EURO-VISIONS LECTURE SERIES
EURO-VISIONS
IIIS/LRH Jan-June Public Lecture Series - Presidency of the European Union
The Trinity Long Room Hub Arts and Humanities Research Institute (TLRH) and the Institute for International Integration Studies (IIIS), the two research institutes of the Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, have launched a new jointly organized public lecture series on Europe to mark Ireland's Presidency of the Council of the EU.
The Euro-Visions lecture series will bring together Irish and international scholars from across a wide range of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences disciplines to interrogate the current crisis of the EU and to instigate an interdisciplinary dialogue about possible responses. It will present fresh perspectives from experts across a broad spectrum of disciplines and positions towards the crucial debate about the future of Europe and Ireland's position and role within the EU.
The lecture series, which is an associated event of the Irish Presidency of the Council of the EU, will run from January to June in the Trinity Long Room Hub.Admission is free and all are welcome.
SPEAKERS, TITLES AND ABSTRACTS
EURO-VISIONS Lecture Series
Title: Expulsions: The Fifth Circle of Hell
Speaker: Professor Saskia Sassen (Columbia University and LSE)
Date and time: 15 January 2013, 7 pm
Venue: Edmund Burke Theatre, Arts Building
Opening Addresses by Dr Patrick Prendergast, Provost of TCD and Dr Brian Nolan, Principal of the College of Human Sciences at UCD. Following the lecture there will be a panel discussion chaired by Prof Mary Corcoran of National University of Ireland Maynooth (NUIM).
Abstract
In the last two decades there has been a sharp growth in the numbers of people that have been ‘expelled’, numbers far larger than the newly ‘incorporated’ middle classes of countries such as India and China. I use the term ‘expulsion’ to describe a diversity of conditions: the growing numbers of the abjectly poor, of the displaced in poor countries who are warehoused in formal and informal refugee camps, of the minoritized and persecuted in rich countries who are warehoused in prisons, of workers whose bodies are destroyed on the job and rendered useless at far too young an age, able-bodied surplus populations warehoused in ghettoes and slums. One major trend is the repositioning of what had been framed as sovereign territory, a complex conditions, into land for sale on the global market – land in Sub-Saharan Africa, in Central Asia and in Latin America to be bought by rich investors and rich governments to grow food, to access underground water tables, and to access minerals and metals. My argument is that these diverse and many other kindred developments amount to a logic of expulsion, signaling a deeper systemic transformation in advanced capitalism, one documented in bits and pieces but not quite narrated as an overarching dynamic that is taking us into a new phase of global capitalism. The talk is based on the author’s forthcoming book Expulsions.
EURO-VISIONS Lecture Series
Title: ‘How to fix the Euro Area’
Speaker: Professor Charles Wyplosz (Geneva)
Date: Wednesday, 23 January
Time: 12.00
Venue: Trinity Long Room Hub
This is a jointly organised lecture by the IIIS and the Trinity Long Room Hub. This lecture series is an associated event of the Irish Presidency of the Council of the EU. The series will run from January to June. Admission is free and all are welcome. Please download the full programme.
Abstract
Since its creation, the Euro Area has sought to enforce fiscal discipline in member states by imposing constraints on sovereign governments and their parliaments. This approach, inspired by the German model of fiscal federalism, has failed spectacularly. And yet, the reforms adopted in 2011 and 2012 rest on the same approach. They are equally doomed. A better approach would start by recognizing that Euro Area member states are sovereign in budget matters and adopt the US model of decentralized discipline, which is both more successful than the German model and better adapted to the European situation
EURO-VISIONS Lecture Series
Title: ‘Do We Need Growth to Emancipate Vulnerable People?’
Speaker: Prof Jean Philippe Platteau (Namur)
Date: Thursday, 24 January
Time: 19.30
Venue: Trinity Long Room Hub
This is a jointly organised lecture by the IIIS and the Trinity Long Room Hub. This lecture series is an associated event of the Irish Presidency of the Council of the EU. The series will run from January to June. Admission is free and all are welcome. Please download the full programme
Abstract
The persistence of oppressive or inequitable social norms in many developing countries is an obstacle to the emancipation of significant sections of their population. To end these norms represents a big challenge because they are typically supported by deep-rooted customs and values. It is often assumed that statutory laws are ineffective in the presence of such customs. In this lecture, however, I suggest that the interaction between the modern law and the custom may give rise to several outcomes, and in one of these outcomes the custom evolves in the direction of the law. Moreover, the controversy between radical and moderate reformers can be usefully revisited when an interactive approach between law and custom is followed. In those cases where the law is ineffective, it needs to be complemented by other actions that add internal to external empowerment of the disadvantaged groups of the population. If this cannot be done, economic growth is the only way to help emancipate vulnerable groups by improving their outside opportunities and, thereby, enhancing their bargaining strength.
EURO-VISIONS Lecture Series
Title: ‘‘Multiculturalism and Muslims in Europe’
Speaker Dr Erkan Toguslu (KU Leuven)
Date: Wednesday, 30 January
Time: 18.15
Venue: Trinity Long Room Hub
This is a jointly organised lecture by the IIIS and the Trinity Long Room Hub. This lecture series is an associated event of the Irish Presidency of the Council of the EU. The series will run from January to June. Admission is free and all are welcome. Please download the full programme.
Abstract
The presence of Islam is felt deep within Western society, along with Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism and a host of other religions and beliefs. The integration of Islamic beliefs into European life has been increasingly visible to the naked eye, whether it be scarf clad women on the streets, Muslim pupils at schools, the halal food industry, housing, employment or social life itself. The ever increasing presence of Muslim communities have prompted the recognition of the issue of compatibility between Islamic values and the values of the host country. Previously it was a common tendency to believe that public life is plural and that secular laws are put in place to manage cultural-religious diversity in publicly occupied domain. At the same time, there has been a rising wave of doubt towards multiculturalism, and more recently its death has been hailed in several political speeches concentrating on the supposed non-compatibility of Muslim communities. The debates on multiculturalism embody the concern of Islamic identity issues and their often tarnished reflection within the public sphere.
Using the debates on multiculturalism in Europe, Dr Toguslu will explore the ways how religion and culture rise above transnational and transcultural boundaries and how transnational and transcultural Muslims can be formulated in public life.
EURO-VISIONS Lecture Series
Title: ‘Does Europe need an Asia Strategy’
Speaker: Prof Philomena Murray (Melbourne)
Date: Tuesday, 5th February
Time: 18.15
Venue: Trinity Long Room Hub
This is a jointly organised lecture by the IIIS and the Trinity Long Room Hub. This lecture series is an associated event of the Irish Presidency of the Council of the EU. The series will run from January to June. Admission is free and all are welcome. Please download the full programme.
Abstract
In the context of tectonic shifts in Asia in terms of power, democracy, trade and security, does the EU now need an Asia Strategy? The US has a determined pivot towards the Asia Pacific. Does the EU now need its own pivot to Asia? The EU is not recognized as a key actor in Asia. It has come under criticism for its lack of coherence and consistency in its foreign policy and external relations with Asia. This negative perception has been compounded by rivalries and disagreements among member states and EU institutions. The twin challenges of coherence and consistency of approach remain crucial, as the EU seeks to have a greater presence and impact in Asia. This Lecture will explore the EU's experiences to date and its options in Asia, with particular reference to East Asia.
EURO-VISIONS Lecture Series
Title: ‘'How to think of Ethno-Linguistic Nationalism in Central Europe’
Speaker: Prof Tomasz Kamusella (St Andrews)
Date: Thursday, 14th February
Time: 18.15
Venue: Trinity Long Room Hub
This is a jointly organised lecture by the IIIS and the Trinity Long Room Hub. This lecture series is an associated event of the Irish Presidency of the Council of the EU. The series will run from January to June. Admission is free and all are welcome. Please download the full programme.
Abstract
Most classical works on the phenomenon of nationalism draw examples from Central Europe and generalize on their basis for the entire globe. But the region's nationalisms are strongly steeped in language as their ideological cornerstone, which makes Central Europe quite unique in this respect. Elsewhere in the world, nation-states are not built on languages. I propose to flesh out and analyze the difference by focusing on the practises of Central Europe's ethnolinguistic nationalisms, as observed during the last two centuries. Arguably, pinpointing the salient features of this kind of nationalism makes it possible to define what and where Central Europe is, and why generalizing on the region's nationalisms is not viable on a global scale.
EURO-VISIONS Lecture Series
Title: ‘European Identity and the Crisis’
Speaker: Prof Ettore Recchi (UNICH)
Date: Monday, 18th February
Time: 18.15
Venue: Trinity Long Room Hub
This is a jointly organised lecture by the IIIS and the Trinity Long Room Hub. This lecture series is an associated event of the Irish Presidency of the Council of the EU. The series will run from January to June. Admission is free and all are welcome. Please download the full programme.
Abstract
Is EU identity affected by the Euro-crisis? To answer this question on the basis of available evidence, I draw on a conceptual distinction between the ‘identity of the EU’, understood as its public image formed by many images of many different social groups, and ‘identification with the EU’ or the sense of attachment perceived by individuals who formally (via citizenship) belong to the EU. These two concepts tap different dimensions of identity that I expect to be more and less volatile, reflecting their differing ‘identity salience’. To test this hypothesis I use Eurobarometer data for the last decade. Data analysis reveals a deterioration of the EU image and a relative stability of identifications with the EU in the context of the Euro-crisis.
EURO-VISIONS Lecture Series
Title: ‘Performing European Memories: Trauma, Ethics, Politics'
Speaker: Prof Milija Gluhovic (Warwick)
Date: Wednesday, 27th February
Time: 18.15
Venue: Trinity Long Room Hub
This is a jointly organised lecture by the IIIS and the Trinity Long Room Hub. This lecture series is an associated event of the Irish Presidency of the Council of the EU. The series will run from January to June. Admission is free and all are welcome. Please download the full programme.
Abstract
The end of the forty-year Cold War that split the postwar European continent provided the impetus for rethinking the past all over Europe as well as for the study of “European memory.” A commitment on the part of European countries to “work through the past” as individual nations and often contentious negotiations about what to remember and what to forget ran parallel with the search for a transnational memory of the conflicts, contentions, complexity and ambiguity of Europe’s past. This lecture explores the intersections between contemporary European theatre and performance, the interdisciplinary field of memory studies, and current preoccupations with the politics of memory in Europe. It discusses different ways in which European artists engage with the traumatic experiences of the Holocaust, the Stalinist Gulags, colonialism, and imperialism, challenging their audiences’ historical imagination, and renewing their affective engagement with Europe’s past. Milija Gluhovic is Associate Professor of Theatre and Performance at the University of Warwick. His research interests include: contemporary European theatre and performance, memory studies, and discourses of European identity, migrations and human rights. His monograph Performing European Memories: Trauma, Ethics, Politics and an edited collection Performing the ‘New’ Europe: Identities, Feelings, and Politics in the Eurovision Song Contest (with Karen Fricker) are forthcoming with Palgrave in 2013. Milija is also the director of an Erasmus Mundus MA in International Performance Research, an EU sponsored program taught collaboratively at the University of Warwick, the University of Amsterdam, the University of Helsinki and the University of Arts in Belgrade.
EURO-VISIONS Lecture Series
Title: ‘Between the 'Blue Card' and Circular Migration: Crisis of EU's Immigration Policy for the Third-country Nationals’
Speaker: Prof Binod Khadria (Jawaharial Nehru University)
Date: Wednesday, 6th March
Time: 18.15
Venue: Trinity Long Room Hub
This is a jointly organised lecture by the IIIS and the Trinity Long Room Hub. This lecture series is an associated event of the Irish Presidency of the Council of the EU. The series will run from January to June. Admission is free and all are welcome. Please download the full programme.
Abstract
Barring United Kingdom and Ireland, rest of Europe has traditionally been known as the ‘fortress Europe’ so far as its links of migration with the outside world is concerned. Europe has however moved away from this position of being closed to immigrants, apparently borrowing from the experience of the UK and Ireland in being open to migration to and from the third-countries. The post-9/11 transition in the US immigration policy, which became restrictive, provided an immediate impetus to the switch in the European stance. With the consolidation of the EU, , there have been two diametrically opposite trends in the homogenization of the EU immigration policy towards third-country nationals, mainly for those coming from the developing countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America. Whereas, the so-called Blue-card was floated to compete with the American Green-card by way of promising settlement rights to the highly skilled immigrants and their families from countries of these continents, the circular migration policy was to give precedence to temporary immigration over permanent. Whereas the Blue card was perceived to be an instrument for unification and reunification of families, circular migration, which silently discouraged families to accompany the migrants, led to the splitting and nomadization of the family. This contradiction is reflected in the range or the spread of diversity in the visa issuance policies of the countries of the EU. In fact, the contradictions are subtle and hidden in the practices of visa issuances as compared to the explicitly laid down policies. The contradiction provides the EU countries a convenient handle of selectiveness for choosing the highly skilled scarce workers for their most productive part of life cycle and to rotate the unskilled and the low-skilled at shorter intervals. Transitory nature of the immigration policy, arising from frequent and unanticipated changes therein, has become the hallmark of sovereignty over border control of EU’s unified boundaries. This raises some pertinent questions regarding the age-old issues of brain drain and brain gain in the context of EU’s current fixation with circular migration.
EURO-VISIONS Lecture Series
Title: ‘The ESM and its Constitutionality’
Speaker: Prof. Dr. Peter M. Huber, Justice of the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany
Date: Wednesday, 13th March
Time: 18.15
Venue: Trinity Long Room Hub
This is a jointly organised lecture by the IIIS and the Trinity Long Room Hub. This lecture series is an associated event of the Irish Presidency of the Council of the EU.
The series will run from January to June.
PLEASE NOTE:All are welcome and admission is free however there is limited capacity so we request you to RSVP to iiis@tcd.ie
Please download the full programme.
Abstract
There has been no fundamental change in the Federal Constitutional Court’s view on the division of competence between the EEC (later EU) and the Member States since it first started dealing with the European integration at the beginning of the 1970s. There may have been a change in tone over the past 40 years. The cornerstones of the FCC’s approach, however, remain unchanged. The Maastricht judgement (12th October 1993), the Lisbon judgement (30th June 2009), the judgement concerning supporting measures for Greece and the euro rescue package (7th September 2011) and the judgment on the ESM and the fiscal compact (12th September 2012) are the main landmarks on this way.
At the base of this long line of case law is a concept of the EU as an association of sovereign states (Staatenverbund) in which the Member States are ‘masters of the treaties’ and cannot be deprived of this role but for an act of the constituent power i.e. a referendum according to Article 146 Basic Law.
Accordingly, the European Union possesses only such competences conferred upon it by the Member States (principle of conferral). The activities of the EU are democratically legitimate only insofar as they keep within the scope of this programme of integration. The programme of integration, however, grants EU law precedence over national law, which in principle applies to national constitutions as well.
The conceptual basis of precedence is in all Member States - although they differ in its concrete design - an act of national ratification (Rechtsanwendungsbefehl), in Germany the Act Approving the EEC Treaty and its subsequent amendments. Taking this into account, it seems inevitable that limits to pecedence should arise from national law. Over the past 20 years, the national constitutional identity and the programme of integration have proven to be relevant limits.
The Basic Law sets substantial requirements for the division of competence between the EU and the Member States and, as a necessary consequence, for the democratic legitimation and control of EU decisions as well, which happens primarily through the German Bundestag. These requirements are also valid for other supranational organizations such as the ESM.
In a more specific way the democratic principle as it is laid down in art. 20 par 1 and 2 of the Basic law entails the requirement that the Bundestag remains the place where decisions on the amount of loans and guaranties which Germany may give for other countries, their duration and their conditions have to be decided on in order to make a public debate and accountability possible.
During the ongoing crisis, this may slow down responses to the financial markets̕ actual or perceived demands. This means, as the president of the IMF, Christine Lagarde, stated in an interview, that democracy is indeed proving to be an impediment to overcoming the crisis. Yet, this is a price we must be willing to pay for the sake of our and our children’s freedom and self determination.
EURO-VISIONS Lecture Series
Title: "Born in YU: Performing, Negotiating, and Re-imaging an Abject Identity"
Speaker:Dr Silvija Jestrovic (Univ of Warwick)
and
Title: "Hurt Identities? The Postwar Bosnian narrative of Self-Victimization"
Speaker:Ms Ana Mijic (Univ of Vienna)
Date: Thursday, 21 March
Time: 13.00
Venue: Trinity Long Room Hub
This is a jointly organised lecture by the IIIS and the Trinity Long Room Hub. This lecture series is an associated event of the Irish Presidency of the Council of the EU. The series will run from January to June. Admission is free and all are welcome. Please download the full programme.
Abstracts to follow
EURO-VISIONS Lecture Series
Title: ‘Europe in Search of Itself, in Search of the other’
Speaker: Prof Joep Leerssen (Amsterdam)
Date: Monday, 25th March
Time: 18.15
Venue: Trinity Long Room Hub
This is a jointly organised lecture by the IIIS and the Trinity Long Room Hub. This lecture series is an associated event of the Irish Presidency of the Council of the EU. The series will run from January to June. Admission is free and all are welcome. Please download the full programme.
Abstract to follow
EURO-VISIONS Lecture Series
Title: ‘The Cultural Environment: The Case of Germany and Ireland’
Speaker: Prof Mary Keating and Prof Gillian Martin (TCD)
Respondent: H.E. Dr. Eckhard Luebkemeier, German Ambassador to Ireland
Date: Wednesday, 3rd April
Time: 18.15
Venue: Trinity Long Room Hub
This is a jointly organised lecture by the IIIS and the Trinity Long Room Hub. This lecture series is an associated event of the Irish Presidency of the Council of the EU. The series will run from January to June. Admission is free and all are welcome. Please download the full programme.
Abstract to follow
EURO-VISIONS Lecture Series
Title: ‘Euro Crisis Roundtable’
Speaker: Speakers from the Economic Policy Panel
Date: Thursday, 18th April
Time: 13.00
Venue: Trinity Long Room Hub
This is a jointly organised lecture by the IIIS and the Trinity Long Room Hub. This lecture series is an associated event of the Irish Presidency of the Council of the EU. The series will run from January to June. Admission is free and all are welcome. Please download the full programme.
Abstract to follow
EURO-VISIONS Lecture Series
Title: ‘EU enlargement in Central and Eastern Europe: Happy Ever After?’
Speaker: Dr Vera Sheridan and Dr Sabina Stan (DCU)
Date: Wednesday, 24 April
Time: 18.15
Venue: Trinity Long Room Hub
This is a jointly organised lecture by the IIIS and the Trinity Long Room Hub. This lecture series is an associated event of the Irish Presidency of the Council of the EU. The series will run from January to June. Admission is free and all are welcome. Please download the full programme.
Abstract
This talk will discuss the different journeys that brought ten new member states into the European Union from Central and Eastern Europe. These states undertook to meet the Copenhagen criteria for EU membership which set out the preconditions for their membership. Since 2004 there have been a range of outcomes for both new member states and ‘old Europe’ of the EU-15 as a direct result of the conditions of membership. There are also outcomes which reveal interesting perspectives by ‘old Europe’ on the new and which raise questions around integration and future enlargement.
EURO-VISIONS Lecture Series
Title: ‘Europe's Future is in the South’
Speaker: Prof Claus Leggewie (KEI, Essen)
Date: Wednesday, 1 May
Time: 18.15
Venue: Trinity Long Room Hub
This is a jointly organised lecture by the IIIS and the Trinity Long Room Hub. This lecture series is an associated event of the Irish Presidency of the Council of the EU. The series will run from January to June. Admission is free and all are welcome. Please download the full programme.
Abstract to follow
EURO-VISIONS Lecture Series
Title: ‘Collateral Roadkill: the Death of 'Central Europe' as a concept somewhere between Sarajevo and Brussels’
Speaker: Prof Clemens Ruthner (TCD)
Date: Wednesday, 15 May
Time: 18.15
Venue: Trinity Long Room Hub
This is a jointly organised lecture by the IIIS and the Trinity Long Room Hub. This lecture series is an associated event of the Irish Presidency of the Council of the EU. The series will run from January to June. Admission is free and all are welcome. Please download the full programme.
Abstract to follow
EURO-VISIONS Lecture Series
Title: ‘Does Europe Need a New Memory’
Speaker: Prof Ann Rigney (Utrecht)
Date: Wednesday, 29 May
Time: 18.15
Venue: Trinity Long Room Hub
This is a jointly organised lecture by the IIIS and the Trinity Long Room Hub. This lecture series is an associated event of the Irish Presidency of the Council of the EU. The series will run from January to June. Admission is free and all are welcome. Please download the full programme.
Abstract to follow
EURO-VISIONS Lecture Series
Title: ‘Identity and Mempry in Europe: The Perspective of critical Discourse Analysis’
Speaker: Prof Ruth Wodak (Lancaster)
Date: Wednesday, 5 June
Time: 18.15
Venue: Trinity Long Room Hub
This is a jointly organised lecture by the IIIS and the Trinity Long Room Hub. This lecture series is an associated event of the Irish Presidency of the Council of the EU. The series will run from January to June. Admission is free and all are welcome. Please download the full programme.
Abstract to follow
EURO-VISIONS Lecture Series
Title: ‘The Eurovision Song Contest and the Performance of Europe'
Speaker: Prof Brian Singleton (TCD)
Date: Wednesday, 12 June
Time: 18.15
Venue: Trinity Long Room Hub
This is a jointly organised lecture by the IIIS and the Trinity Long Room Hub. This lecture series is an associated event of the Irish Presidency of the Council of the EU. The series will run from January to June. Admission is free and all are welcome. Please download the full programme.
Abstract to follow