Other News

As leaders from across Europe and Africa meet to discuss how to respond to the current 'migration crisis', Dr Vicki Squire draws attention to the limits of the EU's commitment to "shared responsibility" in its global approach to migration for The Conversation.

European and African leaders are in the Maltese capital Valletta to discuss how they can better cooperate on migration.

Attendees will discuss ideas about how to deal with the devastating consequences of people trying to enter Europe by unauthorised channels. European leaders have agreed to provide African partners with resources to manage migration. But this, like so many other measures to be discussed at this summit, seems a lot like one side trying to persuade another to take a problem away.

Cooperation on this issue is by no means new, but the events unfolding on European shores over the past year show just how limited the results of this co-operation have been.

As more and more people die trying to cross the Mediterranean from places such as Libya and Turkey to Italy or Greece, pressure has grown to come up with a solution that gets to the roots of the current situation.

At this summit, European leaders are seeking to emphasise the importance of “shared responsibility” in managing and preventing migration. The EU’s “global approach” to migration is under the spotlight.

Dr Squire's article can be read in full here.

The EU Commission has announced its decision to fund a new project, entitled 'European Leadership in Cultural, Science, and Innovation Diplomacy' (EL-CSID), as part of the Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Framework Programme.

Led by Professor Luk van Langenhove at Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), EL-CSID is a programme of research worth a total of €2.3M of which €300,000 has been awarded to PAIS.

Professor Diane Stone will be coordinating Work Package 3 'Cultural and Science Diplomacy: The Transnational and Collaborative Dynamic' and she will be joined by Dr Andre Broome and Dr Chris Browning who are named researchers on the project.

PAIS is delighted with the outcome. Professor Ben Clift, Director of Research, says: "Congratulations go to all those involved in preparing the bid. Securing funding for H20/20 consortia and work packages is extremely competitive, and this really is a wonderful achievement. We look forward to assisting Diane in co-ordinating the Warwick-based work package, and helping Andre and Chris carry out their research on the project"

The over-arching objectives of EL-CSID are threefold:

• To detail and analyse the manner in which the European Union (EU) operates in the domains of culture and science diplomacy in the current era; comparing its bilateral and multilateral cultural and science ties between states, regions, and public and private international organisations.
• To examine the degree to which cultural and science diplomacy can enhance the interests of the EU in the contemporary world order and to identify:

How cultural and science diplomacy, and innovations in them, can contribute to Europe’s standing as an international actor in a manner comparable to that of the other major contemporary actors, particularly the USA and China.

Opportunities offered by enhanced coordination and collaboration amongst the EU, its members and their extra-European partners.

Constraints posed by economic and socio-political factors affecting the evolving operating environments of both science and cultural diplomacy.

• To identify a series of mechanisms/platforms and tools to raise awareness among relevant stakeholders of the importance of science and culture as vehicles for enhancing the EU’s external relations.

Dr Charlotte Heath-Kelly, currently a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow in PAIS, has won an ESRC Future Research Leader (worth £135,486.00) for her project entitled ‘Resilience at the Bombsite: Reconstructing Post-Terrorist Space’, which is for 36 months from 1 January 2016 and to be mentored by Professor Jon Coaffee.

Following this success and her earlier Leverhulme Trust award, we are also delighted to announce that the University’s Academic Resourcing Committee has approved PAIS’ bid for Charlotte to be appointed to an indefinite Assistant Professorship in the Department with effect from 1 October, 2015.

Very many congratulations to Charlotte for these outstanding achievements.

Dr Julian Gruin, currently a tenure-track Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science, University of Amsterdam, has won an ESRC Future Research Leader (worth £279,076.80) for his project entitled ‘Reshaping Global Capital: The Politics of Uncertainty in China’s Financial Transnationalization’, which is for 36 months from 1 April 2016 and to be mentored by Professor Shaun Breslin.

Following this outcome, the University’s Academic Resourcing Committee has approved PAIS’ bid for Julian to take up a three-year fixed-term Assistant Professorship in the Department with effect from 1 April, 2016, thereby allowing Julian to return to his substantive position at the University of Amsterdam at the end of the award period.

Congratulations to Julian on the award and we look forward to welcoming him back to PAIS.

Final year PAIS and History student, Chloe Wynne, has had her URSS research on the place of women within Formula 1 accepted for oral presentation at the prestigious British Conference of Undergraduate Research next March.

The annual conference, to be held next year at Manchester Metropolitan University, is the largest of its kind in the UK, and promotes undergraduate research in all disciplines. Undergraduates of all levels are invited to submit papers, posters, workshops and performances to the Conference. Abstracts are peer-reviewed and only those accepted will be invited to attend the conference.

Chloe's research focuses upon the different gendered experiences faced by women competing and working within Formula 1. As part of her URSS project, which was supervised by Dr David Webber, Chloe wrote an article that later appeared in Autosport magazine, which explored the absence of women in prominent positions within the sport.