Other News

Congratulations to Tom Parr, who has been shortlisted for the 2015 Warwick Awards for Teaching Excellence for Postgraduate Research Students.

The Warwick Awards for Teaching Excellence for Postgraduate Research students (WATEPGR) gives students and staff the opportunity to recognise and celebrate excellent teaching by postgraduate research students. Research students can carry out a range of teaching activities including facilitating seminars, lecturing, demonstrating, and project supervision.

Tom has recently been appointed as a Teaching Fellow in Political Theory here in PAIS.

In an article for the Huffington Post UK, PAIS PhD researcher Ragnar Weilandt argues that the Greek deal is not a coup against the Tsipras government but a logical consequence of the intergovernmental system through which large parts of EU affairs are governed.

The article, titled "The Greek Deal Is Not a Coup, It Is a Logical Consequence of Intergovernmentalism" can be read here.

Congratulations to recent PAIS graduate Dessi Ekzarova, who has won an essay competition organised by the United Nations.

Here is what Dessi had to say on her achievement:

'Many Languages One World' is the name of the essay competition I was lucky enough to participate in and become one of the winners. It is organised by the United Nations and its aim is to celebrate the various languages and cultures around the world!

I wrote an essay on the topic of the Post-2015 UN Developmental Agenda and the best ways to put it into practice. The rules demanded that the papers are written in one of the 6 official UN languages (English, Russian, Chinese, Arabic, French or Spanish) and it cannot it be in a language native to the writer.

As a Bulgarian, it was greatly rewarding to write a paper on a topic so important to me, in the language which I feel allows me to express myself best - English.

All the other winners and I get to travel to the UN Headquarters in New York and have a week of exciting projects, while enriching ourselves by getting to know people from all over the world

Dessi flew for a week in New York where she took part in exciting UN projects at their headquarters.

Speaking about her experience in New York, Dessi said:

I just came back home from my week in New York, involving the presentation in the UN General Assembly. Safe to say it was one of the best experiences in my life! The other essay winners in the English group and I got the privilege to speak on sustainable economic growth and the necessity of decent work for all.

The presentation can be viewed online, http://webtv.un.org/meetings-events/watch/english-language-winners-global-youth-forum-on-multilingualism-many-languages-one-world-2015/4378568374001, with Dessi appearing at the 9 minute 30 mark.

Dr. Maria Koinova has a new article "Sustained vs. Episodic Mobilization among Conflict-generated Diasporas," published in International Political Science Review on July 8, 2015. It is appears just in time for the 20-th anniversary of the fall of the Srebrenca enclave and the commemoration of the death of more than 8.000 Muslims, killed by Serbian paramilitary forces in 1995. On the basis of a comparative study of Bosnian Muslims, Serbs, and Croats in the Netherlands, the articles argues that a non-resolved issue between a host-state, home-state, and diasporas, such as the failure of Dutch peace-keeping forces to protect the Srebrenica enclave in 1995, is still alive today in the Netherlands. This is despite earlier half-measures by the host-state to take some responsibility and more recent court cases. This issue is very important why migrants have a difficulty to move on from their traumatic pasts in the Netherlands, unlike in Sweden, and that they mobilise in sustained ways.

More information about the article could be found here:

http://ips.sagepub.com/content/early/2015/07/08/0192512115591641.abstract