The module aims to theoretically and methodologically synthesize Eastern European area studies and European integration studies. Typically European studies have mainly concentrated on the development of Western Europe. Today the study of European integration also covers the Eastern enlargement process and countries of Central Eastern Europe, but nevertheless to a large extent, the area has been investigated from Western institutional perspectives. Our focus area, Eastern Europe, has historically been on the periphery of European integration studies. Moreover, since most the former socialist countries of Eastern Europe have now acceded to the EU, they have become something of a periphery in the field of Russian and Eastern European studies. With Finland neighbouring Russia, Russian studies will remain a major field in the country, and nowhere more than in the Aleksanteri Institute’s Russia Hub. The module will tap into this rich source to give knowledge of the EU to students interested in Russian and Eastern European Studies. The Eastern angle is conceived spatially from two main aspects. The Eastern group of the EU, consisting of post-communist countries, is distinguished and investigated from the point of view of their success and failure in their development. The second aspect is the conception of the Eastern neighbourhood, its relevance and impact for the EU. The module is built up around three different but closely interlinked themes, delivered by intensive courses: 1) Historical and Contemporary Perspectives of the Eastern Enlargement; 2) Eastern Members of the EU; and 3) Eastern Neighbourhood. The team is multidisciplinary: they have degrees in different disciplines and they work in the field of area studies which by definition is multidisciplinary. They are also multi-national, gender-balanced and poly-linguistic.