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A report from the 2011 International Postgraduate Conference on Central and Eastern Europe held at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow has been released. The topic of the conference was Transformation in Central and Eastern Europe: before, after, in the process? Supported by The Europaeum, Nevena Vlaykova, an MPhil student in Russian and East European Studies at University of Oxford, and Jiří Koubek, studying for an MSc in Political Science at Charles University, Prague, attended the conference and offer this Report of the proceedings.

Applications are also invited for this five-week study visit to the US in August-September with three weeks to be spent in Colorado as a special guest of the supporting El Pomar Foundation and two weeks in Washington DC. The closing date for applications for this exciting award is April 1st. We encourage all interested scholars to submit applications as early as possible. See poster for more information.

In April 2012 - just before the Rio +20 United Nations Conference on sustainable development - the Europaeum is organising a three-day graduate workshop on Challenges and Opportunities for Europe in building a Global Green Economy to be held at Charles University, Prague. The fragile agreement – seen as a positive surprise - on cutting carbon emissions reached at the end of 2011 in Durban, is widely held to have emerged thanks only to the vigorous efforts of the EU contingent. Europe proved itself, still, to be a key player. But can Europe now shot the way – and lead the way towards a genuinely sustainable, green, economy? These will the key questions – amidst realism and idealist approached - to be discussed in Prague. Click here to download the event poster

The Europaeum is running a new graduate workshop on The Arab Spring One Year on: What next ? to be hosted at Paris 1-Sorbonne on March 22-24th, with Professor Christine Mengin as  Director. The aim is to take stock of developments in the region a year on, and to look ahead, with the focus especially on two key pioneers for change - Tunisia and Egypt. The Europaeum will offer 12-14 places for advanced students and young scholars, drawn from across our partner institutions. Speakers already confirmed include Slim Laghmani (University of Tunis), Mohammed Marouani (Paris 1), Nadine Picaudou (Paris 1), Lise Storm (University of Exeter), and Patrice Vermeren (Paris 1), among others. Click here to download the event poster

The Europaeum has partnered with EUROCLIO - an association of European history teachers in two special EU-funded programmes on Connecting Europe through History, allowing History teachers and Historians and policy-makers to explore and share new ideas and themes for teaching in classrooms. Following the success of our initial series on Human Rights in Europe (2007-2008), we embarked on an another series of lectures, conferences, and workshops at Europaeum partner institutions at Oxford, Bologna, Leiden, Helsinki, Paris, and Krakow, as well as other universities in Berlin, Vienna, and Nijmegen, on the theme Experiences and Perceptions of Migrations (2010-2011) with similar goals. Please see the full report, documenting the results of this year-long study.

Tags:

• political concepts
• Governance and Politics

The European Political Concepts Europaeum Research Project Group (ERPG), originally launched via our consortium, has been making further good progress this month. Following an eighth academic meeting in August in Helsinki, the editorial board has just met in Bielefeld and now the two editors of the publication series, set to emanate from this group, Michael Freeden from Oxford and Willibald Steinmetz, are set to sign the first of their books deals this December.

Please note applications for Oxford must be received by 20th January 2012. Applications are invited for up to six Jenkins Scholarships for the 2012-2013 academic year, including four to study at Oxford. The Jenkins Scholarship Scheme honours the lifelong achievements of the former President of the European Commission (1976-1981) and Chancellor of the University of Oxford (1987-2003). The Jenkins Scheme is linked to the Europaeum association of leading European universities.The Roy Jenkins Memorial Fund was set up in 2003-4, to create scholarships to bring students from the countries of the European Union to study at the University of Oxford, and to support Oxford students going onto further study in Europe. 13 Jenkins Scholars have been elected in recent years.

The Europaeum is moving ahead with its plans for an international policy forum on the Future for European Universities 2011-15. This important event will set out to explore the future of higher education in former ECE region. The conference entitled Higher Education: Progress, and Academic Freedom - Universities in East Central Europe since the Fall of the Wall is planned for late 2012, to be held at Oxford University. Leading education experts, policy-makers, top media figures, and scholars from across the Europaeum network will be in attendance. As usual this event is open to selected graduate students from Europaeum partner universities. Stay tuned for more information.

The Europaeum co-supported an important conference on the current state of Higher Education in the UK. The event on The English Universities Under Attack was held at King College, London University, on November 26th, and included prominent scholars, policy -makers, and educators from Europe and beyond. Themes  included tuition fees, government controls, technology, centralised administration, marketisation.

The Europaeum co-sponsored a new three-day graduate workshop with Leiden University focussing on the role of leaders in European politics - yesterday, today and tomorrow.  The event took place in Leiden on November 11 - 13th, 2011. It posed questions about Europe and Leadership: Does Europe still yearn for new ‘Giants’ to lead it through its crisis ? What is the role for President, Commissioners, Council and Parliament ? What leadership role for Europe in the world ? How has leadership failure contributed to current crises ? Why do some prefer Brussels and others their national politics ? We also explored - as an underlying research question - how Europe can best secure stability and growth based on rational leadership and decision-making strategies.

Speakers included Richard Corbett (Member of Cabinet of Herman Van Rompuy); Alain Servantie (advisor to EC President); Abram de Swaan (University of Amsterdam);  Richard Griffiths (Leiden University); Alexander Rinnooy Kan (Chair of Social-Economic Council of the Netherlands); Laurens Jan Brinkhorst (former Minister of Economic Affairs, Netherlands) and Chris Bickerton (Amsterdam / Oxford Universities).

The Europaeum 2011 Conference and Summer School on The Futures of Europe: Which Way Towards 2030 was held in beautiful Santander, north Spain, exploring complexities of relationships between European nations and the European Union and future scenarios, and bringing together distinguished experts, policy-makers, media and politicians, alongside 215 graduates from the Europaeum network. A full report on the event, which started by reviewing the implications of the 2009-10 report of the Reflections Group chaired by Felipe Gonsalez, is now available. Click here to read the final report.

The Europaeum is planning to continue its study bursaries - one to support an Oxford graduate to pursue a short study programme at the Graduate Institute, Geneva, and one to support a Graduate Institute student to study at Oxford, during the coming academic year.

Appropriate programmes of study can include periods of specialist library or archive work; supervisions with desired tutors; taught programmes including specialist summer schools, or field work, including work with organisations based in and around Geneva or Oxford.

The deadline for submission of applications will be early December. Students from Geneva who wish to apply should contact Dr Laurent Neury; and those from Oxford should contact the University International Office.

Please distribute the Bursary Notice to interested students and colleagues.

Professor Keith Krause, Professor of International Relations at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva, lectured at Corpus Christi College, Oxford on November 7th on The End of Political Violence in the 20th Century, continuing a very prestigious lecture series begun 10 years, which has seen luminaries such as Ralf Dahrendorf, Margaret Macmillan, and Charles Wiplosz take part.

See attached poster for details of the event

This year's Europaeum TransAtlantic Junior Fellow, Juha Roppola, a doctoral student at Helsinki, has just completed his five week visit to Colorado and Washington DC. Please read the weekly blogs he has sent us about his work and his report of his visit. Juha was working on a project on "Tocqueville’s America" - while touring US political and social systems. The fellowship, launched in 2008, is designed to allow graduates from Europaeum  universities to experience the US firsthand, and for exchanges with El Pomar Foundation fellows. Recently, three fellows from the El Pomar Foundation came to Europe on a special visit, which included stopovers in Brussels for the Europaeum graduate seminar Click here to read about their travels via the El Pomar Blog