The Europaeum’s recent activities of 2019, news items, press releases and event reports, in chronological order (most recent first). Each year, the information on this page is archived as an Annual Summary and available as a pdf download.

SEMINAR for students on the MA European History & Civilisation
Also open to any member of the University of Oxford

‘European Empires’
Tuesdays, 10am, Gerry Martin Room, History Faculty, George Street

30 April   Dr Alex Middleton, Foreign Despotism & the Victorian Constitution

7 May   Dr Elizabeth Baigent, Seeing the Land, Drawing the Map, Making the Territory: Sweden in its Stormaktstid

14 May   Dr Peter Brooke, Ends of Empires

21 May   No Seminar

28 May  Professor Giuseppe Marcocci, Can We Speak of an Iberian Global Empire?

4 June  Dr Catherine Holmes, Approaches to the Byzantine Empire in the Age of Global History

11 June  Professor Mike Broers, The First Napoleonic Empire between: Model and Myth

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8-14 July, Paris

Europaeum Summer School, at Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne

The Globalized Metropolis: Politics, Protestations and Participation in Modern Urban Spaces

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24-26 June, Estoril, near Lisbon

Estoril, International Graduate Debate

‘The Transatlantic Alliance’

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NEWS | April 2019

JOB OPPORTUNITY

The Europaeum announced a vacancy for a part-time Programme Officer, starting on 1st June (for 7, or perhaps 10 months). Deadline 15 May  more info

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30 May
Workshop ‘Trade unions, democracy and political power in France, the UK and Europe’, Oxford

Co-hosted by the Maison Francaise d’Oxford, and the European Studies Centre (Oxford), supported by the Europaeum network.

This workshop considered the nature of trade unionism, industrial democracy and trade union power in the UK, France and Europe. Special interest was shown for papers relating to trade unionism in France, President Emmanuel Macron’s ongoing and proposed labour reforms, and the rise of the ‘gilets jaunes’ (yellow vest) movement since November 2018.

Convenor: Dr Barry Colfer (Deakin Visiting Fellow, St Antony’s College, Oxford)

Participants included: Paul Nowak (Deputy Secretary General, British Trades Union Congress), Richard Hyman (London School of Economics and Political Science), and Esther Lynch (Confederal Scretary, European Trade Union Confederation), as well as several other contributors from Belgium, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Ireland, Italy and the UK.

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CALL FOR PAPERS/APPLICATIONS – NOW CLOSED

2-4 May
Spring School, Oxford

NEGOTIATION, PEACE & PEACE-MAKING

‘The most disadvantageous peace is better than the most just war’ (Desiderius Erasmus). Half a millennium after Erasmus’s famous declaration, 2019 reminds us of the need for effective negotiations. Marking the 100th anniversary of the Treaty of Versailles, one of the most contentious and consequential peace agreements of the modern world, 2019 witnesses the ongoing negotiations surrounding Britain’s exit from the European Union. This Spring School brought together postgraduate researchers in Humanities and Social Sciences subjects to explore themes related to peace, peace-making, and negotiation in diachronic and multidisciplinary perspective. Studies of diplomacy and negotiation are increasingly emphasising the role of non-state actors in international affairs, the importance of soft, as well as hard power in inter-state and intercultural relations, and the need to understand the dynamics of peace, as well as those of war. Meanwhile the role of negotiation and peace within communities remains a vibrant area of scholarship. 

Plenary

Professor Sir Adam Roberts (Oxford) | The Peace to End Peace Dr Andrew Graham (Oxford), Dr Tracey Sowerby (Oxford) – Chairs

Plenary

Kate Jones (Oxford) | The Role of Law in Diplomacy
Dr Hartmut Mayer (Oxford), Chair

Plenary

Dr Liane Saunders (Foreign & Commonwealth Office): Diplomacy in the 21st Century – Comparisons & Contrasts with Diplomacy at the Ottoman Court in the 16th and 17th Centuries: A Practitioner’s View

Dr Tracey Sowerby (Oxford), Chair

Plenary

Professor Adrian Gregory (Oxford) | The Peace of Versailles

Dr Tracey Sowerby (Oxford), Chair

Panel | Ethnography, Violence & Peace

Dr Maxine David (Leiden) | The Power to Give Voice: Ethnography in Relation to Conflict

Fidelia-Danielle Renne (Oxford) | Communal Negotiations of War Crime Accountability: A Qualitative Case Study of the Mediums Utilized by Lebanese Citizens to Process Past Violence in Present ‘Peace’

Dr Barry Colfer (Oxford, Chair)

Panel | Soft Power & its Limits

Dr Tracey Sowerby (Oxford)| Soft Power & Early Modern Diplomatic Languages

Javanshir Bayramov (Bologna) | The Negative Role of Soft Power within the Armenian-Azerbeijani Conflict Negotiations
Dr Glyn Redworth (Oxford, Chair)

Panel | Gender & Negotiations

Dr Ruggiero Sciuto (Oxford) | The Correspondence(s) of Count and Countess Lorenzi and the Limits of an Ambassadress’ Autonomy

Juan Gutiérrez Ruiz (Madrid) | The Hispano-American Folklore Festivals of Cáceres (1958-1970): Hispanidad, Race & Gender in the Representation of the Festival Queen

Dr Tracey Sowerby (Oxford), Chair

Panel | Spaces of Negotiation & Defining Peace

Konstantin Wertelecki (St Andrews) | Bombs & Gardens: A Spatial Examination of ‘Peace’ in Interwar ‘British’ Florence

Massimo Gordini (Bologna) | Sant’Egidio in Central Africa: Religious Communities as Peacebuilders
Dr Maxine David (Leiden), Chair

Panel | Resources & Negotiations

Stewart Murphy (Oxford) | Overlooked & Overruled: The Agency of Colonial Actors in Shaping Britain’s Treaty of Ghent
Benedetta Cabitza (Bologna) | The Role of Geopolitics & Engery Dependence on the EU and its Peace Process
Eliška Černovská (Prague), Chair

Panel | Negotiating Communities

Jordan Brown (St Andrews) | The Normalcy of Militancy: Reframing the UWC and UCS in an Era of Radical Activism

Eliška Černovská (Prague) | Water for Security & Peace

Dr Maxine David (Leiden), Chair

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NEWS | March 2019

NEW MEMBERS: We are very excited to be able to announce that Freie Universität Berlin and KU Leuven have joined the Europaeum network. We are looking forward to working with our new colleagues and welcoming their students at our events.

See Press Release

See announcement on KU Leuven site

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NEWS | March 2019

TWO NEW TRUSTEES: We are honoured that two new members have joined our Board of Trustees:

Baroness (Margaret) Jay of Paddington is a Privy Councillor and a member of the British Labour Party. She was appointed a peer in 1992 and from 1998 to 2001was the Leader of the House of Lords. This included overseeing the major reform of the House of Lords.

In her earlier career she was BBC television producer and presenter. She has a strong interest in health issues, notably as a campaigner on HIV and AIDS. She was a director of the National Aids Trust in 1987 and is also a patron of Help the Aged.

Since 2001, she has continued to play an active role in politics, including chairing the Select Committee on the Constitution. Among numerous non-executive roles she has held include being a Director of BT Group.

Professor Sally Mapstone is Principal and Vice-Chancellor of the University of St Andrews, the second woman in succession to hold this role.  She is a board member of Universities UK, a trustee of UCAS and a member of the advisory board of the Higher Education Policy Institute. She leads on widening access work for Universities Scotland. She is chair of the international advisory board for the University of Helsinki. In 2017 she received the Foreign Policy Association of America medal for services to higher education.  As an academic Sally is a medievalist, with expertise in the area of medieval and Renaissance Scottish literature. She is President of the Saltire Society, which champions Scottish culture.

See Press Release