Uta Staiger

Background

About Uta Staiger

Uta Staiger is Associate Professor of European Studies and Director of the UCL European Institute, a Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence since 2016. She is also Global Strategic Academic Advisor (Europe), advising UCL senior leadership on engagement with the European higher education sector. Uta has directed the European Institute since 2010, fostering an environment where research on Europe can flourish; supporting UCL’s teaching excellence on Europe through innovative, multi-disciplinary teaching and by creating innovative opportunities for students; and engaging with policy professionals, civil society and the public to maximise the reach and impact of UCL ideas and expertise on and across Europe. As UCL's Pro-Vice-Provost (Europe), she helped steer UCL through its Brexit mitigation planning and the development of a new Europe strategy, and advised senior leadership on UCL's institutional response to the war in Ukraine. She now plays a a key role in shaping and helping to deliver UCL’s European engagement strategy, maintaining constructive dialogue with European partners. With research interests at the intersection of modern European thought, culture, and politics, Uta also teaches on the Comparative Literature Programmes in UCL’s School of European Languages, Culture and Society, the MSc in European Politics and Policy, offered by UCL Political Science, and in UCL Laws. Current and recent research includes work on crisis and stasis in liberal democracies; Hannah Arendt and political virtuosity; and the performance, places, and architectures of politics. She has also worked on the history and theory of European integration, and all matters Brexit. Uta is co-editor of the UCL Press FRINGE Series, a Senior Fellow with the Centre for Britain and Europe at the University of Surrey and a Fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts. She was a member of the EU Advisory Group of the Russell Group and the Advisory Board of the Scottish Council on European Relations. Uta holds a PhD from the University of Cambridge, gained with a scholarship from the Gates Cambridge Trust. She was also educated at the Universities of Edinburgh and Konstanz (Germany), as well as at the Universitat de Girona during a stint working for the Barcelona-based think tank Interarts. She speaks German, English, Spanish, Catalan and French.