Forthcoming Events:

Graduate Workshop: The Arab Spring – What Next ?
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. The working language will be English. All costs at the event are covered for the Europaeum graduates, but note that participants must cover 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 letter from your supervising professor to the Europaeum Office as soon as possible.

Graduate Workshop: A Sustainable Europe ?
In April 2012 - just before the Rio +20 United Nations Conference on sustainable development - the Europaeum is organising a three-day graduate workshop on Rio + 20: Can Europe become sustainable ? 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.

The event will comprise the usual series of lectures, discussions, and presentations of participants’ papers. The working language will be English. 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.

Policy Forum on Higher Education
The Europaeum is organising a second international policy forum on the Future for European Universities, to review some questions first raised in its major four-year Inquiry which ran from 2001-2005 (supported by a major grant from the then DaimlerChrysler Services AG). As they faced up to the new harsher realities of funding decline, state management, promotion of hard subjects and the ongoing Knowledge Revolution. The new colloquium, planned for the autumn in Oxford, entitled Higher Education: Progress, and Academic Freedom - Universities in East Central Europe since the Fall of the Wall, will set out to explore how universities in the former ECE region, asking if they have returned to their former pre-eminent positions, and if not, what may be holding them back. Leading education experts, policy-makers, media figures, and scholars from across the Europaeum network and the region will participate including the Rectors of our two ECE universities. Support has been promised from a number of sources. Some selected young Europaeum scholars may also be invited. Stay tuned for more information on how to attend.

See also our Europaeum Diary of Forthcoming Events in 2012

Programmes:

MA in European History and Civilization
Applications are now being accepted for the Europaeum’s 2011-2012 MA programme in European History and Civilization with terms spent at Leiden, Paris and Oxford. 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 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 matriculations photos from Oxford. For students view 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.

Please 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:

Jenkins' Scholarships 2012-13
Please note applications for the Jenkins' Scholarship to 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.

Awards are for now a little over c £11,500 per annum, usually for one year. Jenkins Scholars will be eligible to study at Oxford for a Masters degree in the Humanities or Social Sciences, the disciplines closest to Lord Jenkins’ own political and literary interests. Applicants may be submitted from the University partners within the Europaeum.Full details of the scheme can be found here; for application information click here.

TransAtlantic Bursary 2012
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.

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 the costs, as part of a support package also for food and travel.

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

Publications & Media

The Europaeum Academic Directory
Over the past year, since the Europaeum launched its Academic Directory, featuring a list leading academics, researchers, intellectuals, and collaborators who have worked with the Europaeum over the past decade, more than 100 profiles of key academic colleagues have been added. The aim of the Directory is to offer an easy search mechanism to allow scholars to connect with appropriate Europaeum colleagues to further joint research bids and collaborations. Young Europaeum scholars may also use this to develop links to further their studies. We would like to invite other academics associated with the Europaeum to join the Directory so that we can continue building a comprehensive facility. Please download and complete this form and submit to euroinfo@europaeum.ox.ac.uk to be included.

Environmental Blog - call for submissions
In the lead up to the Rio+20 UN Conference on Sustainable Development, the Europaeum will be hosting an interactive Sustainable Development Blog later this month via our website as a discussion forum for students and scholars to contribute their views on issues surrounding the conference. We encourage interested participants to contact the Europaeum office with submissions.

Last year, the Europaeum opened up a special Climate Change Blog following the negotiations that were taking place in Cancun, and we received a number of interesting contributions, particularly from participants of our graduate workshop in Paris on The Politics and Economics of Climate Change - Lessons for European diplomacy.

Report of the Month

Report of Transformations in ECE Workshop – Krakow
The 2011 International Postgraduate Conference on Central and Eastern Europe - the tenth in the series - was organised by the Institute of European Studies and the Institute of Sociology at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow earlier this year. The topic of the conference was Transformation in Central and Eastern Europe: before, after, in the process? Bringing a wide selection of postgraduates and scholars together, including a number of Europaeum students, this conference offered a the variety of perspectives and approaches to the themes Society (civil) in the face of transformation; Transformation in the context of the structural and institutional; Gender transformation; Culture in the face of transformation; and, Effects of transformation on the economy. 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.

Report on IEP conference: Europe and the Free World
The Institute for Political Studies, Catholic University of Portugal (IEP-UCP), 2011 annual conference theme was on The Future of the Free World with many prominent speakers from across Europe such as Lord (Raymond) Plant (King's College London), Aleksander Smolar (President of Batory Foundation, Warsaw), Marc Plattner (Editor, Journal of Democracy), Christopher Caldwell (Senior Editor, The Weekly Standard, and Columnist, Financial Times), among many others. Click here to download the Programme. Over the past number of years, The Europaeum has taken part in this prestigious conference by bringing Europaeum students and scholars together with conference participants in a special, Oxford-style debate. This year's debate was on The Free World should allow Iran to develop nuclear technology ? Chaired by Dr Paul Flather, with expert moderators Professor Livia Franco (IEP-UCP, Lisbon) and Professor Miguel Monjardino (IEP-UCP and Expresso, Lisbon), the debate was followed by an open discussion forum led by Helena Matos (Publico, Lisbon), Jose Manuel Fernandes (Publico, Lisbon), Martim Avillez Figueiredo (Expresso, Lisbon), and Miguel Pinheiro (Director, Sabado, Lisbon).

Click here to download a Report of this exciting conference by some of the Europaeum's student participants

Link-of-the-Month: Oxford Reuters Institute

Is Silvio Berlusconi the new model of European leadership?
This is the question posed in a recent publication by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, set up at Oxford University, backed by the Reuters Foundation, to encourage a more academic study of Western media, and its impact and influence on our societies. In Between Commodification and Lifestyle Politics: Does Silvio Berlusconi provide a New Model of Politics for the Twenty-First Century?author Professor Paolo Mancini – who was also a keynote speaker at our 2010 summer school on Europe and the Media at Bologna - argues that while Silvio Berlusconi's success is rooted in the particular culture and history of Italy, he in fact represents an increasing trend amongst leaders spanning the Europe. The blending of the commodification of politics with the new concept of "lifestyle" politics may be the vision of European leadership in the 21st Century. Click here to register with the Reuters Institute and to view this publication in full online, and to preview other Institute publications and to see its international study programme allowing practicing journalists to take time out to study an issue in more depth within Oxford University.

Around the Members:

KRAKOW/PRAGUE: Private boom slows
The collapse of the Iron Curtain in 1989 also removed the blocks on “private”universities which have been mushrooming in the former East and Central Europe, region – even proving a challenge in some areas to established institutions, including our partners, the Jagiellonian in Krakow, and Charles in Prague. But this boom, most apparent in subjects such as Business, Management and Marketing, all boosted by a new embrace for free market economics in the former Communist states, may be coming to an end. In Poland, the growth has been particularly explosive so that by 1994 one in four students were being educated privately at the tertiary level, and by 2004 there were 350 private higher education institutions. Currently almost one in three (580,000) students in Poland are educated privately. In the Czech Republic the ratio is one in seven (57,000) who are educated privately. However, with the number of 19-year-olds set to fall dramatically – numbers will half in Poland from 2000 to 2020 – many predict this private boom will collapse. Moreover, the current economic crisis adds further pressure. While public universities can still rely on, albeit declining, state support, mergers, and a push to seek new international students, are two options now being considered by the private sector.

OXFORD: new scanner for classicists
Classics scholars in Oxford are beginning to find new insights in ancient papyri - thanks to the creation of a powerful new image scanner – and soon other Europaeum classicists could also benefit. The Faculty of Classics, working with a new University spin-off company, Oxford Multi Spectral Limited (OMS), has developed the device to take images of ancient papyri, which can then lead to restoration and proper archiving. Dr Dirk Obbink, University Lecturer in Papyrology, and head of the research group which developed the scanner, said: “The technical leaps we made mean many ancient documents which were previously unreadable can now be scanned and read.”  He said the equipment allowed Classicists “to interrogate”  such features as surface structure, fibres, stains, watermarks, fingerprints, or alterations. “We can even detect an artist or writer’s signature under multiple layers of paint or the pencil sketch under a watercolour.” OMS now intends to spread usage of the device beyond Classics into other disciplines, as well as to other, more profitable, fields, such as art restoration; detecting forged artworks; border control work; checking banknotes; and other forensic analysis. This is also a powerful and clear example of how the Humanities can contribute to scholarship and economic production simultaneously.

KRAKOW: Songs of European
The Jagiellonian University in Krakow is having its 4th annual University Gala Concert on January 8th 2012 around a special performance, entitled Songs of Europeans. The concert, which will hosted by Professor Karol Musioł, Rector of the University, will celebrate the musical traditions of Europe with pieces performed by the Obligato orchestra, conducted by Jerzy Sobeńko, highlighting both the Europe's classical tradition - as well as new arrangements of songs by groups such as the Beatles, Abba, Mecano, Omega, Alla Pugacheva, Helena Vondrackova, Edith Piaf, Ewa Demarczyk and others. Click here for more information on how to attend.

Footnote-of-the-Month:

The Future of the Eurozone...
The crisis facing the Eurozone continues, and we continue with contributions to the continuing debate around the question which we also featured at our 2011 Summer School: what will Europe look like in the future ? In last month's e-Bulletin, we highlighted Jan Zielonka's (Oxford) stark predictions calling for an end of the Eurozone, but Niall Ferguson (once of Oxford and now Professor of History at Harvard) presents a different vision. In his article 2021: The New Europe appearing in The Wall Street Journal last month, Ferguson paints a humorous though poignant portrait of the “United States of Europe” (USE), a political and financial union of European states dominated by Germany, with southern Europe an enticing holiday destination, the new Reunited Kingdom of Great Britain, and an energy-rich Norse League, charting their own independent courses. USE is headed by a European President, Karl von Habsburg, directing policy from a ‘new’ capital based in Vienna. Click here to read this article in full.

Meanwhile, in a New York Times article by Landon Thomas Jr., a less humorous scenario is posed, asking what would happen to – say - Greece if it abandoned the € and returned to the drachma ? Thomas charts a course that includes recession, panic, chaos, and - the unthinkable - a military coup. Recognizing that this is an overly dire scenario, Thomas nonetheless suggests in the Drachma Scenario that Greece and other ‘weak Eurozone economies’ may indeed be faced with this very dilemma of staying or leaving the Eurozone. This story will run and run. Click here to read this article in full.

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Endnote:

In praise of Czech Dissidents |
Karel von Schwarzenberg, one of our Trustees, who is again Czech Foreign Secretary, made a high level visit to London recently when he was a guest of our sister organisaton, the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, also founded by George Weidenfeld. He outlined his current fears and hopes for the EU and Europe at a private dinner - also attended by our Secretary-General, Paul Flather - and a fireside chat, before giving a public lecture at Chatham House on the smaller states inside the EU. He argued that small nations were much better protected than 100, even 50, years ago, even if they did not make key EU decisions. He hoped the EU and Eurozone would stay together - the slow lane leads to the exit which can either a temptation for some, or somewhere you are pushed for others, he suggested. But he did not rule out a two-tier inner and outer core EU in the near future.

Václav Havel receiving an honorary degree from Oxford University

Schwarzenberg remained an opponent of Communism - and as he promised at the recent funeral of former President Václav Havel, he and others would follow Havel's model 'and strive for truth and love'. Both fought for independent universities - and the Europaeum is proud to play its role in expanding the international experiences of Charles and Jagiellonian and other great European universities, essential in any successful democracy. To read more on Havel, see The Guardian's Václav Havel funeral draws world leaders and hundreds of mourners; here for Czech views; here for the Economist's excellent obit; and here for the report in the Oxford Gazette upon receiving his honorary degree.