Previous Events : News and events : Sussex European Institute : University of Sussex

The Sussex European Institute hosts a variety of workshops, seminars and events throughout the year.

Past Events

2024-2025

Wednesday 02 Oct 2024, Methodolgical Nationalism or Methodological Amnesia?

Title: Methodolgical Nationalism or Methodological Amnesia?

Date: Wednesday 2nd Oct 2024

Time: 3-5pm

Venue: Moot Room in Freeman (G06)

Speaker: Ipek Demir Professor of Diaspora Studies, University of Leeds

Abstract: Migration studies has rightly challenged methodological nationalism (Wimmer and Glick Schiller 2002), but less so what I have called ‘methodological amnesia’ (Demir 2024). Dominant understandings of migration tend to ignore the proper wider context of many migrations we see today. The decolonial/race turn in migration and diaspora studies has begun to challenge this. My talk will examine this conceptually, positing methodological nationalism vis a vis methodological amnesia, but also empirically by taking diasporas from the Middle East as a case study. I will unpack the spatial and temporal boundaries and consequences of methodological amnesia, including via ‘coloniality of migration’.

Wednesday 06 Nov 2024, Thinking Europe from the Eastern Border

Title: Thinking Europe from the Eastern Border

Date: Wednesday 06 Nov 2024

Time: 2-4pm

Venue: Moot Room in Freeman (G06)

Speaker: Professor Karolina Follis

Abstract: Between 2004 and 2013 eleven postsocialist countries joined the European Union. EU enlargement was described at the time the rightful ‘return to Europe’ of countries that remained in the Soviet orbit after World War 2. But as the breaking down of old divides was celebrated, new barriers were being constructed. One of the dimensions of EU enlargement was the shift of the EU’s eastern external border from the boundaries of the ‘old’ EU to the eastern frontiers of the Baltic and Central Eastern European states. Western European states invested in the infrastructure and training of border guards in accession states, representing these interventions as technicalities of the implementation of the ‘area of freedom, security and justice’. New members were keen to demonstrate that they were ready to police the outer perimeter of the EU. The transformation of their border services and practices of control initially went under the radar, with attention focused on the southern maritime borders of Europe and irregular arrivals from North Africa and the Middle East. However, as EU politics and policies of border control changed following the so-called ‘migrant crisis’ of 2015, the trajectories of people on the move changed as well, shifting to new land routes, resulting in new large-scale arrivals on eastern EU borders. This talk reflects on this shift, examining how the racial and postcolonial dimension of the ‘migrant crisis’ plays out in the Eastern European region. Based on research over two decades on the European border regime in the East, I reassess EU enlargement from the perspective of the transformation of the eastern borders. I argue that for the societies of ‘new’ member states, the benefits of enlargement came bundled with the legacy of colonial empires, which they must grapple with as they respond to people arriving at their borders from the Global South.

Bio: Professor Karolina Follis teaches in the Department of Politics, Philosophy and Religion at Lancaster University in the UK. Her research interests center on the dynamic intersections of border regimes, surveillance technologies and the ideas and practices of human rights.

Wednesday 13 Nov 2024, SEI Brown Bag Lunch; Riddling in Threes, Empty Fourths, and the Invisible Empire: Kant and EU Law

Title: SEI Brown Bag Lunch (bring your own lunch and chat about research):

Aravind Ganesh (LPS Sussex)

Riddling in Threes, Empty Fourths, and the Invisible Empire: Kant and EU Law

Date: Wednesday 13 Nov 2024

Time: 12-1pm

Venue: Sabina Avdagic Room (F30)

Thursday 21 Nov 2024, SEI Roundtable: Ukraine's Accession to the EU

Date: Thursday 21 Nov 2024

Tiitle: SEI Roundtable

Kateryna Berezhna, Oleksandra Dryhol (Oles Honchar Dnipro National University), discussant tbc., chaired by Nuno Ferreira

Ukraine’s Accession to the EU

Time: 3 – 5 pm

Venue: Jubilee JUB-G-35

Speakers:

Professor Kateryna Berezhna

Oles Honchar Dnipro National University

Reforming Ukraine's legal system in the context of EU membership and the need for changes in approaches to teaching EU law in national universities”

Professor Kateryna Berezhna

Oles Honchar Dnipro National University

Reforming Ukraine's legal system in the context of EU membership and the need for changes in approaches to teaching EU law in national universities”

Professor Nadiia Maksimentseva

Oles Honchar Dnipro National University

Derogation of human rights during the Martial Law: challenges of access to EU

Professor Oleksandra Dryhol

Oles Honchar Dnipro National University

Development of legal relations between the EU and Ukraine: prospects and challenges

Chair: Professor Nuno Ferreira, Sussex European Institute

Discussant: Dr Samantha Velluti, Sussex European Institute

2023-2024

Wednesday 26 June 2024, Sussex European Institute, European Elections 2024 - Reflectons on Results, In Person Roundtable

Title: Sussex European Institute | European Elections 2024 - Reflections on Results | In Person Roundtable

Location: University of Sussex Freeman Centre G31 campus map

Date and Time: June 26th 2024, 10am – 4PM (BST)

About: The 2024 European Parliament elections which took place on 6-9 June, represent a defining moment in the EU’s political landscape. These elections will not only shape the direction of the EU over the next five years but also have profound implications for domestic politics in member states. To discuss the aftermath of the elections, the Sussex European Institute (SEI), together with the Sussex Politics Department and the EPERN, is organising a one-day workshop. This SEI event will bring together leading experts in European politics to discuss what the 2024 EP election results mean for the European Parliament, political party groups in the European Parliament, and more broadly, for domestic politics across EU member states.

Event is free to attend in person and all are welcome. Please register for catering purposes and indicate any dietary restrictions. Vegan and gluten free options will be available.

Speakers

Professor Sara Hobolt (LSE)

Professor Ariadna Ripoll Servent (Salzburg University)

Dr Isabelle Hertner (King’s College London)

Dr Stijn van Kessel (QMUL)

Dr Giacomo Benedetto (Royal Holloway)

Dr Martin Steven (Lancaster)

Professor Richard Whitaker (Leicester)

Chairs and discussants

Gilsun Jeong (Sussex)

Dr Stavroula Chrona (Sussex)

Professor Paul Taggart (Sussex)

Dr Cristiano Bee (Sussex)

Professor Aleks Szczerbiak (Sussex)

Format

Opening and Coffee (10:00 - 10:30) Speaker TBC
Introductory session (10:30 - 11:30): Professor Sara Hobolt.
Coffee break (11:30 - 11:45)
Second session (11:45 - 13:00): Dr Stijn van Kessel, Dr Giacomo Benedetto, Dr Isabelle Hertner.
Lunch Break (13:00 - 14:00)
Afternoon session (14:00 - 15:30): Professor Ariadna Ripoll Servent, Dr Martin Steven, Professor Richard Whitaker
Wrap-up (15:30 – 16:00): Gilsun Jeong and TBC

Wednesday 21st February 2024, Gerardo Nicolletta, Special Event 'Unequal Europes

Title: Special Event 'Unequal Europes

Date: 21 February 2024

Time: 2-4 pm

Venue: Freeman G16

Speakers: Gerardo Nicolletta: More-than-peripheral. Fractal Colonialities in Regimes of Visibility in Southern Italy

Simone Varriale: Coloniality and Meritocracy in Unequal EU Migrations

Wednesday 24th April 2024, Sussex European Institute and Oles Honchar Dnipro National University Roundtable: Teaching EU Law and Policy

Title: Sussex European Institute and Oles Honchar Dnipro National University Roundtable: Teaching EU Law and Policy

Date: 24^th April 2024

Time: 13:00 – 16:30 UK time / 15:00 – 18:30 Kyiv time

Venue: Online via zoom. Please register via Eventbrite

Friday 10 November 2023, Invisible Grammers of Resistance? Political Subjectivities after East-West Migration

Title: Workshop Invisible Grammers of Resistance? Political Subjectivities after East-West Migration

Date: Friday 10 November 2023

Time: 11am to 5pm

6pm Dinner in Brighton

Venue: Freeman F39

SEI Resistance Programme

Wednesday 15 November 2023, Kasia Narkowicz, 'Here, we are disposable:' racial capitalism and Polish migrant workers in the UK

Title: Here, we are disposable’: racial capitalism and Polish migrant workers in the UK

Date: Wednesday 15 November 2023

Time: 1-2.30pm

Venue: Freeman G31

Speaker: Kasia Narkowicz

Abstract

This paper considers racial capitalism as a lens through which precarious lives of Eastern European migrant workers, and their futures, can better be understood in their complexity. Situating the paper in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, a crisis that followed Brexit, the paper traces the lives of migrant workers from Poland through these upheavals and considers their future.

Centring on individual stories of Poles in the UK who worked through the Covid-19 pandemic as 'essential workers’, often in insecure, low-pay and low-status jobs, the paper offers some thoughts on the broader mechanisms that create and sustain precarity among many Eastern European migrants who find themselves ‘stuck’ in a system that relies on their expandability yet makes them feel disposable.

These stories are part of a larger empirical data collected during the pandemic for the ESRC-funded ‘Migrant Essential Workers’ project (2020-2023) that focused on the Polish community in the UK. As part of this work, the team (Wright, Gawlewicz, Narkowicz, Piekut, Trevena) conducted mixed methods research including a large online survey (N=1,105) and 50 qualitative interviews with migrant essential workers and experts.

Wednesday 15 November 2023, Sabina Avdagic and James Hampshire, Widening divides: How income inequality affects immigration attitudes

Title: Politics Research Seminar: Sabina Avdagic and James Hampshire, Widening divides: How income inequality affects immigration attitudes

Date: Wednesday 15 November 2023

Time: 2-3:30pm

Venue: Ashdown House 103

Speakers: Sabina Avdagic and James Hampshire

Wednesday 22 November 2023, Aleks Szczerbiak, The Polish General Election of 2023

Title: The Polish General Election of 2023

Date: Wednesday 22 November 2023

Venue: Ashdown House 103

Speaker: Aleks Szczerbiak

Wednesday 29 November 2023, Gilsun Jeong, Politics Research Seminar: The Pandemic Crisis, The Ukraine War and Party Euroscepticism on Twitter

Title: Politics Research Seminar: The Pandemic Crisis, The Ukraine War and Party Euroscepticism on Twitter

Date: Wednesday 29 November 2023

Venue: Ashdown House 103

Speaker: Gilsun Jeong

Wednesday 06 December 2023, Politics Research Seminar, The Power of Unpolitics

Title: Politics Research Seminar, The Power of Unpolitics

Date: Wednesday 06 December 2023

Venue: Ashdown House 103

Speaker: Paul Taggart

2022-2023

Thursday/Friday 4th & 5th May 2023, Sussex European Institute & LPS Doctoral School: Europe's peripheral and racial (b) orders

Thursday/ Friday 4th & 5th May 2023

Sussex European Institute & LPS Doctoral School: Europe’s peripheral and racial (b)orders

Panel discussion (open to everyone) and work-in-progress workshop (open to postgrads/ postdocs)

Expert Panel (4th May, 1.30 – 3pm). Moot Room, Freeman Building. All welcome!

Sabine Hess (Professor in European Ethnology, University of Göttingen)

Josh Bowsher (Lecturer in Sociology, University of Sussex)

Arshad Isakjee (Senior Lecturer in Human Geography, University of Liverpool)

Work-in-progress sessions (4th May: 3.30 – 5.30pm, 5th May: 10-12pm, 1-3pm).

The Sussex European Institute and the Doctoral Programme at the School of Law, Politics and Sociology invite expressions of interest for an interdisciplinary work-in-progress workshop for early career scholars at the University of Sussex. The event will involve an expert panel (which will be open to everyone) and 2-3 work-in-progress sessions for scholars at doctoral and postdoctoral level which are designed to facilitate exchanges about research experiences (and will be closed to the wider public). We are particularly keen to hear from early career scholars who critically engage with Europe, coloniality, the making of peripheries and semi-peripheries, borders, human rights, racism, and data activism in these areas. Specifically, the event will focus on Europe’s racial orders, the making of (semi-)peripheral border zones, bordering practices on land and at sea, and critical humanitarianism and other repertoires of resistance. We will also discuss the practicalities of working in critical border studies, including the ethics of data collection, asymmetrical relations, issues arising from data activism, and trends of criminalising activist research or research-based activism.

Chairs:

Aleks Lewicki, (Senior Lecturer in Sociology, Co-Director Sussex European Institute, University of Sussex)

Nuno Ferreira, (Professor of Law, Director of Doctoral Studies, University of Sussex)

Katy Budge, (Doctoral Tutor, School of Law, Politics and Sociology, University of Sussex)

Abstracts:

Border fortification as racial infrastructure: a field report from the Polish-Belarussian border space

Sabine Hess (Professor in European Ethnology, University of Göttingen)

Against the backdrop of a recent research trip to the Eastern EU border zone of Poland with Belarus the presentation will shed light on central new dynamics and practices of the EU border regime. It will focus on the normalization of violence and the obvious violation of human rights nearly everywhere along the EU external border by drawing on insights of critical race theory and postcolonial readings of the European project; the presentation will also ask how we can make sense of the massive fortification of the EU-external border zone with fence constructions and other human-technical devices despite the obvious fact that it doesn’t stop migration and suggests to read the border-apparatus as racial(izing) infrastructure.

Exploring the Epistemic Possibilities and Limits of Data Activist Practice at the European Border: Preliminary Notes on Forensic Architecture’s ‘Shipwreck at the Threshold of Europe’ and ‘The Left-to-Die Boat.’

Josh Bowsher (Lecturer in Sociology, University of Sussex)

In recent years, the research agency Forensic Architecture (FA) has developed a novel set of data activist practices intended to confront the deadly consequences of the European border regime, primarily for refugees moving across the Mediterranean and Aegean Seas. Using a range of digital data and computational techniques, including satellite tracking and imaging, firsthand video footage, oceanographic data, and spatial modelling, FA’s work has sought to (re)construct factual narratives about refugee encounters with European borders for the purposes of human rights litigation and broader awareness-raising. Focusing in on two of FA’s investigations, ‘Shipwreck at the Threshold of Europe’ and ‘The Left-to-Die Boat’, this presentation will critically consider these data practices through an epistemological lens by drawing on work from critical data studies and, crucially, Donna Haraway’s conception of ‘situated knowledges’. By critically reading the shifting perspectives from which data is first captured, and then assembled and narrated by FA, the presentation hopes to consider some of the possibilities, tensions, and limits opened up by the data practices FA has developed to criticise and confront the European border regime.

Games of Survival: Actually-existing asylum along the European border

Arshad Isakjee (Senior Lecturer in Human Geography, University of Liverpool)

This paper draws on long-term ethnographic research in the Balkans, along migrant routes with people-on-the-move (POM) intending to cross borders to enter the European Union, usually in an attempt to claim asylum. The act of crossing borders in this way has largely come to be known amongst POM as ‘the game’ - and as this paper will argue, in practice claiming asylum in Europe is indeed far better understood as a ‘game’ than as a ‘right'. As POM attempts to cross they are routinely intercepted by border police in Croatia, Hungary and Slovenia and illegally pushed back to the countries from which they are travelling. They are also regularly subject to border violence and then having to survive in harsh conditions in squats and in forest camps in border and transit zones in the Balkans. What this paper explores is how ‘success’ in the game is predetermined by wealth, health and race - and that material resources in particular influence both the probability of successfully reaching the EU with reduced exposure to violence and injury. The paper reflects on asylum in the EU not as a right, but as a game, the social-Darwinist implications of which both reflect capitalism’s inequities as well as being shaped by them. It closes by suggesting that practices of solidarity can counter the individuation of risk and survival, conditioned by the actually-existing asylum system of Fortress Europe.

Europe’s peripheral and racial (b)orders: Programme download the word doc here

Monday 13 March 2023, Rapid Response Roundtable on the Illegal Migration Bill

Rapid Response Roundtable on the Illegal Migration Bill

Date: Monday 13th March 2023

Time: 1-2:30pm Rapid Response Roundtable on the Illegal Migration Bill

Venue: Online

Chair: Dr Stephanie Berry

Contributors:

Prof Nuno Ferreira

Dr Shahrzad Fouladvand

Wednesday 15 March 2023, Interrogating Muslims: The Liberal-Secular Matrix of Integration

Interrogating Muslims: The Liberal-Secular Matrix of Integration

Schirin Amir-Moazami (Professor of Islam in Europe, Freie Universität Berlin)

Date: Wednesday 15 March 2023

Time: 2pm

Venue: Freeman Building,G22

Abstract: This book interrogates the patterns and discursive structures that have generated the seeming urgency of Muslims' integration. Focusing on Germany, it problematizes the grounds on which politics of integration are justified and reasoned upon, and thereby investigates divergent operations of power vis-à-vis Muslims and Islam in a formally liberal-secular society. The integration paradigm in Germany has been predicated on an imperial knowledge regime, in which Islam figures as the external friend or enemy of an imagined Christian secular. This book analyzes three kinds of integration practices as symptomatic sites for the multifaceted dimensions of power in this paradigm: the scientific measurement of Muslims' degrees of integration which are correlated with their degrees of religiosity; the politics of recognition promoted by state-organized dialogue with Muslims; and the threat of sanction, found in the regulations of citizenship and explicitly in citizenship tests. Centrally, the book argues that the paradigm of integration navigates between universalist claims and particularistic-racial and religious-re-enactments of a secular nation-state framework at moments in which this very framework is crumbling.

Wednesday 29 March 2023, Racist and Imperial Genealogies in LGBT- free Zones and Struggles over Europe in Poland

Racist and Imperial Genealogies in LGBT-free Zones and Struggles over Europe in Poland

Pawel Lewicki (Associate Director, European Studies Centre, Pittsburg)

Date: Wednesday 29 March 20023

Time: 5pm

Venue: Via Zoom, details nearer the time

Abstract: Since early 2019, around 100 municipalities, counties and regions (voivodeships) in Poland have declared themselves ‘LGBT-free zones.’ None of the documents passed by the local councils with titles like ‘Local Charter of the Rights of the Family’ or ‘A Resolution Against LGBT Ideology’ mentions LGBT people explicitly; they refer instead to “gender ideology” or pledge “defence” of the “fundamentality” of the binary-gender family, a structure that is allegedly anchored in the Polish legal order and is a condition for prosperity in Poland (Sejmik Województwa Podkarpackiego 2019; Rada Powiatu w Nowym Targu 2020). While some of these documents were turned down by the courts or were withdrawn in the face of funding cuts from the EU, I want to show how the emergence of the so-called LGBT-free zones in Poland has deeper roots and is entangled with long-lasting global racist dynamics which are perpetuated by processes of Europeanization. The establishment of these zones is also an effect of the historical inter-imperial positionality of Poland. If we look at these zones from a postcolonial and decolonial, race-critical perspective, they emerge as a local version of global and European race and gender dynamics that have been present in Poland for a very long time.

Friday 21 April 2023, SEI Anniversary Lecture: Energy Crisis and the European Union

SEI Anniversary Lecture: Energy Crisis and the European Union

Speaker: Piotr Serafin (Director of Transport, Telecommunications and Energy at the General Secretariat of the Council of the European Union)

Chair: Professor Dame Helen Wallace FBA

Date: April 21st 2023

Time: 3-5pm BST

Venue: University of Sussex, Jubilee Building, Jub-144

Abstract: Rising geopolitical tensions since autumn 2021 and the Russian invasion of Ukraine that followed have forced the EU to revise truths that have been unquestioned for years. It is primarily a defining moment for the architecture of security in Europe. But the energy policy of the EU was also put to an unprecedented stress test. And although the process of re-evaluation and change is still ongoing, essential contours of a new consensus are already visible today.

At least 4 assumptions of the EU’s energy policy were put into question by the current crisis. The assumption of Russia as a reliable energy supplier driven by business motivations has collapsed. The threats to security of supply posed by the redefinition of Russia's role also undermined, at least for a time, the decision to move away from coal and further financing of the expansion of the fossil fuels infrastructure. The gas price shock undermined the consensus to minimize public intervention in gas market. And finally, the electricity market design, especially the exposure of consumers to spot markets and the role of gas prices in price formation, has been called into question.

However, the crisis has not cast doubt on the long-term goal of decarbonising the European energy mix, but on the contrary has become an argument for accelerating it. Although renewables have emerged as the undisputed winner of EU debates in 2022, the crisis has reignited the smouldering conflict between EU Member States over the role of nuclear energy in the decarbonisation of the European economy.

Wednesday 26 April 2023, Queer, Iranian and in exile: Comparing the experiences of Iranian queer refugees living in Turkey, the UK and Canada

Queer, Iranian and in exile: Comparing the experiences of Iranian queer refugees living in Turkey, the UK and Canada

Moira Dustin, Lecturer in Law, University of Sussex

Nuno Ferreira, Professor of Law, University of Sussex

Kamran Matin, Senior Lecturer in International Relations, University of Sussex

Mehran Rezaei Toroghi, Research Fellow in Law, University of Sussex

Date: Wednesday 26 April 2023

Time: 3pm

Venue: TBC

Thursday/Friday 4th & 5th May 2023, Sussex European Institute & LPS Doctoral School: Europe's peripheral and racial (b)orders

Thursday/Friday 4th & 5th May 2023

Sussex European Institute & LPS Doctoral School:

Europe’s peripheral and racial (b)orders

Panel discussion (open to everyone) and work-in-progress workshop (open to postgrads/ postdocs)

Expert Panel (4th May, 1.30 – 3pm). Moot Room, Freeman Building. All welcome!

Josh Bowsher (Lecturer in Sociology, University of Sussex)

Sabine Hess (Professor in European Ethnology, University of Göttingen)

Arshad Isakjee (Senior Lecturer in Human Geography, University of Liverpool)

Work-in-progress sessions (4th May: 3.30 – 5.30pm, 5th May: 10-12pm, 1-3pm).

Chairs:

Aleks Lewicki, (Senior Lecturer in Sociology, Co-Director Sussex European Institute, University of Sussex)
Nuno Ferreira, (Professor of Law, Director of Doctoral Studies, University of Sussex)
Katy Budge, (Doctoral Tutor, School of Law, Politics and Sociology, University of Sussex)

Click here for the full programme

Wednsday 21 September 2022, Workshop: Emotions, Brexit and European Politics

Workshop: Emotions, Brexit and European Politics

Date: Wednesday 21st September 2022

Time: 2-4pm

Location: via Zoom

Description:

The aim of the workshop is to allow participants working within this area to share their research and to have an informal discussion about the connections between emotion, Brexit, and populism in Europe. After a brief introduction from our side and a few introductory words, we would like to give our invited speakers the opportunity to talk about their research and how it connects to the themes of the workshop (for a maximum of 10 minutes each). Following that, we would like to open up the conversation for a free-flowing informal exchange of views around the question of ‘How does attention to emotion change our understanding of Brexit and support for populism in European politics?’

Convenors: Emily Robinson, Jonathan Moss, Jake Watts

Wednesday 19 October 2022 Giorgia and friends: The Italian general election 2022 - Dr Simona Guerra (Surrey)

Title: Giorgia and friends: The Italian general election 2022 - Dr Simona Guerra (Surrrey)

Date: Wednesday 19 October 2022

Time: 14:00 - 15:50

Venue: Freeman F39, University of Sussex

Wednesday 16 November 2022 - Radicalism, identity construction and emotionality in soical movements - Dr Savroula Chrona (Sussex)

Title: Radicalism, identity construction and emotionality in social movements – Dr Stavroula Chrona (Sussex)

Date: Wednesday 16 November 2022

Time: 14:00 - 15:50

Venue: Freeman F39, University of Sussex

Wednesday 7 December 2022, Selection of Legislative Candidates in Turkey's Main Opposition Party: A Macro and Micro Level Analysis fom Bourdieusian Perspective - Dr Osman Kocaaga (Sussex and Kirklareli Universities)

Title: Selection of Legislative Candidates in Turkey's Main Opposition Party: A Macro and Micro Level Analysis from Bourdieusian Perspective – Dr Osman Kocaaga (Sussex and Kirklareli Universities)

Date: Wednesday 7 December 2022

Time: 14:00 – 15:50

Venue: Freeman F39, University of Sussex

2021-2022

Thursday 5 May 2022, Sussex European Institute 30th Anniversary Event

Sussex European Institute 30th Anniversary Event

Date: Thursday 5th May 2022

Time: 09:30am - 4:00pm BST

Venue: Moot Room (G06 Freeman Centre)

For full details visit here

Wednesday 02 March 2022, Anglo-Irish relations in the wake of Brexit

Title: Anglo-Irish relations in the wake of Brexit

Date: Wednesday 02 March 2022

Time: 2pm to 3:30pm

Venue: Via Zoom

Speaker: Etain Tannam (Trinity College Dublin)

Wednesday 30 March 2022, The forthcoming presidential and legislative elections in France

Title: The forthcoming presidential and legislative elections in France

Date: Wednesday 30 March 2022

Time: 2pm to 3:30pm

Venue: Freeman G16

Speaker: Sue Collard (Sussex)

Wednesday 13 October 2021, Beyond the Cartel: Parties, Anti-System and Democracy in the 21st Century

Title: Beyond the Cartel: Parties, Anti-System and Democracy in the 21st Century

Date: Wednesday 13 October 2021

Time: 14:00 - 15:50

Event: Online via zoom

Speaker: Jonathan Hopkin (LSE)

Wednesday 24 November 2021, Small Worlds in Europe: investigating the Determinants of Non-Statewide Party Success

Title: Small Worlds in Europe: Investigating the Determinants of Non-Statewide Party Success

Date: Wednesday 24 November 2021

Time: 14:00 to 15:50

Venue: Ashdown House 102

Speaker: Jonathan Parker, University of Sussex

2020-2021

Wednesday 23 June 2021, The ongoing Politics of Brexit and Ireland

Title: The Ongoing Politics of Brexit and Ireland

Date: Wednesday 23 June 2021

Time: 4-6pm London UK time

Venue: On-line via Zoom

Speakers: Prof Katy Hayward, Prof Brigid Laffan, Prof John O’Brennan

Chair: Dr Neil Dooley, University of Sussex

Abstract

The ‘unique circumstances on the island of Ireland’ have fundamentally shaped the negotiations around, the outcomes of, and the aftermath of Brexit. While the impact of Brexit on Ireland and Northern Ireland barely featured during the 2016 referendum campaign, it quickly became one of the thorniest and most defining issues in negotiations. Despite pledges to ‘get Brexit done’ and the UK formally exiting the EU on January 31st 2021, tensions and negotiations around the Northern Ireland protocol have persisted. Ireland was, and remains absolutely central to the ongoing politics of Brexit.
Presented by the Sussex European Institute, this workshop will explore questions around the centrality of Ireland's interests in Brexit negotiations, the current UK government position on the Northern Ireland protocol, the impact of Brexit and ‘de-Europeanisation’ on British-Irish relations and how the politics of Ireland/Northern Ireland understood and framed by UK political elites. It will broadly consider, if the politics of Brexit are ongoing, what role will ‘the unique circumstances on the island of Ireland’ play in their evolution?

Presented by the Sussex European Institute, this workshop will explore questions around the centrality of Ireland's interests in Brexit negotiations, the current UK government position on the Northern Ireland protocol, the impact of Brexit and ‘de-Europeanisation’ on British-Irish relations and how the politics of Ireland/Northern Ireland understood and framed by UK political elites. It will broadly consider, if the politics of Brexit are ongoing, what role will ‘the unique circumstances on the island of Ireland’ play in their evolution?

Wednesday 17 March 2021, Europe's unsafe environment anti-migrant violence in COVID times

Title: Europe’s unsafe environment anti-migrant violence in COVID times

Date: Wednesday 17 March 2021

Time: 4-5pm London UK time

Venue: On-line via Zoom

Speaker: Dr Maurice Stierl, University of Warwick

Abstract

The Covid-19 crisis has prompted a range of novel mobility restrictions that have impacted migrant and displaced communities particularly harshly. Focussing on the situation at Europe’s external borders, I will examine the drastic anti-migrant deterrence and racialised containment measures that have emerged over the first year of the pandemic. Although these measures need to be understood in the continuity of the EU border regime, we can nonetheless observe a shift: from hostile Europe to unsafe Europe. While practically, Europe’s manifold hostile environment policies vis-à-vis precarious migrants persist, the Covid-19 emergency has allowed to justify ‘keeping them out’ or ‘containing them elsewhere’ in the name of their own protection, far away from Europe’s unsafe environment, plagued by a rampant pandemic.

Chair: Dr Aleks Lewicki, University of Sussex