has received a $420,000 grant to create a dual-degree masters program in Central and Eastern European studies.


The programthe first of its kind at WVU will allow American students to study at the Collegium Civitas in Poland and the University of Tartu in Estonia.


Working with his European colleagues in Poland and Estonia to create the dual-degree program was a logical choice for Blobaum, since the universities have existing relationships with WVU and with each other.


The dots were there, we just had to connect them,Blobaum said.


The grant, subsidized through the Fund for the Improvement of Post-Secondary Educations European Union-United States Atlantis program, will be awarded over four years. Each year, six students from WVU will receive a $12,000 stipend to live, travel and study in Europe for two semestersone in Poland and one in Estonia. While there, the students will take classes in the social sciences and international relations, work highly coveted internships and write their theses.


Six students from the European arm of the dual-degree program will receive 12,000 Euros to do the same at WVU for an entire year.


At the end of the program, all students will have earned a Masters degree in history from WVU and one of the following: a Masters in international relations from the Collegium Civitas or a Masters in social sciences from the University of Tartu.


Blobaum originally intended to submit the paperwork for the grant in March of 2008, but he believed he had what amounted to ahalf-baked proposaland he didnt want to rush through the process.


We needed the extra year to fully bake it,he said.


By March 2009, he was so confidant in the proposal that he began recruiting students. So far, he has four who he hopes will leave for Europe in mid-September. He expects WVU to welcome the first group of European students to campus in January.


I hope it works; its got to work,Blobaum said.There are good people involved and this institution has been quite supportive so far. These students are going to come out with a European degree, contacts and experiences that just cant be duplicated here.