The Jean Monnet Center for Excellence in Critical Infrastructure Studies at the University of British Columbia (UBCCECIS) brings together faculty, graduate students, and regional experts who share an interest in using critical infrastructure studies to address East/West binaries that persist in political, social, and cultural thought.
The problem with East/West binaries
East/West binaries have historically been the foundation on which simplistic distinctions were made between large geopolitical areas, resulting in the suppression of efforts for collaboration and understanding. They have prevented researchers, diplomats, and public intellectuals from moving toward a more unified future.
UBCCECIS’s mission
UBCCECIS is working to develop interdisciplinary methodologies in the humanities, social sciences, and applied sciences to create new ways of studying global infrastructures. Our goal is to examine cultural tensions that result from binary thinking and mitigate its impacts.
UBC has a long history of excellence in European and Asian Studies. UBCCECIS connects fields of study and scholars in these areas from across the university. The goal is to make UBC a leading centre for global Critical Infrastructure Studies, focusing on the EU and its relationships with Eastern European and Asian cultural, economic, and political practices.
Funding
The Jean Monnet Center for Excellence in Critical Infrastructure Studies at UBC is supported from 2024-27 by funding from the Faculty of Arts and the Erasmus+ Program of the European Union through the Jean Monnet Actions in the field of Higher Education: Centers of Excellence program.
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