Nathalie Brack
“Dear colleagues, my name is Nathalie Brack. I am currently Assistant Professor at the Cevipol – Institute for European Studies at the Université libre de Bruxelles and Visiting Professor at the College of Europe. After my PhD on the strategies of Eurosceptic Members of the European Parliament at the ULB, I was a Postdoctoral Fellow at St Antony’s College (Oxford University) and Visiting Fellow/Lecturer at various universities (Sciences Po Bordeaux, University of Lausanne, University of Anwerp and University Catholique de Louvain). My research relies on insights from different fields: EU studies, party politics, legislative studies, and political sociology. My areas of expertise include political representation, Euroscepticism, the European Parliament, and radical parties. I am currently co-leading two research projects, one on political congruence in a comparative perspective and the other on sovereignty conflicts in the EU.
I believe I could help the Standing group and its steering committee by proposing innovative ways in which to increase its (online) visibility. I am also very interested in developing tools and training programs for the new generation of scholars in EU studies, especially PhD students. I will also do my best to reach the various subfields within the EU studies.”
Justin Greenwood
Justin Greenwood is Emeritus Professor of European Public Policy at the Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen, UK, and a Visiting Professor at the College of Europe. His career long research specialism is ‘Interest Representation in the European Union’, which he has also taught at the University of Maastricht, the European Online Academy, and the Moscow State University. He is co-convenor as Section Chair on ‘Organized Interests & Civil Society in the EU policy process’ at the SGEU 10th (2021) biennial conference. He has obtained funding from, inter alia, the EU research framework programmes. He is an Expert Evaluator for the EU Horizon 2020 Programme on ‘Governance in a Changing World – Inclusive and Reflective Societies,’ and is a member of the College of Expert Reviewers of the European Science Foundation. He has supervised 12 PhD completions, and been an External Examiner for 10 doctoral students. If elected to serve on the Executive of the ECPR Standing Group on the European Union, I would seek to help develop its work in reaching out to doctoral students and Early Career Researchers, including summer schools related to the politics of the EU, and in disseminating insights as an evaluator for, and recipient of, EU funding programmes.
Ana Juncos
Ana E. Juncos is Professor of European Politics at the School of Sociology, Politics and International Studies, University of Bristol and a visiting professor at the EU International Relations and Diplomacy Studies Department at the College of Europe, Bruges. She holds a PhD in Politics, International Relations and European Studies from Loughborough University. Her primary research interest lies in European foreign and security policy, with a particular focus on the development on the EU’s conflict prevention and crisis management capabilities and its role in conflict resolution. Between 2015-2018, she was Consortium Coordinator of the EU-funded H2020 project ‘Preventing and responding to conflict: developing EU Civilian Capabilities for a sustainable peace (EU-CIVCAP)’. Her books include EU Foreign and Security Policy in Bosnia (MUP, 2013) and EU Conflict Prevention and Crisis Management (with Eva Gross, Routledge, 2011). She has also published articles in high-ranking journals such as Journal of European Public Policy and Journal of Common Market Studies and Cooperation and Conflict. She is an Associate Editor of the Journal of European Integration.
“Over the past few years, SGEU has gone from strength to strength and I would be honoured to contribute further to the work of this organisation. In my role as a member of the Steering Committee, I am keen to use my skills and experience in international, interdisciplinary and inclusive research on European politics to support the thriving and dynamic SGEU community. I have proudly served in different roles for other professional organisations, including as co-opted member at the UACES Committee (2009-10), a co-chair of the ‘EU as a Global Actor’ interest section of EUSA (2009-13) and a Vice-chair of the PSA Commission on Adding Depth (2015). In these different roles, I have always worked to promote internationalisation, diversity and representation of different voices in academia. In the past I have enjoyed working with scholars across Europe organising events, creating opportunities for knowledge exchange amongst colleagues of all career stages, but in particular, supporting PhD students and Early Career scholars. Being on the Steering Committee will provide me with an opportunity to contribute to the SGEU and the wider field of European Studies during these fast-changing and challenging times.”
Claudia Morsut
“Dear SGEU members, I hope you and your families are fine and safe in this unprecedented time of our lives. My name is Claudia Morsut and I would like to propose myself for the elections to the SGEU steering committee. I believe that I can be an asset for the SGEU, thanks to my coordinating and organizing skills, as I am a goal-oriented and structured person. I would like to put my skills and my academic experience at the service of established and emerging scholars in the field of EU studies. It will be exciting for me to take a more active part in this standing group and help push the SGEU further forward towards diverse and excellent EU-related research.
I am Italian and I have been living in Norway for 15 years. I hold a PhD in International Relations from the University of Rome – La Sapienza and I am currently post doc Fellow at the University of Stavanger, Department of Safety, Economics and Planning. I work within the research group in risk management and societal security and my research focuses on the disaster risk management governance of the EU, the EU civil protection policy and the EU Civil Protection Mechanism. In addition, I am involved in a H2020 project, BuildERS – Building European Communities’ Resilience and Social Capital, as leader WP1, working with the theoretical framework of the project. After the summer, I am leading a national project, RISKSEC2.0, about climate change adaptation, risk governance and securitization. From 2009 until 2014, I worked as Research Scientist at the International Research Institute of Stavanger (IRIS), while from 2008 until 2014 I was Associate Professor at the Faculty of Arts and Education University of Stavanger, teaching at the Erasmus Mundus Master in Migration and Intercultural Relations. Between 2018 and 2019, I acted as Centre Leader for SEROS, Centre for Risk Management and Societal Safety at the University of Stavanger.
Since 2010, I have been an active member of ECPR. I have organized section and panels, I have chaired, presented on or have been a discussant. Besides the SGEU, I am member of the SGIR and the YEN. I am also member of EISA and ISA.”
Daniel Naurin
“My name is Daniel Naurin. I ”grew up” in the SGEU in the late 1990:s and early 2000:s. As an early career researcher from a small country the platform provided by the SGEU (and EUSA) conferences in those days, in terms of access to colleagues and getting an overview of the field, was incredibly important to me. As I am now an established senior researcher, I would like to contribute to making sure that similar support structures are available for future generations of political scientists who share my fascination for the constantly developing European political order. I would like to offer my services in particular to facilitating activities aiming at inspiring and strengthening hard working early career researchers, whether it is through conferences, tailor-made workshops, summer schools or other network structures.
I am a professor of Political Science, affiliated both with the University of Oslo and the University of Gothenburg. From October 2020, I will be the Director of ARENA, which is a multidisciplinary research centre focusing on European studies. I have experiences of services to the field both from the steering committee of the ECPR Standing Group on Law and Courts, and from the executive committee of the APSA Law and Courts Section. I have worked with a broad range of research themes over the years, including interest group politics, transparency, international negotiations and judicial politics. Much of the empirical focus in my research has been on the European Union.”
Aline Sierp
“I am Assistant Professor at Maastricht University and have been a member of the SGEU since 2007. In my research and teaching I focus on memory and identity politics in the context of European integration. I have gathered extensive management experience by founding and directing the Memory Studies Association (MSA). The MSA is the umbrella organisation for scholars dealing with memory issues and has grown exponentially in its three years of existence to now boast around 1500 paying members. I believe that both organisations can mutually benefit from each other’s experience in organising conferences, workshops, summerschools and keeping in contact with its members via newsletters and the website. As a member of the Steering Committee of the SGEU I am going to bring in the skills and knowledge acquired in managing the MSA and its interdisciplinary membership. Having a background both in political science and history, I am furthermore going to foster multidisciplinary collaboration across disciplines with a substantive focus on the European Union. Being what you would call a ‘mid-career’ researcher my aim is to build bridges not only between scholars from different disciplines but also from different generations.”
Adam Szymanski
Adam Szymańskiis an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Political Science and International Studies, University of Warsaw. In 2004-2011, he was also an analyst in the Polish Institute of International Affairs (PISM) in Warsaw and in 2012-2013, the TÜBITAK research fellow at the Koç University in Istanbul. He published widely on the EU enlargement, first of all on the EU-Turkey relations, Europeanization and de-Europeanization, models of differentiated integration as well as Turkish politics and de-democratisation, including articles in the European Foreign Affairs Review, PS: Political Science & Politics and Turkish Studies.
He has been participating in different ECPR conferences and other undertakings for 11 years – including three SGEU conferences in Tampere, the Hague and Paris. He would like to be a member of the SGEU Steering Committee to make it more representative and active in terms of geographical scope. He would be able to work on the development of the external activities of the SGEU, i.e. common undertakings of the SGEU and twin bodies in other political science organizations, including the International Political Science Association (IPSA), in which he is a member of the executive board of the Research Committee 03 European Unification.
Tom Theuns
Tom Theuns is Assistant Professor of Political Theory and European Politics at the Institute of Political Science of Leiden University and Associate Researcher at the Centre for European Studies and Comparative Politics of Sciences Po Paris. Previously, he held a research position at Utrecht University and a teaching position at the University of Amsterdam. He holds a PhD from Sciences Po Paris, an MPhil from the University of Oxford, and a BA from University College Maastricht. Current research projects investigate the ethics of the right to vote and electoral procedures, the tension between democratic ideals and EU foreign policy, and the legitimate scope of EU policies designed to protect and entrench democratic government. He has published peer-reviewed articles in journals such as the American Political Science Review, the Journal of European Integration, and the Cambridge Review of International Affairs.
“As an early-career researcher I’ve been involved with the SGEU only for the last few years. I also don’t have a very common disciplinary profile in our sub-field. However, I think that some representation of ERCs and from people with more unusual disciplinary backgrounds is important so that the SC can maximally reflect our community’s pluralism.
In November last year I started work as an Assistant Professor of Political Theory and European Politics at the Institute of Political Science of Leiden University. I am also an Associate Researcher at the Centre for European Studies and Comparative Politics of Sciences Po Paris. Current research projects investigate the ethics of electoral procedures, the tension between democratic ideals and EU foreign policy, and the legitimate scope of EU policies designed to protect democratic government.I participated in the 9th SGEU conference in Paris, but had bigger plans for the postponed conference in Rome; with a lot of help, I put together three panels and a pre-conference workshop – all looking from multidisciplinary perspectives at democratic backsliding in the EU. If elected to the SC, I will be another voice for pluralism, attuned to the needs and possibilities of early-career members.”
Hans-Jörg Trenz
“Currently I work as a Professor in Modern European Studies and co-leader of CEMES (the Centre for Modern European Studies) at University of Copenhagen. I am also adjunct Professor at ARENA, the Centre for European Studies of University of Oslo. My background is political sociology of European integration, European culture, media and the public sphere. I have a long experience in organizing academic conferences and networking in European studies. I am currently the coordinator of RC 03 European Unification of IPSA and responsible for convening the general conferences. I served in the past for 2 years as the vice-coordinator and another 2 years as the coordinator of the European Political Sociology Research Network of the European Sociological Association. Within ECPR, I a member of the board of the Standing Group of Political Sociology and member of the research streams ‘European Union’ and ‘Political Representation. I regularly organize sections and panels for ECPR General Conferences and SGEU conferences.. On occasion of the 8th SGEU conference in Trento I was the convener of a section on ‘Euroscepticism’. Should I be elected as a member of the Steering Group, my mission would simply be to continue the successful collaboration of SGEU. I would be able to draw on my networks and collaborations with academics and universities all over Europe, especially on our more recent efforts to intensify collaboration in EU studies in the Nordic Region and our initiative to establish a Nordic Association in European Studies. Beyond that, I also believe that collaboration with Southern and Eastern European universities should be intensified and colleagues from these regions be encouraged to host future SGEU conferences.”
Benjamin Zyla
“I am currently Visiting Professor in the Department of Government at Harvard University and Associate Professor (tenured) of International Affairs in the School of International Development & Global Studies at the University of Ottawa.
After having won the 2017 Young Researcher Award of uOttawa’s Faculty of Social Sciences, I was appointed Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study(Exzellenzcluster) at the University of Konstanz in Germany (2017-19). At the University of Ottawa’s Centre for International Policy Studies (CIPS) I co-direct the Fragile States Network (FSRN); I am also Senior Fellow with the Austrian Institute for Europe and Security Policy (AIES).
In my research I focus on collective action problems in EU security organizations (especially NATO, EU), EU foreign policy, and transatlantic affairs more generally. My latest book The End of European Security Institutions? examines the future of the EU’s Common Foreign and Security Policy and NATO after Brexit. While being deeply embedded in both North American as well as European research networks, I would like to promote transatlantic exchange on the SGEU Steering committee—that is to be part of repairing the transatlantic link that has started to break apart, especially since the new administration taking office in Washington. The Covid-19 crisis has made the omissions and discrepancies in the transatlantic relationship once again, and its implications as well as a resulting global economic crises are going to be with us for months and years to come. The management of this crisis will require an academic analysis, which I would like to help promote as part of the SGEU Steering committee.”
