Connecting to Bologna: "It keeps the Center very lively"

I've heard many explanations of why SAIS ended up in Bologna. There's no dispute that C. Grove Haines chose Italy because of his longstanding love of the country, and it is said he selected Bologna because of his close association with the then rettore ('Il Magnifico') of the University of Bologna.

There is doubtless more to it. One student wrote a titillating thesis several years back that linked the Bologna Center in its infancy to Cold War cloak-and-dagger intrigue.

But let's not go there today. Instead, imagine a U.S.-style graduate institution in an Italian city. What to do?

From the start, the Bologna Center has sought to knit ties to its host city. SAIS Bologna is unique for sure, but it has not sought to be an island unto itself. Haines himself and then his successors have recognized that to thrive, the Center needs to be an active and responsible member of the Bologna community. Think of the Center as a plant and Bologna as the soil.

In 1964, Luciano Finelli founded L'Associazione di studio et cultura italo-americana to strengthen ties between the medieval city and Americans living here. It organized cultural events and courses in American English that to this day are attended by Bolognesi and foreigners living in Bologna.

Twenty years later, Giuseppe Gazzoni-Frascara started L'Associazione Bologna - Johns Hopkins University. For 17 years the group provided the Bologna Center with grants and student scholarships.

Today, these two organizations are joined in the Associazione italo-americana 'Luciano Finelli'. The association is housed in the Bologna Center and attracts large numbers of citizens from outside SAIS to its wide-ranging cultural events and English courses.

I had a word with Association Director Lisa Gelhaus, who was born in Wisconsin and has lived in Bologna for more than 23 years. In the video below she talks about the Association's work, its plans for the coming year and its habit -- wake up, incoming students -- to hire SAIS Bologna students from time to time.

As Lisa says of the Association: "It creates a community."



Nelson Graves

What is in a name?

Confused over our name? Don't worry, you are not the first.

Our graduate program is part of The Johns Hopkins University, which is based in Baltimore, Maryland. Johns Hopkins, or JHU, opened in 1876 as a research university and remains one of the world's top centers of learning.

(We are often asked: Why in the dickens is there an "s" at the end of "Johns"? The simple answer is that Mr. Johns Hopkins's first name started as a surname. The great-grandmother of the inventor and philanthropist was named Margaret Johns, and hence his first name. Hopkins arranged for the incorporation of both JHU and The Johns Hopkins Hospital, but he died three years before JHU opened its doors.)

The School of Advanced International Studies, widely known as SAIS, was founded in 1943 in Washington, DC, and became part of JHU in 1950. Paul Nitze, a prominent U.S. government official who helped to shape defense policy over the course of several administrations, was one of the founders of SAIS, and the graduate school is named in his honor. So SAIS's full name is a mouthful: The Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies.

The Bologna Center was founded in 1955 by a small group of scholars as the European component of SAIS. C. Grove Haines, a diplomatic historian at SAIS, came to Europe in the early 1950s determined to establish an American graduate school on the continent. He conceived of a school where students from Europe and the United States could learn from each other how to bring about a new Europe devastated by war.

Haines was able to open the doors of the Bologna Center in 1955 to 10 students who gathered in a borrowed building. He served as director until 1972, when he retired to a Tuscan farmhouse. The Center has since expanded considerably, extended its curriculum and greeted students from all continents. SAIS Bologna has graduated more than 6,000 alumni from more than 105 countries.


Today nearly 800 students study international relations at either SAIS Washington or SAIS Bologna. The easiest way to refer to to the two campuses is SAIS DC and SAIS Bologna. ("SAIS" is pronounced as "sigh-e-s".) But if you refer to us as the Bologna Center, we will understand. And in much of the city of Bologna, home to what is believed to be the oldest continually operating university in the world, SAIS Bologna is known as "la Johns Hopkins".

Tomorrow: SAIS DC and SAIS BC

Nelson Graves