In the wake of Barack Obama’s historic victory, the Canadian Centre for German and European Studies (CCGES) at York University gathered together a group of its faculty affiliates to discuss a variety of aspects of the European relationship with president-elect Obama and his new administration This discussion is now available for viewing online at GermanStudies.ca or on YouTube directly by clicking on any of the topics listed below.
Amongst the topics addressed by the group were the following:

• A European Obama? – Could a candidate similiar to Obama emerge in any of Europe’s political cultures? What are the hurdles such a person would face?
• What Do They See in Him? – The perception of Obama in Europe
• Great Expectations – What an Obama administration and European leaders expect from each other

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As the kickoff to a series of events marking the 20th anniversaries of the fall of the Berlin Wall (November 9, 1989) and German unification (October 3, 1990), CCGES recently took an interdisciplinary group of ten graduate students from York and the Centre’s partner institution at the Université de Montréal on a 11-day trip through the former-East Germany. Led by Prof. Marcus Funck, the German Academic Exchange Service’s Visiting Professor at York, and CCGES Coordinator, John Paul Kleiner, the trip was intended to provide insight into the massive social, economic and cultural transformation which has taken place in eastern Germany over the past almost two decades of unification. Through encounters with academics, politicians, professionals as well as civic leaders, activists and residents, tour participants explored the ramifications of rapid deindustrialization, declining levels of social and democratic engagement, massive demographic changes (relocation from east to west and a rapidly aging population) and East Germany’s disastrous ecological legacy. (CONTINUE READING)

This event will begin with a panel discussion featuring Ms. Patsy Soerensen of Payoke, a European NGO working to combat human trafficking. Other panelists will represent government, the media and academe. Af the conclusion of the discussion, Ms. Sorenson will deliver a keynote address. (CONTINUE READING)

Dr. Stefan Vogt studied history, political science, sociology and German literature in Freiburg and Berlin. An expert on German intellectual and political history of the 19th and 20th centuries, he is particularly interested in histories of collective identities and political movements. Having just completed a term at the Duitsland Instituut Amsterdam, he is a visiting scholar at New York University’s Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies and in the new year he will take up a position as a postdoctoral researcher at the Ben Gurion University in Beersheva. His current project has to do with German Zionism’s confrontation with radical German nationalism. (CONTINUE READING)

The European Politics & Society Workshop is a monthly, interdisciplinary forum for discussing work in progress. This month the workshop welcomes Dr. Gerd Grözinger, the Research Director at the Universität Flensburg’s Centre for Research into Education. Attendees of the workshop will discuss Dr. Grözinger’s paper “The United Parliaments of Europe and other Reform Proposals for the EU”.

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