CIVICA ESR
COURSE CATALOGUE

Thinking and languages are co-constitutive, one shapes the other. However, too often we are not aware of the racial and colonial baggage of the language we use. Thinking about language(s) is particularly important for us as academics, as words are not only the final outcome of the work we invest into our projects, but also shape our work. Attention to language is especially important here at the EUI, a multilingual institution where research is carried out in scholars’ native and non-native languages. This workshop hopes to offer an opportunity to reflect on the colonial, discriminatory dimensions of languages both at the EUI and more broadly in academic writing. The workshop to be held at the EUI on 23 and 24 May 2022 with guest speakers Mackda Ghebremariam Tesfaù (Università Iuav di Venezia) and Margaret Amaka Ohia-Nowak (Tischner European University in Krakow), and on 7 June 2022 with Gary Younge (University of Manchester). The keynote speeches of the workshop are open to online participation via Zoom (see the full programme for details). In case you would like to attend them online, the Zoom link to each keynote speech is provided in the registration e-mail for each workshop day. Please find the programme of each session on the following links: Day 1: Native speech, translation and language politics - 23 May, 15.00 CEST - https://www.eui.eu/events?id=549671 Day 2: How to talk about race? Racial terminology in everyday and academic writing - 24 May, 9.00 CEST - https://www.eui.eu/events?id=546136 Day 3: Forgetful, “Free,” and Fearless language - 7 June, 14.00 CEST: https://www.eui.eu/events?id=549672

Democracies face complex challenges in the digital age, which include political polarization, foreign disinformation campaigns targeting journalists and activists, and strengthening the resilience of institutions to constant change. Novel measurement approaches using social media data are essential for researchers and policymakers to address the complexities of these issues. This panel highlights state-of-the-art approaches for measurement with social media data, with a focus on managing digital threats and driving innovation to manage the risks of technological change. A better understanding of these interrelated complexities is ultimately essential for mitigating threats and opportunities of digital technologies in the EU and beyond. Presenters • Allison Koh, PhD Researcher at the Centre for International Security, Hertie School • Maximilian Kupi, PhD Research at the Centre for Digital Governance, Hertie School • Position vacant please apply Discussants • Prof. Dr. Slava Jankin, Professor of Data Science and Public Policy at the Hertie School

One of the central challenges that EU member states’ democracies face is the increasing polarised debates concerning issues such as migration, inequality, gender, trust, and institutions. Over the last years political disagreements have cemented vitriolic political positions which have also driven the emergence of populist political options and anti-European sentiments. This panel will reflect on the effects of political polarisation on EU’s democratic institutions and its quality of public debate, more generally. Presenters • Jona de Jong, PhD researcher at the European University Institute • Position vacant please apply • Position vacant please apply Discussants • Prof. Dr. Elias Dinas, Swiss Chair in Federalism, Democracy and International Governance at the EUI and Associate Professor at the University of Oxford • TBC

This workshop will run students through the basics of academic writing with a focus on concision and clarity.. How many times have you produced an original insight, only to be told that your writing interfered with conveying your ideas? Academic writing requires conceptual clarity and coherence. But it also demands clarity and cohesion at the level of the sentence and the paragraph. This workshop will run students through the basics of academic writing with a focus on concision and clarity. Topics include how to eliminate unnecessary words and phrases, as well as the importance of employing active verbs, parallel construction, and short sentences. Students will come away with more confidence in how to edit their own writing, as well as a better understanding of which grammatical rules matter, and which can be safely ignored
Entry requirements: N/A
Assessment: N/A

Students should come away from this training confident in their ability to articulate ideas clearly to a range of audiences. The workshop looks at blogging as a tool for knowledge exchange. Students should come away from this training confident in their ability to articulate ideas clearly to a range of audiences, formally and informally, through a variety of techniques.
Entry requirements: N/A
Assessment: N/A

This course introduces participants to a variety of different tools for innovative thinking. It is based on the premise that there is never any one, “right” answer to a problem, just a series of options. But by approaching problems from a variety of different angles, however, we can make our ideas better. We use exercises to examine divergent thinking and convergent thinking with applications to tackling common problems we encounter as PhD students, such as writing a paper or writing a talk. This is a 90-minute workshop.

This training takes place IN PRESENCE at the European University Institute in Florence from 27 to 30 June 2022. It is a first introduction to the challenges of teaching in Higher Education and is open to doctoral and post-doctoral scholars in the Social Sciences and Humanities who have no or very little teaching experience. Applications are now open.
Entry requirements: No or only little teaching experience, English C1-level

This co-taught seminar aims to introduce Ph.D. researchers within the CIVICA network to the main theoretical approaches to the EU as an actor and a regulatory regime pushing for specific policies to foster regulatory alignment and core-periphery integration and to develop the capacities of EU Members States. The co-taught seminar will start with two lectures mapping the field of transnational regimes, regulatory integration, and the specificities of study of EU integration and continue with a lecture on the structure of the EU's institutional and decisional processes structuring the EU regulatory regimes. Then, six lectures will approach the main theoretical approaches and some challenges to progressing EU integration in various areas (cohesion funds, food safety, developmental banking, environmental policies, and sustainable agriculture). The co-taught seminar will finalize with a session dedicated to Ph.D. researchers presenting their work and a wrap-up session. Topics 1. Introduction of participants and presentation of the general outline of the co-taught seminar. Introductory topics - Theoretical approaches to the study of the integration of countries in the EU, Laszlo Bruszt 2. EU as a regulatory regime: Challenges of integration, Matthias Thiemann 3. Institutions and decisional processes structuring the EU regulatory regimes, Arpad Todor 4. Case studies – Cohesion funds and state aid, Laszlo Bruszt 5. Case studies – Food safety, Laszlo Bruszt 6. Case studies – The pursuit of European policies through leveraged finance and development banking, Matthias Thiemann 7. Case studies – The pursuit of European policies through Next Generation EU and the Recovery and Resilience Facility (Matthias Thiemann, Erik Jones or Waltraud Schelkle, EUI - TBC) 8. Limits of Europeanisation through the integration of countries facing institutional backwardness – Environmental policies, Arpad Todor 9. Limits of Europeanisation through decentralized planning – Sustainable agriculture, Arpad Todor 10. Wrapping up - setting the research question right. Seminar dedicated to Ph.D. researchers wishing to present their work, Arpad Todor, Laszlo Bruszt, and Matthias Thiemann Provisional program: the seminar will take place on 5, 7, 9, 12, 14, 16, 19, 21, and 23rd (2 sessions) of September starting at 2.00 PM CEE.
Teachers:

• Todor Arpad (National University of Political Studies and Public Administration)
• Laszlo Bruszt (Central European University)
• Matthias Thiemann (Sciences Po)

Entry requirements: Please provide this information: - Description of the Ph.D. topic (short abstract); - Your study program (main field)
Assessment: Written assignment in the form of a research proposal