INTERNATIONAL AND INTERDISCIPLINARY CONFERENCE ON:
GLOBAL PERSPECTIVES ON EUROPE
Call for Abstracts and Papers
Conference date: December 5 – 7, 2013
Venue: University of Flensburg, Germany
Objective: We hope to create a multi-disciplinary platform consisting of academics, researchers, politicians, practitioners, etc. to examine, problematize and discuss Europe from a global perspective.
Europe is entangled politically, economically and legally with the rest of the world as its policies and actions reverberate beyond its geographic borders. Yet in a number of cases, Eurocentric views that are clearly incapable of portraying Europe in a comprehensive manner in its global interactions tend to dominate the discourse. Obviously, in order to fully appreciate Europe and its leadership role in world affairs, it is not sufficient to look at perspectives from within alone but to take a total view that projects Europe from a global perspective.
A global Europe, embedded in an ever-growing and interdependent network of relations does neither act in isolation nor do its actions merely affect European countries. Hence it is essential that Europeans and European institutions take into account alternative views primarily from outside and to weigh the merits of these differential positions. In a globalised world, it is imperative that European societies, and the key stakeholders from the academic, political, economic and legal realm appreciate the need to be more receptive towards external perspectives. After all, a successful constitution of Europe will barely be possible without considerable attention the understandings and perceptions of other world regions. These external perspectives are the frame of reference in a global context in which Europe, epitomised by the European Union and its member states, vividly engage itself both internally and externally.
With this in mind, the proposed conference seeks to create an externally-led reflection that aims to make a contribution to a better understanding and analysis of Europe’s role in the contemporary world. It seeks to trigger a substantial reflection on new directions of action, and to open up spaces for renewed discussions on Europe’s economic, social, historical, political and legal role, and relationship with the rest of the world.
We suggest contributions in the fields of postcolonial studies, migration research, economical policy and cooperation with the global south and so on.
The reason of this conference is the stay of Dr. Yaw Ofosu-Kusi as visiting professor from Ghana at the University of Flensburg for 2013-2014 (DAAD).
Submission of Abstracts
We invite abstracts for papers of maximum 300 words, for a possible 20-minute paper presentation at the conference, together with a short bio indicating name, institutional affiliation, telephone number and email address to Sophie Wulk, European Studies, University of Flensburg. sophie-wulk@uni-flensburg.de.
Deadline for submission of Abstracts: September 30, 2013
Notification of accepted abstracts: October 20, 2013
Submission of draft papers: November 28, 2013
Additional information could be sought from or inquiries made to the Conference Coordinators at the University Flensburg: Sophie Wulk: sophie-wulk@uni-flensburg.de (European Studies); Dr. Yaw Ofosu-Kusi: yaw.ofosu-kusi@uni-flensburg.de (International Institute of Management and Economics Education), Prof. Dr. Bea Lundt: lundt@uni-flensburg.de (Institut for Social Sciences and Theology, Seminar for History and History Didactics).