NEAR-EU: The Europeanization of Higher Education

NEAR-EU: The Europeanization of Higher Education

UBC Researchers

Prof. Kurt Huebner (Director of Research)
Dr. Conrad King (PI)

Research Assistants

Jana Cleve (March – June 2017)
Lindsey Wong (April – May 2017)

Funding

Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union (80%)
Co-financing by partner institutions (20%)
Sept 2016 – Sept 2019, €373,415

Project Summary

Near-EU is a project to establish a Nexus of European centres Abroad for Research (Near), on the Bologna Process and the European Higher Education Area. The overall goal of the Near-EU project is to broaden the field of European integration studies by incorporating the domain of higher education into the research and activities of centres for the study of Europe. The project will develop an inter-regional, collaborative academic space to enhance the study of European higher education policy and academic internationalization.

Objectives of the Near-EU project

  • To develop the academic field of European HE policy.
  • To develop research methodologies in the field of EU HE policy.
  • To strengthen the ability of European research centers to study European educational policy and its role in European integration.
  • To create a wide inter-regional network of Bologna Research Centres which will engage in collaborative research, mutual learning and cross-fertilization processes.
  • To assess the internationalization trends in partner countries.
  • To enhance awareness in non-EU partner countries of the Bologna Process and familiarity with its practical tools.
  • To stimulate debate on the implementation of the process and provide a platform for future enhancement of internationalization– being situated in leading and established European study centers, the BRCs are assured of stable and long-term platforms for continued activity and dissemination.
  • To foster exchange of ideas and sharing of best practices among EU and Non-EU European Study Centers.
  • To promote cooperation between the partner countries HE sectors and the EHEA.
  • For more information on the Near-EU project, please click here

Partners in the Near-EU project

Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, UBC Institute for European Studies, Technical University of Darmstadt, the Faculty of Education at the University of Ljubljana, the University of Piraeus, Nanyang Technological University, National Centre for Research on Europe at the University of Canterbury (NZ). The project is supported by a grant from the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union.

Research: Internationalization Strategies in HE

Our core research question are: What are the internationalization strategies employed by higher education institutions in Canada, when faced with the burgeoning Europeanization of the global higher education sector?

Output to date

  • ‘The Bologna Process: a View from the Outside’ (BTC Annual International Conference, Bologna around the World – A Comparative Point of View. Tel Aviv, Israel. April 26, 2017)
  • ‘Internationalization of higher education in a Canadian context. Responses to the Bologna Process from Canadian universities’ (University of Ljubljana Education Conference, ‘Looking out’: Comparability and Compatibility in Global Higher Education. Ljubljana, Slovenia. Oct 10, 2017.)
  • ‘The Internationalization of Canadian Higher Education: which direction are we heading?’ (British Columbia Political Studies Association Conference, Kamloops: 3 May 2018)
  • ‘Unity and Diversity in Higher Education: Effects of Europeanization on Canadian Universities’ (European Community Studies Association Conference; Toronto: 10 May 2018).
  • ‘Designing survey instruments for measuring internationalisation: perspectives from Canada, New Zealand and Singapore’ (Internationalisation and Economic Development in the European Higher Education Area and Beyond: strategies, policies and tools. Pireaus, Greece: 14 June 2018)
  • ‘Internationalisation of higher education in a Canadian context: Responses to the Bologna Process from Canadian universities’ in European Journal of Higher Education 9 (1): 58-72 (2019)

Bologna Resource Centre

What is the Bologna Process?

The Bologna Process is a series of intergovernmental agreements made in the Council of Europe between 48 countries (along with the European Commission), to create a European Higher Education Area (EHEA). The EHEA is a means for each country to adapt their higher education systems to make them more compatible with one another, as well as to strengthen quality assurance mechanisms. The primary goal of the Bologna Process has been to facilitate mobility of students and staff across Europe, although this rather ambitious project has adopted several additional goals and objectives. For more information on the Bologna Process and the EHEA, please go to the official website here.

What is the Bologna Resource Centre, at the IES?

The Bologna Resource Centre (BRC) at the IES serves as a hub of information about the Bologna Process and the EHEA, as well as its implications for Canadian universities and policymakers. The BRC will also act as an incubator to draw students and researchers from various policy disciplines into the domain of European integration studies.

Events

Bologna Resource Centre roundtable. SAVE THE DATE: April 20, 2018

The BRC at the Institute for European Studies will be hosting a roundtable in room 120 of the C.K. Choi building, UBC Vancouver, on 20 April 2018. We invite guests to come and learn about the internationalization (and Europeanization) of higher education, and about the Bologna process and its impact in Canada.

CPSA Conference, Multi-panel Workshop. SAVE THE DATE: June 6, 2019

The Near-EU consortium will be facilitating a multi-panel workshop at the CPSA conference, as part of the UBC Congress of the Humanities. The panels will address two topics: ‘Inclusion and diversity in our universities: how is internationalization changing higher education?’ and ‘The Bologna Process, 20 years on’. Times and locations of panels TBD.

Bologna Resource Centre roundtable. SAVE THE DATE: June 7, 2019

The BRC at the Institute for European Studies will be hosting a round table with Canadian and international experts on Higher Education internationalization. The event will take place in room 351 of the C.K. Choi building (UBC Vancouver) on 7 June 2019, from 10:30-12:00. Lunch will follow.

The Ethics of Immigrant Admission

Project Name

The Ethics of Immigrant Admission: Race, Gender, Class and Disability in Immigrant-receiving Democracies

Researchers

  • Antje Ellermann (PI)

Research Assistants

  • Madeleine Page
  • Camille Desmares
  • Klaudia Wegschaider
  • Agustín Goenaga
  • Salta Zumatova
  • Alberto Alcaraz

Funding

Funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, Insight Grant #435-2013-1065

Project Summary

How do democratic societies select their prospective members? Given the vast pool of would-be immigrants, liberal states have to decide whom to admit, and whom to exclude, from access to their economies and societies. Prominent scholars have argued that, whereas immigrant selection used to be driven by the ascriptive characteristics of race and religion, contemporary admission policies instead are based on the principles of universalism, liberalism, and non-discrimination. Yet, while the use of ascriptive criteria in immigration policy has indeed been largely discredited, once we examine more closely the characteristics of those actually admitted, we find that even in the most liberal of immigration regimes, immigrant selection reflects systematic group biases that run counter to these principles.

This project pursues three related sets of objectives. First, the study seeks to empirically document the prevalence of race, gender, class, and disability biases in immigrant admissions in the Global North. The study will examine the many ways in which admission outcomes depart from the assumption of a universalism that is neutral on matters of social group membership. Second, adopting an intersectional feminist methodology, the study identifies the mechanisms of differentiation through which nominally liberal immigration policies produce illiberal outcomes. The project’s third objective is the development of a normative theory of immigrant admissions that could moderate, if not fully eliminate, discrimination in immigrant admissions.

Data and Method

The study adopts an intersectional feminist methodology that conceives of categories such as ethnicity and gender as central and mutually intersecting elements of social and political life, created and maintained by the dynamic interaction of individual and institutional factors. Public policy cannot be neutral in its impact but, unless self-consciously designed to address existing biases, will replicate social disparities. The project seeks to identify these group biases and their related mechanisms of differentiation through the analysis of statistical data, government documents, and elite interviews.

Workshop

In May 2017, the project funded a two-day international workshop titled Race, Gender, and Class in the Politics of Migration: Empiricist and Normative Approaches, hosted by the Social Science Research Center in Berlin. The workshop brought together an interdisciplinary group of empiricists and political theorists studying the intersection of social group membership with immigration and integration policy. The work resulted in a collection of papers currently under review at the Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies.

Research Output

Cartografias in/justas: representaciones culturales del espacio urbano y rural en la España contemporánea ed. by Dr. Monica Lopez Lerma

Cartografias in/justas: representaciones culturales del espacio urbano y rural en la España contemporánea, edited by Dr. Monica Lopez Lerma, was published by Comares Editorial on May 15, 2024.

¿Cómo se relaciona el espacio con la (in)justicia en la España contemporánea? ¿Cuáles son los límites y posibilidades de esta relación en la era del Antropoceno? Los capítulos de este libro abordan estas preguntas considerando tres problemáticas fundamentales. Por un lado, a pesar de la crisis económica del 2008, las ciudades españolas continúan siendo centros de inversión y especulación inmobiliaria, perpetuando los procesos neoliberales de gentrificación, exclusión y segregación. Por otro lado, estos procesos profundizan la brecha entre el espacio urbano y el rural, exacerbando lo que el periodista Sergio del Molino (2016) ha denominado la “España vacía”, aunque movimientos sociales y activistas prefieren hablar de la “España vaciada” para resaltar su origen político y económico. Finalmente, más allá de la dicotomía entre lo rural y lo urbano, la era actual del “Antropoceno” o el “Capitaloceno”, marcada por el impacto destructivo del ser humano en el planeta, nos insta a reflexionar en una cartografía de la (in)justicia espacial que aborde los efectos del cambio climático y su conexión con el capitalismo.

Desde una perspectiva transdisciplinaria, los objetivos de este libro son: (1) examinar los límites que la justicia, en su sentido más amplio, enfrenta en los procesos de producción capitalista del “espacio” español (2) visibilizar situaciones específicas que desafían estos límites y otorgan a la justicia una manifestación tangible, aunque sea momentánea; y (3) demostrar que los límites, ya sean físicos, espaciales, sociales, políticos, ecológicos, legales, económicos, culturales, estéticos, o teóricos, conceptuales e interpretativos, siempre pueden ser cuestionados, y en consecuencia, redefinidos, abriendo así posibilidades para crear nuevas formas de pensamiento, imaginación y acción.

English Translation:

How does space relate to (in)justice in contemporary Spain? What are the limits and possibilities of this relationship in the era of the Anthropocene? The chapters of this book address these questions by considering three fundamental problems. On the one hand, despite the economic crisis of 2008, Spanish cities continue to be centres of investment and real estate speculation, perpetuating neoliberal processes of gentrification, exclusion and segregation. On the other hand, these processes deepen the gap between urban and rural space, exacerbating what journalist Sergio del Molino (2016) has called the “empty Spain”, although social movements and activists prefer to speak of the “empty Spain” to highlight its political and economic origin. Finally, beyond the dichotomy between the rural and the urban, the current era of the “Anthropocene” or the “Capitalocene”, marked by the destructive impact of human beings on the planet, urges us to reflect on a cartography of spatial (in)justice that addresses the effects of climate change and its connection with capitalism.

From a transdisciplinary perspective, the objectives of this book are: (1) to examine the limits that justice, in its broadest sense, faces in the capitalist production processes of the Spanish “space” (2) to make visible specific situations that challenge these limits and give justice a tangible manifestation, even if momentary; and (3) to demonstrate that limits, whether physical, spatial, social, political, ecological, legal, economic, cultural, aesthetic, or theoretical, conceptual and interpretive, can always be questioned, and consequently, redefined, thus opening up possibilities to create new forms of thought, imagination and action.

*All information copied from publisher’s website

Subject/Object and Beyond: Women in Early Modern France. Essays in Honour of Colette H. Winn ed. by Dr. Nancy Frelick and Dr. Edith Benkov

A collection of essays on early modern women from a collection of leading figures in the field. This edited volume was published by Iter Press in February 2024.

Subject/Object and Beyond brings together essays by established and emerging scholars to honor the exceptionally rich contributions and career of scholar Colette H. Winn. It also celebrates fifty years of sustained scholarship on early modern women, along with the foundation of Women’s Studies as a recognized academic discipline in North America. The collection comprises seventeen articles that explore multiple perspectives on early modern women, including their writings, translations, reception, and contributions to various fields, including literature, music, politics, religion, and science.

Nancy M. Frelick is associate professor of French and Renaissance Studies at the University of British Columbia.

Edith J. Benkov is professor emerita of French and European Studies at San Diego State University.

Reviews

“These essays give a sense of the really broad and incredibly varied swath of studies in early modern literature and culture that Colette Winn has influenced and helped to cultivate. The field of studying early modern women/writers is an incredibly vibrant, rich, and complex one, with really exciting things happening on many fronts.” — Nora Peterson, University of Nebraska-Lincoln

“…une contribution substantielle aux études sur les femmes de la première modernité.” — Luc Vaillancourt, Université de Quebec à Chicoutimi 

WL W25 CES Office Worker

The Centre for European Studies (CES) is searching for a student to provide administrative support to the Senior Program Assistant and Director of CES.

Sungkyun Journal of East Asian Studies 23(2) ed. by Dr. Ross King

Dr. Ross King recently edited a special issue of Sungkyun Journal of East Asian Studies entitled “Inter- and Intralingual Translation in the Sinographic Cosmopolis.”

This special issue was published November 15, 2023. 

The Crimean War and Cultural Memory: The War France Won and Forgot by Dr. Sima Godfrey

Sima Godfrey is an associate professor emerita of French at the University of British Columbia. Her book, The Crimean War and Cultural Memory: The War France Won and Forgot, was published in September 2023 by the University of Toronto Press.

The Crimean War (1854–56) is widely considered the first modern war with its tactical use of railways, telegraphs, and battleships, its long-range rifles, and its notorious trenches – precursors of the Great War. It is also the first media war: the first to know the impact of a correspondent on the field of battle and the first to be documented in photographs. No one, however, including the French themselves, seems to remember that France was there, fighting in Crimea, losing 95,000 soldiers and leading the Allied campaign to victory. It would seem that the Crimean War has no place in the canon of culturally retained historical events that define modern French identity.

Looking at literature, art, theatre, material objects, and medical reports, The Crimean War and Cultural Memory considers how the Crimean War was and was not represented in French cultural history in the second half of the nineteenth century. Ultimately, the book illuminates the forgotten traces that the Crimean War left on the French cultural landscape.

Reviews

“How does a war – a war that was won – disappear from a nation’s memory? Despite the strained efforts of Napoleon III to celebrate the victory, despite the wealth of images, plays, eye-witness accounts, and memorabilia, and despite the horrifying number of deaths, the Crimean War and its victims were forgotten. Godfrey’s vivid book exposes the powerful dynamics that wiped both the triumphs and the tragedies of the war from French collective memory.” — Judith A. Miller, Associate Professor of History, Emory University

“The Crimean War and Cultural Memory offers an outstanding, well-researched account of how national cultures remember and especially forget complex historical events. Godfrey’s insightful discussion of a war that strangely disappeared from French national memory combines excellent empirical details with theoretical reflections that explain how national identities evolve through constant forgetting as well as very selective remembering.” — Lloyd Kramer, Professor of History, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

“Godfrey’s thoroughly researched and engagingly written book offers not just an in-depth analysis of representations of the Crimean War in a variety of media but also a profound reflection on the vicissitudes of cultural memory. By asking why the French have forgotten one of their greatest victories, Godfrey leads us to consider how certain historical events retain their hold over the popular imagination while others fade into oblivion.” — Maurice Samuels, Betty Jane Anlyan Professor of French, Yale University, and author of The Spectacular Past

“An eminent scholar of French literature and culture, Godfrey examines France’s forgotten war in meticulous detail, showing us its half-erased traces in literature, visual culture, and monumental architecture. This haunting study is both timely and timeless.” — Patrick M. Bray, Professor of French Literature, University College London 

The Interwar World ed. by Dr. Andrew Denning and Dr. Heidi J.S. Tworek

Dr. Andrew Denning and Dr. Heidi J.S. Tworek‘s edited volume The Interwar World was published August 29, 2023 by Routledge.

The Interwar World collects an international group of over 50 contributors to discuss, analyze, and interpret this crucial period in twentieth-century history. A comprehensive understanding of the interwar era has been limited by Euro-American approaches and strict adherence to the temporal limits of the world wars. The volume’s contributors challenge the era’s accepted temporal and geographic framings by privileging global processes and interactions. Each contribution takes a global, thematic approach, integrating world regions into a shared narrative.

Three central questions frame the chapters. First, when was the interwar? Viewed globally, the years 1918 and 1939 are arbitrary limits, and the volume explicitly engages with the artificiality of the temporal framework while closely examining the specific dynamics of the 1920s and 1930s. Second, where was the interwar? Contributors use global history methodologies and training in varied world regions to decenter Euro-American frameworks, engaging directly with the usefulness of the interwar as both an era and an analytical category. Third, how global was the interwar? Authors trace accelerating connections in areas such as public health and mass culture counterbalanced by processes of economic protectionism, exclusive nationalism, and limits to migration. By approaching the era thematically, the volume disaggregates and interrogates the meaning of the ‘global’ in this era.

As a comprehensive guide, this volume offers overviews of key themes of the interwar period for undergraduates, while offering up-to-date historiographical insights for postgraduates and scholars interested in this pivotal period in global history. 

Anders als die Andern by Dr. Ervin Malakaj

Dr. Ervin Malakaj‘s book Anders als die Andern was published on August 1, 2023 by McGill-Queen’s University Press.

Released in 1919, Anders als die Andern (Different from the Others) stunned audiences with its straightforward depiction of queer love. Supporters celebrated the film’s moving storyline, while conservative detractors succeeded in prohibiting public screenings. Banned and partially destroyed after the rise of Nazism, the film was lost until the 1970s and only about one-third of its original footage is preserved today.

Directed by Richard Oswald and co-written by Oswald and the renowned sexologist Magnus Hirschfeld, Anders als die Andern is a remarkable artifact of cinema culture connected to the vibrant pre-Stonewall homosexual rights movement of early-twentieth-century Germany. The film makes a strong case for the normalization of homosexuality and for its decriminalization, but the central melodrama still finds its characters undone by their public outing. Ervin Malakaj sees the film’s portrayal of the pain of living life queerly as generating a complex emotional identification in modern spectators, even those living in apparently friendlier circumstances. There is a strange comfort in knowing that we are not alone in our struggles, and Malakaj recuperates Anders als die Andern’s mournful cinema as an essential element of its endurance, treating the film’s melancholia both as a valuable feeling in and of itself and as a springboard to engage in an intergenerational queer struggle.

Over a century after the film’s release, Anders als die Andern serves as a stark reminder of how hostile the world can be to queer people, but also as an object lesson in how to find sustenance and social connection in tragic narratives.

*All information copied from publisher’s website

Presents and Futures of Catalan Studies: A North American Perspective ed. by Dr. Anna Casas Aguilar et al.

This special edition of Catalan Review was edited by Anna Casas Aguilar, Maria Dasca, Ignasi Gozalo and Núria Silleras and was published by Liverpool University Press on July 26, 2023. Read Volume 37, Issue 1, “Presents and Futures of Catalan Studies: A North American Perspective”.