Interdisciplinary conference at the Europa-Universität Flensburg
We kindly invite you to submit papers/abstracts to the Interdisciplinary Research into Europeanization Conference: European Encounters, Politics, and Higher Education at Europa-Universität Flensburg, 28 to 29 Oct, 2016.
Description
The Europeanization of higher education has taken on momentum: higher education researchers, university staff, and students, are part of a new depth and acceleration of formal Europeanization processes, such as the Bologna reform. Europeanization is understood here as a politically induced process of institutional change deeply influencing the shape of society. Specifically in the context of European higher education, we emphasize the notion of “Europeanization from below” (Eigmüller 2013) - a notion focusing on perceptions, attitudes and interactions of citizens, in general, and of agents in higher education settings, in particular.
During the last decade social scientists have paid intense attention to the relationship between actions of the European Union and position-takings by individuals such as transnational activity, support for the EU and, in general, the emergence of a European identity. It is still an open question what kinds of influences trigger what kinds of European thinking. This is due to the fact that research, so far, has mainly focused on border crossing activities and has thus reduced European experiences to cross-border interactions.
This conference will shed light on the question of how the emerging European educational area influences the perception of Europe and its citizens in manifold contexts of higher education.
Thus, conference contributions may center both on the political process of Europeanization of Higher Education (macro level) and on the experiences and perceptions of individuals and groups following these processes at large (micro level). Aspects and fields of interest relevant to the upcoming conference on the Europeanization of higher education might include, inter alia:
- Europeanization of research traditions and curricula,
- English as a European lingua franca and as the language of education,
- Social and international inequalities and asymmetries in the classroom,
- Intercultural student and faculty encounters, perceptions/stereotyping of the other, and sociopolitical discourses on internationalization and Europe,
- The impact of internationalization on different European rating and ranking systems as well as publishing traditions, and,
- Student and faculty mobility.
Notes for authors
Conference language is English. We welcome contributions from all fields of the social sciences. Please submit your contribution until May 15, 2016.
Contributions may be submitted in two forms:
a) Full papers (progress version): Papers should not exceed 7000 words, including tables and references. Papers exceeding this formal requirement will be rejected. Full papers will be considered for publication in a special issue/edited book.
b) Abstracts: Abstracts should not exceed 500 words.
Presentations will be followed by an open discussion. In addition, you will be assigned a discussant. Papers/abstracts will be reviewed and selected for presentation by the conference coordinators; a letter of notification will be sent to the authors as soon as possible after the decision is made. The coordinators aim at turnaround times of six weeks. You are welcome to contact us with any questions that might occur. Please submit your paper/abstract in word format to: europeanization@uni-flensburg.de
Expenses and program
All expenses, including housing, travel, and social program, will be covered for the selected applicants.
Publishing opportunity
Accepted papers will be considered for publication in a special issue/in an edited book (pending/tba). Further, accepted abstracts not having been developed into full papers, may be turned into conference proceedings and may then be considered for publication in our Research into Europeanization Working Paper Series.
We do look forward to your contributions and to seeing you in Flensburg.
Monika Eigmüller, Klarissa Lueg, Sören Carlson (conference coordinators)