The European Union Centre of Excellence project at York along with York’s Centre for Refugee Studies and CERIS – The Ontario Metropolis Centre are pleased to present Stefan Kok of the Legal Commission of Ontario (formerly Senior Policy Officer, Dutch Council for Refugees). The lecture will be held at York’s Keele campus on Thursday, February 16, 2012 from 12:30 to 2:00 in room 519 York Research Tower (building #95 on the map found here). Subject of his lecture will be “Europe’s Borders and Refugee Protection”.

Abstract: European border management raises many humanitarian and human rights concerns.  In 2011, almost 2000 people died in the Mediterranean trying to reach Europe.  Detention practices, asylum standards and return practices at the EU’s external borders have been widely criticized.  Yet, the Dublin II-system, which allocates the responsibility for dealing with an asylum request to the states of entry (often the EU-states at the external land and sea borders), remains the basis for the Common European Asylum System.  Is there a ‘Fortress Europe’ and what are its effects on refugee protection in the EU?

This event is presented by York’s Centre for Refugee Studies, CERIS – The Ontario Metropolis Centre and the European Union Centre of Excellence at York.
All are welcome and refreshments will be served:
Date: Thursday, February 16th
Time: 12:30 to 2:00 pm
Location: 519 York Research Tower

The European Union Centre of Excellence project housed at CCGES is  pleased to present a lecture by Dr. Rosa Fernández (Applied Economics, Distance Education University of Spain) on the subject of Corporate Social Responsibility practices and regulation in Europe, entitled “The Uneven Progress of CSR Practices in Europe: A Window for Public Intervention?” on Wednesday, February 8, 2012. In this talk, Dr. Fernández gives an overview of CSR practices in a number of European countries and considers the possibility of public intervention to regulate CSR strategies.

To listen to Dr. Fernández’ lecture along with the response of discussant Prof. Andrew Crane (George Gardiner Professor of Business Ethics, Schulich School of Business), please click on this link:

All are welcome and light refreshments will be served.

Date: Wednesday, February 8th
Time: 12:30-2:00 pm
Location: room 305 York Lanes

CCGES and the European Union Centre of Excellence project housed at the Centre are pleased to convene the international workshop “Transnational Private Regulatory Governance: Regimes, Dialogue, Constitutionalization” for March 1-2, 2012.

This workshop is being presented under the auspices of the Comparative Research in Law & Political Economy Network based at York’s Osgoode Hall Law School and will bring together scholars based in Canada, the United States and Europe and from a variety of disciplinary backgrounds.

Prof. Shelley Hornstein will be convening an international workshop under the title “Starlets and Starchitecture: Women, Celebrity and Architecture across Borders” on Saturday, March 3, 2012. This event will bring together scholars from a variety of discipline and countries to consult on the creation of an interdisciplinary course that is intended to locate the work of women and celebrity architecture and point to the enormous strides made by women in design and architecture internationally.

Funding for this activity has been graciously provided by the DAAD – German Academic Exchange Service.

Maps can be tools of social control and of resistance, of ideology and of critical analysis. Ever since Brian Harley called for a deconstruction of maps and Denis Wood reminded us of the power of maps, and since people like William Bunge or (much earlier) Sandor Radó started mapping the marginalized and the invisible (un-mapped) costs of capitalist development, it is clear that maps are everything but innocent statements of what is where. Critical approaches to maps and cartography are both: A critique of cartographical rationalities – a critique of the assumption it is unproblematic to claim this is there – and a call for critical maps – a call for saying this is there.

This workshop is dedicated to the question of mapping urban spaces. Urban spaces are in the focus of maps produced and used by a wide range of urban actors, and we are looking for critical analyses (of for example planning maps, maps of poverty, maps of health needs, maps of minorities, maps of “dangerous” areas …) and underground mappings, counter-cartographies and interventionist maps.

A second workshop is planned for 2012 and will examine transnational spaces.

Mapping Urban Spaces workshop – Program

For more information on the workshop, please contact the event’s convenors:
Ulrich Best, York University, ubest@yorku.ca
Boris Michel, Universität Erlangen, bmichel@geographie.uni-erlangen.de.