UVic launches new EU centre
UVic has been granted 300,000 euros (equivalent to $445,000 CAD) over three years to coordinate lectures, workshops, summer schools, student travel and research grants. It will also develop new undertakings and events to build further awareness and understanding of the EU and its policies in BC.
UVic public administration professor and political scientist Dr. Emmanuel Brunet-Jailly, author of Borderlands: Comparing Border Security in North America and Europe, is UVic’s EUCE director. Two examples of support and new activities of the EUCE will be:
- Direct funding for student participation in UVic's I-witness field school program (for May 2014 and 2016);
- A new workshop bringing together leading scholars and researchers on contentious politics, specifically to explore the local and global impacts of grassroots protest in Spain, Italy, Greece and Iceland.
"It is a great honour for UVic to receive this prestigious designation," says Dr. Oliver Schmidtke, the director of UVic’s Centre for Global Studies within which the new EUCE is housed. "The EUCE will link four faculties and 12 departments across our campus. Its activities will provide exceptional opportunities for research, outreach and student support in the field of European studies over the next three years. UVic is in an outstanding position to highlight its role as one of Canada’s leaders in European studies and take full advantage of Canada’s renewed interest in Europe in the wake of the EU-Canada Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA).”