Other News

The Undergraduate Research Support Scheme (URSS) is a competitive scheme that provides a bursary and skills development training to support Warwick undergraduate students, who wish to carry out a summer research project, as an addition to their degree course. All students are supervised by an academic member of staff for the scheme.

This year, seven PAIS students will undertake a summer research project of their choosing, either within PAIS or in a different academic department here at Warwick.

In addition, PAIS academics will support eleven research projects, four of these being with PAIS students.

Undertaking a summer research project via the URSS gives students a taste of research, which is invaluable for those who might be looking to pursue postgraduate study. The scheme allows students to develop a range of skills which will add further value to their degree study.

We are delighted that so many PAIS students are involved in the scheme – this high number of successful applicants positions PAIS as the sixth largest department, in terms of the number of successful URSS applicants to carry out research within the department.

Congratulations to all those taking part this year!

The ten day festival starts tomorrow! View the complete programme here.

The festival will shine the light on social sciences, by providing a variety of events for students, staff members and the wider public.

Here is a snapshot of just a few of the sessions which will take place:

• 6 May, 11.00-12.00: A book launch by Prof. Wyn Grant 'Politics at Warwick: 1965-1979' - A0.23, Social Sciences Building
• 6 May, 12.30-14.30: 'Social Sciences After the Election' - R1.13, Ramphal Building. Registration essential.
• 9 May, 10.00-18.00: Festival of Social Sciences at FarGo Village - FarGo Village, Far Gosford St, Coventry.
• 12 May, 14.00-15.30: 'Post General Election Roundtable' - S0.20, Social Sciences Building. A video of the event can be seen below.
• 12, 13, 14 May, 19.15: Performance: 'Coney's Early Days (of a Better Nation)' - Arts Centre. Booking required. Book for this event here
• 13 May, 16.00-18.30: New Directions in IPE Conference Opening Roundtable - R0.21, Ramphal Building
  Register for this event here.
• 16 May, 13.00-14.30: Film Screening of "Grandma's Tattoos" - Warwick Arts Centre Cinema
  

So, join us and explore social matters throughout the years, whilst celebrating Warwick's 50th anniversary.

A new book on democracy promotion through functional promotion, titled "Democracy Promotion by Functional Cooperation, The European Union and its Neighbourhood," co-authored by PAIS' Tina Freyburg, with Frank Schimmelfennig, Sandra Lavenex, Tatiana Skripka and Anne Wetzel will be released next month.

Offering a cutting edge study of the European Union's (EU) promotion of democratic governance in neighbouring countries, this new book makes an original contribution to the study of democracy promotion and of EU external relations by presenting a new governance model of democracy promotion.

Through robust analysis of the shortcomings of traditional 'leverage' and 'linkage' models of external democracy promotion in the EU's Eastern and Southern neighbourhood, it presents a novel 'governance model' that fosters transparency, accountability, and participation standards through functional cooperation between policy officials from the EU and neighbouring states.

In particular, it examines the impact of democratic governance promotion in detailed case studies of EU sectoral cooperation with Moldova, Morocco, and Ukraine in the three policy fields of competition, environment, and migration.

You can pre-order the book here.

To get the book at the reduced price of £48, available only until 31st July 2015, quote discount code PM15THIRTY.

Tina Freyburg is to appear, as the only academic, on a panel debating low youth turnout in UK elections. The debate takes place today (Thursday April 30th)

Britain has an extremely low level of youth voting. At the last general election, there was a 37 percentage point gap between people aged over-55 who voted and those under-35. British young adults appear to be unusually turned off by the democratic process.

The Warwick Policy Lab is researching this issue. They are hosting an event – aimed at 16 to 24 year olds - where they will share some preliminary findings from their research but, more importantly, create an opportunity for participants to put forward their thoughts and ideas and to debate with our fantastic panel of experts and commentators.

The debate takes place from 5.30pm - 7.00pm in the Studio Theatre, Warwick Arts Centre. It is free to attend.

You can register for the event here.

The deaths of at least 1200 people in the Central Mediterranean Sea within merely one week in April have highlighted, once more, the scale of human suffering along Europe’s external borders. More than 1700 people have lost their lives in 2015 alone and many more can be expected to follow in the coming months. Rather than a fateful tragedy, these deaths are the direct result of a European politics of deterrence that actively reduces possibilities for safe and legal entry into Europe, making paths toward Europe evermore precarious and dangerous. Since the cessation of the expansive Italian military-humanitarian rescue operation Mare Nostrum, no adequate rescue programme has been installed. To the contrary, the European border agency Frontex launched a border protection operation (Triton) and advised EU member states, mainly Italy, to disengage from rescue operations in non-territorial waters. Also after the most recent shipwrecks, Europe responds by outlining militaristic strategies to intervene against the trafficking industry, an industry, however, that thrives from Europe’s border control practices and technologies. As so often in recent years, some symptoms will become superficially addressed, thereby reinforcing border surveillance and migration control, and further endangering migrant lives.

Maurice Stierl, a PAIS teaching assistant, engages in the activist network Watch The Med. Activists from Europe and North Africa created an Alarm Phone for people in distress at sea in October 2014 and have since dealt with various emergency situations (http://watchthemed.net/index.php/main). In the past few weeks, shift teams of the alarm hotline have been in direct contact with passengers on various vessels seeking to reach Europe. They were able to assist passengers by passing on advice as well as by forwarding crucial information to rescue agencies. Members of the hotline regard the Alarm Phone as a political intervention in spaces often considered reserved for border security practitioners and outside of democratic oversight. In enabling direct forms of engagement with people in distress at sea, the Alarm Phone project has created a presence in maritime spaces, capable of building pressure on coastguards to conduct rescue operations. The project supports the freedom of movement of all and seeks to make the often dangerous and deadly routes toward Europe less violent and more secure.

The Alarm Phone has received a lot of media attention in the past weeks, especially after the shipwrecks costing hundreds of lives. Maurice Stierl has been interviewed in Germany for three national and regional TV programmes and has also given interviews for print media outlets (http://www.daserste.de/information/politik-weltgeschehen/morgenmagazin/videos/fluechtlings-aktivist-stierl-man-kann-von-mord-reden-100.html, http://www.ndr.de/fernsehen/sendungen/ndr_aktuell/NDRAktuell,sendung363130.html, https://www.ndr.de/fernsehen/sendungen/zapp/Schwierig-Berichterstattung-ueber-Fluechtlinge,fluechtlingsschiff114.html, http://taz.de/Hotline-fuer-Fluechtlinge-in-Seenot/!158286/)

The Alarm Phone has also published a position paper countering the 10 point action plan of the Joint Foreign and Home Affairs Council of the EU (http://criticallegalthinking.com/2015/04/23/ferries-not-frontex-10-points-to-really-end-the-deaths-of-migrants-at-sea/).