Teaching
Summer semester 2023
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.
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.
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.
Winter semester 2022/2023
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.
Summer semester 2022
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)
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)
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.