'Eastern Enlargement' of the European Union:
An Interdisciplinary Graduate Research Seminar on Borders and Flows
/ Call for Applications /
Convenor: József Böröcz (Dept of Sociology)
Rutgers University // Fall 2000 // Monday 2:50-5:50
172 College Ave, New Brunswick // 16.859.501
Large
structures--institutionalized patterns of statehood, markets, representations and
prejudice--have been in motion on the European continent since 1989. A new order is emerging
after the end of imperial state socialism. We see two parallel processes:
(1) the
abolition of interstate borders, increases in the intensity of human and economic flows, and the
unprecedented sharing and pooling of state sovereignty within the European Union and (2) the
fragmentation, peripheralization, and marginalization of the now-democratized eastern half of the
continent. Today, European public discourse about the future is largely about the prospects of
the process, commonly labelled as 'eastern enlargement', whereby countries of the latter group
are considered for full membership in the former. An entire continent is contemplating expansion
vs. fortress-building with two sets of stakes: where the future eastern limes of the new Europe
will lie, and what the divide between the inside and the outside will imply for the continent and
the world. Globalization gives this transformation historic
significance.
This course will bring together graduate students from a wide array of disciplines, united by an empirical focus on transformations of borders and flows. Participation in the seminar is by instructor's permission only.
Applications are sought from graduate students in the social sciences and the humanities specializing in:
whose work is relevant to issues raised by the 'eastern enlargement' of the European Union. We particularly encourage application by PhD-candidates whose interests involve interpreting textual, visual, or numerical materials in a historical, global and/or comparative perspective. Familiarity with European languages in addition to English is an additional asset.
The number of participants will be limited to fifteen. After a few introductory readings, the course will be structured as a research team, with individual participants contributing their perspective to a scholarly discussion of themes agreed upon at the beginning of the semester. A website will be developed for the empirical materials discussed and the scholarly materials produced in the seminar, providing worldwide visibility to the project and the participants.
The course is available by default for all graduate students in the humanities and the social sciences at Rutgers and Princeton. Interested graduate students at other universities should contact their academic advisor first to see what ad hoc solution can be invented for them to be involved.
If interested, please send:
Please submit your application, if possible, as an email attachment sent in .rtf format to jborocz@rci.rutgers.edu. If this does not work, the regular mailing address to which the applications should be sent is
József Böröcz
CRCEES // Rutgers University
172 College Ave
New Brunswick, NJ 08901 U.S.A.
Review of applications will take place on 1 July 2000.