Summer School: BIRN Investigative Reporting 2012, Mavrovo Macedonia, 19-25 August 2012‏

BIRN Summer School of Investigative Reporting, August 19-25, 2012 in Mavrovo, Macedonia – FEW PLACES LEFT!

- Scholarships for Balkan journalists -
Learn from Leading Experts in the Profession
Third BIRN Summer School of Investigative Reporting<http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/birn-summer-school/birn-summer-school-home-page> will gather a superb line-up of journalists and trainers such as lead trainer Sheila Coronel<http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/birn-summer-school/sheila-coronel>, Director and Professor of Professional Practice at Toni Stabile Center for Investigative Journalism at Columbia University, Mark Schoofs<http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/birn-summer-school/mark-schoofs>, Pulitzer Prize winner, Paul Lewis Special Projects Editor for the Guardian, Reporter of the Year and 2009 Bevins Prize for outstanding investigative journalism, Marcus Lindemann<http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/birn-summer-school/marcus-lindemann> an executive producer and journalist from Germany that is responsible for TV reports mainly broadcast on ZDF, Europe’s largest TV station, Paul Radu<http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/birn-summer-school/paul-radu>, the executive director of the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting and more.
You can all trainers at http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/birn-summer-school/birn-summer-school-trainers-and-panelists-2012.

Interactive and Practical Training Programme

Through the programme participants will learn basic investigative techniques, to structure an investigation and preparing a story memo, about computer-assisted reporting skills, to use the web and public records as sources of information and more.
Application and scholarship
Journalists from Croatia, Bosnia, Serbia, Kosovo, Albania, Montenegro, Romania and Bulgaria are able to apply for scholarship that will cover accommodation, full board, participation fee and travel costs up to 100 euros.
International participants can apply for the School as well, but they will have to pay participation fee.
Application is open until 1st August 2012 for scholarship students and 9th August for international ones.
>From day one, students will work and collaborate actively in small groups to pitch an investigative story idea. All participants will have the opportunity to research and develop their idea into a full story.

This year, The BIRN Summer School is set in Mavrovo, Macedonia, on the beautiful lake shore and spa resort Hotel Radika<http://www.radika.com.mk/homepage.htm>.
Click here to read the enrolment requirements, fill in the application form and spend a fantastic summer with the BIRN Summer School of Investgative Journalism<http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/birn-summer-school/birn-summer-school-2012-enrolment-2012>.
For any information, please contact:
Jelena Cosic
BIRN Summer School
Project Coordinator
jelena.cosic@birn.eu.com<mailto:jelena.cosic@birn.eu.com>
http://www.balkaninsight.com/bss
Office: +381 11 6 5555 99

Conference: The Euroacademia Convention of European Studies - Naming the Crisis of Europe and Assessing its Impact, Prague, 18 – 20 October 2012‏

Call for Panels and Papers: The Euroacademia Convention of European Studies ‘Naming the Crisis of Europe and Assessing its Impact’

18-20 October 2012,
Grand Majestic Plaza Hotel
Prague, Czech Republic
Deadline for Panels 1 September 2012
Deadline for Papers 15 September 2012

Euroacademia cordially invites you to The First Euroacademia Convention of European Studies: Naming the Crisis of Europe and Assessing its Impact

Description and aims:
The expression ‘crisis of Europe’ used to be reserved for profound and elaborated cultural diagnoses coming from various reflective attitudes of concerned intellectuals. Now it is becoming part of common sense and one of the most used discursive or explanatory elements for a diverse variety of events. Governments, politicians, economists, intellectuals, institutions, civil society actors, and most of all the European citizens, they all invoke in a quotidian fashion the crisis. A general agreement seems to install that Europe and even more the European Union, are no longer the same. Commonality, solidarity, unity, cooperation, shared values and the future of a united Europe are more often challenged and questioned since the crisis emerged and the questioning proliferates as the crisis has deepened. Many scholars claim that new ways of looking at Europe and the EU should be formed as old models are no longer sufficient or efficient in showing a path out of the crisis. Others indicate to existing paradigms that should only be reframed and applied more consistently for better outcomes. Anyone agrees however that is the right time to seriously think the future of Europe.

The Euroacademia Convention of European Studies ‘Naming the Crisis of Europe and Assessing its Impact’ aims to address the ongoing challenges, to map the current state of reflection on the topic of the European crisis and to look at available scenarios for the future of Europe. No other field than European Studies has a larger portfolio of available disciplinary instruments, models and paradigms that are expected to provide answer to unfolding realities. If no single disciplinary trend can provide neither sufficient explanations of the ongoing events or reasonable predictions, a dialogue between schools, trends, paradigms and models in European Studies could forward a mosaic of alternatives for reflection at hand.

Euroacademia aims to bring together a wide and worldwide network of academics, researchers, practitioners and activists that identify their concerns and practices with the generic field of the European Studies. Contested in epistemological terms as an autonomous field, the European Studies generated however starting the 20th century disciplinary and inter-disciplinary scientific communities, particular interests, methodologies and puzzles, schools, specializations, interests and academic events that indicate a dynamic framing of its particular identity.

The First Euroacademia Convention of European Studies aims to bring in an open floor for discussions, debates, reflection and sharing the features, topics, puzzles, methods, trends, schools and heresies within the field of European Studies that can account for the state of the field in times of crisis. The conference searches to address the European Studies identity as a field of studies through providing a framework for researches and practitioners to present their certitudes and dilemmas, their topics and inquiries, their claims and counter-claims that bring to live the European specificity of exposing itself to constant constructive criticism and reevaluation.

The Convention of European Studies starts from the assumption that in the 21st Century, Europe preserves its long-lasting saliency for researchers and practitioners, that specific dynamics of change and/or resistance to change inside Europe influences contemporary manners of addressing social, political, cultural or any other type of reflection. However, the formation of the European Studies as a more or less autonomous field for research relied and often still does on substantial conceptual imports from a wide variety of established fields and often of non-European provenience. These imports and the specific way of reshaping the research apparatus opened the way for both assertive attitudes and contestation. It is the aim of The Convention of European Studies to create an opportunity for assessing the state of the art today, the pros and the cons, the added value and also the question marks that might strengthen or weaken the profile of European Studies as a distinctive field in confronting current events.

The conference is opened to the widest variety of topics understood or perceived as being connected with the field of European Studies from meta-analytical views, to on-going puzzles, methodological proposals and/or assessments, specific topics, issues or shared experiences. The Convention of European Studies aims also to become a meeting point and an opportunity for dissemination, valorization, socialization, contact making and research agenda shaping that will to generate a future collaborative framework for all those involved in understanding Europe in its past, present and future dimensions. The Convention of European Studies is intended as a pretext to provide a dialogical opportunity and experience for all the participants to address and express their views, works, puzzles or criticisms regarding the state of the art and the specific concerns for European Studies today. It is also a good chance to see whether European Studies are able to provide consistent solutions to ameliorate or reasonable ways out of the crises.

The conference is organized yet by no means restricted to the following panels:
- Debating the Identity of the European Studies as a Field of Research
- Conceptual Imports Versus Specific Vocabularies for European Studies
- Epistemological Assessments
- Puzzles and Trends inside European Studies
- Re-Defining the Field
- Failures in European Studies or Questioned Accomplishments
- Distinctiveness of Europe/EU as Regional Integration Project
- Europeaness: Mirroring Europe in Terms of Norms and Values
- Towards a European Identity
- Political Organizations and Distinctive Logics of Appropriateness in Europe
- Insights of Practitioners: Putting Europe on the Map
- Europe East and West, North and South
- Europe in the World
- European Union and Challenges for Research
- EU as a Sui Generis Type of Polity
- Addressing New Puzzles Inside European Studies- European Studies and its Power to Shape Policies
- EU as an Empire
- Europe and its Constitutive Others
- Europe and Globalization
- EU and the Process of Europeanization
- EU and Models of Regional Integration
- International Relations and the European Studies
- Comparative Models for European Studies
- Constructivist Approaches in European Studies
- Addressing the Quantitative/Qualitative Nexus Inside European Studies
- EU Enlargements and Their Lessons
- The Future of EU Enlargement
- The Impact of Theories of EU Enlargement on European Studies
- EU’s External Influence and Democratization
- EU and Foreign Policy
However, if you are willing to propose and/or chair a particular panel we welcome you to do so on the conference website until the deadline on 1st of September 2012: http://euroacademia.eu/conference/the-first-global-convention-of-european-studies/

Participant’s Profile
The conference is addressed to academics, researchers and professionals with a particular interest in Europe from all parts of the world. Post-graduate students, doctoral candidates and young researchers are welcome to submit an abstract. Representatives of INGOs, NGOs, Think Tanks and activists willing to present their work with impact on or influenced by specific understandings of Europe are welcomed as well to submit the abstract of their contribution. Abstracts will be reviewed and accepted based on their proven quality. The submitted paper is expected to be in accordance with the lines provided in the submitted abstract.

A specific spot in the conference program will be dedicated to social networking and therefore all the participants interested in setting or developing further cooperation agendas and prospects with other participants will have time to present and/or promote their project and express calls for cooperation. A specific setting for promotional materials connected with the topic of the conference will be reserved for the use of participants. Books authored or edited by the participants can be exhibited and promoted during the whole period of the conference and can also be presented within the conference package based on prior arrangements.

Selected papers will be published in an electronic volume with ISBN after the confirmation of the authors and a double peer-review process based on an agreed publication schedule. All the papers selected for publication should be original and must not have been published elsewhere. All participants to the conference will receive a copy of the volume.

Venue and Directions

The conference will take place in the conference premises of the exclusive 4 stars deluxe design Grand Majestic Plaza Hotel<http://www.hotel-grandmajestic.cz/en/>, centrally located in the heart of Prague, easily accessible from the historic center and within a walking distance from all the major tourist attractions: just few steps away from the famous Municipal House, Gothic Powder Gate, significant Republic Square and the most attractive shopping centre Palladium.

DEADLINE FOR 300 WORDS ABSTRACTS SUBMISSION IS 15TH OF SEPTEMBER 2012

The 300 word abstracts and the affiliation details should be submitted in Word, WordPerfect, or RTF formats, following this order:
1) author(s), 2) affiliation, 3) email address, 4) title of abstract, 5) body of abstract 6) preferred panel or proposed panel

The abstract and details can be sent to application@euroacademia.eu<mailto:application@euroacademia.eu> with the name of the conference specified in the subject line or through the on-line Application Form available on the conference website http://euroacademia.eu/conference/the-first-global-convention-of-european-studies/

We will acknowledge the receipt of all proposal and answer to all paper proposals submitted.

IMPORTANT DATES: If your paper was accepted a notification of acceptance will be sent to you by 17th of September 2012. Your confirmation of attendance through registration form will be expected until 20th of September 2012 and until the 25th of September 2012 the payment of the participation fee through bank transfer is requested. No paper will be introduced in the program without confirmation and payment of the participant fee. By 5th of October 2012, the full paper is to be sent in accordance with the style standards provided to the accepted participants by organizers. All papers will be uploaded on the website as drafts available for consultation for other participants and the public.The conference will be held in English and will focus on the discussion of 5,000–6,000-word, pre-circulated papers.

Euroacademia is a non-profit organization, based and registered in Paris and Vienna, aiming to foster academic cooperation, networking and a platform for dissemination and valorization of academic research results, trends, and emerging themes within the area of concern for European studies, political science, critical studies, cultural studies, history, anthropology, social psychology, semiotics, philosophy, sociology and wider and inclusive interdisciplinary and trans-disciplinary approaches that contribute to a better understanding of the ‘self-organizing vertigo’ (Edgar Morin) of the European realm. Euroacademia’s goal is to become a hub for academic interaction on and about Europe.
For more information visit www.euroacademia.eu<http://www.euroacademia.eu/>

Euroacademia
Paris Area Office
10 Boulevard Dubreuil
91400 Orsay France
Phone:+33 647 151 161
+33 980 527 922
+33 648 600 396
Fax: +33 985 527 922
Email: office@euroacademia.eu

Conference: 22 Years of International Development Assistance to Southeast Europe (1991-2013): Lessons for Donors and Recipients, Athens, 22-23 February 2013‏

22 Years of International Development Assistance to Southeast Europe (1991-2013): Lessons for Donors and Recipients, Athens 22-23 February 2013

22 Years of International Development Assistance to Southeast Europe (1991-2013): Lessons for Donors and Recipients
An International Workshop co-organized by the Department of Economics and the Department of Political Science and International Relations of the University of Peloponnese with the co-operation of Europe and the Balkans International Network
Athens, 22-3 February 2013
Call for Papers
Within the last twenty-two years the Balkans have received massive amounts of international aid. Much aid was successful in rebuilding infrastructure, reintegrating refugees, increasing the capacity of state institutions and improving educational services and social care. However much aid has been wasted. Several reports have reached the conclusion that humanitarian and development assistance was badly coordinated and hampered by bureaucracy, or even worse, was embezzled by corrupt officials. In many cases aid money lined the pockets of crooks, cronies and dodgy officials. Nowadays, humanitarian and post-conflict aid has been reduced and development aid from bilateral donors is being replaced by pre-accession assistance from the EU.
It is time to re-examine the track record of international aid to Southeast Europe. The organizers of this workshop invite academics and practitioners from aid agencies, international organizations and NGOs from both the region and donor countries to share their knowledge and experience on aspects of international humanitarian and development assistance to Southeast Europe. The main objective is to identify the causes of successes and failures and suggest ways that could improve aid efforts both in the region and worldwide. Papers could focus either on donor-recipient relationships, or on specific projects.
Issues to be addressed:

· Politics and aid

· Donor coordination

· Bilateral vs multilateral donors

· State-building and aid agencies

· Aid Conditionalities

· Aid and regional integration/co-operation

· Case Studies: Causes of success and failure of specific aid projects
Keynote Speaker: Professor Stefano Bianchini, University of Bologna
Abstracts of around 400 words and short CVs should be sent to seeconference@uop.gr by 30 September 2012. All abstracts will be evaluated by an academic committee. The authors of accepted proposals will be informed by mid-October 2012. Full papers should be submitted by 31 January 2013 to be circulated among conference participants. Selected papers will be published in a special issue of the journal Southeastern Europe (Brill) and in an edited volume. A registration fee of 100  (to cover meals and dinner) is required upon arrival.

Conference: Trust and Distrust in the Eastern Bloc and the Soviet Union, 1956-1991, School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University College London, 4-5 July 2012‏

Trust and Distrust in the Eastern Bloc and the Soviet Union, 1956-1991

Place: School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University College London
Dates: 4-5 July, 2013
Deadline for submission of proposals: 15 September 2012

Trust is an essential part of individual lives and the workings of modern society. Not only democracies, but also dictatorships like the Soviet state and authoritarian regimes like post-war European socialist societies needed trust as a crucial resource for social integration and the stability of the political order. What did this most basic of emotions, a requisite for social relationships, look like in the Soviet Union and other communist European states, which are usually described as a societies of distrust? How did “ordinary people” in these countries act, speak and experience themselves in the insecure, risky, and untrustworthy circumstances of everyday life? And, of course, how did the socialist states manage distrust and produce the trust necessary to legitimate themselves and preserve the existing political order?

These questions are the basic issues for discussion at a workshop that will probe new ways of approaching the history of trust and distrust in studying states and societies in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union. More specifically, our goal is to analyse the establishment, functioning, stability and vitality of political regimes and societies in the Soviet bloc through the terms, concepts and meanings of trust and distrust. Our hypothesis is that authoritarian societies in Europe also had their own “habitus of trust” (Barbara Misztal ) and developed their own “culture of trust” (Piotr Sztompka ). Applying sociological concepts of trust to post-war authoritarian regimes in Europe, we may speak about the establishment of socialist cultures of trust based on a mixture of pre-modern and modern forms of trust and distrust: 1) the production of personified, pre-modern form of trust, generated through leader cults and by creating broad categories of friends and enemies; 2) the promotion of modern forms of institutionalized trust that offered more normative coherence and stability to the social order, more predictability as well as accountability of persons and institutions, and the very limited but possible and tolerated possibility of openness, plurality and mobility. Taken together, all of this allowed communist regimes, especially in 1960s and 1970s, to mobilise people politically, to energize daily life and to produce generalized trust and manage distrust more specifically. In doing these things, socialist states created a sense of the stability, normality and inviolability of their political orders.

Our starting point is the process of destalinization in 1956. Destalinization marked a break with terror and violence and a move towards a politics of trust and empathy geared to the needs, interests and expectations of the population. In our view, promoting trust (‘stavka na doverie’) led to the “normalization” of everyday life and stabilization of communist regimes in Europe. This normalization developed from the intensification of political communication as a space of negotiation—between people and state, the individual and the system—over the possibilities and limits of collaboration, tolerance and coexistence under a socialist dictatorship.

The workshop will contribute to the development of a cultural history of trust and distrust that can shed new light on several important issues: the stability and acceptance of authoritarian regimes; processes of social integration and disintegration; practices of inclusion and exclusion; mobilising individual and collective actions. Moreover, the workshop will develop a deeper explanation of two crucial historiographical questions: How did dictatorship really function and how did the closed society really work?

We are looking for papers that have not yet been published and we invite submission of proposals on various aspects of trust and distrust in the GDR, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania, Albania, Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union from 1956 to 1991.

Tentative panels and topics are:

1. Methodological paths and interdisciplinary approaches to the history of trust/distrust from:
-Historical anthropology, ethnography and visual studies
-Political and social science
-Psychology and psychiatry
-Philosophy and pedagogy

2. Regimes of trust and distrust:
-National traditions and legacies, ideological and scientific roots of trust/distrust
-State monopolies on producing and distributing trust/distrust
-Scientific roots of trust/distrust (psychiatry, psychology, pedagogy etc.)
-Trust as state honor, distrust as dishonor: giving, withdrawing, restoring trust
-Performative rituals, symbols, myths of trust (elections, demonstrations, assemblies) and creating communities of trust/distrust
-Propaganda in making friends and enemies
-Emotional bonds between people and state

3. Institutions of trust and distrust:
-Heads of state and party leaders
-Communist party and party members
-State institutions (the courts, the army, the police, etc.)
-Education and teaching trust (schools and mass organizations)
-Security organs (KGB, Stasi, etc.)
-Prisons and psychiatric hospitals

4. Public/private spheres, political/apolitical questions:
-Faces of public trust: physicians, schoolteachers, university professors, clergy, factory managers etc.
-Topography of trust/distrust: communal apartments, workplaces, pubs, smoking rooms, the marketplace, the queue etc.
-Private faces of trust: family, kinship, friendship, neighbourhood etc.

5. Mass media and building trust/distrust:
-Scandals, rumors and trust/distrust of the public
-Radio, television, newspapers and their audience(s)
-Idols, celebrities, pop-culture heroes as objects of trust/distrust
-Letter-writing to mass media as a trust building practice

6. Socialist citizens: subjectivity between normality and deviance:
-Individual experience, memory and resources of trust/distrust
-Morality, loyalty, obedience
-Marginal groups, ethnic, sexual and religious minorities
-Hooligans and alternative (a)social groups

7. Consumerism, the market, money: informal practices and unwritten rules:
-Practices of blat, corruption and bribery
-Uses of money
-Socialist goods and services
-Luxury, leisure and free time activities

8. At the boundary of trust and distrust:
-Domestic violence
-Suicide
-Major mental illnesses and neuroses
-Terrorist attacks and hostage-taking
-Natural and man-made catastrophes

Please email abstracts to a.tikhomirov@ucl.ac.uk (with Trust-Conference as the subject). The abstract should include your full name, email address, affiliation, the title of your paper, a short description of your presentation (no more than 500 words) and a very short CV that includes only major publications.
Deadline for the submission of abstracts: 15 September 2012. We will inform you of the selection of participants by 30 October 2012. Those invited to present a paper should submit an electronic version of the paper by 1 June 2013. The paper should be no longer than 6,000-8,000 words. The papers will be pre-circulated. At the colloquium each participant will have 15 minutes to outline the main points. For each panel, commentary on each paper and then discussion will follow the presentations. After the workshop authors are expected to revise their papers for publication in a peer-reviewed journal.
Conference language: English.

We are applying for financial support. Should we be successful, we will reimburse your travel expenses up to 200 £ and accommodation expenses up to 3 nights in London. Please, could you inform us if your institute can cover your travel and accommodation costs.

Dr Alexey Tikhomirov
School of Slavonic and East European Studies
University College London
Gower Street
London WC1E 6BT
United Kingdom
Email: a.tikhomirov@ucl.ac.uk

Scholarship: One-year postdoctoral fellowshops, Pembroke Center at Brown University, 2013-14‏

In 2013-14, the Pembroke Center at Brown University is awarding one-year residential postdoctoral fellowships to scholars from any field whose research relates to the theme of “Socialism and Post-Socialism”. Fellows are required to participate weekly in the Pembroke Seminar, teach one undergraduate course, and pursue individual research.

Candidates are selected on the basis of their scholarly potential and the relevance of their work to the research theme. Recipients must have a PhD and may not hold a tenured position. Fellowships are awarded to postdoctoral scholars who received their degrees from institutions other than Brown University. Brown University is an EEO/AA employer. The Center strongly encourages underrepresented minority and international scholars to apply.

The term of appointment is July 1, 2013-June 30, 2014. The stipend is $50,000, plus a supplement for health insurance. The deadline for receipt of applications is December 7, 2012. Selections will be announced in March.

Questions should be directed to Donna_Goodnow@brown.edu or phone 401-863-2643.

http://pembrokecenter.org/research/postdoc.html


Inna Leykin
PhD Candidate
Department of Anthropology
Campus Box 1921
Brown University
Providence, RI 02912

Conference: Havighurst Center 12th Annual International Young Researchers Conference, Orthodox Christianity in Russia and Eastern Europe, Oxford, Ohio, 28 – 31 March 2013‏

Havighurst Center for Russian & Post-Soviet Studies
12th Annual International Young Researchers Conference

ORTHODOX CHRISTIANITY IN RUSSIA AND EASTERN EUROPE:
HISTORICAL AND CONTEMPORARY PERSPECTIVES

Organizer: Scott M. Kenworthy
Miami University
Oxford, OH

March 28 – 31, 2013


Before the collapse of communism, religion in Russia and Eastern Europe was rarely a topic of scholarly research. The prevalence of the secularization thesis in the West, combined with the dominance of militantly atheist regimes in the East, led scholars to assume that religion no longer mattered in the region. Moreover, long held stereotypes about the Orthodox Church contributed to the dismissal of Orthodoxy’s importance as a factor in Russian or East European history; only a few pioneers in the field challenged this tendency. Since the collapse of communism, however, religion has reasserted itself in the public sphere in the former communist bloc as in many other parts of the world. There has been a renewed appreciation of Orthodoxy’s significance in the history of the region, as well as growing interest among political scientists and anthropologists who study Russia and Eastern Europe.

This conference seeks to tap into a new wave of research on Orthodoxy in Russia and Eastern Europe. It is intended to be interdisciplinary, so we invite papers from a number of disciplinary perspectives: historical, anthropological, sociological, intellectual, literary, and/or political science. We also seek to cut across geographical lines, so papers can be concerned with the Russian Empire/Soviet Union and its successor states as well as Eastern Europe (former Habsburg and Ottoman empires, Romania, Bulgaria, and the former Yugoslavia). We invite papers that tap into the transnational dimensions of Orthodoxy—ties between Russia or Eastern Europe and the new world, for example, or Orthodox missions outside traditional territories. We also invite papers that explore the relationship of Orthodoxy to other religious traditions in the region.

We encourage proposals from young researchers who have already completed their dissertation research (ABD) or have defended their dissertation within the last three years. This will be an intensive 2-1/2 day working conference (March 28-31, 2013) during which each of the selected papers will be critiqued by the other participants, including all invited presenters, keynote speakers, and a team of discussants made up of Miami University faculty. Papers will be circulated in advance, and participants are expected to be prepared to discuss other participants’ papers. The conference will include two keynote speakers: Dr. Lucian Turcescu (Concordia University, Montreal) and Dr. Gregory Freeze (Brandeis University).

The Havighurst Center will provide accommodation in Oxford, ground transportation to and from the airport, and partial travel funding ($300 for domestic travel and $800 for international travel).

To be considered for the conference, submit an abstract of approximately 250 words and a short CV to havighurstcenter@muohio.edu by October 1, 2012. Please type "2013 Young Researchers Conference" as the subject of the email. Selected papers will be announced by December 1, 2012. If selected, participants must submit completed papers for circulation to other conference participants by March 1, 2013.
Questions can be directed to:

The Havighurst Center for Russian & Post-Soviet Studies
Miami University
Harrison Hall, Room 116
Oxford, OH 45056
(513) 529-3303
havighurstcenter@muohio.edu

Conference: The Euroacademia Convention of European Studies Naming the Crisis of Europe and Assessing its Impact, 18 – 20 October 2012

Call for Panels and Papers: The Euroacademia Convention of European Studies ‘Naming the Crisis of Europe and Assessing its Impact’

18-20 October 2012,
Grand Majestic Plaza Hotel
Prague, Czech Republic
Deadline for Panels 1 September 2012
Deadline for Papers 15 September 2012

Euroacademia cordially invites you to The First Euroacademia Convention of European Studies: Naming the Crisis of Europe and Assessing its Impact

Description and aims:
The expression ‘crisis of Europe’ used to be reserved for profound and elaborated cultural diagnoses coming from various reflective attitudes of concerned intellectuals. Now it is becoming part of common sense and one of the most used discursive or explanatory elements for a diverse variety of events. Governments, politicians, economists, intellectuals, institutions, civil society actors, and most of all the European citizens, they all invoke in a quotidian fashion the crisis. A general agreement seems to install that Europe and even more the European Union, are no longer the same. Commonality, solidarity, unity, cooperation, shared values and the future of a united Europe are more often challenged and questioned since the crisis emerged and the questioning proliferates as the crisis has deepened. Many scholars claim that new ways of looking at Europe and the EU should be formed as old models are no longer sufficient or efficient in showing a path out of the crisis. Others indicate to existing paradigms that should only be reframed and applied more consistently for better outcomes. Anyone agrees however that is the right time to seriously think the future of Europe.

The Euroacademia Convention of European Studies ‘Naming the Crisis of Europe and Assessing its Impact’ aims to address the ongoing challenges, to map the current state of reflection on the topic of the European crisis and to look at available scenarios for the future of Europe. No other field than European Studies has a larger portfolio of available disciplinary instruments, models and paradigms that are expected to provide answer to unfolding realities. If no single disciplinary trend can provide neither sufficient explanations of the ongoing events or reasonable predictions, a dialogue between schools, trends, paradigms and models in European Studies could forward a mosaic of alternatives for reflection at hand.

Euroacademia aims to bring together a wide and worldwide network of academics, researchers, practitioners and activists that identify their concerns and practices with the generic field of the European Studies. Contested in epistemological terms as an autonomous field, the European Studies generated however starting the 20th century disciplinary and inter-disciplinary scientific communities, particular interests, methodologies and puzzles, schools, specializations, interests and academic events that indicate a dynamic framing of its particular identity.

The First Euroacademia Convention of European Studies aims to bring in an open floor for discussions, debates, reflection and sharing the features, topics, puzzles, methods, trends, schools and heresies within the field of European Studies that can account for the state of the field in times of crisis. The conference searches to address the European Studies identity as a field of studies through providing a framework for researches and practitioners to present their certitudes and dilemmas, their topics and inquiries, their claims and counter-claims that bring to live the European specificity of exposing itself to constant constructive criticism and reevaluation.

The Convention of European Studies starts from the assumption that in the 21st Century, Europe preserves its long-lasting saliency for researchers and practitioners, that specific dynamics of change and/or resistance to change inside Europe influences contemporary manners of addressing social, political, cultural or any other type of reflection. However, the formation of the European Studies as a more or less autonomous field for research relied and often still does on substantial conceptual imports from a wide variety of established fields and often of non-European provenience. These imports and the specific way of reshaping the research apparatus opened the way for both assertive attitudes and contestation. It is the aim of The Convention of European Studies to create an opportunity for assessing the state of the art today, the pros and the cons, the added value and also the question marks that might strengthen or weaken the profile of European Studies as a distinctive field in confronting current events.

The conference is opened to the widest variety of topics understood or perceived as being connected with the field of European Studies from meta-analytical views, to on-going puzzles, methodological proposals and/or assessments, specific topics, issues or shared experiences. The Convention of European Studies aims also to become a meeting point and an opportunity for dissemination, valorization, socialization, contact making and research agenda shaping that will to generate a future collaborative framework for all those involved in understanding Europe in its past, present and future dimensions. The Convention of European Studies is intended as a pretext to provide a dialogical opportunity and experience for all the participants to address and express their views, works, puzzles or criticisms regarding the state of the art and the specific concerns for European Studies today. It is also a good chance to see whether European Studies are able to provide consistent solutions to ameliorate or reasonable ways out of the crises.

The conference is organized yet by no means restricted to the following panels:
- Debating the Identity of the European Studies as a Field of Research
- Conceptual Imports Versus Specific Vocabularies for European Studies
- Epistemological Assessments
- Puzzles and Trends inside European Studies
- Re-Defining the Field
- Failures in European Studies or Questioned Accomplishments
- Distinctiveness of Europe/EU as Regional Integration Project
- Europeaness: Mirroring Europe in Terms of Norms and Values
- Towards a European Identity
- Political Organizations and Distinctive Logics of Appropriateness in Europe
- Insights of Practitioners: Putting Europe on the Map
- Europe East and West, North and South
- Europe in the World
- European Union and Challenges for Research
- EU as a Sui Generis Type of Polity
- Addressing New Puzzles Inside European Studies- European Studies and its Power to Shape Policies
- EU as an Empire
- Europe and its Constitutive Others
- Europe and Globalization
- EU and the Process of Europeanization
- EU and Models of Regional Integration
- International Relations and the European Studies
- Comparative Models for European Studies
- Constructivist Approaches in European Studies
- Addressing the Quantitative/Qualitative Nexus Inside European Studies
- EU Enlargements and Their Lessons
- The Future of EU Enlargement
- The Impact of Theories of EU Enlargement on European Studies
- EU’s External Influence and Democratization
- EU and Foreign Policy
However, if you are willing to propose and/or chair a particular panel we welcome you to do so on the conference website until the deadline on 1st of September 2012: http://euroacademia.eu/conference/the-first-global-convention-of-european-studies/

Participant’s Profile
The conference is addressed to academics, researchers and professionals with a particular interest in Europe from all parts of the world. Post-graduate students, doctoral candidates and young researchers are welcome to submit an abstract. Representatives of INGOs, NGOs, Think Tanks and activists willing to present their work with impact on or influenced by specific understandings of Europe are welcomed as well to submit the abstract of their contribution. Abstracts will be reviewed and accepted based on their proven quality. The submitted paper is expected to be in accordance with the lines provided in the submitted abstract.

A specific spot in the conference program will be dedicated to social networking and therefore all the participants interested in setting or developing further cooperation agendas and prospects with other participants will have time to present and/or promote their project and express calls for cooperation. A specific setting for promotional materials connected with the topic of the conference will be reserved for the use of participants. Books authored or edited by the participants can be exhibited and promoted during the whole period of the conference and can also be presented within the conference package based on prior arrangements.

Selected papers will be published in an electronic volume with ISBN after the confirmation of the authors and a double peer-review process based on an agreed publication schedule. All the papers selected for publication should be original and must not have been published elsewhere. All participants to the conference will receive a copy of the volume.

Venue and Directions

The conference will take place in the conference premises of the exclusive 4 stars deluxe design Grand Majestic Plaza Hotel, centrally located in the heart of Prague, easily accessible from the historic center and within a walking distance from all the major tourist attractions: just few steps away from the famous Municipal House, Gothic Powder Gate, significant Republic Square and the most attractive shopping centre Palladium.

DEADLINE FOR 300 WORDS ABSTRACTS SUBMISSION IS 15TH OF SEPTEMBER 2012

The 300 word abstracts and the affiliation details should be submitted in Word, WordPerfect, or RTF formats, following this order:
1) author(s), 2) affiliation, 3) email address, 4) title of abstract, 5) body of abstract 6) preferred panel or proposed panel
The abstract and details can be sent to application@euroacademia.eu with the name of the conference specified in the subject line or through the on-line Application Form available on the conference website http://euroacademia.eu/conference/the-first-global-convention-of-european-studies/
We will acknowledge the receipt of all proposal and answer to all paper proposals submitted.

IMPORTANT DATES: If your paper was accepted a notification of acceptance will be sent to you by 17th of September 2012. Your confirmation of attendance through registration form will be expected until 20th of September 2012 and until the 25th of September 2012 the payment of the participation fee through bank transfer is requested. No paper will be introduced in the program without confirmation and payment of the participant fee. By 5th of October 2012, the full paper is to be sent in accordance with the style standards provided to the accepted participants by organizers. All papers will be uploaded on the website as drafts available for consultation for other participants and the public.The conference will be held in English and will focus on the discussion of 5,000–6,000-word, pre-circulated papers.

Euroacademia is a non-profit organization, based and registered in Paris and Vienna, aiming to foster academic cooperation, networking and a platform for dissemination and valorization of academic research results, trends, and emerging themes within the area of concern for European studies, political science, critical studies, cultural studies, history, anthropology, social psychology, semiotics, philosophy, sociology and wider and inclusive interdisciplinary and trans-disciplinary approaches that contribute to a better understanding of the ‘self-organizing vertigo’ (Edgar Morin) of the European realm. Euroacademia’s goal is to become a hub for academic interaction on and about Europe.

For more information visit www.euroacademia.eu