ETH Zurich, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, was founded in 1854. It is among the leading universities of the world and generally considered the top university in continental Europe in a variety of university rankings. Whereas ETH Zurich focuses on the natural and engineering sciences, it also has a Department of Humanities, Social and Political Sciences. It offers a BA program in Public Policy, an MA program in Comparative and International Studies (together with the University of Zurich), and a PhD program in Political Science.
The Center for Comparative and International Studies (CIS) at ETH Zurich is a joint research and teaching center with the Institute of Political Science at the University of Zurich. With 21 faculty members and approximately 150 PhD students, postdoctoral researchers, and other staff, it is the leading political science research center in Switzerland and a political science hub in continental Europe. CIS has ample experience with conducting large-scale collaborative projects. In particular, it has been the leading house for a National Center for Competence in Research (NCCR) on Democracy between 2005 and 2017.
The European Politics (EUP) research group of CIS is headed by Prof. Frank Schimmelfennig and consists of 2-3 postdoctoral researchers and 5-10 PhD students. The research of the group focuses on the institutional development, the politics and the policies of the European Union. Past and current research projects have been concerned with EU enlargement, the Europeanization of current and prospective member states, the constitutionalization of the EU and differentiated integration. Until recently, the group has been involved in the FP7 MAXCAP project (“Maximizing the Integration Capacity of the European Union”) on EU enlargement.
EUP research on EU-Turkey relations has focused on the impact of EU political conditionality in Turkey and the EU decision making on enlargement to Turkey. A current research project on “Constructing Europe’s Borders” examines parliamentary discourses on belonging to Europe and membership in the EU and analyzes transnational discursive networks. Turkey is one of the cases studied.
Website: http://www.cis.ethz.ch/