Other News

Floor 3 and an area of Floor 3 extension of the Library, which house Classics, English Literature, Film, French, German, History, Italian, Music, Philosophy, Religion and Theatre, will be refurbished during the forthcoming summer vacation.

The upgraded Floors will continue to provide a traditional library environment for individual study.

Some disruption will be inevitable while work is underway but steps will be taken to minimise the impact on users. The Library will remain open throughout the period of works.

Stock on Floor 3 stock will be temporarily relocated elsewhere within the building. All stock will continue to be available throughout the works. Most stock will be available on open access so that users will still be able to browse and select any items they wish to consult or borrow. Materials moved to the Library Store can be requested using the online request form; there will be regular collections during office hours Monday to Friday.

Work is scheduled to start in late June following the end of the summer examination period and the University’s Open Days. The programme schedule is tight and, whilst strategies will be in place to minimise any potential overrun, it may not be possible for all the work to be completed before the end of the summer vacation. If that proves to be the case we will work closely with the contractors to seek to minimise any disruption at the start of the new academic year.

Full details of the temporary stock locations and progress updates will be made available on the Library Web site. Alternatively, specific questions can be emailed directly to lib.communications@warwick.ac.uk .

I hope this covers any initial questions you may have but please do not hesitate to get in touch if you require further information at this stage.

A new monograph by Dr Maria Koinova, Associate Professor in PAIS, is scheduled for release by University of Pennsylvania Press in May 2013. Entitled Ethnonationalist Conflict in Postcommunist States: Varieties of Governance in Bulgaria, Macedonia, and Kosovo, the book investigates why some Eastern European states transitioned to new forms of governance with minimal violence while others broke into civil war. In this comparative study, Maria Koinova applies historical institutionalism to conflict analysis, tracing ethnonationalist violence in post­communist states to a volatile, formative period between 1987 and 1992. In this era of instability, the incidents that brought majorities and minorities into dispute had a profound impact and a cumulative effect, as did the interventions of international agents and kin states. Whether the conflicts initially evolved in peaceful or violent ways, the dynamics of their disputes became self-perpetuating and informally institutionalized. Thus, external policies or interventions could affect only minimal change, and the impact of international agents subsided over time. Regardless of the constitutions, laws, and injunctions, majorities, minorities, international agents, and kin states continue to act in accord with the logic of informally institutionalized conflict dynamics.

Koinova analyzes the development of those dynamics in Bulgaria, Macedonia, and Kosovo, drawing on theories of democratization, international intervention, and path-dependence as well as interviews and extensive fieldwork. The result is a compelling account of the underlying causal mechanisms of conflict perpetuation and change that will shed light on broader patterns of ethnic violence.

Read more about the monograph

This evening some members of the Politics Society, and Charlotte Lewis, our PaIS Undergraduate Student Experience Officer, will be taking part in a sponsored sleep-out to try and raise awareness of the fantastic work of Coventry Cyrenians, a local homeless charity who support homeless people in and around the Coventry area.

The team will be sleeping rough on the streets of Coventry from 7pm this evening until 8am tomorrow morning, armed with the clothes they are wearing, a sleeping bag and a bottle of water. They have managed to raise over £600 so far, but if you would like to support them please go to the Politics Society fundraising page.

PAIS colleagues Stuart Croft (PI), George Christou, Oz Hassan and Nick Vaughan-Williams, along with Jon Coaffee, a new colleague joining the Centre for Interdisciplinary Methodologies (CIM) in April 2013, have been awarded a grant as part of the RCUK Global Uncertainties Programme. The ESRC, AHRC and Dstl Futures and Innovation Domain have launched a new research initiative entitled ‘Science and Security: Linking Social Science, Arts and Humanities to understand the impacts of science and technology on defence and security’. The call seeks to fund research projects and a Research Integrator to develop greater understanding of how developments in science and technology (S&T) will present opportunities and threats to future UK defence and security.

The work carried out in response to this call will help enable UK defence and security to better harness possible opportunities and to counter potential threats that may emerge in future. The team from PAIS will act as a Research Integrator to enhance the potential economic and societal impact for this initiative. This will include synthesising the research outputs and enhancing their accessibility, acting as an interface with Dstl and others to encourage the uptake of the research findings and encouraging dialogue between project leads.

Matthew Watson, Professor of Political Economy, has been awarded an ESRC Professorial Fellowship. This is a 3-year fellowship starting in September 2013, with a project entitled 'Exploring the Concept of 'the Market': Combining History of Ideas and Historiographical Approaches'.

ESRC Professorial Fellowships are extremely competitive, involve a very arduous application, and are a mark of the highest standing in any social science discipline. Many congratulations to Prof Watson.