The European Union in the 21st Century: Policies and Approaches to Global Challenges

Pre-Conference Events
Open to the Public
Pre-Conference Events are being held at the Levis Faculty Center Music Room, 919 West Illinois Street, Urbana, Illinois 61801.

Friday, April 13th, 2012

1:30 – 3:00 pm: Public Lecture by keynote speaker Adrian Favell, Professor of Sociology, Sciences Po, Paris

“Turkey Today: Between Europe, the Regional, and the Global” [video]

3:00 – 4:40 pm: Special Jean Monnet Panel on the Mediterranean

Presentations by graduate students enrolled in the “Europe and the Mediterranean: Transnational Spaces and Integration” Course

• Alexandra Lively (European Union Studies), University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign: “Constructing a Mediterranean Identity through Social Media: Women’s Empowerment”
• Hristo Alexiev (Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies), University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign: “Identity and State Building in Kosovo (1999-2012)”
• Rumyana Hristova (Library and Information Sciences), University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign: “Theoretical Models in the Studies on the Bosnian Church”

Discussant: Kostas Kourtikakis, Research Assistant Professor of Political Science

Students presenting in the Jean Monnet Panel are enrolled in the course “Europe and the Mediterranean: Transnational Spaces and Integration.” This course presents Europe and the Mediterranean as interdependent, multicultural, and multinational spaces historically connected by cultural, economic, and migratory networks. It pays special attention to the role of the EU and its policies in the Mediterranean. By exploring these economic, social, and cultural bridges, the course introduces students to the complexities of an area too often represented in terms of mere opposition to the West. The course is a Jean Monnet Module, funded in part by the European Union’s LifelongLearning Programme and aims to stimulate teaching, research and reflection on European integration in higher education institutions worldwide.

Conference Events
Conference registration is now closed
Conference events are being held at the I-Hotel Conference Center, 1900 S. First Street, Champaign, Illinois 61820.

Friday, April 13th, 2012 (continued)

5:30 – 6:30 pm: Conference Registration and Opening Reception (closed event)
Lobby outside Quad Room and Quad Room Patio

6:30 – 7:30 pm: Keynote Dinner (closed event)
Quad Room

7:30 – 9:00 pm: Welcoming Remarks and Keynote Address (closed event)

A. Bryan Endres, European Union Center Director and Associate Professor of Agricultural Law
Wolfgang Schlör, Interim Associate Provost for International Affairs; Acting Director, International Programs and Studies

Adrian Favell, Professor of Sociology, Sciences Po, Paris

“European Union versus European Society: New Disciplinary Perspectives on EU Studies” [video]

Abstract: The sixth decade of the European Union has seen this pioneering experiment in post-national governance move into a state of crisis. Ever closer union cannot be assumed, certain thresholds of widening and deepening appear to have been reached, and even monetary union no longer looks secure. Within EU studies, traditionally dominated by an institutional political science, law and diplomatic history — all with a marked normative bias towards European integration — there has been a diversification of academic disciplines joining the debate, highlighting problematic processes of integration and fragmentation, de- and re-nationalisation, expansion and contraction playing out at the societal level in the European Union today. Sociologists, anthropologists, geographers and historians are bringing new paradigms, questions and methods to the table, work which highlights both the disconnect between elite institutional discourse above and the European population below, as well as the sometimes underestimated ways in which new transnational social and political formations have emerged in the shadow of political integration.

 

Saturday, April 14th, 2012

8:30 – 10:30 am: Concurrent Sessions

Session 1: Internal Dynamics of EU Membership
Knowledge Room

• Julian Jaursch (Transatlantic Masters Program), University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill: “Regional Representation in the EU: An Intra-national Comparison Among German States” (via Skype)
• Mert Kartal (Political Science), University of Wisconsin, Madison: “Accounting for the Bad Apples: The EU’s Impact on National Corruption”
• Natalie Cartwright (European Union Studies), University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign: “Turkey’s Securitization of Asylum Law: Is Turkey or the EU Responsible?”
• Sanja Badanjak (Political Science), University of Wisconsin, Madison: “Coping with Europe: Europeanization of Party Systems in EU Member States”

Chair: Devon Lechtenberg (Geography)
Discussant: Robert Pahre, Professor of Political Science

Session 2: The EU in Crisis and Transition
Quad Room

• Whitney Taylor (European Union Studies), University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign: “Post-Election Economic Policy Consistency in Newly Elected Governments of Ireland and Spain during the Eurozone Crisis”
• Basak Taraktas (Political Science), University of Pennsylvania: “Ireland the Reluctant Borrower: When Political Resolve and Domestic Measures Fall Short”
• Jennifer Levy (Political Science), University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign: “Integrating a More Diverse EU: EU Minority and Anti-Discrimination Policy Case Study: The Roma in the Czech Republic and Slovakia”
• Nicolas de Zamaroczy (International Relations), University of Southern California: “European Disunion: Explaining Perceptions of the EU’s Permanent Crisis”

Chair: Katie O’Dowd (European Union Studies)
Discussant: Laura Hastings, Adjunct Assistant Professor of Political Science

10:30 – 10:50 am: Break

10:50 am – 12:30 pm: Concurrent Sessions

Session 3: Minority and Migrant Struggles: Recognition, Rights, and Integration
Knowledge Room

• Lauren Anaya (Anthropology), University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign: “The Devil Went Down to Italy: The Fight for the Soul of the EU as Seen Through the Lens of the Struggle over Recognition of Rights for Same-Sex Couples”
• Emily Joy Rothchild (Music), University of Pennsylvania: “Herzlich Willkommen: The Hamburg HipHop Academy and Strategic Cultural Integration Practices”
• Alessia Zulato (French), University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign: “Regional Minority Language Vitality and Identity: The Case of Valle d’Aosta, Italy”

Chair: Reneé Holley (Musicology)
Discussant: Zsuzsa Gille, Associate Professor of Sociology

Session 4: Seasons of African Conflict: EU Responses
Quad Room

• Michael Curry (European and Mediterranean Studies), New York University: “Assessing the Impact of Normative Constraints: The EU, the UN, and the DRC, 2008”
• Sarah Hyon (Political Science), University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign: “The EU and the Mediterranean: Before the Arab Spring and Prospects for the Future”
• Randall C. Denison (Political Science), University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill: “Foreign Affairs and the European Union: Reflections on the Libyan Conflict”

Chair: Natalie Cartwright (MA in European Union Studies)
Discussant: Hadi Esfahani, Professor of Economics

12:30 – 2:00 pm: Lunch and Poster Session

• Erin Hayes (International Studies), University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign: “Archives of Identity: The Minor Art of Mendizabal and Aranberri”
• Hillary Anderzon, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign: “The Mediterranean: Who Lives There?”

2:00 – 3:40 pm: Final Session

Session 5: Power and Democracy: EU Foreign Policy
Quad Room

• Adam Heinz (European Union Studies), University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign: “Three ‘Eurocities’: Motivations for Cross-Border Cooperation at the Hispano-Luso Border”
• Lauren Turk (European Union Studies), University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign: “Towards an Ever Closer Union…with the Turks Next Door? Exploring an EU-Turkey Energy Partnership”
• C. Kevin Taber (Political Science), Indiana University: “Bridging Home and Away: Transnational Migrant Groups and Global North-South Foreign Policy”

Chair: Adam Heinz (European Union Studies)
Discussant: Kostas Kourtikakis, Research Assistant Professor of Political Science

3:40 – 4:30 pm: Coffee and Conference Wrap-up

Call for Abstracts

This conference seeks to bring together graduate students from a variety of disciplines who specialize in topics related to the European Union or transatlantic relations. The conference is an initiative of the European Union Center (EUC) at the University of Illinois. The goals of the conference are to:

• encourage discussions on the diverse methodological and theoretical approaches currently being applied in EU studies;
• establish an ongoing dialogue between scholars working on divergent aspects of the EU and EU-US relations within varying disciplinary contexts;
• identify new and cutting-edge perspectives from which EU-related topics are being explored.

The EUC Graduate Student Conference Committee invites submissions on topics including, but not limited to, the following:

• Federalist governance structures and citizen participation in democratic institutions;
• Political party and national/state legislative behaviors;
• Fiscal and monetary policy and public debt management;
• Climate change, environmental protection, and energy sustainability and security;
• Labor law, trade unions, and employment issues;
• Immigration policies and migrant experiences;
• Cultural integration, national/ethnic identities, and language policy in the EU;
• Gender and minority equity issues;
• Social welfare and public health policy;
• Cooperative security and foreign affairs in conflict management and peacekeeping;
• Global poverty reduction and economic aid;
• Agricultural policy and food and resource security;
• Sustainability issues in urban and regional development.

Conference Sponsors

This conference is supported by grants to the EU Center from the University of Illinois Graduate College through its Focal Point initiative, and the European Commission through the European Union Center of Excellence grants program.