A European Feminist Foreign Policy? Gender Mainstreaming in the EU’s Common Security and Defence Policy

This event zooms in the question of gender in the EU’s Common Security and Defence Policy. The speakers will touch upon opportunities and challenges of linking the EU’s external action and gender equality agendas into a European Feminist Foreign Policy. They will also reflect upon their experience as gender experts and gender advisors and offer insights on how policies are implemented in specific EU CSDP missions.

• Date: 11 November
• Speakers: Mervi Patosalmi, Tina Arend Morad, Chiara Tagliani

ACES launched a special event series focused on the European Parliament elections. This series addressed key aspects such as campaign dynamics and citizen attitudes toward Europe and the elections. Additionally, the events examined political party campaigns, paying specific attention to grassroots factors driving the rise of illiberalism and far-right populist parties, which have the potential to significantly impact Europe's future in areas such as immigration, climate change, social protection, and geopolitical strategy.

The ACES European Parliament election series was organised in collaboration with SPUI25 and is co-funded by the Erasmus Plus Programme of the European Commission.

European Democracy in Action?

• Date: 20-21 September
• Speakers: Katjana Gattermann, Wouter van der Brug, Sara Hobolt

European Elections Outcome and the Future of European Politics

• Date: 11 June
• Speakers: Nikoleta Yordanova, Maurits Meijers, Marijn Kruk, Theresa Kuhn and Matthijs Lok

Campaign Dynamics and Citizen Perspectives

• Date: 22 May 2024
• Speakers: Wouter van der Brug, Katjana Gattermann, Elske van den Hoogen, and Theresa Kuhn

Beyond the Illiberal Leader

• Date: 7 May
• Speaker: Marlene Laruelle

European Populism and the Looming European Parliamentary Elections

• Date: 16 April
• Speakers: Sarah de Lange, Robin de Bruin, and Brian Burgoon

ACES and SPUI25 joined forces to organise a series of five roundtables: a Virtual Visions of Europe series on Pandemic Politics and Corona Crisis Response. In each roundtable ACES experts and external guests discussed the pandemic from a specific angle. You find here all the links to the online video's for each session.

Public Health: Diversity and (Non-)Coordination

• Speakers: Maria Weimer, Anniek de Ruijter, Alessio Pacces, Scott Greer
• Full lecture (on YouTube)

Socio-Economic Policy and Crisis Response

• Speakers: Frank Vandenbroucke, Roel Beetsma, Arnoud Boot, Jean Pisani-Ferri, Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa
• Full lecture (on YouTube)

The National and European Politics of the Pandemic

• Speakers: Theresa Kuhn, Brian Burgoon, Sarah de Lange, Catherine de Vries
• Full lecture (on YouTube)

Changing Geopolitical Orders

• Speakers: George Blaustein, Artemy Kalinovsky, Julian Gruin, Heinz Gärtner
• Full lecture (on YouTube)

How will the EU emerge from the crisis?

• Speakers: Jonathan Zeitlin, Frank Vandenbroucke, Theresa Kuhn, Erik Jones
• Full lecture (on YouTube)

A Green Energy Transition?

• Speaker: Tony Agotha
• Full lecture (on YouTube)

The EU’s response to Brexit and the Covid19 pandemic

• Speaker: Brigid Laffan
• Full lecture (on YouTube)

How Connectivity Causes Conflict

• Speakers: Mark Leonard, Thijs van der Plas
• Full lecture (on YouTube)

The EU response to Brexit: Rapid, United, Effective

• Speaker: Brigid Laffan
• Date: 9 May 2022

Find here the launch of the Routledge Handbook of EU-Middle East Relations edited by Dimitris Bouris, Daniela Huber and Michelle Pace. The Amsterdam Centre for European Studies (ACES) - in cooperation with EUMENIA, RUC and IAI - hosted a series of panels exploring the central themes of each section of the book, including history, theoretical perspectives, multilateralism and geopolitical perspectives, contemporary issues, peace, security and conflict as well as development, economics, trade and societal issues.

Entanglements in EU-Middle East Relations & History

• Speakers: Senem Aydın-Düzgit, Bahar Rumelili, Roberto Mazza, Nora Lafi
• Date: 2 March 2022

Theoretical perspectives on EU-Middle East Relations

• Speakers: Ali Bilgic, Münevver Cebeci, Nora Fisher-Onar, Hanna L. Muehlenhoff
• Date: 16 March 2022

MENA–EU Relations in the Contemporary World

• Speakers: Ayhan Kaya, Andrea Teti & Gennaro Gervasio, Annette Jünemann
• Date: 20 April 2022

Peace, Security and Conflict in the Middle East

• Speakers: Federica Bicchi, Benedetta Voltolini, Assem Dandashly, Maria Luisa Fantappie, Cornelius Adebahr and Riccardo Alcaro
• Date: 11 May 2022

Development, Economics, Trade and Societal Issues

• Speakers: Emile Badarin, Jeremy Wildeman, Beste İşleyen, Tamirace Fakhoury, Emma Murphy, Nora Aboushady and Chahir Zaki
• Date: 8 June 2022

The .ua discussion Series emerged as a reaction to Russia’s violent assault on Ukraine. It aims to counter the information deficit that exists in the Netherlands about Ukraine and provide students and general public with a reliable commentary on Ukraine’s history, culture, society and politics.

Ukrainian politics since the Maidan

• Speaker: Donnacha Ó Beacháin
• Date: 15 March 2022

East / West: Re-thinking Ukrainian regional diversity

• Speaker: Andrii Portnov
• Date: 22 March 2022

Civil Society in Post-Maidan Ukraine

• Speaker: Olga Burlyuk
• Date: 2 March 2022

The Religious Landscape of Ukraine

• Speaker: Micha Kemper
• Date: 5 April 2022

The State of the Ukrainian Economy

• Speaker: Hannes Meissner
• Date: 12 April 2022

Drawn out state-building: 20th century Ukraine

• Speaker: Guido Hausmann
• Date: 26 April 2022

Language policies in Ukraine

• Speaker: Christian Noack
• Date: 3 May 2022

Ukraine during WW II

• Speaker: Karel Berkhoff
• Date: 10 May 2022

Mapping Ukraine’s multicultural literary heritage

• Speaker: Uilleam Blacker
• Date: 17 May 2022

The politics of memory in the Ukrainian-Russian conflict

• Speaker: Tatiana Zhurzhenko
• Date: 24 May 2022

Crimea and Ukraine with Gwendolyn Sasse

• Speaker: Gwendolyn Sasse
• Date: 31 May 2022

In the European Politics Series we discussed developments in European politics with scholars, practitioners, journalists, and commentators from the Netherlands and abroad. We zoomed in on the significance of key events, such as election outcomes, governments assuming office, and leadership changes, as well as that of long term processes, such as democratic backsliding and increasing polarisation across European countries as well as at the EU level. The series is a cooperation between ACES and Spui25, organised by Sarah de Lange.

The US presidential elections: implications for Europe

The impact of the outcome of the US presidential elections extends far beyond North America. With scholars and journalists we discuss what the election results might mean for politics in European countries. Will the results strengthen ongoing developments, such as increasing polarization, mobilization around racial equality, or the spread of conspiracy theories? And will the impact be experienced more directly in some European countries than others?

Speakers: Caspar Thomas, Penny Sheets, Sara Polak, Laila Frank, Cas Mudde and Lisa Peters
Date: 5 November 2020

Watch the video recording on YouTube

Corona and the populist radical right: end of an era?

The ongoing corona pandemic is reshaping our societies and our democracies. One of the most significant political developments in recent years has been the rise of populism. What effect will the pandemic have on populist radical right parties in Europe? Will it boost their electoral success, or will it on the contrary cause their demise? Populism experts from across Europe discuss the impact of the pandemic on the populist radical right.

Speaker: Léonie de Jonge, Daphne Halikiopoulou, Matthijs Rooduijn, Catarina Froio and Sarah de Lange
Date: 30 November 2020

Watch the video recording on YouTube

Work, Family, Fatherland: Social Populism in Central and Eastern Europe

The new east-west divide in Europe is not just about authoritarian regimes defying the rule of law. In this European Politics In Transition lecture Mitchell Orenstein and Bojan Bugarič show that populist social appeals centered around ‘work, family, and fatherland’ are central to understanding the success of authoritarian government in Central and Eastern Europe.

Speaker: Mitchell Orenstein, Bojan Bugarič and Jonathan Zeitlin (moderator)
Date: 10 February 2021

Watch the video recording on YouTube

The German Elections: Continuity or Change?

After 16 years of stability under Merkel, will German voters opt for continuity or change? With scholars from different disciplines we discuss what the elections on the 26th of September are likely to bring, and what the results might mean for the future of Europe.

Speaker(s): Hanco Jürgens, Hannah Muehlenhoff, Julia Schulte-Cloos, Tarik Abou-Chadi  
Date: 15 September 2021 

Watch the video recording on YouTube

What is Europe’s place in the world in 2020? Both societal and academic debates have brought up this question. Increasingly, scholars have turned to decolonial studies to rethink Europe’s place and to answer this important question. This online series provides an opportunity for engaging with scholars and academic debates in decolonialism, and to reflect and learn more about a variety of approaches and topics. During the online seminars we will address questions such as: What does ‘decolonising Europe’ mean? What new research avenues do decolonial approaches bring? How can we work with decolonial methodologies and theories in our daily research activities?

Eurocentrism

The online series 'Decolonising Europe' starts with a session exploring what 'Eurocentrism' means. How did the term emerge and why was it necessary? In this session the origins and implications of ‘Eurocentric’ views on international politics will be discussed, and possible avenues of thinking differently and what it entails to do research from non-European perspective will be explored. 

Speaker: Gurminder Bhambra, Darshan Vigneswaran 
Date: 18 June 2020

Watch the video recording on YouTube

Who gets to speak? The exclusion of voices in academia and society

This is the second session of the ACES online lecture series Decolonising Europe in International Politics. In this session the focus will be on the erasure and silencing of voices that point to the traces of colonialism and racism in academia. How can we understand institutional racism that exists in academia? And how does it inform our knowledge production? And what are the broader societal consequences of racism, and particularly anti-black sentiments in science?

Speaker: Robbie Shilliam, Nivi Manchanda
Date: 29 June 2020

Watch the video recording on YouTube

Rethinking European-Ottoman Encounters

This is the third session of the ACES online lecture series Decolonising Europe in International Politics. In this third session the history of Euro-Ottoman relations will be revisited to understand and analyse perceptions, attitudes and interactions in topics of Islam, democracy and capitalism.

Speaker: Cemal Burak Tansel, Senem Aydın-Düzgit
Date: 2 July 2020

Watch the video recording on YouTube

Europe and Colonial ‘Lives’ in North Africa

This is the fourth session of the ACES online lecture series Decolonising Europe in International Politics. The fourth session is the special book edition of the online series. We speak with Sara Salem about her new book “Anticolonial Afterlives in Egypt: The Politics of Hegemony”. The book analyses the afterlives of Egypt’s moment of decolonisation through an imagined conversation between Gramsci and Fanon around questions of anticolonialism, resistance, revolution and liberty.

Speaker: Sara Salem
Date: 9 July 2020

Watch the video recording on YouTube

Decolonising the curriculum

This is the fifth and last session before the summer break of the ACES online lecture series Decolonising Europe in International Politics. In this final session the discussion will focus on the practical applications of decolonial theories. The panel will discuss how to decolonize the curriculum in practice, and how to apply a decolonial approach to our teaching and researching.

Speaker: Rosalba Icaza, Michael Onyebuchi Eze
Date: 16 July 2020

Watch the video recording on YouTube

Decolonising Indonesia - Extraction, property and race

This is the sixth session of the lecture series 'Decolonising Europe''. With a particular focus on Indonesia, the speakers adopt a historical colonial perspective on issues of economic expropriation and ecological destruction. They will trace the colonial ties of current economic conditions and practices in Indonesia, along with the country’s position in the world market. They highlight how past interventions by the Dutch East India Company and the Dutch colonial state have set the conditions for extraction, land grabbing and cultivation of indigenous knowledge, whose effects are still shaping realities on the ground. 

Speaker: Lisa Tilley, Tamara Soukotta
Date: 5 October 2020

Watch the video recording on YouTube

Decolonising the museum & art: Collections, colonialism & curators

During this panel conversation we will delve into the question of how to decolonize the museum and art spaces. Museums and displays of art are important spaces where narratives of histories and peoples are constructed and maintained. There has been a continuous debate in several European countries on which artefacts are included in exhibitions, why certain histories on colonialism and slavery are made invisible and how museums can renegotiate their position in contemporary societies. In this panel we reflect on how museums can or should deal with their own colonial pasts or attachments, and how they attempt to design exhibitions in a way that challenges or disrupts a Eurocentric view on the world. 

Speaker: Quinsy Gario, Chiara de Cesari, Wayne Modest
Date: 21 October 2020

Watch the video recording on YouTube

Provincialising Europe

In this session, we host Prof. Dipesh Chakrabarty - a leading scholar in postcolonial thought and subaltern studies. Prof. Chakrabarty’s book Provincializing Europe has been ground-breaking in the social sciences regarding Eurocentric accounts of the origins of modernity. This week’s session focuses on Prof. Chakrabarty’s ongoing work on the phenomenon of global warming. We discuss how certain narratives of human history, which center Europe in scientific and popular discussions, have conditioned the way global warming, its causes and solutions have been understood, framed and debated.  

Speaker: Dipesh Chakrabarty
Date: 26 October 2020

Watch the video recording on YouTube

Sovereignty and political authority

This session invites us to rethink the concept of sovereignty and Europe. While the notion of sovereignty has come up multiple times in previous sessions, we are now joined by two speakers who will discuss in-depth why and how the study of sovereignty has largely been Euro-centric in the mainstream International Relations literature.

Speaker: Ayse Zarakol, Xavier Mathieu
Date: 9 November 2020

Watch the video recording on YouTube

Decolonising Migration

In the 10th session of Decolonising Europe, Polly Pallister Wilkins will interview Nadine El-Enany. They will discuss her book: (B)ordering Britain: Law, Race and Empire.

Speaker: Nadine El-Enany
Date: 18 November 2020

Watch the video recording on YouTube

Decolonising humanitarianism

The session is organised by the guest moderator by Polly Pallister-Wilkins. Together with Farhana Sultana, Associate Professor of Geography, Syracuse University, and Tobias Denskus, Senior Lecturer Malmö University, she will discuss the topic of decolonising humanitarianism.

Speaker: Farhana Sultana, Tobias Denskus
Date: 7 December 2020

Watch the video recording on YouTube

Decolonising the Non-Colonisers?

In this session the gaze is towards Eastern Europe. Where is Eastern Europe in the history of global colonialism? This session explores why Eastern Europe has been largely absent from mainstream histories of global colonialism and studies of postcolonialism and decolonialism.

Speaker: Zoltán Ginelli, James Mark
Date: 18 February 2021

Watch the video recording on YouTube

Decolonising Queerness

We will discuss how to adopt a framework towards gender and sexuality that does not centre white and European experiences or scholars. Rather this panel engages with debates about gender and sexuality in relation to colonial histories of Europe, the intersectionality of race, class, gender and sexuality and current debates on heteronormativity.

Speaker: Sarah Bracke, Sandeep Bakshi
Date: 18 March 2021

Watch the video recording on YouTube

Recentering “Eastern” Europe in Decoloniality

In this session, we continue our conversation on how decoloniality is related to the Eastern part of Europe. Our speakers will explore the theoretical and political filiations between dependency theory, world-systems analysis and decoloniality with a view to recentering the European East in decolonial thought, while decolonizing the category of “Eastern Europe” that the joint processes of coloniality and inter-imperiality bequeathed to the social sciences and to political-economic discourse.

Speaker: Manuela Boatcă, Ovidiu Țichindeleanu
Date: 8 April 2021

Watch the video recording on YouTube

Decolonising Hellas

This is the 15th session of the Decolonising Europe Lecture Series. In this session we turn our gaze towards Greece. What is the relationship between the Greek nation-state and Europe’s colonial genealogies? How has Greece co-constituted the European colonial project? What does it mean to decolonise Hellas?

Speaker: Nikolas Kosmatopoulos, Despina Lalaki
Date: 17 June 2021

Watch the video recording on YouTube

What are the points of contestation between race and migration studies in 21^st century Europe? Why have these two fields developed parallel to, but not always in conversation with, each other? While the study of race- and ethnicity in Europe has historically been concerned with imperial pasts, postcolonial presents and constructions of race across the continent, migration studies has predominantly tackled issues of migrant settlement, integration and global mobilities focusing on questions of labour markets and economics, national identity and social cohesion, and state sovereignty. Over the past decades, a shift has occurred in Europe where scholars within critical race, migration, post/colonial and mobility studies increasingly have treated race and ethnicity as constitutive of migration processes.

Fatima El-Tayeb

Fatima El-Tayeb is Professor of Literature and Ethnic Studies and associate director of critical gender studies at the University of California, San Diego, where her innovative scholarship deals with issues of migration, sexuality, ethnicity, queerness and race in Europe. 

Speaker: Fatima El-Tayeb
Date: 27 January 2021

Watch the video recording on YouTube

Studying Race and Migration Together: a Conversation between Amade M’charek & Tobias Hübinette

What are the obstacles to bridging race- and migration studies in Europe? In this second session, we invite Amade M’Charek (UvA, the Netherlands) and Tobias Hübinette (Karlstad University, Sweden) to tackle this question.

Speaker: Amade M’charek, Tobias Hübinette
Date: 18 February 2021

Watch the video recording on YouTube

Race, Queerness & Transfeminism in European Migration Studies

Who is a migrant in Europe? The third session of the series invites Alyosxa Tudor (SOAS) to discuss their work on migratism, racism and transfeminism in European migration studies.

Speaker: Alyosxa Tudor
Date: 29 March 2021

Watch the video recording on YouTube

Barak Kalir

In this fourth lecture, dr. Barak Kalir (UvA) will unpack how the administration of illegalized migration works as a crucial frontier for managing racism in society. The audience is warmly invited to join the discussion in a short Q&A session after the lecture.

Speaker: Barak Kalir
Date: 28 April 2021

Betty de Hart

How should we theorize race in the study of family migration in Europe? How have the history of colonialism and racism impacted the development of European family migration law, including the Netherlands? Betty de Hart (VU) will address these issues based on her recent academic work on the regulation of mixed intimacies in Europe.

Speaker: Betty de Hart
Date: 10 June 2021

The challenges facing the European Union today are multiple, with the Covid-19 pandemic both heightening existing forms of inequality and exclusion, as well as serving to radicalize political debates. This virtual seminar series discussed how these contemporary challenges can be more fully understood by engaging with feminist and intersectional scholarship, drawing attention to the key role of gender and sexuality in shaping political debates and new and old forms of discrimination.

Risk analysis as political

In this talk, Saskia Stachowitsch explores how risk analysis in European border security functions as a sense-making security practice that is deeply political. With a focus on Frontex, she investigates how gender and race matter in constituting the "riskiness" of migrants as well as the notion of "migration crisis". As a contribution to emerging debates on race and racism in security studies, she argues for an intersectional approach that reveals how understandings of crisis are linked to the reproduction of gendered and racialized stereotypes, identities and inequalities.

Speaker: Saskia Stachowitsch
Date: 27 October 2020

Watch the video recording on YouTube

In Focus: Slipping off or turning the tide? 

This is the second event of the Gender and Sexuality Lecture Series with a special focus on 'A Feminist EU in the World?'. During this event there will be a special focus on the special issue in Political Studies Review 18(3) edited by Hanna L. Muehlenhoff (UvA), Anna van der Vleuten (Radboud University Nijmegen) and Natalie Welfens (UvA). 

Speaker: Toni Haastrup, Gülay Çağlar, Anna van der Vleuten
Date: 24 November 2020

Watch the video recording on YouTube

Pushback against the Istanbul Convention

In this webinar we discuss why and how the Istanbul Convention became such a central site of contestation over gender equality, who are the actors that oppose the convention and what strategies and arguments do they use? 

Speakers: Dubravka Simonovic, Feride Acar, Andrea Kriszan, Conny Roggeband
Date: 10 December 2020

Watch the video recording on YouTube

Feminist Framing of Europeanisation: Gender Equality Policies in Turkey and the EU

How can we rethink the theory and practice of Europeanisation from a feminist perspective? This event discusses the recently published edited collection ‘Feminist Framing of Europeanisation’ (with Palgrave Macmillan, 2021) which explores the Europeanisation of gender policies and addresses theoretical challenges surrounding the EU’s impact on domestic politics.

Speakers: Rahime Süleymanoğlu-Kürüm, F. Melis Cin, Beste İşleyen
Date: 14 January

Watch the video recording on YouTube

Gender and Sexuality Studies Under Attack in Central-Eastern Europe

What are the historical, political, social and cultural sources of the attacks on Gender and Sexuality Studies in Central-Eastern Europe? Are they local or rather fueled by transnational conservative movements? What are possible strategies and solidarities (local and global) to counteract them?

Speakers: Tomasz Basiuk, Agnieszka Kościańska & Hadley Z. Renkin 
Date: 27 January 2021

Watch the video recording on YouTube

In Focus: A Feminist EU in the World? A feminist foreign policy for the European Union?

This is the second event in the In Focus Series: A Feminist EU in the World? During this event Hannah Neumann, MEP, Roberta Guerrina and Michelle Pace will explore what a Feminist Foreign Policy for the EU could or should look like, reflect upon how current developments in EU foreign and security policy speak to the idea of a Feminist Foreign Policy and discuss its potentials and pitfalls.

Speakers: Hannah Neuman, Roberta Guerrina and Michelle Pace
Date: 2 February 2021

Watch the video recording on YouTube

A feminist EU in the World? A Feminist Foreign Policy for a Climate-Just Future?

This is the third event in the In Focus Series: “A Feminist EU in the World?” In this event we zoom in on the EU’s policies on Climate Justice and climate change from an (intersectional) feminist perspective. 

Speakers: Annica Kronsell, Andrew Telford and Margaretha Wewerinke-Singh
Date: 1 March 2021

Watch the video recording on YouTube

In Focus: The EU and a Feminist Global Trade

The third event in the In Focus series ‘A Feminist EU in the World?’ focuses on the role of the European Union as a global trade actor. 

Speakers: Susan Harris Rimmer, Silke Trommer and Maya Taselaar
Date: 12 April 2021

Watch the video recording on YouTube

Building feminist peace: what way forward for the EU?

Some EU member states have declared to pursue a Feminist Foreign Policy. Such a Feminist Foreign Policy calls for disarmament, reversing militarisation, and prioritising human security. While in fact, the EU’s latest Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security is more ambitious than previous proposals, EU leaders are also moving towards a more military approach when it comes to security and development objectives. 

Speakers: Laura Davis, Gina Heathcote, Helen Kezi-Nwoha
Date: 18 May 2021

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Neoliberalism's fuel to anti-feminism

In this seminar part of the Gender & Sexuality in European (Geo)politics, Akwugo Emejulu (University of Warwick), Emanuela Lombardo (Complutense University Madrid) and Elzbieta Korolczuk (Södertörn University) will discuss how neoliberal policies and politics erode the opportunity structure for feminist movements and class- and race-inclusive activism.

Speakers: Akwugo Emejulu, Emanuela Lombardo, Elzbieta Korolczuk
Date: 31 May 2021

Watch the video recording on YouTube

This year’s series will engage with a number of topical issues and will also involve several high-level officials, policy-makers, academics and practitioners. Topics will include the EU-Ukraine relations, the EU ‘Integrated Approach’ and the European Peace Facility as well as De Facto States and Land-for-Peace Agreements.

This event (or series) is co funded by the Erasmus Plus Programme of the European Commission

The EU and Ukraine

Ukraine is a priority partner for the EU. In 2014 the EU and Ukraine signed an Association Agreement which also includes provisions for a Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area (DCFTA). In the same year, the EU also launched the European Union Advisory Mission Ukraine (EUAM Ukraine) in the aftermath of the events of the Euromaidan “Revolution of Dignity”. In parallel to these, the EU also introduced restrictive measures and economic sanctions targeting specific sectors of the Russian economy, following the latter’s illegal annexation of Crimea. 

Speaker: Katarína Mathernová, Antti Hartikainen
Date: 18 November 2021

The European Union and Peacebuilding: The ‘Integrated Approach’ and the European Peace Facility

The 2016 EU Global Strategy introduced the development of an integrated approach to conflicts as a strategic priority for EU external action. In 2018, the Council of the EU adopted conclusions on the ‘integrated approach to external conflicts and crises’. The aim of this initiative is to introduce a more coherent use of the various policies and instruments at the disposal of the EU, ranging from conflict prevention and diplomacy, security and defence to development, humanitarian aid, trade and finance.

Speaker: Anne Koistinen, Rory Domm
Date: 22 November 2021

De Facto States and Land-for-Peace Agreements: Territory and Recognition at Odds?

Dr. Shpend Kursani will present his book. The book presents an analytical framework which assesses how 'land-for-peace' agreements can be achieved in the context of territorial conflicts between de facto states and their respective parent states. The volume examines geographic solutions to resolving ongoing conflicts that stand between the principle of self-determination and the principle of territorial integrity.

Speaker: Shpend Kursani, Olesya Vartanyan
Date: 25 November 2021

Deforestation is widely recognized as a major source of global environmental degradation and climate change, while also contributing in many countries to rampant illegality and violations of community rights. In this panel discussion we will consider the ambitious goals and innovative provisions of EU deforestation regulation, focusing particularly on the proposed EU demand-side measures, and the practical challenges of making them work effectively.

Panel 1: Ambitions and Challenges: Making Due Diligence Work for Forests

This panel will consider the ambitious goals and innovative provisions of the deforestation regulation, focusing particularly on the proposed EU demand-side measures, and the practical challenges of making them work effectively. 

• Date: 1 February 2022
• Speakers: Delara Burkhardt, Rob Busink, Ingrid Hontis, Alison Hoare, Pablo Pacheco , Jonathan Zeitlin (moderator)

Watch the recording of this event on YouTube

Panel 2: Cooperation with Partner Countries

This second panel considers supply-side measures undertaken in partnership with producer countries to combat deforestation and forest degration, including the new Forest Partnerships, drawing inter alia on the experience of the FLEGT VPAs, to enhance both the legitimacy and the effectiveness of EU external action against deforestation.

• Date: 24 February 2022
• Speakers: Bojan Grlaš, Sebastian Lesch, Julia Christian, Mardi Minangsari, Obed Osuwu-Addai, Maria Weimer (moderator) 

Watch the recording of this event on YouTube

"Belief" in Rights, Islamophobia and the Politics of the Veil

The tension between human rights and gender difference has played out explicitly of the past two decades in the decisions of the European Court of Human Rights concerning the veil. Ratna Kapur discusses the politics of the veil that inform these decisions and the fear and anxiety over alternative world views and ways of being that are exposed by them. 

Speaker: Ratna Kapur
Date: 22 September 2021
 

Critical Race Theory in the German-speaking context

Critical Race Theory has been employed by legal scholars and practitioners in the U.S.A. to point to and engage with structural forms of racial discrimination in U.S. law. Although historical structures of racial discrimination continue to persist in different European jurisdictions, Critical Race Theory is largely absent in continental European legal discourse. 

Speaker: Mathias Moschel
Date: 28 October 2021
Watch the recording of this event on YouTube

Structural Racism and Race Discrimination

Professor Atrey's recently published article explores the relationship between ‘racism’ and ‘race discrimination’. It shows that once we look beyond racism understood colloquially as individual bigotry, to racism understood in a structural sense as embedded in the social, economic, cultural and political dimensions of the State itself, it is possible to locate racism in the practice of discrimination law, within the category of race discrimination.

Speaker: Sheyra Atrey
Date: 23 November 2021
Watch the recording of this event on YouTube

International Migration Law and Coloniality

In European human rights law, it is taken for granted that states have the sovereign right to regulate migration. A right to be admitted to a country of which one is not a national, or a right not to be expelled, exists only in exceptional cases. This session discusses the colonial and racial origins of states’ right to exclude non-nationals and thus modern international migration law.

Speaker: Thomas Spijkerboer
Date: 8 December 2021
Watch the recording of this event on YouTube

Mapping the 'White International' through fiction

The ‘International’ was invented by Jeremy Bentham in 1789. What began as ‘a legal term’ by the end of the 19th century had morphed into an imaginary that ‘evoked an imperial, Eurocentric order of the world’. 

Speaker: Chris Gevers
Date: 25 January 2022
Watch the recording of this event on YouTube

The perfect and the incoherent as the enemies of the good: why humane EU borders remain elusive

In the first event in a new ACES Migration Network Series on the EU’s Common European Asylum System convened by Jeroen Doomernik, Gerald Knaus oulines why the EU urgently needs an alternative and humane policy for controlling irregular migration, which does not break legal principles by resorting to force or illegal refoulement.

Speaker: Gerald Knaus
Date: 18 January 2022 
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Addressing secondary movements in the Common European Asylum System: opportunities, realities and challenges

Although the types, reasons and scale of secondary movements are to a large extend unknown, the phenomenon has been on the radar of policy makers since the introduction of the Schengen regime and its prevention became one of the major aims of the Common European Asylum System (CEAS). 

Speaker: Martin Wagner (ICMPD)
Date: 1 February 2022
Watch the recording of this event on YouTube

Rural Arrival: Small Towns and Rural Regions as Places of Refugee Reception

n the peak year of the ‘European asylum crisis’ 2015, nearly 900,000 asylum seeking migrants arrived in Germany, the largest number ever recorded. Following a quota system based on the idea of burden sharing, a considerable share of those migrants were re-distributed to rural regions and small and medium sized towns. Considering that those localities usually have few experiences with immigrants, the development of an integrative environment became a challenging exercise.

Speaker: Birgit Glorius
Date: 15 March 2022
Watch the recording of this event on YouTube

Coping with Migrants and Refugees: Multilevel Governance across Europe

Asylum seekers’ reception represents a classic multilevel governance (MLG) challenge, i.e., one that brings a multiplicity of interdependent actors into play, ranging from public authorities at different levels of government to non-governmental actors like NGOs and social movements. Based on the findings of the H2020 Project Ceaseval, in this talk I will shed light on the scarce multilevel governance that actually underpinned policymaking processes in the aftermath of the 2015 refugee crisis in Germany, Finland, Italy, Spain and Greece.

Speaker: Tiziana Caponio
Date: 28 April 2022
Watch the recording of this event on YouTube

The Common European Asylum System: Organised Hypocrisy and Beyond

In the face of rising numbers of asylum seekers and refugees in the world and rising xenophobic movements at home the Common European Asylum System has increasingly turned into a system of organized hypocrisy in which its normative ambition at high protective standards is undermined by the political reality of protectionist policies.

Date: 19 May 2022
Speaker: Sandra Lavenex
Watch the recording of this event on YouTube

The EU as a global actor

Dr. Dimitris Bouris (he/him) (UvA) Jean Monnet Chairholder of ATHENA hosted the 7th Practitioners Engagement Series in cooperation with the Amsterdam Centre for European Studies (ACES). This year’s series will engage with a number of topical issues and will also involve several high-level officials, policy-makers, academics and practitioners. Topics will include the EU’s Common Security and Defence Policy, the EU Global Strategy, Feminist and Queer Perspectives to EU Foreign Policy as well as the EU’s response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The EU as a Global Actor? Reflecting on the Common Security and Defence Policy, the EU Global Strategy and the Strategic Compas

• Speaker: Samuel Doveri Vesterbye
• Date: 10 November 2022 

Feminist and Queer Perspectives to EU Foreign Policy

• Speakers:  Annika Ojala and Hanna Muehlenhoff
• Date: 17 November 2022 

The EU’s response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine

• Speakers: Olga Burlyuk, Elena Lazarou, Katarína Mathernová, Anita Sęk-Pajić 
• Date: 24 November 2022 

The European Union and Palestine: Legal Obligations, Evolving Positions, and Humanitarian Dimensions

This event explored the complex intersection of international law, international relations, and humanitarian concerns within the context of EU-Palestine relations.

• Date: 18 November
• Speakers: Dimitris Bouris, Polly Pallister-Wilkins, Nimer Sultany, Daan de Grefte

ACES and the Future of Interdisciplinary European and European Union Studies

We would like to invite all colleagues interested in participating in the Amsterdam Centre for European Studies (ACES) to a re-launch event to discuss European Studies and to help develop existing or new ACES Theme Groups for the coming four years. The event is divided into two parts: Roundtable Discussion on interdisciplinary European studies in Dutch Universities (13:00-14:00); and Internal ACES Discussion of Theme Groups (14:30-16:00).

• Date: 3 December

The ICJ Ruling on Palestine: Between International Law and Politics

As part of the ATHENA Jean Monnet Chair on the EU as a Global Actor, and in collaboration with the Amsterdam Centre for European Studies (ACES), Dr. Dimitris Bouris and Dr. Ueli Stӓger will host Ambassador Dr. Namira Negm for a talk on International Law, Occupation and Plausible Genocide: What comes after the International Court of Justice rulings on Palestine?

• Date: 2 December
• Speakers: Namira Negm

Air and Love: A Story of Food, Family and Belonging

In her new book, 'Air and Love: A Story of Food, Family and Belonging', Or Rosenboim explores the history of modern displacement by retracing micro-histories of family migrations from Samarkand and Riga to the Middle East in 1860-1960. She reconstructs long-lost migration routes and retraces the food that migrants cooked on the road, to explore questions of identity and belonging, that have shaped not only individual lives but also global order. By weaving these stories into the larger narratives of contemporary history, Rosenboim offers a new perspective on the history of the modern world.

• Date: 7 November
• Speakers: Or Rosenboim

Hoogmoed en onmacht

Een geopolitieke speler worden op het wereldtoneel – dat is het streven van de Europese Unie. Maar kan ze haar torenhoge ambities wel waarmaken? Hoe moet de EU zich positioneren naast andere globale acteurs zoals de VS? In zijn boek Hoogmoed en onmacht onderzoekt Tom de Bruijn deze vragen vanuit historisch en persoonlijk perspectief. Een dag na de Amerikaanse presidentsverkiezingen spraken we hierover met de auteur en met gasten Kajsa Ollongren, Theresa Kuhn, Luuk van Middelaar, René Cuperus en Ton Nijhuis.

• Date: 6 November 2023
• Speakers: Kasja Ollongren, Theresa Kuhn, Luuk van Middelaar, René Cuperus, Ton Nijhuis

An evening with Olga Tokarczuk

This evening, none other than Olga Tokarczuk was at the Aula of the Lutheran Church. She will engage in a conversation about the state of European literature, the importance of translation and her oeuvre.

• Date: 1 November 2023
• Speaker: Olga Tokarczuk

Protests and Pro-democracy Movements in Autocracies

How can decentralized protest movements challenge entrenched, repressive, and highly resilient authoritarian regimes? This question is central to Diana T. Kudaibergen’s groundbreaking new book, The Kazakh Spring: Digital Activism and the Challenge to Dictatorship. Together with renowned political scientists and sociologists we discussed the dynamics between authoritarian regimes and democratization movements – with a focus on Central Asia and Eastern Europe.

• Date: 3 October
• Speakers: Diana T. Kudaibergen

Looking Back, Moving Forward: Interdisciplinary Decolonial Dialogues on Central Asia and Eastern Europe

ACES continues to organize interdisciplinary workshops, this time bringing together scholars from diverse fields to call for a decolonial rethinking of knowledge production and hierarchies, particularly in the context of Russia's imperialistic actions in Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and Northern Eurasia.

• Date: 3 & 4 October

Does love + freedom really equal (Art.) 2?

This event will explore the legal, societal, and political ramifications of the infringement case brought before the Court of Justice of the EU, featuring insights from leading experts and LGBTIQ+ activists. Don't miss this unique opportunity to understand the broader impact on EU values and LGBTIQ+ rights.

• Date: 13 September 2024

• Speakers: Rémy Bonny, Esthér Martinez, Kati Cseres, Matteo Bonelli

SGEL Summer School

The Sustainable Global Economic Law (SGEL) Summer School provided a unique critical space for interdisciplinary conversations on law, political economy and sustainability. In a context of accelerating climate change and persistence of socio-economic inequalities based on gender, race, class and other identity markers, the Summer School offered a collaborative intellectual space around issues of economic law, ecological and human sustainabilities, connecting local and global contexts, and linking critical research to legal practice. This event is part of the Transformative Effects of Globalization in Law (TEGL) research project.

• Date: 11 June

Nativist and Islamist Radicalism in Europe

From 2019 to 2024, Ayhan Kaya did extensive research on what’s causing radicalization among young Europeans with backgrounds both ‘native’ and ‘Muslim’ focusing on radical Islamism and right-wing extremism. In the past two decades since 9/11, these two groups have been studied separately, emphasizing the polarization between them. In reality, they face similar problems like being marginalized in society economically, politically, and psychologically.

• Date: 31 May 2024
• Speakers: Ayhan Kaya, Gulnaz Sibgatullina, Claske Vos

EU food governance after the farmers’ protests

Over the last months, farmers across Europe have been protesting against EU environmental policies – and EU policy makers seem to have been listening. The promises of the European Green Deal and of the Farm to Fork Strategy seem to belong to a different era. How can the link between environmental and social sustainability, and food production be revived?

• Date: 28 May
• Alessandra Arcuri, Matthew Canfield, Maria Weimer, Marta Morvillo

Celebrating 20 Years of EU Enlargement: Successes and Challenges

Twenty years ago, on 1st May 2004, ten new Member States joined the EU, eight of which from Central and Eastern Europe. The “big bang” enlargement was the largest in terms of the number of new states and population in the history of the EU. This thought-provoking symposium delved into the past, present, and future of European integration with expert speakers and a special EU Enlargement Quiz with Our Rule of Law Foundation students.

• Date: 14 May
• Speakers: László Andor, Blerta Begisholli, René van Hell, Narin Idriz, Beti Jaceva

Rising AI and the Concentration of Corporate Power

Technology reshapes our societies. AI, platform economy and other technological developments are remaking our daily routines, practices, and ways of being in the world. These changes also come with shifts in power dynamics between corporations, states, and citizens, giving rise to novel political questions. This multidisciplinary event delved into the concentration of power held by Big Tech companies, the societal challenges arising from this concentration, and potential strategies to uphold public imperatives.

• Date: 22 April
• Speakers: Corinne Cath, Vili Lehdonvirta, Andrea Leiter, Matti Ylönen

European Populism and the Looming European Parliamentary Elections

After a very turbulent few years, populism remains a defining feature of ongoing electoral politics in Europe and the world. This last year we’ve seen some reversals in the hold that (radical right) populist parties have – such as the electoral defeat of Poland’s Law and Justice party, but also major new gains – such as the electoral victory of Wilders’s PVV in the Netherlands. This evening, scholars Sarah de Lange, Robin de Bruin, and Brian Burgoon discussed the different aspects of populist politics in Europe and the World.

• Date: 16 April
• Speakers: Sarah de Lange, Robin de Bruin, Brian Burgoon

Judging European Democracy

Nik de Boer, Associate Professor in Constitutional Law, has recently published a monograph Judging European Democracy (OUP, 2023) on the role and legitimacy of national constitutional courts in the EU. On Wednesday 20 March 2024, the Amsterdam Centre for European Law and Governance (ACELG) and the Amsterdam Centre for Constitutional Culture and Democratic Governance (ACCu) hosted a book launch.

• Date: Wednesday 20 March
• Speaker: Nik de Boer

Strategic Litigation in European Union Law

This workshop brought scholars and practitioners together to discuss strategic litigation in EU law. How do the features of the EU legal order affect the practice of strategic litigation? Which factors influence actors' choice to pursue strategic litigation as opposed to other forms of activism? And is the Court of Justice of the EU a particularly attractive venue to pursue strategic litigation compared to other courts and bodies? Speakers focused on litigation in the fields of environment, mobility (citizenship and migration), and data protection.

• Date: 21 - 22 March
• Speakers: Pola Cebulak, Marta Morvillo, Stefan Salomon

Sustainable Digitalisation in Europe

A topical conference exploring the dynamic intersection of digitalization and sustainability in Europe. As the continent embarks on a transformative journey towards a greener and more digital future, this conference aims to address the twin challenge of fostering sustainable digitalization.

• Date: 21- 22 March

Green Clouds? Towards Sustainable Data Infrastructure

In our rapidly digitizing world, the demand for data storage and processing has surged, leading to the proliferation of data centers and cloud computing infrastructure. However, this exponential growth comes with significant environmental costs, as data infrastructure consumes vast amounts of energy and contribute to carbon emissions. This roundtable addresses this pressing issue, delving into the critical intersection of technology and environmental sustainability from the civil society perspective.

• Date: 20 March
• Speakers: Pepijn de Reus, Max Schulze, Becky Kazansky, Fieke Jansen, Kristina Irion & Stefania Milan

Building the European AI Future

In December 2023, the EU finally reached agreement over the AI Act, celebrated as the legal fundament for a safe and prosperous digital European future. Look past the political accord, however, and central questions are unanswered: from managing the wider societal impact of AI and its military implications to ensuring that the AI Act rules are actually enforced. This event explored the political challenges that emerge—or remain—in AI governance now that an EU framework has been agreed upon.

• Date: 26 January
• Speakers: Lisa Vermeer, Pegah Maham, Joanna Bryson, Marieke de Goede, Daniel Mügge

Knowledge-Driven Power in a Digitized World

Who holds, controls, and creates power in contemporary societies? On the occasion of their new book, The New Knowledge: Information, Data and the Remaking of Global Power, Blayne Haggart and Natasha Tusikov presented their answer to this question. They tooke us along from Google’s Internet-of-Things projects, new modes of property and knowing that arose during the Covid-19 pandemic, and the ideology through which power is exercised.

• Date: 8 February
• Speakers: Marta Morvillo, Natasha Tusikov, Blayne Haggart, Niels ten Oever, Joris van Hoboken

Data is Dead

The future of the tech industry is in infrastructure, not data. This means that those companies that control key infrastructure, like chips and cloud computing, hold sway. Companies like ASML, Microsoft, and Amazon Web Services (AWS), rather than X or Meta, will become the most powerful players. Is it their choices that will influence what our collective futures look like? Do we need to adapt our understanding of power in the tech sector to this new reality?

• Date: 23 February
• Speakers: Michael Veale, Corinne Cath, Sjoera Nas

The EU and Israel’s war on Gaza

Dr. Dimitris Bouris, Jean Monnet Chair and Associate Professor at the Department of Political Science at UvA have hosted Clare Daly, an Irish Member of the European Parliament who delivered the Annual Jean Monnet Lecture entitled: “The EU and Israel’s war on Gaza”.

• Date: 7 March
• Speaker: Clare Daly

The Devastation of War: What Now for EU-Russia Relations?

The ATHENA Jean Monnet Chair have hosted Dr Maxine David, who delivered the Annual Jean Monnet Lecture entitled: The Devastation of War: What Now for EU-Russia Relations?

• Date: 14 March
• Speaker: Maxine David

Judicial Dialogue and People in Situations of Vulnerability in Conflict with the Law

On March 14, Vicki Prais, an international human rights lawyer, delivered a lecture on Judicial Dialogue and People in Situations of Vulnerability in Conflict with the Law. The session explores the judicial dialogue between national and European courts (the European Court of Justice and the European Court of Human Rights) in the human and fundamental rights space.

• Date: 14 March
• Speaker: Vicki Prais

Antiliberal Internationalism in the 20th Century: Beyond Left & Right?

Since the turn of the millennium, all over the globe new forms of international collaboration have surfaced that explicitly position themselves against the liberal international order established after the fall of the Berlin Wall. 

• Date: 11-13 January
• Speakers: Stefan Couperus, Glenda Sluga, Matthijs Lok, Arnab Dutta, Sungik Yang, Tomohito Baji, Sudha Rajagopalan, Robin de Bruin, Rachel Johnston-White, Mriganka Mukhopadhyay, Katherine Booska, Avital Sicron, Gulnaz Sibgatullina, Chloe Kattar, Glenda Sluga & Benjamin Teitelbaum, Marlene Laruelle, Hugo Canihac, Jonathan Voges, Gonzague de Reynold, Alfredo Rocco, Hugo Andres Krüss, Iason Zarikos, Georgios Giannakopoulos, Ivan Kalmar, Theresa Kuhn, Marjet Brolsma, Arnab Dutta, Memtimin Semet, Klaus Weber, Brandon Bloch, Chloe Kattar, Matthew Myers, Matthijs Lok, António Costa Pinto, Kathy Hull, Baijayanti Roy, Siobhán Amelia Smith, Daniel Knegt. 
       

Strategic litigation in the European Union

Strategic litigation is a judicial procedure initiated in an individual case with the purpose of triggering broader socio-political change. This workshop brings together activist lawyers, scholars, and journalists with the objective to map the potentials and pitfalls of strategic litigation using EU law.

• Date: 16-17 January
• Speakers: Maria Weimer, Marta Morvillo, Davide Gnes Milka Sormunen, Marion Guerrero, Michelle Jonker Argueta, Daniel Kelemen, Pola Cebulak, Christina Eckes, Mario Pagano, Paivi Leino-Sandberg, Michaela Krömer, Virginia Passalacqua, Lisa-Marie Komp, Philip Paiement, Stefanie Egidy, Stefan Salomon, Oliver Grimm, Reilly Anne Dempsey Willis

Securing the future through affective engagement? Emotions in the European Union’s security policy

Emotions matter in international politics. For example, fear, anger but also empathy shape European political responses to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Although scholarship in International Relations and Political Geography has long acknowledged the role of affective dynamics in international politics, research has hardly studied yet how emotions affect the European Union’s foreign and security policy.

• Date: 19 January 2023
• Speakers: Olga Eisle, Seda Gürkan, Simon Koschut, Trineke Palm, Karen E. Smith, Özlem Terzi, Rosa Sanchez Salgado, Andrew Telford & Hanna L. Muehlenhoff 

The Law, Politics and Practice of Delegated Rulemaking in the European Union

In this one-day workshop we aim to rekindle the tripartite dialogue on the topic of delegated rulemaking in the European Union among legal scholars, political scientists and policymakers through the lenses of law, political science and institutional practice.

• Date: 19 Janury 2023
• Speakers: Zamira Xhaferri, Florin Coman-Kund, Herwig C. H. Hofmann, Alexander Türk, Ellen Vos, Leigh Hancher, Torbjørg Jevnaker, Jonathan Zeitlin, Thomas Christiansen, Giulia Gallinella, Ana Mar Fernández Pasarín, Mendeltje van Keulen, Liesbeth A. Campo, Jeanette Ciantar, Peter Barany, Rita Sousa, Miriam Schoeps, Andrea Lanaia 

The Politics of Jewish Literature and the Making of the post-WWII World

Jewish literature has struck a powerful chord in post WWII global culture. At a time when European Jewish culture had been all but destructed, it paradoxically obtained an unprecedented urgency among mostly non-Jewish audiences. At the same time, the history of the holocaust gained a central place in the intellectual and moral restoration of the Western world.

• Date: 8 February 2023
• Speakers: David Wertheim and Guido Snel 

How (not) to justify refugee selection? Unjust hierarchies, ‘connected histories’ and institutional racism

A lecture by Eszter Kollar on February 16, hosted by the Institute of Migration and Ethnic Studies network (IMES) and Amsterdam Centre for European Studies (ACES).

• Date: 16 February 2023
• Speaker: Eszter Kollar

The Future of the European Security Architecture

As threats to public security become more complex and globalised, national and targeted security strategies are increasingly replaced by a European security architecture. This security approach, also visible in asylum and immigration policies, relies on the extensive use of personal data collected in large-scale databases which are rendered interoperable and searchable through modern and potentially self-learning technologies.

• Date: 23-24 February 2023
• Speakers: Evelien Brouwer, Elspeth Guild, Valsamis Mitsilegas, Stefan Salomon, Christian Thönnes

Authoritarian Practices in a Global Age

The newest book of Marlies Glasius - professor in International Relations at the Department of Politics at the Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research (AISSR) - provides a parsimonious framework for recognizing and analysing contemporary manifestations of authoritarianism beyond the state, alongside a number of empirical case studies.

• Date: 7 March 2023
• Speaker: Marlies Glasius, Justus Uitermark

Majority Minority; How do societies respond to great demographic change?

On March 9, the IMES network and ACES have hosted a lecture by Justin Gest (Schar School of Policy and Government, (George Mason University) about the theme of his newest book 'Majority Minority; How do societies respond to great demographic change?'

• Date: 9 March 2023
• Speaker: Justin Gest | Discussants: Jeroen Doomernik, Marcel Maussen | Moderator: Saskia Bonjour

Exodus and Voice: How the Migrant Caravan Motivated Political Participation in Honduras

Emigration from Central America to the United States remain consistently high since the 1990s. Unlike the rest of Latin America, countries such as Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala did not show a decline in migration in the early 2000s and remains among the highest contributors to Latin American migration today. 

• Date: 20 March 2023

• Speake: Jesse Acevedo

Suspect Citizenship - a lecture by Jean Beaman

By considering the multifaceted dimensions of citizenship and belonging in France, guest speaker Jean Beaman will demonstrate the limitations of full societal inclusion for France’s non-white denizens and how French Republicanism continues to mark, rather than erase, racial and ethnic distinctions.

• Date: 22 March 2023
• Speaker: Jean Beaman

Book Launch: Promises and Pitfalls of Liberalism 

Liberalism has been much maligned in the last decade for its failure to provide people with a sense of collective identity and meaning. But for many people, liberal ideas themselves provide this meaning. In this interdisciplinary exchange, two books are discussed that, respectively, explore the extraordinary rise of nativism in liberal societies, and the possibilities for revivifying liberal ideals in a changing world.

• Date: 29 March 2023
• Speakers: Jan Willem Duyvendak, Josip Kesic, Timothy Stacey, Matthijs Rooduijn, Irene Stengs, Tamar de Waal, Yolande Jansen

Escaping the Politics Trap? EU Integration Pathways Beyond the Polycrisis

In this workshop, intended to prepare a follow-up special issue of the Journal of European Public Policy, the contributors will investigate the political dynamics of polycrisis, and explore the strategic pathways through which the Union may escape a self-reinforcing ‘politics trap’ in the face of a novel and different polycrisis.

• Date: 30 March 2023
• Speaker: Francesco Nicoli and Jonathan Zeitlin

Care Activism

On April 4th, the Institute of Migration and Ethnic Studies network (IMES) and Amsterdam Centre for European Studies (ACES) will host a lecture by Ethel Tungohan about how migrant domestic workers form social justice movements in support of their communities in Canada, Hong Kong, Singapore and the Philippines.

• Date: 4 April 2023
• Speaker: Ethel Tungohan

Special Issue Launch: Border and im/mobility entanglements in the Mediterranean

In this event, the co-editors and contributors of the Environment and Planning D: Society and Space Special Issue, “Border and im/mobility entanglements in the Mediterranean”, will offer short introductions to their respective articles. Using the concept of ‘entanglement’, each piece in the Special Issue invites to rethink critical work on border and migration policies and practices across the Mediterranean.

• Date: 6 April 2023
• Speaker: Polly Pallister-Wilkins, Beste İşleyen, Nora El Qadim, Zeynep Kaşlı. Noemi Bergesio, Luiza Bialasiewicz, Hassan Ould Moctar, Nick Dines, Anissa Maâ

EU health governance: An opportunity for trust and solidarity?

On 13-14th April 2023, the Law Centre for Health & Life (Faculty of Law), in collaboration with the Amsterdam Centre of European Studies (ACES), and the Amsterdam Centre for European Law and Governance (ACELG) organise a conference on 'EU health governance: An opportunity for trust and solidarity?' in Amsterdam at DROOG. This project is co-funded by European Commission Erasmus Plus Programme of the European Union.

• Date: 13 April 2023
• Speaker: Barbara Prainsack, Heidi Larson, Tammy Hervey

PhD Seminar | Situating AfroSwedish Studies, Situating the Study of Race in Europe

From April 10th to May 5th, 2023 ACES will be hosting Nana Osei-Kofi (Oregon State University) as the centre’s visiting scholar. Her current research as a critical feminist scholar centers on the experiences and conditions faced by people of African descent in Europe generally and Sweden specifically. This seminar is the first in a series of lectures given by Nana Osei-Kofi. This seminar is intented for PhD candidates.

• Date: 17 April 2023
• Speaker: Nana Osei-Kofi

Book launch: Europe against Revolution

Europe in the twenty-first century seems divided between cosmopolitans on the one hand, and national conservatives on the other. In Europe against Revolution (Oxford University Press 2023), Matthijs Lok shows that conservatives in the past were not nationalists but rather Europeans who were inspired by the Enlightenment, and, at the launch, Lok will talk with historians and journalists about the conclusions and current events of his book.

• Date: 18 April 2023
• Speakers: Theresa Kuhn, Annelien de Dijn, Beatrice de Graaf, Marijn Kruk & Matthijs Lok

Is Europe a joke? On epics and counter-epics

As the The European Review of Books turns one year old, the questions remain: Books? Review? Europe? To ask what makes a “European” magazine is to ask what and who makes (or unmakes) a European culture.

• Date: 8 May 2023
• Speakers: Luiza Bialasiewicz & George Blaustein

Book Talk - Coming in: Sexual politics and EU accession in Serbia

What is progress? When can we celebrate that progress has been made? And if there is progress, progress for whom? In this talk, Koen Slootmaeckers has explored and analysed the symbolism of LGBT rights in contemporary politics.

• Date: 10 May 2023
• Speakers: Koen Slootmaeckers & Hanna Muehlenhoff

European Press Freedom under Pressure

Press freedom is increasingly coming under pressure across Europe. Reporters Without Borders have repeatedly measured a decline in press freedom in many European countries over the last few years, including the Netherlands. Where does this come from? And what are the various problems associated with and arising from declining press freedom?

• Date: 17 May 2023
• Speakers: Kathleen Beckers, Tarlach McGonagle, Scott Eldrige II & Katjana Gattermann

Book launch: Diversity of Belonging in Europe: Public Spaces, Contested Places, Cultural Encounters

Belonging - or not belonging - lies at the core of many of the recent ‘crises’ and ongoing processes of change that continue to shape as well as to shake up contemporary Europe. New forms of socio-spatial inclusion and exclusion have been both embraced and contested – and always (re)negotiated – as part of ongoing processes of social change, connected to migration and displacement, post-socialism and decolonisation, populism and polarisation.

• Date: 23 May 2023
• Speakers: Susannah Eckersley, Elisabeth Niklasson, Irene Stengs & Claske Vos

The State of European Literature 2023

On 31 May 2023 renowned writer Fatma Aydemir will deliver the fourth State of European Literature. The State of European Literature is an annual lecture delivered by a renowned author or poet of international stature, about the state of literature and the state of Europe through the perspective of literature.

• Date: 31 May 2023
• Speaker: Fatma Aydemir

Migration and Social Change

On June 6, ACES will host a lecture by Volha Charnysh (Assistant Professor at MIT). During the talk, the author will present the paper “Migration and Social Change: Evidence from post-WWII displacement in Germany” and will shed new light on the political consequences of large-scale migration and religious heterogeneity.

• Date: 6 June 2023
• Speaker: Volha Charnysh 

The Transformation of the Portuguese Right-wing Electorate

Marina Costa Lobo (Institute of Social Sciences of the University of Lisbon) will present a research paper which analyses recent electoral developments within the Right in Portugal. Namely, the relative electoral decline of the centre-right PSD and the Right’s recent fragmentation.

• Date: 8 June 2023
• Speaker: Marina Costa Lobo  

The Choices of Global Economic Governance After the Cold War

ACES is proud to host Dr. Daniel Drezner (Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy), who will be giving a talk entitled The Choices of Global Economic Governance After the Cold War.

• Date: 14 June 2023
• Speaker: Daniel Drezner

Researching Illiberalism: Rights, Roles and Responsibilities of a Researcher

This workshop builds on the discussion launched by the first “Analysing Illiberalism” workshop hosted by ACES on 3-4 November 2022. The second edition is focused on the (self-positionality of scholars, who, by the nature of their work, become involved in contemporary social and political debates. Papers presented at the workshop will comprise a special issue of The Journal of Illiberalism Studies, which aims to bring to the forefront existing challenges, ethical issues and risks of researching illiberal actors and institutions.

• Date: 16 - 17 June 2023

The Lost Future and How to Reclaim It

The future seems increasingly uncertain. Our democracies are failing to prevent financial crises, energy shortages, climate change and war—so how can we look to the future with confidence? In his new book, The Lost Future: And How to Reclaim It, Jan Zielonka argues that it is democracy’s shortsightedness that makes politics stumble in our increasingly connected world. Tonight, he will discuss his book with Caroline de Gruyter and Luiza Bialasiewicz.

• Date: 20 June 2023
• Speakers: Jan Zielonka, Caroline de Gruyter & Luiza Bialasiewicz

Shared Identity in Crisis: A Comparative Study of Support for the EU in the Face of the Russian Threat

Julia Schulte-Cloos gave a lecture entitled "Shared Identity in Crisis: A Comparative Study of Support for the European Union in Response to the Russian Threat.", organized by ACES. The lecture increased the understanding of the complex nature of identity-based support for the EU in times of crisis.

• Date: 28 June 2023
• Speaker: Julia Schulte-Cloos

Amsterdam Summer School: The Coloniality of Migration Politics in Europe

The UvA summer school The Coloniality of Migration Politics in Europe invited PhD researchers to critically explore legacies and dis/continuities of coloniality in citizenship- and migration politics in Europe. In a series of workshops, lectures and intensive feedback sessions, participants critically engaged with the legacies of (methodological) whiteness and racism in migration studies, dis/continuities between colonial mobility governance and contemporary migration politics, as well as tackle their own positionalities and roles in knowledge production systems.

• Date 28 - 31 August
• Speakers: Rosalba Icaza Garza & Joe Turner

Navigating the Future: 'Strategic foresight' building 'strategic preparedness' for a rapidly evolving world

In a rapidly evolving world driven by innovation, the ability to anticipate and prepare for future advancements is crucial. Dr. Lieve van Woensel, with over 30 years of experience in foresight methodologies, spoke in SPUI25 about the potential of societal impact of complex scientific and technological developments regarding to policymakers.

• Date: 11 July 2023
• Speaker: Lieve van Woensel

Insurgent Ecologies – Extremism and Climate Breakdown in Europe

During the workshop 'Insurgent Ecologies – Extremism and Climate Breakdown in Europe' participants had the opportunity to explore the critical intersections between extremism, climate breakdown, and societal responses. The ACES workshop aimed to address questions related to the labeling of activists, the rise of far-right ideologies, and the implications of state repression on urgent climate activism.

• Date: 8 September 2023

Emotions in European climate politics: An interdisciplinary workshop

The interdisciplinary Emotions in European Climate Politics workshop has a focus on emotions and affective dynamics in European climate change politics, including the role of the EU in these debates and Europe in a global context. 

• Date: 28 - 29 September 2023
• Speakers: Andrew Telford, Hanna Muehlenhoff, Rosa Sanchez Salgado & Linda Bos

Philip Schleifer presents book about global market shifts

In this talk, Philip Schleifer (Department of Political Science) discussed his new book 'Global Shifts – Business, Politics, and Deforestation in a Changing World Economy'.

• Date: 14 September 2023
• Speaker: Philip Schleifer

Changing Dynamics of India-EU Relations

As part of the ETEE exchange network, professor Gulshan Sachdeva, the Jean Monet chair and professor of European Studies of the Jawaharlal Nehru University (New Delhi, India) provided a lecture on the changing EU-India relationships.

• Date: 14 September 2023
• Speaker: Gulshan Sachdeva

Contested Objects, Connected Histories project

ACES is delighted to invite you to a keynote presentation by Prof. Dr. Joachim Baur on October 16th. Join the lecture and learn more about migration research and innovative ways of sharing its findings.

• Date: 16 October 2023
• Speaker: Joachim Baur

Roundtable: Diversity in German politics

Join us for an insightful event delving into the dynamics surrounding the careers of immigrant-origin politicians in Germany. Led by prominent academics and researchers, this discussion will shed light on the factors influencing the termination of these careers, including the potential role of migration-related challenges and discrimination.

• Date 19 October 2023
• Speakers: Andreas Wüst, Gözde Çelik, Özgür Özvatan and Liza Mügge

Governing the RRF: Drafting, Implementing, and Monitoring National Recovery and Resilience Plans as an Interactive Multi-Level Process

We were delighted to welcome Professor Jonathan Zeitlin to talk about his study of the EU Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF).

• Date: 30 October
• Speaker: Jonathan Zeitlin

Who cares! Intimate mobilities — Love, Family, and Sex in Asian migration in Europe

A workshop where the intersection of intimate relations and state interventions in the lives of East Asian migrants in Europe will be explored.

• Date: 8-9 November
• Speaker: Maggi Leung

Europe’s periphery at the core

This evening we discussed the changing political and economic significance of CEE. Their capacity to (re)draw international coalitions and their ascendency on the international stage more broadly raise different questions.

• Date: 9 November
• Speaker: André Gerrits, Ferenc Laczó, Karolina Pomorska

Stepping Out of the Comfort Zone: (How) Can Niche and Challenger Parties Expand Their Electorate?

An enlightening talk by Tarik Abou-Chadi, where he delves into the intriguing topic of political niche and challenger parties and their strategies to broaden their electoral base. Tarik will introduce a groundbreaking framework that uncovers the conditions enabling these parties to step out of their comfort zones and appeal to a wider spectrum of voters.

• Date: 16 November
• Speaker: Tarik Abou-Chadi

Poland and European East-West Cooperation in the 1970s: The Opening Up

In her book, Dr. Komornicka offers an international reading of the Polish socialist regime’s history in the 1970s, and its opening up to the West. It bridges Poland’s socialist domestic history with critical developments of the global and European 1970s, such as détente in the Cold War, western European integration, and globalization.

• Date: 23 November
• Aleksandra Komornicka

Geopolitics and Democracy

Peter Trubowitz and Brian Burgoon presented their new book 'Geopolitics and Democracy' at SPUI25. They will introduce the highlights of this interpretation and vision, and several leading scholars of international relations and politics shall offer their own comments and critiques.

• Date: 8 December
• Speakers: Peter Trubowitz, Brian Burgoon

Re-Thinking EU Enlargement

The Jean Monnet Workshop on "Re-Thinking EU Enlargement" convenes experts and scholars to explore critical challenges in the European Union's expansion. The event delved into the dynamic interplay of security, stability, and democracy.

• Date: 1 December
• Speakers: Frank Schimmelfennig, Adam Lazowski, Andrea Ott, Gergana Noutcheva, Elena Basheska, Ebru Turhan, Isabelle Ioannides, Jelena Džankić, Klemens H. Fischer, Oliver Schwarz, Nisida Gjoksi, Robin de Bruin

 

Central banks beyond price stability

Speaker(s): Nik de Boer, Will Bateman, Eric Monnet, Jens van ‘t Klooster, Agnieszka Smoleńska 
Date: 13 January 2022

How should central banks take account of goals beyond price stability? And does a broader role for central banks require rethinking their independence from democratic politics? These issues will form the focal point of a workshop hosted by the Amsterdam Centre for European Studies, the Amsterdam Center for Law and Economics and The Sustainable Global Economic Law (SGEL) research project.

State phobia or state philia? Rethinking the state after Covid

Has the Corona pandemic brought about a fundamental rethinking of the concept of the state?  This ACES project aims to make sense of the radically contrasting views of the "state philia" and "state phobia" that have been so clearly on display in the time of the pandemic.

Speaker(s): Katjana Gattermann, Theresa Kuhn, Matthijs Lok, Chantal Mak, Marc Tuters
Date: 3 February 2022
Watch the recording of this event on YouTube

Displacement and Resettlement in the Global South

How does exposure to refugees affect elections, development, and citizen support for migration within the Global South? In the context of wealthy consolidated democracies, recent studies have found that when voters are more exposed to refugees, they punish incumbents and turn to far-right parties. Yet there is a dearth of studies on the electoral consequences of refugee-hosting in developing countries, where the majority of refugees reside and politics often do not fall on a left-right divide.

Speaker(s): Yang Yang Zhou
Date: 8 February 2022
Watch the recording of this event on YouTube

Ukraine and Europe beyond great power geopolitics

This panel discussion aims to bring valuable historical and geographical context to understanding the various scales of the current crisis in Ukraine, beyond simply a game of great power geopolitics.

Speaker(s): Luiza Bialasiewicz, Michael Kimmage, Mykola Martorykh, Olga Burlyuk, John O’Loughlin, Gwendolyn Sasse, Gerard Toal
Date: 15 February 2022
Watch the video recording on YouTube

ACES Webinar on EU Governance of Anti-Money Laundering

For the past three decades, the EU and other advanced economies have sought to combat money laundering and terrorist financing through increasingly stringent rules and scrutiny requirements for financial transactions.

Speaker(s): Marieke de Goede, Karel Lannoo, Nicolas Véron, Jonathan Zeitlin (moderator)
Date: 16 February 2022
Watch the video recording on YouTube

Cara Nine on displacement, autonomy and adaptation

Cara Nine's paper on Displacement, Autonomy and Adaptation analyses the ideas of displacement, autonomy and adaptation within the context of migration. 

Speaker(s): Cara Nine
Date: 22 February 2022
Watch the recording of this event on YouTube

Ideational legacies and the politics of migration in European minority regions

Why do policies and attitudes toward immigration vary so widely across European minority regions? What determines whether political elites frame immigration as a threat or as an opportunity? Which role do ideas and historical political economy play in determining how immigration is perceived? 

Speaker(s): Christina Huber
Date: 28 February 2022

European Objects: the troubled dreams of harmonization

Interventions based on objects have become a dominant path for European policymaking. This book uses the term “European objects” to describe technical entities that are regulated—and thereby transformed—by European policies. It argues that taking European objects seriously offers a way to rephrase the dreams of harmonization and, eventually, rethink the constitutional strength of European integration.

Speaker(s): Brice Laurent, Maria Weimer, Jonathan Zeitlin, Peter-Wim Zuidhof 
Date: 4 April 2022

Watch the video recording on YouTube

Guido Snel's Negen steden – Europa van Wenen naar Istanbul

On the occasion of the publication of Guido Snel’s new book, Negen steden – Europa van Wenen naar Istanbul, which will be in bookstores on April 26, to be published, in Dutch, by De Arbeiderspers.

Speaker(s): Guido Snel, Chris Keulemans, Irene van der Linden 
Date: 28 April 2022
Watch the video recording of this event here

The EU response to Brexit: rapid, united, effective

The outcome of the UK referendum on 23rd of June 2016 represented a major shock for the European Union (EU). A large member state opted to exit the EU, the first member state to do so and all actors feared a domino effect and EU disintegration. This is not materialize. The response of EU 27 was rapid, united and effective. This is lecture is part of the Virtual Visions of Europe lecture series.

Speaker(s): Brigid Laffan
Date: 9 May 2022
Watch the recording of this event on YouTube

Archives of the other: Asylum and the scene of global politics

Drawing on an archive of over 34,000 asylum appeals in the United Kingdom (UK), I propose to read the enactment of the lives of others as a scene of global politics. The asylum cases enact lines of differentiation between the UK and Europe on the one hand and what we can call ‘non-Europe’ and ‘un-Europe’ on the other.

Speaker(s): Claudia Aradau and Beste İşleyen
Date: 12 May 2022

Re-thinking the Franco-German ‘cultural model’ in a global world

Focusing on conceptions of culture and cultural practices of exchange, this conference critically examine how Franco-German culture is promoted and employed as a model of dialogue and understanding in post-conflict countries across the globe. It will especially inspect the complex interactions between this model and the imperial/colonial legacy. This workshop is organised in cooperation with the Duitsland Instituut in Amsterdam (DIA), the Goethe Institut and the Institut Français.

Date: 9 May 2022
Watch the recording of this event on YouTube

Between interests and values: The future of EU trade policy

Trade policy is arguably the strongest external policy of the European Union, and the Commission uses this policy widely to promote European interest and values around the globe. However, nowadays, the EU’s trade policy is under pressure. The growth of emerging markets reduces the relative market power of the EU, protectionist tendencies endanger the rules-based multilateral trading order and increasing opposition in EU Member States reduces the discretion of the Commission in international negotiations. 

Speaker(s): Ignacio Garcia Bercero, Lara Wolters, Bernard Hoekman, Alejandro García Esteban, Mahrukh Doctor, Luisa Santos, Amandine van den Berghe, Katharina L. Meissner, Victor do Prado, Marie-Pierre Vedrenne, Yvo Amar and Gesa Kübek.
Date: 13 May 2022
Watch the recording of this event on YouTube

Reading group: Postcolonial and postsocialist dialogues

This is an informal reading group by ACES visiting scholar Claudia Aradau, which will discuss the analytical and methodological relevance of the term ‘postsocialism’ for discussions of postcolonialism and imperialism in International Relations.

Speaker(s): Claudia Aradau
Date: 20 May 2022

The UN Global Compact for Migration and the Globalization of Border Controls

The UN Global Compact for Safe, Orderly, and Regular Migration expands international cooperation on travel security on the global level in a way that complements and extends transregional, transatlantic and EU cooperation on border control. The Global Compact furthers a recent trend of states “pushing borders out,” primarily through leveraging new technologies and data collection to screen incoming travelers well before arrival.

• Speaker(s): Rey Koslowski 
• Date: 24 May 2022
• Watch the recording of this event on YouTube

Making Turkey, Representing Turkey

In this shared book launch, Özge Calafato and Enno Maessen will present their new monographies. The event will focus on the contents of their respective books, which both engage with the cultural history of representation, production of identity and space in Turkey’s modern history. 

• Speaker(s): Özge Calafato, Enno Maessen, Guido Snel, Luiza Bialasiewicz
• Date: 24 May 2022
• Watch the recording of this event on YouTube

Making of Geneva Conventions: Preparing for War

The Geneva Conventions have hit the headlines since Putin’s invasion into Ukraine. These treaties, which represent the most important rules for armed conflict ever formulated, lay down an extensive list of protections for victims of war. But their history is often misunderstood. This roundtable, based on a new book by Boyd van Dijk, discusses the historical, legal, and political dimensions of international law in wartime. Ran with SPUI and in co-sponsorship with ARTES and Faculteit der Rechtsgeleerdheid.

• Speaker(s): Boyd van Dijk, Tamar de Waal, Janne Nijman, Claire Vergerio
• Date: 25 May 2022
• Watch the recording of this event on YouTube

Technologies of power, power of technologies

Workshop by ACES visiting scholar Claudia Aradau. This workshop invites PhD students and early career scholars to present work in progress that addresses the proliferation and power of technologies in governing (in)security. Technologies are broadly understood as devices, instruments and tools that are designed, deployed, and appropriated. 

• Speaker(s): Claudia Aradau
• Date: 30 May 2022

Between controversy and struggle: methodological interventions

Controversy and struggle have inspired recent methodological interventions in critical security studies. Yet, there has been little discussion about their respective histories, politics and epistemic assumptions. Controversy has been mostly associated with research in Science and Technology Studies, while struggle has been deployed in postcolonial and feminist approaches in International Relations. 

• Speaker(s): Claudia Aradau
• Date: 31May 2022

Can we unlearn racism?

Europe does not have a good track record when it comes to addressing racism—or even admitting it exists. Despite the pervasiveness of ethnic profiling, police brutality and discrimination on the housing and labor markets, countries struggle to tackle racism. In Can We Unlearn Racism? Jacob Boersema uses South Africa as a lens to understand this challenge. This event will be streamed live.

• Speaker(s): Jacob Boersema, Saskia Bonjour, Sarah Bracke, Darshan Vigneswaran
• Date: 31 May 2022
• Watch the recording of this event on YouTube

The Perils of Belonging: Comparative Perspectives from Africa and Europe

ACES public panel during the two-day symposium “A Celebration of Geschierean Anthropology".

• Speaker(s): Akosua Adomako Ampofo, Achille Mbembe, Rogers Orock, Paul Mepschen, Marleen de Witte
• Date: 31 May 2022

The citizenship revocation and rehabilitation of young European women who joined ISIS

Some European women who joined the Islamic State during the 2010s have had their citizenship revoked, which leaves them in a liminal state in camps at the Syrian border. Others are able to return home, where they face prosecution and potential pathways to “rehabilitation”. This public talk turns to media discussions of Shamima Begum, a British national, whose citizenship was revoked, and Laura Hansen, a Dutch national, who was rehabilitated.

• Speaker(s): Anna Korteweg
• Date: 15 June 2022
• Watch the recording of this event on YouTube

The State of European Literature

Renowned writer Alain Mabanckou delivered the third State of European Literature, under the title ‘Pour une autre Europe’ (‘For a different Europe’). Hosted by the UvA-Faculty of Humanities and SPUI25, and supported by ACES (the Amsterdam Centre of European Studies), OSL (Onderzoeksschool Literatuurwetenschap), and the Institut Français Pays-Bas.

• Speaker(s): Alain Mabanckou
• Date: 16 June 2022

EUMENIA Closing Conference

As a Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence, ACES invites you to the closing conference of the Jean Monnet Network on EU-Middle East Relations, EUMENIA project. The keynote address was delivered by Ms Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur on the situation on human rights in the Palestinian Territory occupied since 1967. The conference is co-funded by Erasmus Plus Programme of the European Commission.

• Speaker(s): Francesca Albanese
• Date: 16 and  17June 2022

Spaces of Transnational Solidarity in the Cold War Era Europe 

A one-day international, interdisciplinary workshop sponsored by the Amsterdam Centre for European Studies. A select group of scholars will consider the webs of support, belonging and bonding that spun across Europe and the Global South post-WWII. Prompted by the spatial turn in the humanities and social sciences, the day will be dedicated to a collaborative exploration of the ‘geographies of internationalism’ in Cold War politics and post-colonial struggles.

• Speaker(s): Tal Zalmanovich, Dina Fainberg
• Date: 17 June 2022

Democratic central banking: Danger or salvation?

Since the financial crisis and during the Covid-19 Pandemic, unconventional monetary policies have tested the boundary of monetary and fiscal policy. Quantitative easing has challenged the economic fundamentals of pre-crisis monetary policy, triggered powerful political opposition to monetary support for the financial sector and broken taboos on debt monetization. Radical global and environmental changes are also pushing central banking away from its traditional heartlands. This Conference, hosted by ACES and the Centre for International and Public Law (Australian National University) addresses the tension between democratic governance and central banking.

• Speaker(s): Benjamin Braun, Seraina Grünewald, Clément Fontan, Professor Dr Rosa María Lastra, Eric Monnet, Manuela Moschella, Saule T. Omarova, Isabella M. Weber, Will Bateman, Nik de Boer, Leah Downey, Jens van ‘t Klooster 
• Date: 7-8 July 2022

Reconstituting the Consumer in EU Law and Policy: Towards a More Multi-dimensional Approach

The ACES annual conference is stimulated by the observation that consumer roles do not fit easily into simple dichotomies between weak/passive and active/confident actors, nor can changing consumer practices in the face of digitization and the environmental crisis be captured by a mono-dimensional and mono-disciplinary perspective. Consumers today enter into more frequent and technologically more complex transactions than in the period when the current EU consumer law and policy was developed. This conference is co-funded by the Erasmus + Programme of the European Union.

• Speakers: Kati Cseres, Giacomo Tagiuri, Koen van Zon, Brigitte Leucht, Candida Leone, Luke Herrine, Adrian Kuenzler, Giacomo Tagiuri, Yannick van den Berg, Carl Dalhammer, Evelyn Terryn, Catherine Grandclément, Marco Loos, Mateusz Grochowski, Catalina Goanta, Thomas Poell, Forward Hans Micklitz, Marie-Paule Benassi, Edwin van Houten, René Répási
• Date: 30-31 August 2022

Transnational governance and European Transformation

Symposium Celebrating the Scholarship of Professor Jonathan Zeitlin. The Symposium brings together major international scholars to reflect on their own and Zeitlin’s key findings and open questions in three key aspects of ongoing governance reform – transnational governance, political economy, and the European Union. 

• Watch the recording of Day 1 on YouTube
• Watch the recording of Day 2 on YouTube

• Speakers: Jonathan Zeitlin, Brian Burgoon, Luiza Bialasiewicz, John Grin, Theresa Kuhn, Amy Verdun, Ans Kolk, Anton Hemerijck, Bernardo Rangoni, Christina Eckes, Erik Jones, Frank Vandenbroucke, Francesco Nicoli, Gary Herrigel, Maria Weimer, Mark Thatcher, Maurizio Ferrera
• Date: 8-9 September 2022

Anthropological questions about incorporation

As European societies confront new waves of people in flight, interaction of residents with foreign populations poses above all challenges of incorporation. This talk focuses on the experience of incorporation, renewal, and exclusion in the seven years since the “long summer” of Syrian arrivals in Germany.

• Speaker(s): John Borneman 
• Date: 21 September 2022

The American Passport in Turkey

In their new book, The American Passport in Turkey: National Citizenship in the Age of Transnationalism, Özlem Altan-Olcay and Evren Balta explore the diverse meanings and values that people outside of the United States attribute to U.S. citizenship, specifically those who possess or seek to obtain U.S. citizenship while residing in Turkey.  This event is hosted by Spui25 and co-sponsored by ACES and Turkey Studies Network (TSN).

• Speaker(s): Özlem Altan-Olcay and Evren Balta
• Date: 22 September 2022
• Watch the recording of this event on YouTube

(un)Common Grounds

(un)Common Grounds is a hybrid forum, gathering a network of thinker-speakers to discuss the issues raised during the 100 days of documenta fifteen in Kassel, Germany. Together with invited artists from documenta fifteen and museum practitioners, cultural historians as well as activists, we share and learn from different perspectives, experiences and observations of the exhibition. (un)Common Grounds: Reflecting on documenta 15 is co-organised by Framer Framed, Akademie van Kunsten (Society of Arts), and the Van Abbemuseum.

• Date: 23 September 2022

European Belonging or Membership: What does Citizenship mean?

This public event is an opportunity for us to become familiar with the work of two visiting scholars at ACES this year, John Borneman (Princeton University) and Dora Kostakopolou (University of Leuven).

• Speaker(s): John Borneman and Dora Kostakopolou
• Date: 29 September 2022
• Watch the recording of this event on YouTube

Research methodology master class for PhD students and early career scholars

This master class taught Dora Kostakopoulou by invites PhD students from politics, international relations, sociology, history and law to a discussion on research methodology.

• Speaker(s): Dora Kostakopolou
• Date: 29 September 2022

Talking Populism

Populism is a widely debated topic, and it generates interest across the globe. As a result, a burgeoning literature deals with many aspects of populism and its links to pressing issues such as media freedom, minority rights, and separation of powers. The Populism Interviews captures these analyses. Editor of the volume, Luca Manucci, and two of the authors, Matthijs Rooduijn and Alessandro Nai, discuss working on this most controversial of issues.

• Speaker(s): Luca Manucci, and two of the authors, Matthijs Rooduijn, Alessandro Nai
• Date: 30 September 2022

Chefsache - Inside the machine room of the European Council

In this lecture we will explore how the European Council (EUCO) has been dealing with the EU’s Covid and Energy crises. We look beyond the Heads and their Summits, at the broader system of European Council centered governance – or EUCO system. We meet the main actors and their activities, and explore the nuts and bolts of EUCO governance. 

• Speaker(s): Sandrino Smeets
• Date: 10 October 2022

Moral Machines - The ethical dilemma of artificial intelligence

In the middle of the 21st century, artificial intelligence (AI) will take many decisions on behalf of humans. Not to enslave people, but to save humanity, posits Roberto Simanowski in his talk. He looks back from the future to the present time, in which the first decisions for this development are made. Fiction for a better understanding of the present.

• Speaker(s): Roberto Simanowski
• Date: 27 October 2022
• Watch the recording of this event

Enabling sustainable mobility practices in Europe

The conference, co-sponsored by the Amsterdam Centre for European Studies and the Sustainable Global Economic Law (SGEL) research project, is a series of panels discussing specific angles and questions on the role of rules and policies in enabling citizens to power Europe’s sustainable mobility transition(s).

• Speaker(s): Candida Leone, Yannick van den Berg, Dea van Lierop, Pavlos Tafidis, Theodoros G. Iliopoulos, Carlo Maria Colombo, Marc Dijk, Kathrin Raunig, Vincent Bretschneider, Nicola Ruccia, Josje de Vogel, Lars Kjerluf Petersen, Luca Bertolini, Marco te Brömmelstroet & Anna Nikolaeva, Debbie Hopkins, Yolande Strengers, Guido Smorto, Ülkü Tanriverdi, Esther van Zimmeren, Wouter Verheyen, Toke Christensen, Elena Mas Tur, Onur Çağdaş Artantas, Jules Vaessen, Carey Curtis
• Date: 27-28 October 2022

Il-, anti-, non-: liberalism and its contestations

The developments of the last three decades—the rise of the populist right, globalisation of culture wars, sharpening ideological polarisation—have led scholars to think of novel ways to capture changing political realities. Widely-used terms such as ‘populism’, ‘conservatism’, or ‘democratic backsliding’, increasingly fall short in describing ongoing transformations including the disappearance of the ideological centre, the driving power of emotions, and blurring distinctions between the right and the left.

• Speaker(s): Jan Kubik, Marlene Laruelle, Ruth Wodak, Luiza Bialasiewicz, Gulnaz Sibgatullina
• Date: 3 November 2022
• Watch the recording of this event on YouTube

The personalization of politics in the European Union

 In her new book, Katjana Gattermann studies the interplay between four key dimensions of personalization concerning institutions, media, politicians, and citizens in EU politics, and, at this book launch, she and her fellow speakers will discuss how her findings have important implications for the future of personalized politics in the European Union.

• Speaker(s): Katjana Gattermann
• Date: 15 November 2022

Crafting Trade and Investment Accords for Sustainable Development: Athena's Treaties

In her new book Cordonier Segger explores how trade and investment agreements could promote more sustainable development, rather than increasing the negative social and environmental impacts of economic growth. States and other actors are attempting to integrate social and environmental considerations into trade and investment policies, towards more sustainable development. Analysing their efforts, this volume offers insights into the ways that commitments to sustainability are being operationalized in the texts of economic treaties themselves.

• Speaker(s): Marie-Claire Cordonier Segger 
• Date: 15 November 2022

Assessing Next Generation EU

Speakers: Paul van den Noord, Lorenzo Codogno, Jonathan Zeitlin
Date: 30 March 2021

This event will be discussing the arguments laid out in the paper 'Assessing Next Generation EU', written by Lorenzo Codogno and Paul van den Noord. The unprecedented fiscal package adopted by the European Council in the summer of 2020 ―dubbed Next Generation EU―is vital for the recovery of the euro area from the pandemic shock.

Watch the video recording on YouTube

Digital and Intelligent Europe: EU Citizens and the Challenges of New Technologies for Civil Justice

Speakers: Natali Helberger, Pablo Cortés, Eline Verhage, Pietro Ortolani, Tania Sourdin, Horst Eidenmüller, Manuella van der Put, Nathalie Smuha, Thomas Ledet
Date: 1-2 April 

This two-day Conference revolves around EU citizens in two different capacities: as consumers, and as citizens in search of justice. In this context, digital and intelligent technologies can reduce barriers to access to justice and courts by offering cheaper, faster and simpler solutions. At the same time, such technologies may pose challenges to democracy and the rule of law, where they reshape societal structures, and the way justice is delivered. Organised in cooperation with the ERC ‘Building EU Civil Justice’ project based at the Erasmus School of Law (ESL).

Jewish Literature and the Making of Post-War Europe

Speaker(s): Arnon Grunberg, Yolande Jansen, David Wertheim 
Date: 28 January 2021 

Aan de vooravond van de internationale conferentie ‘The Politics of Jewish Literature and the Making of Post-War Europe’ spreken we met schrijver Arnon Grunberg over de rol die vormen van joodse literatuur hebben gespeeld in het heruitvinden van Europa’s zelfbeeld na 1945.

Watch the video recording on YouTube

Book Presentation: Resisting Europe

Speaker(s): Raffaella A. Del Sarto, Tina Freyburg, Magali Gravier, Asli Selin Okyay, Simone Tholens, Véronique Wavre
Date: 4 March 2021 

The recently published book 'Resisting Europe' conceptualizes the foreign policies of Europe toward the states in its immediate southern 'neighborhood' as semi-imperial attempts to turn these states into Europe's southern buffer zone, or borderlands. Dimitris Bouris will discuss this topic with a selection of the authors of the book.

Watch the video recording on YouTube

Responses to Pandemic Democracy

Speaker(s): Stefania Milan, Eva Groen-Reijman, Adrew Reynolds, Jamal Shahine
Date: 9 March 2021 

As we enter the second year of the COVID-19 pandemic, politics, politicians, and political institutions have adapted to the challenge of delivering democracy in different ways. Whilst physical distancing is something we have had to come to terms with in the past year, democracy has been suffering for some time with increasing challenges for deliberation, inclusion and representation. What impact does the 2020 Pandemic have on the growing challenges that 21st Century democracy faces?

Watch the video recording on YouTube

Politics in Transition: Turning out- or inwards

Speaker(s): Pepijn Bergsen, Caroline de Gruyter, Matt Steinglass, Luiza Bialasiwicz
Date: 11 March 2021 

On 17 March 2021, a new parliament will be elected in the Netherlands. Many of the issues that feature prominently in party manifestos and the campaign have an obvious international dimension: the economic recession that is manifesting itself, the European distribution of Covid vaccines, or the measures needed to tackle climate change. Moreover, the outcome of the elections impacts on the government composition, and hence on the position of the Netherlands on the EU and international stage

Watch the video recording on YouTube

How to solve Climate change by 2030

Speaker(s): Bas Eickhout, Veerle Engel, Geert Jan Kramer, Marian Stuiver, Laura Burgers, Robin Tschötschel
Date: 8 April 2021 

The next ten years are a crucial window for determining if and how Europe can uphold its commitment to achieving net-zero emissions by 2050. In this interactive session, we discuss the most important changes that need to happen in the Netherlands and how young people and their allies can have an impact and shape the next step.

Watch the video recording on YouTube

The politics of last resort 

Speaker(s): Jonathan White, Nik de Boer, Anniek de Ruijter, Marc de Wilde, Jonathan Zeitlin
Date: 14 April 2021 

Prominent in the EU's recent transformations has been the tendency to advance extraordinary measures in the name of crisis response. From emergency lending to macro-economics, border management to Brexit, policies are pursued unconventionally and as measures of last resort.

Watch the video recording on YouTube

Statephobia: Whose Sovereignty?

Speaker(s): Mitchell Dean, Luiza Bialasiewicz, Marc Tuters
Date: 29 April 2021 

In this first episode of the Statephobia and Statephilia Series, political philosopher Mitchell Dean, one of the foremost contemporary theorists of state power, and political geographer Luiza Bialasiewicz discuss the nature of the current Covid-19 protests and their wider political as well as geopolitical implications.

Watch the video recording on YouTube

Negotiating Belonging in a changing Europe

Speaker(s): Anna Korteweg, Elizabeth Buettner, Claske Vos, Nana Kofi-Osei
Date: 11 May 2021 

In the context of the changing fabric of contemporary Europe, questions of belonging and non-belonging have received increasing traction in debates on migration, multiculturalism, and identity. 

Next Generation EU and European Financial Integration

Speaker(s): Nicolas Veron, Enrico Perotti
Date: 12 May 2021 

The decision in July 2021 on the NextGenerationEU program and its financing by EU bond issuance is widely viewed as a watershed moment and a step in the direction of fiscal union. Will NextGenerationEU’s reliance on cross-border risk-sharing gradually change the terms of the debates over the EU financial sector policy architecture?

The political commissioner 

Speaker(s): Frédéric Merand, Erik Jones, Vivien Schmidt, Christian Rauh
Date: 26 May 2021 

In this round table, Frédéric Merand will present his fascinating latest publication 'The Political Commissioner - a European Ethnography', which is based on original, first-hand material of an embedded observation inside the cabinet of former European Commissioner Pierre Moscovici.

The Longer Histories of Statephobia

Speaker(s): Matthijs Lok, Nikita Dhawan, Chiara De Cesari, Rebecca Bryant
Date: 26 May 2021 

Covid-19 has brought the role of the state into full visibility. It has both highlighted the unequal effects of the dismantling of welfare state regimes and appeals for a ‘return of the state’ to the provision of public goods such as healthcare. Can this moment of crisis provide opportunities for a new politics?

Watch the video recording on YouTube

Authoritarian Liberalism and the Transformation of Modern Europe

Speaker(s): Michael Wilkinson 
Date: 21 June 2021 

This title recounts the transformation of Europe from the post-war era until the Euro-crisis, using the tools of constitutional analysis and critical theory. The central claim is twofold: Europe has been gradually reconstituted in a manner that combines political authoritarianism with economic liberalism and that this order is now in a critical condition.

Carrots and Sticks: Political, economic and creative approaches to Belarus

Speaker(s): Bob Deen, Ellen Rutten, Franka Hummels, Tasha Arlova  
Date: 28 June 2021 

Across the world, political leaders and institutions are condemning the brute state violence currently taking place in Belarus. The regime and its citizens are approached in various ways – from closed airspaces, via boycotts, to statements of academic and artistic support. How should we understand the current moment? And do we need a politics of carrots, sticks, or both?

Watch the video recording on YouTube

Veto Point or Policy Window? The indirect effects of direct democracy on policy change in the EU

Speaker(s): Jale Tosun, Jonathan Zeitlin  
Date: 16 September 2021 

In this ACES Seminar Jale Tosun, Professor at the Univerisity of Heidelberg, will elaborate on the indirect effects of direct democracy on agenda setting processes to demonstrate that, under certain conditions, it can open a policy window for both incremental and/or transformative policy change.

Watch the video recording on YouTube

Twenty years after 9/11: Prosecuting terrorist financing and the production of evidence

Speaker(s): Marieke de Goede, Tamara Buruma, Tasniem Anwar, Rebecca Mignot-Mahdavi  
Date: 24 September 2021 

Two decades into the War on Terror, EU member states are under pressure to realize criminal investigations and court convictions for the financing of terrorism. New EU anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing Directives oblige countries to convict material support for terrorist groups and individuals. However, prosecutions and trials of terrorism financing are complex and bring up fundamental questions of law in a democratic society.

A Return to “Normal”? Fiscal Futures in Post-Pandemic Europe

Speaker(s): Paul van den Noord, Marco Buti, Jean Pisani-Ferry, Roel Beetsma  
Date: 29 September 2021 

The pandemic and the associated lockdowns produced the deepest and most disruptive downturn in the EU since World War II. This prompted the Council to lift all constraints on debt and deficits embedded in the European fiscal framework. Now that a post-pandemic Europe is on the rise, we explore what should be her fiscal future: a return to “normal” or a leap to something new?

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The 2021 German Elections

Speaker(s): Daniela Braun, Isabella Borucki, Juergen Maier, Lina Buttgereit, Felix Gruenewald, Andreas Schuck, Katjana Gattermann
Date: 30 September 2021

On 26 September 2021 German voters are asked to elect a new parliament (Bundestag). During this event we will discuss with political and communication scientists from Germany the public opinion dynamics during the election campaigns, examine voter behaviour and discuss the election outcomes.

Roundtable on Yane Svetiev's book, ''Experimentalist Competition Law and the Regulation of Markets" 

Speaker(s): Yane Svetiev, Paul Lugard, Paul Nihoul, Siun O’Keeffe, Rupprecht Podszun, Jonathan Zeitlin
Date: 25 October 2021

Yane Svetiev’s recent book details the emergence of experimentalist governance in the implementation of EU competition law and market regulation. As part of this launch event, we have invited scholars and practitioners of competition law to discuss the book's findings and arguments with the author.

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Narrating Exile in and Between Europe and the Ottoman Empire/Modern Turkey

Speaker(s): Edhem Eldem, Christine Philliou
Date: 11/12 November 2021

This two-day conference organized in collaboration with the Turkey Studies Network seeks to unsettle traditional narratives on exilic experiences: how to narrate refugee flows, which stories do we tell, which voices remain unheard? Focus lies on exile between Europe and (in) the (post)Ottoman lands.

Mark Leonard on “The Age of Unpeace: How Connectivity Causes Conflict”

Speaker(s): Mark Leonard, Thijs van der Plas, Luiza Bialasiewicz
Date: 1 December 2021

We thought connecting the world would bring lasting peace. Instead, it is driving us apart. In the three decades since the end of the Cold War, global leaders have been integrating the world's economy, transport and communications, breaking down borders in the hope that it would make war impossible. In doing so, however, they have unwittingly created a formidable arsenal of weapons for new kinds of conflict. In his new book, Mark Leonard argues that rising tensions in global politics are not a bump in the road - they are part of the paving.

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Visiting Scholar Lecture: The Right Gays

Speaker(s): Andrew Reynolds
Date: 7 December 2021

No mainstream political party robustly advocated for gay rights for the first century of modern democracy’s evolution. Then, gathering momentum in the 1970s, a cluster of left wing and liberal Western European parties begin to embrace gay and lesbian rights as part of a new project injecting individual liberty within collective social democratic norms.

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Governance by data infrastructure in Post-Pandemic Europe: What Risks for Democracy?

Speaker(s): Francesca Musiani, Linnet Taylor, Luiza Bialasiewicz, Claudia Aradau, Seda Gürses 
Date: 9 December 2021

The emergency rationalities of the COVID-19 pandemic have justified the widespread adoption of risk-solving sociotechnical solutions such as contact tracing apps, thermal cameras and vaccination certificates. These function as “regulatory data infrastructure”: they generate data with the goal of facilitating decision-making and/or monitoring society, including societal interactions and people’s movements. In so doing, regulatory data infrastructures are attributed functions that typically pertain to public administrations.

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LGBT politics and representation

Speaker(s): Tofik Dibi, Lisa van Ginniken, Katie Hill, Sarah McBride, Andrew Reynolds, vreer verkerke 
Date: 9 December 2021

The year 2021 marks a milestone for the representation of LGBT people in Dutch politics, as the first trans woman was elected into parliament. The presence of ‘out’ elected officials in politics worldwide is increasing and LGBT people are holding their nation’s highest offices, while advocating for issues that go far beyond sexuality and gender identity. However, increased political visibility is often accompanied by increased backlash, as LGBT politicians are faced with misogyny, homophobia and transphobia. Please note that this event will now be taking place online only.

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Public Debt After the Pandemic: Some Burning Questions

Speaker(s): Paul van den Noord, Agnès Bénassy-Quéré, Barry Eichengreen, Waltraud Schelkle
Date: 13 December 2021

The pandemic and the associated lockdowns produced the deepest and most disruptive downturn in the European economy since World War II. This prompted the European Commission to suspend temporarily all constraints on debt and deficits embedded in the European fiscal framework.

Watch the video recording on YouTube

Anti-Gender Campaigns and the Politics of Violence against Women in Central and Eastern Europe and Beyond

Speaker(s): Paul van den Noord, Agnès Bénassy-Quéré, Barry Eichengreen, Waltraud Schelkle
Date: 14 December 2021

How do anti-gender campaigns change the politics of gender equality? Who are its protagonists? Do they only occur in Eastern Europe? And what are their consequences for gender equality, for rights, and for democracy? The book panel will engage with these questions and more as they discuss the recently published book Politicizing Gender and Democracy in the Context of the Istanbul Convention on opposition to the Council of Europe Convention on violence against women.

From economic and fiscal imbalances toward a social Europe? - Seminar with Xavier Ragot

Speaker(s): Xavier Ragot
Date: 15 January 2020

Europe is still plagued by economic imbalances, threatening its integrity. These economic trends, together with differences in the appreciation of geopolitical issues, are creating the risk of a reduction of the European project to the sum of national interests. There is a strong case for more-risk sharing or solidarity: it is not a political goal but an economic need.

Going fiscal? A stylised model with fiscal capacity and a Eurobond in the Eurozone

Speaker(s): Lorenzo Codogno and Paul van den Noord
Date: 21 January 2020

Codogno and Van den Noord will expand on their findings that rebalancing the policy mix away from monetary towards fiscal stimulus in the Eurozone can best be achieved at the supranational level by introducing a Eurobond together with fiscal capacity.

Patterns of opposition to European Integration - Seminar with Mads Jensen

Speaker(s): Mads Jensen
Date: 23 January 2020

Studies of Euroscepticism have made great inroads when it comes to identifying the causes of opposition towards European Integration by putting forward the Utilitarian, Identity, and Anti-Elite models. However, there is a dearth of knowledge when it comes to variation in how these explanations perform cross time and country as well as how they are linked in producing different routes to Euroscepticism. This paper addresses the gap by first producing a heat map which shows the cross-country and time variation.

Workshop European Elections 2019

Speaker(s): Wouter van der Brug, Katjana Gattermann and Claes de Vreese
Date: 30-31 January 2020

Were the European Parliamentary (EP) Elections of 2019 different from previous ones? Up until 2014 elections the dominant perspective among political scientists has been that these are second order elections where not much is at stake. Scholars have argued that the complex multi-level governance structure of the EU makes it unlikely that these elections can function in the same way as national elections.

The Future of EU Security: issues, concepts and approaches

Speaker(s): Marijn Hoijtink, Elke Schwarz, Raluca Csernatoni, Jessica Dorsey, Carola Westermeier, Sangeeta Goswani, Marie Djedri, Tasniem Anwar, Marieke de Goede, Daniel Pinéu, Rocco Bellanova, Paul Timmers, Louise Marie Hurel, Dagmar Rychnovska
Date: 7 February 2020

The third and final INTERSECT workshop is organised as a cooperation between ACES, the FOLLOW project and the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam's Interdisciplinary Centre for European Studies (VICES).

Egypt and the Politics of Migration in the Mediterranean

Speaker(s): Gerasimos Tsourapas and Eftychia Mylona
Date: 17 February 2020

In this talk, Gerasimos Tsourapas examines the importance of Egypt in the management of migration flows across the Middle East and the Mediterranean, drawing on insights from his latest book. How do countries in the Southern Mediterranean manage human mobility, and what lessons can be drawn for the future of European policy-making on migration?

PhD Masterclass with Tammy Hervey, ACES / ACELG Visiting Scholar

Speaker(s): Tammy Hervey
Date: 18 February 2020

Tammy Hervey is one of the co-authors of the book: Cryer, Hervey and Sokhi-Bulley's Research Methodologies in EU and International Law. The PhD masterclass will be based on the exercises on p 114 - 117 of this book but it will be appropriate for all law PhD students, whatever their topic.

A Shared EUropean History: Empire, Decolonisation, and the Making of Modern Europe

Speaker(s): Liz Buettner, James Mark, Peo Hansen, Manuela Boatcă, Patrick Pasture, Laia Soto Bermant, Anne-Isabelle Richard, Lora Sariaslan, Stuart Ward, Miguel Bandeira Jerónimo, Peter van Dam, Kim Christiaens, Artemy Kalinovsky, Zsuzsa Gille
Date: 24-25 February 2020

During this conference the question will be asked how our histories of postwar European history might change if we took the loss of European empires and the global forces it unleashed as a starting point. Despite a vast literature on the processes of decolonisation, post-war European history has generally remained a rather insular story of continental division and unity framed primarily by the Cold War and its end. 

You Can’t Repeal Regret: Targeting Men for Mobilization in Ireland’s Abortion Debate

Speaker(s): Amanda Friesen
Date: 26 February 2020 

In this ACES / ARC-GS seminar with Visiting Scholar Amanda Friesen, the question: 'How do social movements motivate men to care about “women’s issues”?' will be discussed.

The Masculinities of Humanitarianism: Gendering Humanitarian Policy and Practice

Speaker(s): Lewis Turner
Date: 27 February 2020 

In this lecture Lewis Turner will reflect on the gendered nature of humanitarian work and will challenge the dominant perspective as humanitarian work as feminine.

PhD Meeting with Lewis Turner - Doing research: Ethics, Practical Challenges and the Politics of Research

Speaker(s): Lewis Turner
Date: 28 February 2020 

This ACES PhD meeting with Dr. Lewis Turner (ABI Freiburg) offers PhDs an opportunity to share and discuss questions or dilemmas around doing research. The meeting intends to offer a space for an open and constructive discussion. The workshop is open to PhDs across all disciplines. Also PhDs in an early stage of their research are welcome to attend.

Recruitment of Youth in France: A Strategy of Organization?

Speaker(s): Yamina Meziani-Remichi
Date: 28 February 2020 

In this seminar Yamina Meziani-Remichi will discuss the research that she conducted with a team of political and social scientists in France on the relationship between the professionals in charge of recruitment and 'young' candidates.

Defending the Dead, Desecrating Monsters

Speaker(s): Gene Ray
Date: 3 March 2020

This talk with Gene Ray, looks at some recent episodes in a history of iconoclastic class struggle in so-called public space, from the interventions of the Situationist International following May 1968 to the antifascist mobilization against the 2017 Unite the Right rally at the statue of Confederate general Robert E. Lee in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Governing Banking Union: The Single Supervisory Mechanism in Action

Speaker(s): Jonathan Zeitlin, Alexandre Violle, Cecilia del Barrio Arleo, Jakub Gren
Date: 6 March 2020

The Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM) for European Banking Union is widely recognized as one of the most significant institutional reforms introduced in response to the financial and sovereign debt crises. Aimed at enhancing financial stability by breaking up “cozy relationships” between domestic banks and supervisors, the SSM has final authority to grant and withdraw banking licenses within the Eurozone.

Migration deals and their damaging effects

Date: 8 October 2020

On 8-9 October 2020, ACES and the T.M.C. Asser Instituut organise an interdisciplinary online conference on the implications of the increasing use of informal (non-binding) instruments in the field of migration.

Unequal Europe - ACES Book panel with Jason Beckfield

Speaker(s): Jason Beckfield
Date: 14 September 2020

The Euro-crisis of 2009-2012 vividly demonstrated that European Union policies matter for the distribution of resources within and between European nation-states. Throughout the crisis, distributive conflicts between the EU's winners and losers worsened, and are still reverberating in European politics today.

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The Political Economy of Structural Reforms in the EU

Speaker(s): Paul de Grauwe and Yuemei Yi
Date: 22 September 2020

Reforms in labour and product markets play a central role in government policies. The Political Economy of Structural Reforms in Europe brings together leading contributions from academia, the central banks in Europe, and the OECD to argue that structural reforms can make a fundamental contribution to improve economic performance across Europe.

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Differentiated Integration and the Future of Europe: Promises, Pitfalls, Pathways

Speaker(s): Frank Schimmelfennig, Sandra Lavenex, John Erik Fossum, Catherine De Vries, Dirk Leuffen, Stefan Telle/Brigid Laffan, Michael Keating, Eulalia Rubio, Chris Lord, Jochem Wiers, Bernardo Rangoni, Maria Weimer, Jonathan Zeitlin, Christina Eckes, Sabine Saurugger, Petr Kratochvil, Ceta Noland
Date: 30 September – 1 October 2020

The conference will examine the development of differentiated integration within the EU, focusing on both its promises and its pitfalls. Speakers cover internal and external dimensions of differentiation, including Brexit, linking academic research to current political debates about the future of European integration.

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The EU, migration and border governance

Speaker(s): Ali Bilgic, Paul James Cardwell, Hanna L. Muehlenhoff, Beste İşleyen, Dimitris Bouris
Date: 5 October 2020

Migration remains at the top of the political agenda across the European Union. Although the EU’s migration law-making competences are limited, migration is one of the most dynamic policy domains. During this event we explore the EU’s formal and informal migration and border policies.

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The ECB, the courts and the issue of democratic legitimacy after Weiss

Speaker(s): Nik de Boer and Jens van 't Klooster
Date: 5 October 2020

Why did the Bundesverfassungsgericht and the ECJ come to such different answers in their rulings on the ECB’s Public Sector Purchase Programme? What new challenges is the ECB facing in implementing its monetary policy and ask to what extent judicial review can help address these.

Enhancing the European Defence Landscape: PESCO a toddler growing up

Speaker(s): Christos Lampropoulos and Raoul Bessems
Date: 16 November 2020

With this event ACES kick-offs this year's Practitioner Engagement Series. During this webinar our speakers, Colonel Christos Lampropoulos and Raoul Bessems will take stock of PESCO first initial phase, analyse its achievements, explore the goals for the second phase as well as shed light on the Dutch perspective.

The EU and conflicts in the South Caucasus

Speaker(s): Vassilis Maragos, Toivo Klaar, Sophia Pugsley
Date: 19 November 2020

This is the second event of the ACES Practitioner Engagement series. This event will shed light on the EU's role in the South Caucasus conflicts, and the different tools and policies that the EU has deployed, and the need for humanitarian access.

Who is legally responsible for climate change?

Speaker(s): Veerle Heyvaert, Monika Hinteregge, Laura Burgers, Chantal Mak
Date: 12 November 2020

The Amsterdam Centre for Transformative Private Law (ACT) and ACES organise a webinar on the fundamental differences of the democratic legitimacy of climate change litigation against state parties on the one hand, and against business entities on the other.

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Clash of stereotypes? ‘Italia-Olanda’ and the battle for the Recovery Fund

Speaker(s): Marc Leijendekker, Massimiliano Panarari, Luiza Bialasiewicz
Date: 18 November 2020

This webinar brings together two prominent commentators to reflect on the representations in the Italian and Dutch media. They will ask to what degree such stereotypes reflect real differences in views on the conduct of economic and political life in the two countries, as well as different views on relations with the EU?

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The geopolitical gamble in the Eastern Mediterranean: Can the EU and Turkey find a way out of the crisis?

Speaker(s): Angelina Eichhorst, Laura Batalla Adam, Ioannis N. Grigoriadis, Meltem Müftüler-Baç, Beste İşleyen
Date: 26 November 2020

This session of the ACES Practitioner Engagement Series is organised in collaboration with Instituto Affari Internazionali in Rome. During the session the speakers will discuss how to put EU-Turkey relations on a more constructive footing again.

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Beyond the Frugal North and the Profligate South

Speaker(s): Susi Dennison, Theresa Kuhn, Cas van der Horst, Luiza Bialasiewicz
Date: 8 December 2020

This webinar will present the findings of two recent cross-national surveys on solidarity in the Covid-19 crisis and support for the Recovery Fund, carried out by the European Council on Foreign Relations and by researchers within ACES.

Watch the video recording on YouTube

Brought to you by the Amsterdam Centre for European Studies, ACES Cast features conversations with the Centre’s affiliates. In each episode, the podcast host, Gulnaz Sibgatullina, talks to early-career scholars and recognised experts about their research, academic journey and favourite books. Join us and get to know scholars who address the dynamics and direction of contemporary Europe.

Click here for an overview of all ACES Cast podcasts