The Center for Global Studies is proud to support two lecture series organized by the Center for West European Studies and the Jean Monnet Center of Excellence: The E.U. Democracy Forum is a four-part lecture series addressing actors, institutions, and policies in the European Union and its neighborhood, and runs from January 11, 2021—May 20, 2021. Talking Gender in the E.U. is a four-part lecture series covering gender politics in Poland, Latvia, France, and the European Parliament, and runs from February 10, 2021—May 13, 2021. Learn more about each lecture series below, and follow the links to register.
E.U. Democracy Forum
12:00 – 1:00 pm, Pacific Time, Jan. 11 – May 20, 2021
30-minute online lectures, followed by Q&A | To register for individual lectures or the whole lecture series, click here.
Democracy cannot be taken for granted — not in Europe, not anywhere. With this series of talks by experts on European politics and society we want to encourage discussion about the future of democracy in the European Union, its member states, and the neighborhood. As the E.U. Commission launches its Conference on the Future of Europe in 2021, we invite you to imagine this future with us. Our contributors will reflect on the E.U.’s achievements and challenges. We will hear their reflections on how to strengthen and expand democratic processes and institutions, both in Brussels and in Europe more broadly.
Lecture Sessions and Speakers:
Monday, January 11 | A True Party Democracy in the EU? The Potential and Role of Transnational European Party Organizations
With Niko Switek, DAAD Visiting Assistant Professor for German Studies at the Henry M. Jackson School for International 
Studies and the Department of Political Science, University of Washington.
Niko Switek is DAAD Visiting Assistant Professor for German Studies at the Henry M. Jackson School for International Studies and the Department of Political Science at the University of Washington. His research interests focus on political parties and party systems as well as on coalition politics. He wrote extensively about the green party family in Western Europe and he worked on parties on European level (‘Europarties’).
Wednesday, February 3 | EU Trilogues: Challenges for Democracy?
With Justin Greenwood, Professor of European Public Policy, Robert Gordon University & Visiting Professor, College of Europe
Justin Greenwood is a Visiting Professor at the College of Europe’s campuses in Belgium and Poland, and an Emeritus Professor at the Aberdeen Business School, UK. He has a contract for the 5th edition of ‘Interest Representation in the European Union’ with Palgrave Macmillan, due in 2022. He has just completed a 3 year national research council funded project on the role of organised interests in EU inter-institutional decision making (trilogues), and has just received a contract from the European Parliament Research Service for a study on comparative bi-cameral conflict resolution, with a major focus on the US.
Thursday, April 15 | New Parties in Europe. Formation and Institutionalization of New Parties in EU Member States
With Kristina Weissenbach, Senior Lecturer, University of Duisburg/Essen
Kristina Weissenbach (Ph.D. Political Science, 2012, University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany) is currently an Affiliate Professor for Political Science at the University of Washington. She is an Assistant Professor and Coordinator of the Research Unit at the NRW School of Governance, Institute for Political Science, University of Duisburg-Essen (Germany). Her primary research interests include the organization and institutionalization of (new and digital) political parties, party assistance and institutions in new democracies, the political system of Germany and political communication.
Thursday, May 20 | Pride amid Prejudice: The Impact of the First Pride in Sarajevo
With Phillip Ayoub, Associate Professor, Occidental College
Phillip M. Ayoub is Associate Professor of Diplomacy and World Affairs at Occidental College and Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Fellow in International Security at the Hertie School. He is the author of When States Come Out: Europe’s Sexual Minorities and the Politics of Visibility (Cambridge University Press, 2016) and his articles have appeared in the American Political. Science Review, Comparative Political Studies, the Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, the European Journal of International Relations, the European Journal of Political Research, Mobilization, the European Political Science Review, the Journal of Human Rights, Social Politics, Political Research Quarterly, and Social Movement Studies, among others.
The E.U. Democracy Forum lecture series is organized by the Center for West European Studies and the Jean Monnet Center of Excellence with support from the Lee and Stuart Scheingold European Studies Fund, the EU Erasmus+ Program, the Ellison Center for Russian, East European and Central Asian Studies, and the Center for Global Studies.
For more information, please email the Center for West European Studies at cweseuc@uw.edu or Tamara Leonard at the Center for Global Studies at cleonard@uw.edu.
Talking Gender in the E.U.
12:00 – 1:00 pm, Pacific Time, Feb. 10 – May 13, 2021
To register for individual lectures or the whole lecture series, click here.
The European Union has set impressive standards on gender equality, providing legal frameworks for equal pay, investing in work/life balance and childcare, and allowing for positive action to advance equal treatment of women across member states. At the same time, Europe witnesses considerable backlash from anti-gender activists and rightwing reactionary movements, calling into question gender equality as a core norm of European democracies. This lecture series investigates actors, institutions, and policies in the area of gender in Eastern and Western Europe, the Baltics, and on the E.U. level.
Lecture Sessions and Speakers:
Wednesday, Feb. 10 | Anti-Gender Politics and Rightwing Populism in Poland
With Elzbieta Korolczuk, Associate Professor, The School of Historical and Contemporary Studies, Södertörn University, Sweden
Monday, March 1 | Political Ethnography with a Gender Lens in the Latvian Parliament
With Laura Dean, Associate Professor, Department of Political Science and History, Millikin University
Thursday, Apr. 22| Gender Parity in France
With Amy Mazur, Claudius O. and Mary W. Johnson Distinguished Professor in Political Science, Washington State University, and Associate Researcher, Centre d’Etudes Européennes Sciences Po, Paris
Thursday, May 13| Gender in the European Parliament
With Petra Ahrens, Senior Researcher, Faculty of Social Sciences, Tampere University, Finland
The Talking Gender in the E.U. lecture series is organized by the Center for West European Studies and the Jean Monnet Center of Excellence with support from the Lee and Stuart Scheingold European Studies Fund, the EU Erasmus+ Program, the Ellison Center for Russian, East European and Central Asian Studies, and the Center for Global Studies.
For more information, please email the Center for West European Studies at cweseuc@uw.edu or Tamara Leonard at the Center for Global Studies at cleonard@uw.edu.