Forthcoming Events:

Graduate Workshop: The Arab Spring – What Next ?
The Syrian crisis has given additional impetus to four forthcoming  graduate experts workshop on The Arab Spring One Year on: What next ? to be hosted at Paris 1-Sorbonne on March 22-24th. After taking stock of developments a year on, we will work together to  look ahead, with a focus especially on two key pioneers for change - Tunisia and Egypt. Please apply right away -  places are 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 working language will be English - but some speakers will speak in French and we will arrange some translation as best we can. All costs at the event are covered for young Europaeum graduates, but note that participants must arrange their own travel costs. Please apply to the Europaeum Office as soon as possible, as spaces are limited. Interested participants should respond via e-mail with letter of application, a short CV (max. 2 pages), and a support from your supervising professor to the Europaeum Office no later than March 1st. 

Graduate Workshop: A Sustainable Europe ?
In April 2012 - just before the Rio +20 UN conference on sustainable development - the Europaeum is organising a three-day graduate workshop on Rio + 20: Challenges and Opportunities for Europe in building a Global Green Economy to be held at Charles University, Prague. We welcomed the 2011 fragile agreement  on cutting carbon emissions in Durban, - thanks to the vigorous efforts of the EU contingent. Europe proved itself to be a key player. But can Europe now lead the way towards a genuinely sustainable, green, economy? Is this mere idealism or can be realistic about this ? Join our debates in Prague. Click here to download the event Poster

Our event comprises the usual series of lectures, discussions, graduate research presentations, and also a model game simulating the Rio debate. The working language will be English. We have also launched a special Green Blog linked to this event....join the debate - even if you can't make it to Prague. All costs at the event are covered for Europaeum graduates, but note that all participants must cover their own travel costs. The event is as usual open to all Europaeum graduates, notably from Law, Economics, Politics, History, Geography, International Relations, and other relevant disciplines. Interested participants should respond via e-mail with letter of application, a short CV (max. 2 pages), and a support letter from your supervising professor to the Europaeum Office as soon as possible.

Conference: Federalisms v. Localism - East & West ?
Following the tremendous success of our conference on Federalisms - East and West - India, Europe, and North America held in 2010, the Europaeum is now planning a second follow-up event in late 2012 this time exploring themes of multi-level governance and localism in the US, Europe, and India. The conference is due to take place in the Indian capital of Delhi, with a range of leading figures from the worlds of politics, law, economics, academia, and the media. Please read the attached statement for a summary of key issues to be discussed - and stay tuned for more details.

See also our Europaeum Diary of Forthcoming Events in 2012

Programmes:

MA in European History and Civilization
The current Europaeum MA cohort is busy studying in Paris after their first term in Leiden, before they  move on to Oxford. The students are focusing on methodological issues leading towards their dissertations at Oxford. Click here to view a list of our current MA students.

Applications are now being accepted for the Europaeum’s 2012-2013 MA programme in European History and Civilization. This programme offers graduate students a special opportunity to deepen their knowledge of European history and institutions, their philosophical and historical backgrounds and underpinnings, and their social and economic contexts, through the lens of three different busy university worlds. This knowledge plays an increasingly crucial role in practical decision-making and strategic planning, where Europe-wide and global contact and negotiation is required. For further information, see Application details on our website. Click here to view recent matriculation photos from Oxford. For the view of students on the course, see a summary of results plus a selection of anonymous quotes taken from recent evaluation forms, and student views from an article from the Europaeum Review.

We ask professors to support our recruitment efforts and distribute the attached Poster to students and colleagues and on noticeboards. Please also note the special deadlines for submission: April 1st, 2012, with final deadline June 1st, 2012.

Scholarships and Opportunities:

TransAtlantic Bursary 2012
Applications are 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 benefactor  El Pomar Foundation, and two weeks in Washington DC meeting key officials and visiting think tanks and other political bodies. As this will be in lead-up to the presidential election, the atmosphere should be electric. The closing date for applications for this exciting award is April 1st. We encourage all interested scholars - up to the age of 28 who have not yet spent significant time in the USA - to submit applications as early as possible. See poster for more information.

Last year's scholar, Juha Roppola, was a business journalist at Kauppalehti, a Finnish business daily newspaper, who was preparing to start his PhD. Click here to read Juha's report of his time in the USA.

Europaeum Internships
The value of internships for graduate students has recently been endorsed as a key component for students entering the job market, according to University World News. The Europaeum has proudly offered lively internships to graduate students, doctoral candidates and post-doctoral scholars from Europaeum universities for a number of years. We are committed to providing engaging and fruitful work experience - with opportunities to pursue research studies in Oxford libraries, join lectures etc and travel in the UK. In this way, we seek to extend the mission of the Europaeum to build European leadership, foster diversity and provide opportunities to supplement research and background education.

We offer internships for one to three months, and each intern will be asked to support general office work, work on current events and will be given a relevant research project to work on and help develop. We will help in finding housing and cover all living costs, including food and housing. 

Interns for Spring and summer 2012 are now being selected. If you know anyone who might be interested, please ask them to send a CV and covering letter, including details of two referees (preferably one academic and one professional) to the the Europaeum office.

Publications & Media

Europaeum Annual Summary
The Europaeum had a highly productive year in 2011, with a host of events, including five graduate workshops, five research project group meetings, four Europaeum Lectures, six international conferences, seven publications, and our annual Summer School, Classics Colloquiums, and grant opportunities. Click here to download our summary of the Europaeum's 2011 activities. Looking forward to 2012, we expect a similarly productive year.

Green Blog - call for submissions
In the lead up to the Rio+20 UN Conference on Sustainable Development, the new Europaeum Green Sustainability Blog is up and running. We invite scholars to enter the debate by sending us their views on issues surrounding the conference. Interested participants should contact the Europaeum office with submissions.

Check out the 2010  Europaeum Climate Change Blog - following the negotiations in Cancun, and read the many lively contributions we had especially from our Paris workshop participants.The Politics and Economics of Climate Change - Lessons for European diplomacy.

Report of the Month

Europaeum Visiting Professor
Professor Alessandro Zironi from Bologna University  visited Charles University, Prague, last autumn as part of our EVP academic mobility scheme. This scheme aims to promote the movement of academic professors across our association to allow more joint research and teaching and  exchange of ideas. Professor Zironi, a prolific scholar of Germanic linguistics, lectured on Disclosing Secrets in German at an event on  Obscurity in the Middle Ages, organised by Dr Lucie Doležalová at Prague Institute for Greek and Latin Studies.  Click here to read more of Professor Zironi's work during his visit to Prague.

Link-of-the-Month:

Open Democracy
OpenDemocracy.net has become an integral resource for  academics and thoughtful policy-and decision-- makers and the Europaeum played its small part in supporting its foundation as a completely independent think tank, focussing on up-to-date liberal political thought in Europe and beyond. It is while since we reminded colleagues of its value - please visit the site. Moreover many of our supporters and colleagues write for the network, including for example Rajeev Bhargava, Director of the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, who took part in the 2009 Europaeum-supported conference Liberalisms in East and West; David Marquand, who gave a Europaeum Lecture in 2009 on The Challenges for Democracy in Europe; Kalypso Nicolaidis, who has collaborated with the Europaeum on many events through her role as the former Director of the European Studies Centre, St Antony's College, Oxford; and, Anthony Bartnett, a founder of openDemocracy, who participated in the Europaeum conference on Federalisms - East and West - India, Europe, and North America.

See a list of recent pieces linked to our colleagues.  Of course, openDemocracy is not only about politics, - why not follow contemporary ideas on economics - including our eurozone crisis - at openEconomy: open-minded economics which highlights key liberal economic ideas.

Around the Members:

HELSINKI: gearing up for the future
Helsinki has announced its 2012-2016 forward strategy - which calls for active recruitment of more international students, researchers, and teachers, to support its goal of solidifying its position as one of the top world universities. Already ranked within the top 100 universities in the world in league tables -  Helsinki now aims to break through to the top 50 rankings by developing its operations, management, communications and co-operation networks. The University will also increase the exposure of young student to top scholars and scientists. Click here to learn more.

PRAGUE: Map for post-Christian era
Spirituality was renewed in the former Eastern Bloc with the fall of Communism. But today the churches in the former ECE are rive with the same crises as Western Europe – the march of secularisation brings falling congregations, scepticism, materialism and even hedonism. This does not faze Tomáš Halík, Professor of Philosophy and Sociology, at Charles University, Prague, who argues in his latest book Night of the Confessor: Christian faith in an Age of Uncertainty (Princeton 2011) that such crises bring their own solutions. Professor Halík, a long-time supporter of the Europaeum, who gave a distinguished lecture on universities for us should know, having grown under Communism in Czechoslovakia, worked as a psychotherapist yet secretly ordained as a Catholic priest, and active in the underground church.  He charts out a ‘post-Christian’ era  where peace, forgiveness, love and self-sacrifice all have a place – however difficult - even in the 21st century. The work is informed by his personal experiences - he was once thought of a future President – and the many confessions he has taken over decades, often at the St Vitas Cathedral in the Old Town Square, where he presides.

BOLOGNA: Classics summer series
Once again, colleagues in the Classics faculty at Bologna are offering a lively Greek and Latin Summer School – taught in English - with visits to famous local sites – even with an optional classical tour of Rome. The school offers intensive classes in Greek and Latin both for beginners and intermediate plus a literature class (study skills acquired will be equivalent to a Semester study). Additional classes will include Greek and Roman History and History of Art,   supplemented by visits to museums and archaeological sites. The optional weekend trip to Rome includes a city tour, and visits to archaeological sites - the Roman Forum, the Coliseum and the Palatine - and remarkable Roman art collections at the National Museum of Rome: Palazzo Massimo at the Baths of Diocletian and Palazzo Altemps. The programme, coordinated by Professor Franceso Citti, who has supported the extensive Europaeum classics series, runs from June 25 to July 13. Open to students and all over 18 interested, no specific qualification required. For more information and application forms please visit: http://www.ficlit.unibo.it/dipartimento/summer-school

Footnote-of-the-Month:

Europaeum Academics' Blogs
Online networking has clearly become one of the most important and influential means for people to communicate on just about every topic. This applies equally to academia. As the Europaeum continues to develop its own place in the Blogosphere, we have investigated a variety of official and unofficial blog sites and Twitter feeds from scholars at each of our partner institutions. These blogs are a useful way to keep up-to-date on current thoughts, news, and views of top European scholars. Click here to download our select list of these sites, or view them online at the Europaeum website.

Other Europaeum scholars and supporters who publish regularly on the web and believe they have the right style and guile to join our list, should contact the office to submit your URL!

Contact:
The Europaeum
99 Banbury Road
Oxford, UK
OX2 6JX

If you would rather not receive further notices from the Europaeum please send us an email, and you will be removed from our list immediately.

Endnote:

New Trustee joins the Europaeum
The Europaeum is pleased to announce the addition of a new trustee, a former Austrian Vice- Chancellor, Minister of Science and Research, and Minister of Education -  Dr. Erhard Busek. He has held the significant post of Southeast European Co-operative Initiative (SECI) co-ordinator - set up in 1996 to build stability in Southeastern Europe through the development of economic and environmental co-operation and Science and Education. He is currently a Visiting Professor of the Practice of Public Policy Studies at Duke University, and Co-Chair of the Commission on Radio and Television Policy: Central and Eastern Europe. For more information about Dr Busek please see his full biography on our website. We welcome him to our Board of Trustees. Click here for a full list of our current trustees