The new European Union Centre of Excellence at York University is hosting its first graduate conference, “Ever Closer Union?/Union sans cesse plus étroite?” on March 11/12, 2010 in Toronto. The purpose is to showcase graduate student work and promote debate on topics relating to the European Union and EU-Canada relations.

The conference will be opened at noon on March 11th with a lecture by Maurizio Cellini, Chef, affaires économiques et commerciales, Délégation de l’Union européenne au Canada / Head, Economic and commercial affairs, Delegation of the European Union to Canada. Mr Cellini will speak on “Canada-EU Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement Negotiations”. The lecture will take place in room 519, York Research Tower on York’s Keele campus (building #95 on the map found here) and all are welcome.

The remainder of the conference program can be found at the bottom of this post.

This bilingual conference is organized by York graduate students and faculty and aims to include contributions from graduate students in various disciplines such as law, political science, public & international affairs, gender studies, economics, public administration, geography, history and sociology, among others, and from universities across Canada and beyond.

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Graduate students from across Canada are invited to apply to participate in an interdisciplinary ten-day study tour (26 April to 5 May 2010) to the Ruhr region—formerly the industrial heart of Germany, and in 2010 the European Capital of Culture. Supported by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), The Canadian Centre for German and European Studies at York University / Le Centre canadien d’études allemandes et européennes  at Université de Montréal, the tour will operate under the title “From Coal to Culture – The Ruhrgebiet in Transition” and will provide unique first-hand insights into the remarkable changes that have been taking place in what was once home to German heavy industry. In addition, successful applicants will have the opportunity to complete an internship in the Ruhr region within an organization or institution working in area(s) related to the themes of the study tour.

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CCGES is now accepting applications to the 2010 Transatlantic Forum, an annual event intended to facilitate open discussion among Canadian scholars on topics of relevance to Germany, Canada and the transatlantic relationship. This year’s Forum will run under the title “The Peaceful Revolution(s) of 1989: History, Memory, Mythology” and takes place on February 26/27, 2010 (Friday, Saturday) at CCGES York (Toronto). The deadline for applications is January 8, 2010 and more information can be found by clicking on the link here: Transatlantic Forum 2010 – Call for Applications

ZDF broadcasts election night

The view from the inside of an election campaign can provide real insights as two CCGES students found out during the run-up to the recent German federal elections. Ben Bryce (PhD candidate, History) and Frederick Peters (PhD candidate, Political Science) were selected to take part in the one-week trip for international graduate students organized by CCGES’ sister-Centre, the Duitsland Instituut/Amsterdam, and funded by the German Academic Exchange Service. In addition to meetings with experts and election staff at which they parsed the issues and positions central to the campaign, the group’s itinerary also included the final Berlin rallies of all the major parties and an election evening event from which Germany’s large public broadcaster ZDF reported on the vote results.

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Historically as well as in the current moment, “Europe” has been mystified and contested in various ways. The question of contestation and its relationship to advancing a praxis of human liberation and solidarity is the central question of this conference. To what extent has contesting the imaginary of Europe furthered or hindered emancipatory politics – both “inside” and “outside” of Europe?
This interdisciplinary conference encourages critical contributions on “Europe” as a process of becoming that takes place amid contestations, negotiations, and competing identity claims. Problematizing “Europe” from both above and below is to bring in analyses of complex social relations of power. Our goal is to create a space for discourses challenging the predominant imaginary of Europe that underlies a top-down process of institution building, the creation of a common identity, and the economic integration at the level of the European Union (EU).

We aim to examine the conflicts and contradictions of “Europe” through a range of contributions that touch on questions such as: What does it mean to be “European” in a changing “Europe”? How have processes and dynamics of class, racialization, gendering, religion, etc. materialized and been contested in lived experiences? What is the legacy of European imperialism? What are the linkages between the consolidation of the “new Europe/an” and the neo-liberal paradigm? To what extent and in which ways has research on “Europe” reproduced, deconstructed, or challenged hegemonic views? Can comparative references to Europe foster progressive politics “outside” of Europe?

More details on this event are available at the conference website: http://www.yorku.ca/europe.

To contact conference organizers, please write: contestingeurope@gmail.com