John F. Kennedy Institute for North American Studies

John-F.-Kennedy-Institut für Nordamerikastudien
Building of the John F. Kennedy Institute
Type	Institute
Established	1963 (1963)
Affiliation	Freie Universität Berlin
Location	Berlin , Germany
Website	www.jfki.fu-berlin.de

The John F. Kennedy Institute for North American Studies (JFKI) is a central institute at Freie Universität Berlin. The JFKI was founded in 1963 by Ernst Fraenkel, a political scientist and was named in the honor of John F. Kennedy after his assassination.

The JFKI seeks to explore North America in all its dimensions. Focusing on the United States and Canada, research and teaching at the JFKI combine culture, history, and literature with political science, sociology, and economics.

Along with the Institute for East European Studies and the Institute for Latin American Studies, John F. Kennedy Institute for North American Studies is one of the three interdisciplinary research institutes within the Free University of Berlin.

Graduate School of North American Studies

The Graduate School of North American Studies at the JFKI was awarded with funding during the German excellence initiative for its Ph.D. program themed "The Challenges of Freedom". It was one of only two graduate schools in the humanities among 18 graduate schools in total which received this honor in October 2007.^[1]

JFKI library

The JFKI library holds Germany's largest collection of scholarly literature and audiovisual material on North America.^[2] It receives funding from both the Canadian and the United States' government in order to acquire special collections in the research area of American Studies.