The European Union Centre of Excellence at York University will be presenting a one-day conference entitled “Free Movement and Discrimination” on York’s Glendon campus on November 28, 2011. At present conference organizers are accepting paper proposals for this event at <maas@yorku.ca>

Democratic states tend to guarantee free movement within their territory to all citizens. Similarly, the European Union guarantees the right to live and the right to work anywhere within EU territory to EU citizens and members of their families. Such rights reflect the project of equality and undifferentiated individual rights for all who have the status of citizen. But they are not uncontested. Within the EU, several member states have or propose to reintroduce border controls and restrict access for EU citizens who claim social assistance. Some, most notably France and Italy, have emphasized their expulsions of Roma, which challenge human rights norms against discrimination. (CONTINUE READING)

Christina Kraenzle, CCGES Director

The Canadian Centre for German and European Studies at York University is pleased to announce that Christina Kraenzle has accepted the Centre Directorship for a two-year, renewable term beginning July 1, 2011. Kraenzle has been a CCGES affiliate since she arrived at York University in the fall of 2004 and has sat on the Centre’s Executive Committee since 2005 in her capacity as the Coordinator of the German Studies program within the Department of Languages, Literatures and Linguistics. She has also served as an executive member of the Canadian Association of University Teachers of German.
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Thanks to the generosity of our partners and a number of private and corporate donors, CCGES is able to offer financial support to students who are registered in its Graduate Diploma program or who have been accepted for formal affiliation with the Centre. Detailed information on this year’s funding opportunities and how to submit to the January 28th, 2011 deadline are found in 2010-11 CCGES Student Funding Call

Should you have questions about any of the programs or how to apply, please contact CCGES Coordinator, John Paul Kleiner at jkleiner@yorku.ca

Dr. Dagmar Soennecken

CCGES Faculty Affiliate Dagmar Soennecken (School of Public Policy and Adminstration) has contributed an article to the winter edition of the Canadian European Union Centres of Excellence Newsletter analyzing both German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s recent remarks pronouncing multiculturalism “an absolute failure” and the international response to these statments.

“Merkel’s Integration Rhetoric” argues that much of the reaction to German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s recent statement labeling multiculturalism an “absolute failure” has failed to take the specifics of the German context into account, preferring to use the remarks as ammunition in attacks on the shortcomings of multiculturalism in a variety of national settings. In her article, Dr. Soennecken reveals some of the history and domestic politics which motivated Chancellor Merkel’s strong remarks and suggests that removing these statements from context is not especially useful.

The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) has announced that a project led by Prof. Roger Keil, Director of CCGES and the CITY Institute at York University, will receive $2.5 million in funding through its Major Collaborative Research Initiatives (MCRI) program, the largest award competition which SSHRC currently runs. (CONTINUE READING)