The European Centre at POLIS was established in 2013 and brings together research andevents on European affairs. It sits within the Department of Politics and International Studies, which itself was established in 2009 to provide a new institutional focus at the world-leading Cambridge University for
teaching and research on politics in all its dimensions; international and comparative, theoretical and empirical, abstract and practical.
The Department offers a wide range of undergraduate and postgraduate programmes. It has particular research strengths in international politics, including international history and international law, foreign and security policy, political economy, comparative politics and political thought.
It has four Research Centres, the Centre of Governance and Human Rights, the Centre of International Studies, the Centre of European Studies, and the Cambridge Centre of Political Thought, which is run jointly with History. It also has links with the Centre for the Study of the International Relations of the Middle East and North Africa and is home to the newly established Cambridge Institute for Public Policy. There are close links between POLIS and many other Departments and Faculties at Cambridge, including History, Sociology, Psychology, Law, Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, and Social Anthropology.
Since 2011 the Department has included the Area Centres of African Studies, Latin American Studies, South Asian Studies, Development Studies, and since 2014 Gender Studies, which are housed together in the Alison Richard Building (ARB) on the Sidgwick Site. The co-location of the Centres and the Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities (CRASSH) has enabled colleagues to collaborate across conventional boundaries, creating synergies through frequent interdisciplinary conferences and workshops.
There is an active seminar programme, many conferences, and a regular flow of visitors, both practitioners and academics. The Department is engaged with the Cambridge Public Policy programme, including the strategic research initiative for Public Policy, and has formed a strong link with YouGov. It also hosts the journal, the Cambridge Review of International Affairs and there are a wide variety of student-run societies and events.
Website: https://www.polis.cam.ac.uk/