Office of the Provost

Memorandum

August 26, 2010

Dear Colleagues:

I am very pleased to announce that Dr. Alberta Sbragia, Mark A. Nordenberg University Chair, Jean Monnet Chair ad personam, and Professor of Political Science, has accepted my offer to become the University of Pittsburgh’s Vice Provost for Graduate Studies, effective October 2010.

Dr. Sbragia earned her undergraduate degree from Holy Names College in California, after spending her junior year abroad studying at the Sorbonne in Paris. She earned her doctorate in political science from the University of Wisconsin, after carrying out research in Italy as a Fulbright Scholar. In 1974, she joined the University of Pittsburgh faculty as an assistant professor, teaching American and European urban politics and policy. She taught at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Business Administration as a visiting associate professor, returning to Pitt as Director of West European Studies. From 1993-1995, she served as the Chair of the European Union Studies Association (EUSA), bringing that association to the University, where it is currently housed. She was promoted to Professor of Political Science in 1994. She is also the inaugural Mark A Nordenberg Professor, Jean Monnet Chair ad personam, and a UCIS Research Professor; she currently serves as Director of both the European Studies Center and the European Union Center of Excellence.

An accomplished scholar, Dr. Sbragia has authored numerous articles and papers, as well as several books, during her distinguished academic career. Her current areas of expertise within political scienceinclude comparative politics, with a focus on Western Europe; comparative regionalism, with a focus on North America, the EU, and Asia; EU politics and public policy; and comparative federalism in advanced industrial societies. She serves as a member of numerous scholarly professional journals’ editorial and advisory boards and is currently on the Trust and Development Board of Trustees of the American Political Science Association.

Her strengths as a teacher and mentor have been recognized both internationally, through awards such as the Jean Monnet Chair, granted in recognition of teaching and research related to the European Union, and locally, through Pitt’s Apple for the Teacher Award.

I am excited by the addition of such a highly respected academic leader to our senior staff team. Dr. Sbragia holds herself and others to notably high standards, and shares my commitment to the graduate and professional education that is at the heart of Pitt’s impact on the future of academic scholarship and the professions. I am looking forward to working with her.

Sincerely,

Patricia E. Beeson

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