Teaching

Academic writing for PhD students: how to publish?

By Aleksandra Maatsch

This seminar systematizes and deepens PhD students’ publication skills. During the seminar PhD students will learn how to select a journal for a given submission, how to structure an article and how to make an innovative contribution to the field. The seminar will also focus on the review process: PhDs will learn how to write a response to reviewers and how to deal (also emotionally) with rejections. The seminar will be offered in English. PhDs are encouraged to present and discuss their ongoing work in progress.

Digitalisation and Democracy: Friends or Foes?

By Aleksandra Maatsch

The goal of this seminar is to study the relation between digitalisation and democracy. On the one hand, the literature stresses that digitalization has the potential to enhance democracy by increasing efficiency and transparency of proceeding but also by strengthening the connection between citizens and political institutions. On the other hand, there are studies demonstrating that authoritarian or backsliding states employ digitalization in order to supress democracy and citizens’ rights. In democratic states digitalization can also become a threat to democracy if digital measures are introduced in the absence of adequate security framework.

Against that background, the seminar poses the following questions: What is the impact of digitalization on democracy and democratic institutions? Are digitalization and democracy friends or foes? Under which circumstances digitalization fosters democracy? As we all have observed, digitalization has accelerated during the Covid-19 pandemic, allowing people to conduct their professional work or education during the period of social distancing. Political institutions were equally affected: they had to come up with adjustment measures helping them to fulfil their constitutional roles during unusual circumstances.  The seminar has a strong empirical focus and pays particular attention to the application of digital tools, including also AI, by national parliaments. Our guest speaker during the seminar was prof. Zora Hesova from Charles University in Prague. Professor Hesova delivered a lecture introducing students to the phenomenon of the Pirates Party in the Czech Republic.

Parties and party systems of European countries

By Anna Pacześniak

The seminar is embedded within the theory of participation and party systems of contemporary European democracies. The main goal of the seminar is to examine parties as multi-faceted political phenomena. The seminar focuses on the sphere of power relations, system of relations between political parties as well as the linkage between the society and their representatives. Students learn how to analyze the field with help of various theories such as rational choice. We shall also look into constitutional procedures applying to parties and party systems. Finally, the seminar touches upon such issues as the phenomenon of stabilization of party organization, party system but also “social” stabilization.

BA seminar – Management of Migration

By Anna Pacześniak

Within the framework of this seminar, BA students present and discuss their BA projects as well as subsequent milestones related to the BA thesis. The seminar is open to BA projects both in Polish and English.

BA seminar – European Studies

By Anna Pacześniak

Within the framework of this seminar, BA students present and discuss their BA projects as well as subsequent milestones related to the BA thesis. The seminar is open to BA projects both in Polish and English.

The political system of the European Union

By Anna Pacześniak

There are many valid reasons to study the European Union (EU), its institutions and policies  but the primary one is be to gain awareness of the encompassing legal system we live in, as well as the ways in which EU law affects our everyday life. The aim of this course is to broaden students’ knowledge about the peculiar nature of the EU, its institutions and policy-making processes as well as the scientific theories explaining the process of European integration. These lectures will provide with a ‘toolbox’ serving to understand, analyse and explain the sometimes confusing architecture and activities of ‘Brussels’; identify the competences of different EU institutions, and to explain how the EU is interconnected with national politics and European citizens. 

Comparative Politics: from Fiscal Unions to Foreign Policies

By Tomasz Woźniakowski

The ‘Comparative Politics” course aims to investigate the transformation of modern democracies in the context of the process of Europeanization and internationalization of domestic politics. The comparison will be conducted in the context of the new global disorder created by the Russian aggression of Ukraine. It is divided in three parts:
(1) the first part consists of the comparative analysis of the political institutions of contemporary democracies, focusing on the established nation states. The aim of this part is to show the functional and institutional differences between nation states and unions of states;
(2) the second part consists of a specific institutional analysis of the European Union (EU) and the United States (US) as the most significant examples of democratic unions of states. A special focus will be on their fiscal and foreign policies. The aim of this part is to investigate the US and EU role in the global order;
(3) the third  part will dedicate to the role of the US and the EU in the new global disorder created by the Russian aggression of Ukraine.

Crisis as a challenge to European integration

By Aleksandra Maatsch

The objective of this seminar is to introduce students to current debates on the  impact of contemporary crises on the EU integration process. During the last few years the EU has been challenged by various crises, only to mention the sovereign debt crisis, the refugee crisis, the rule of law crisis, the Covid-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine. As the literature demonstrates, only some of these crises generated institutional responses deepening the EU integration process. Against that background, this seminar poses the following questions: why does the impact of contemporary crises differ with respect to the EU integration process? Which factors help to explain why certain crises foster the EU integration process whereas other crises don’t? In the course of the seminar students will acquire knowledge and skills allowing them to critically evaluate the current dynamics of the EU integration process. The course draws predominantly on political science literature, however, it is open to students with different backgrounds.

PhD lecture: representative democracy in crisis mode

By Aleksandra Maatsch

The lecture is offered to 2nd year PhD students. During the seminar, PhD students are invited to the literature dealing with the impact of the crisis on democracy and European integration process. The lecture is delivered in English.

BA seminar

By Anna Pacześniak

Within the framework of this seminar, BA students present and discuss their BA projects as well as subsequent milestones related to the BA thesis. The seminar is open to BA projects both in Polish and English.

PhD seminar

By Anna Pacześniak

The goal of this seminar is to provide PhD students with a framework to discuss their PhD projects. The seminar is open to projects located in the discipline of political science. Projects in Polish and English are welcomed.

Study Trip to Brussels, 10-17 maja 2024

by Anna Pacześniak

This year our study trip focused on the forthcoming elections to the European Parliament. Students took part in intensive programme composed of lectures, workshops and discussions. The group was supervised by prof. Anna Pacześniak, core team member of the JMC.

https://redemo.eu/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Brochure-BIP-10th-May-2024.pdf

MA seminar

By Aleksandra Maatsch

The Jean Monnet Chair offers a Master seminar. The seminar is open to MA students supervised by the members of the Chair but also external students. External students are encouraged to use the framework of the seminar to discuss their work-in-progress. The format of the seminar envisages discussion over MA research projects and subsequent milestones (chapters). This semester our guest was prof. Maria Wincławska from Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń. Professor Wincławska delivered feedback to our MA students.

Jean Monnet Postgraduate Seminar

By Karolina Borońska-Hryniewiecka and Jan Kotynek Krotki

https://redemo.eu/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Invitation_-ERC-starting-grant-1.pdf

The JM Postgraduate Seminar is open to PhD candidates as well as postdoctoral researchers interested in discussing their work-in-progress (PhD proposals, draft articles, book chapters as well as research grant proposals) within the framework of the seminar. The seminar hosts speakers from different universities worldwide. Their work is discussed by European scholars with a rich expertise in a given area. Forthcoming sessions:

• Parliamentary dimension of the Conference on the future of Europe: experience from selected Member States
• How to prepare application for the ERC Starting Grant: first-hand experience
• How to successfully apply for research grants at the National Science Centre (NCN) in Poland: meeting dedicated to Polish and foreign scholars wishing to undertake research in Polish higher education institutions
• Inter-parliamentary cooperation unpacked. Preliminary results from the InPaCo project 

The political system of the European Union

By Anna Pacześniak

There are many valid reasons to study the European Union (EU), its institutions and policies  but the primary one is be to gain awareness of the encompassing legal system we live in, as well as the ways in which EU law affects our everyday life. The aim of this course is to broaden students’ knowledge about the peculiar nature of the EU, its institutions and policy-making processes as well as the scientific theories explaining the process of European integration. These lectures will provide with a ‘toolbox’ serving to understand, analyse and explain the sometimes confusing architecture and activities of ‘Brussels’; identify the competences of different EU institutions, and to explain how the EU is interconnected with national politics and European citizens. 

Europeans and the European Union

By Anna Pacześniak

This seminar aims at identifying main trends in public opinion with regard to European integration in selected Member States and non-Member States (e.g. Switzerland, Norway, Ukraine, Western Balkan countries). The seminar predominantly draws on national and international (Eurobarometer) surveys and studies based on survey data. The seminar covers such topics as determinants of EP election turnout in Member States or attitudes towards the EU and their evolution of the main contemporary political parties. Furthermore, the seminar will touch upon the country’s European policy resulting from the country’s specific geopolitical interests and historical-cultural circumstances. The seminar is offered in Polish for BA students of two programmes: European Studies and Migration Studies.

Game-changer or old wine in a new bottle? Democracy in a crisis-mode

By Aleksandra Maatsch

The goal of this seminar is to introduce students to the phenomenon and controversies of democracy in crisis mode. While a pandemic in a globalized world is a new phenomenon, democracy in ‘crisis-mode’ is by no means new. Only ten years ago the eurozone was destabilized by a very profound economic crisis. Extraordinary situations therefore seem to be a new normality of our times. Against this background, the seminar introduces students to both normative and empirical debates regarding democracy in crisis mode. Regarding the normative dimension, we will discuss the following questions: Which extraordinary practices can be accepted during a crisis? Do we need a rigid or a flexible approach? Should global or international crises be tackled locally, nationally or internationally? The seminar will also introduce students to contemporary empirical debates addressing the following questions: To what extent have the sovereign debt and the COVID-19 crisis affected democracy at the national and supranational level? Do we observe a similar or a different trend across both crises? Are the changes observed of a temporary or a permanent nature, i.e. do they affect the DNA of representative democracy in Europe?

Parties and party systems of European countries

By Anna Pacześniak

The seminar is embedded within the theory of participation and party systems of contemporary European democracies. The main goal of the seminar is to examine parties as multi-faceted political phenomena. The seminar focuses on the sphere of power relations, system of relations between political parties as well as the linkage between the society and their representatives. Students learn how to analyze the field with help of various theories such as rational choice. We shall also look into constitutional procedures applying to parties and party systems. Finally, the seminar touches upon such issues as the phenomenon of stabilization of party organization, party system but also “social” stabilization.

Crisis as a challenge to European integration

By Aleksandra Maatsch

The objective of this seminar is to introduce students to current debates on the  impact of contemporary crises on the EU integration process. During the last few years the EU has been challenged by various crises, only to mention the sovereign debt crisis, the refugee crisis, the rule of law crisis, the Covid-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine. As the literature demonstrates, only some of these crises generated institutional responses deepening the EU integration process. Against that background, this seminar poses the following questions: why does the impact of contemporary crises differ with respect to the EU integration process? Which factors help to explain why certain crises foster the EU integration process whereas other crises don’t? In the course of the seminar students will acquire knowledge and skills allowing them to critically evaluate the current dynamics of the EU integration process. The course draws predominantly on political science literature, however, it is open to students with different backgrounds. The language of the seminar is Polish, the seminar is offered to 2^nd year MA students of Migration Management.

Academic writing for PhD students: how to publish?

By Aleksandra Maatsch

This seminar systematizes and deepens PhD students’ publication skills. During the seminar PhD students will learn how to select a journal for a given submission, how to structure an article and how to make an innovative contribution to the field. The seminar will also focus on the review process: PhDs will learn how to write a response to reviewers and how to deal (also emotionally) with rejections. The seminar will be offered in English. PhDs are encouraged to present and discuss their ongoing work in progress.

BA seminar

By Anna Pacześniak

Within the framework of this seminar, BA students present and discuss their BA projects as well as subsequent milestones related to the BA thesis. The seminar is open to BA projects both in Polish and English.

PhD seminar

By Anna Pacześniak

The goal of this seminar is to provide PhD students with a framework to discuss their PhD projects. The seminar is open to projects located in the discipline of political science. Projects in Polish and English are welcomed.

MA seminar

By Aleksandra Maatsch

The Jean Monnet Chair offers a Master seminar. The seminar is open to MA students supervised by the members of the Chair but also external students. External students are encouraged to use the framework of the seminar to discuss their work-in-progress. The format of the seminar envisages discussion over MA research projects and subsequent milestones (chapters).

Jean Monnet Postgraduate Seminar

By Karolina Borońska-Hryniewiecka and Jan Kotynek Krotki

https://redemo.eu/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Invitation_-JM-seminar-10-November.pdf

The JM Postgraduate Seminar is open to PhD candidates as well as postdoctoral researchers interested in discussing their work-in-progress (PhD proposals, draft articles, book chapters as well as research grant proposals) within the framework of the seminar. The seminar hosts speakers from different universities worldwide. Their work is discussed by European scholars with a rich expertise in a given area. Forthcoming sessions:

• Parliamentary dimension of the Conference on the future of Europe: experience from selected Member States
• How to prepare application for the ERC Starting Grant: first-hand experience
• How to successfully apply for research grants at the National Science Centre (NCN) in Poland: meeting dedicated to Polish and foreign scholars wishing to undertake research in Polish higher education institutions
• Inter-parliamentary cooperation unpacked. Preliminary results from the InPaCo project 

Study trip of JMC-students to the European Commission

By Aleksandra Maatsch

On April 18-20, 2023 our students took part in a study trip to the European Commission. The trip was organised by the Regional Representation of the European Commission in Wroclaw. The detailed programme of the visit, students’s report as well photos are provided below:

https://redemo.eu/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Programme-PL.pdf

https://redemo.eu/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Study-trip-tu-Brussels_Raport-EN-1.pdf

Challenges of European Integration

By Aleksandra Maatsch

The objective of this seminar is to introduce students to current debates on the impact of contemporary crises on the EU integration process. During the last few years the EU has been challenged by various crises, only to mention the sovereign debt crisis, the refugee crisis, the rul of law crisis the Covid-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine. As the literature demonstrates, only some of these crises generated institutional responses deepening the EU integration process. Against that background, this seminar poses the following questions: why does the impact of contemporary crises differ with respect to the EU integration process? Which factors help to explain why certain crises foster the EU integration process whereas other crises don’t? In the course of the seminar students will acquire knowledge and skills allowing them to critically evaluate the current dynamics of the EU integration process. The course draws predominantly on political science literature, however, it is open to students with different backgrounds. Our guest speaker during the class is prof. Roman Petrov who will deliver the lecture “Is EU Accession of Ukraine Possible in Time of War?” The lecture will be also attended by students of the law department at the University of Wroclaw.

EU economic governance

By Edgars Eihmanis

By surveying the most important developments in EU economic governance and policy from the Maastricht Treaty (1992) to the Covid-19 crisis (2020), this MA course shows how politics, policies and polity of the EU are the result of visionary ideas and power-play on the one hand, and functional necessities and global developments on the other hand. By providing a comprehensive picture of how various EU economic policies have changed – and have been governed – over the last three decades by various national and supranational actors and institutions, the course will be of interest not only to EU politics- and International Relations- students but also would-be policy makers. In addition, the course will serve as a useful auxiliary guide to the application of qualitative (political science) methodology in researching EU politics and integration.

JMC Master Seminar

By Aleksandra Maatsch & Karolina Borońska-Hryniewiecka

The Jean Monnet Chair offers a Master seminar which is open to MA students writing their thesis at the JMC as well as external (guest) students pursuing their MA projects at different institutions. The format of the seminar envisages discussion on MA research projects and subsequent milestones. The thematic focus of MA theses should be linked to the European Union or comparative politics with a focus on EU member states. In terms of methods, the seminar welcomes both qualitative and quantitative approaches. Each semester, the MA seminar is attended by a guest speaker (from a different university/country) providing substantial feedback to MA students. The language of the seminar is English and/or Polish. The JMC also welcomes MA projects in these two languages. This semester our seminar has hosted dr Tomasz Woźniakowski from LUISS University in Rome.

Jean Monnet Postgraduate Seminar

By Aleksandra Maatsch & Karolina Borońska-Hryniewiecka

The JM Postgraduate Seminar is open to PhD candidates as well as postdoctoral researchers interested in discussing their work-in-progress (PhD proposals, draft articles, book chapters as well as research grant proposals) within the framework of the seminar. The seminar hosts speakers from different universities worldwide. Their work is discussed by European scholars with a rich expertise in a given area. This semester the seminar has focused on different forms of publishing the PhD dissertation. We have organised two major sessions, devoted to publishing a PhD as a book and cumulatively. Our discussions were drawing on specific PhD book proposals or cumulative dissertations presented by PhD students. The session devoted to publishing the PhD in the form of a monography has been jointly organised with the Chair for Central and East European Studies at the Technical University of Chemnitz directed by prof. Stefan Garsztecki.

Political Systems of European Countries

By Anna Pacześniak

The goal of the module is to introduce undergraduate students to the variety of political systems in contemporary European states. The module focuses on both old and young democracies, discussing current trends in the development of political systems in Europe. Students acquire competences in identifying various types of political systems, their origins, similarities and differences across different cases as well as the role of political organisations and institutions in contemporary societies.

The Political System of the European Union

By Anna Pacześniak

There are many valid reasons to study the European Union (EU), its institutions and policies  but the primary one is be to gain awareness of the encompassing legal system we live in, as well as the ways in which EU law affects our everyday life. The aim of this course is to broaden students’ knowledge about the peculiar nature of the EU, its institutions and policy-making processes as well as the scientific theories explaining the process of European integration. These lectures will provide with a ‘toolbox’ serving to understand, analyse and explain the sometimes confusing architecture and activities of ‘Brussels’; identify the competences of different EU institutions, and to explain how the EU is interconnected with national politics and European citizens. Our guest speaker during the seminar was dr. Anna Skrzypek-Claassens from the Foundation for European Progressive Studies, FEPS.

Comparing European Societies

By Aleksandra Maatsch

The lecture provides students with an overview of processes transforming European societies since the beginning of the EU integration.

Jean Monnet Postgraduate Seminar

By Aleksandra Maatsch & Karolina Borońska-Hryniewiecka

The JM Postgraduate Seminar is open to PhD candidates as well as postdoctoral researchers interested in discussing their work-in-progress (PhD proposals, draft articles, book chapters as well as research grant proposals) within the framework of the seminar. Their work is discussed by scholars (guest speakers) who are experts in a given area. This semester we have organised three intensive sessions.

The first session (22.11.2022) was devoted to the empirical part of the PhD thesis by Bastian Küntzel who studies the impact of pandemics on the Polish-German borderland. The discussants were prof. Opiłowska (work-package leader in the Horizon projekt B-SHAPES: Borders Shaping Perceptions of European Societies) and dr Moll (team member in the project B-SHAPES). During the second session (07.12.2022) we have discussed a paper ‘Who is fighting populists in power?’ by dr. Aleksandra Moroska-Bonkiewicz (UWr) and Katarzyna Domagała (UWr), the discussant was dr. Alvaro Oleart (ULB). Finally, the third session (25.01.2023) was devoted to a research grant proposal (National Science Centre, NCN, PRELUDIUM) entitled ‘Victims of Global (In)Visibility’ by Laura Piel Martin (UWr), supervised by prof. Przemysław Żukiewicz (UWr). Our discussant was prof. Heleen Touquet (University of Antwerp).

Game-Changer or Old Wine in a New Bottle? Democracy in a crisis-mode

By Aleksandra Maatsch

The goal of this seminar is to introduce students to the phenomenon and controversies of democracy in crisis mode. While a pandemic in a globalized world is a new phenomenon, democracy in ‘crisis-mode’ is by no means new. Only ten years ago the eurozone was destabilized by a very profound economic crisis. Extraordinary situations therefore seem to be a new normality of our times. Against this background, the seminar introduces students to both normative and empirical debates regarding democracy in crisis mode. Regarding the normative dimension, we will discuss the following questions: Which extraordinary practices can be accepted during a crisis? Do we need a rigid or a flexible approach? Should global or international crises be tackled locally, nationally or internationally? The seminar will also introduce students to contemporary empirical debates addressing the following questions: To what extent have the sovereign debt and the COVID-19 crisis affected democracy at the national and supranational level? Do we observe a similar or a different trend across both crises? Are the changes observed of a temporary or a permanent nature, i.e. do they affect the DNA of representative democracy in Europe? Our guest speaker during the seminar was dr. Nikita Lomakin (MEMORIAL / University of Bremen). The hybrid seminar with dr. Lomakin was also attended by MA students of Interdisciplinary European Studies (ISE) at the Willy Brandt Centre as well as the students of Journalism from the University of Opole.

JMC Master Seminar

By Aleksandra Maatsch & Karolina Borońska-Hryniewiecka

The Jean Monnet Chair offers a Master seminar which is open to MA students writing their thesis at the JMC as well as external (guest) students pursuing their MA projects at different institutions. The format of the seminar envisages discussion on MA research projects and subsequent milestones. The thematic focus of MA theses should be linked to the European Union or comparative politics with a focus on EU member states. In terms of methods, the seminar welcomes both qualitative and quantitative approaches. Each semester, the MA seminar is attended by a guest speaker (from a different university/country) providing substantial feedback to MA students. The language of the seminar is English and/or Polish. The JMC also welcomes MA projects in these two languages.

JMC Master Seminar

By Aleksandra Maatsch & Karolina Borońska-Hryniewiecka

The Jean Monnet Chair offers a Master seminar which is open to MA students writing their thesis at the JMC as well as external (guest) students pursuing their MA projects at different institutions. The format of the seminar envisages discussion on MA research projects and subsequent milestones. The thematic focus of MA theses should be linked to the European Union or comparative politics with a focus on EU member states. In terms of methods, the seminar welcomes both qualitative and quantitative approaches. Each semester, the MA seminar is attended by a guest speaker (from a different university/country) providing substantial feedback to MA students. The language of the seminar is English and/or Polish. The JMC also welcomes MA projects in these two languages.

This semester final versions of MA projects were presented during a seminar on 23.06.2022. Professor Monika Sus (Hertie School) provided feedback to our students.

Public Administration (lecture & seminar)

By Karolina Borońska-Hryniewiecka

This course is designed as an introduction to public administration (PA) theory and practice in Europe. Its goal is to develop understanding of public administration concepts and comparative practice with an emphasis on important dimensions of policy formulation and implementation. Contents of the course include topics such as: market failure and the role of PA in governing; governance and multi-level governance; PA and democracy; accountability of PA; lobbying and PA; Europeanization of PA and PA of the European Union.

Self-government and local policy (seminar)

By Karolina Borońska-Hryniewiecka

The aim of this course is to complement students’ knowledge and understanding of the theory and practice of self-government and local policy in the European Union. Since regions and localities are key actors in the conception and implementation of around 80% of European policies, the effectiveness of EU development strategies depends to a great extent on the quality of regional and local governance. Moreover, when addressing issues such as climate change, growing inequalities, migration or urbanisation, local authorities are at the forefront when responding to the challenges on the ground and providing viable solutions for their communities. The workshop programme is divided into two parts: the conceptual and context-oriented followed by case studies analysis. In the first part, students will become familiar with various concepts indispensable to studying the dynamics of local self-government and policy-making such as polity, policy, governance, multi-level governance, subsidiarity and decentralization. They will also get to know the European Union’s context and influence on regional and local entities and their self-government and development. The second part of the course concerns case studies of regional and local self-government focusing on real-life examples.