Current Newsletter

Summer 2012

In This Issue:

• "Behind the Scenes of the Pittsburgh Papers: The Launch of a New Scholarly Journal" by Allyson Delnore
• In Review
• West European and EU Studies Certificate Students
• Alumni Spotlight: Lindsey Bailet
• Upcoming Grant & Fellowship Deadlines
• A Farewell

Behind the Scenes of the Pittsburgh Papers:  The Launch of a New Scholarly Journal

by Allyson Delnore, Associate Director of Academic Affairs, EUCE/ESC

Upon my arrival at the European Union Center of Excellence and European Studies Center in October 2011 as Associate Director of Academic Affairs, overseeing the launch of the Pittsburgh Papers on the European Union has been one of my biggest projects.  The new e-journal is a recent initiative of the EUCE/ESC and will build on the Center’s reputation for excellence in the field of European Union studies.  Under the editorship of Professor Alberta Sbragia, Vice-Provost for Graduate Studies at the University of Pittsburgh and an internationally recognized scholar of the European integration process, Pittsburgh Papers enters the academic publishing fray as a unique project that furthers the mission of the EUCE to promote research on the European Union, including its domestic, regional, and global contexts. 

Pittsburgh Papers helps fill a gap in academic publishing on the European Union.  While dozens of journals publish scholarship relating to the EU and contemporary Europe, the vast majority are discipline- or topic-specific, focusing on law, migration, public health, business, politics, social policy, or the like.  Only a handful of journals focus specifically on the European Union, such as Wiley’s Journal of Common Market Studies, Sage Publishing’s European Union Politics, and the European Union Liaison Committee of Historians’ bi-annual Journal of European Integration History.  Pittsburgh Papers differs from all of these journals in its goal to solicit submissions from across disciplines and which consider the European Union as both a historical construction and a contemporary political, social, and cultural project. 

Pittsburgh Papers is also noteworthy because of its format: an entirely electronic and free-standing paper series that maintains the high standards for academic rigor required by more traditionally formatted scholarly journals.  Papers are published individually, allowing authors more freedom regarding a manuscript’s length, as well as the ability to easily link to documents, documentary collections, videos, or other sources of electronically-available information.  As far as I know, the only journals that compare are the Journal of European Integration, published six times per year both in print and online by Taylor & Francis (a division of Routledge), and European Integration online Papers (EIoP), which has existed since 1997 under the auspices of ECSA Austria and is the closest in spirit to the Pittsburgh Papers, sympathizing as it does with the Open Access movement.  Given the strong initial response to our first call for submissions, it seems that there is room in the publishing world for more of this kind of project.

The EUCE/ESC is particularly gratified to have the cooperation of the University of Pittsburgh’s University Library System (ULS) in the implementation and continuing technical support of this new endeavor.  The University of Pittsburgh Library System is the official publisher of the Pittsburgh Papers; each issue will be published utilizing the Open Source Open Journal System (OJS) and will be housed on the Library’s OJS platform.  ULS’s commitment to helping research communities develop through unfettered and responsible collaboration is clear.  They subsidize the costs of electronic publishing and provide incentives to promote Open Access scholarly research.  Our Center collaborated with the ULS team to produce a website of the highest professional quality, including the masthead design.  It has helped us to forge our own identity and create a consistent brand. Moreover, we are honored to be in the company of other projects ULS has supported and hosts, which can be found at http://www.library.pitt.edu/e-journals/pubs.html. 

As Managing Editor of the Papers, I am responsible for overseeing the day-to-day operations of the journal and following each article through the entire editorial process, from initial submission to final publication on our website.  This is a long process that helps us to ensure that every article published meets our high standards.  I sent out the first call for papers to multiple academic listservs and mailing lists in October, and by the time e-journal’s website launched in January, I was able to upload five submissions that were already progressing through the review and editorial process. 

We accept submissions from both academics and practitioners—this includes both scholarly analyses and policy papers.  I first screen all submissions for length and topic—eligible articles must be relevant to the European Union but can explore any contempo-

porary or historical dimension of integration, including domestic or transnational issues, relations among members, accession, or candidate states, or even the EU within a regional or global context. Then, working with our Editor-in-Chief, Dr. Sbragia, and my resourceful Graduate Student Assistant, Corinne Tomasi, we identify potential outside reviewers.

Like other academic journals, the Pittsburgh Papers relies on a double-blind refereeing process, meaning that neither the author nor the reviewers know each other’s identities. This anonymity decreases the chance that bias will influence the reviewers and allows them more freedom to express their real opinion about the article’s merits.  Reviewers need to have previously published their own monograph or peer-reviewed article, and they must, most importantly, to be knowledgeable in the particular topic addressed in the submitted manuscript.  Identifying specialists is one challenge. Getting them to volunteer their time to review a manuscript for a new e-journal with no established reputation is another!  I am glad to say that, for the most part, the strong reputation of Pitt’s EUCE has smoothed the way in this regard.  Still, I cannot discount the professionalism of our reviewers, who have so generously provided our authors with detailed and constructive critiques in most every instance so far.  Once two outside scholars have agreed to review a submitted manuscript, we generally have at least a four week wait until we see their recommendations.

Once we have received both reviews, we then have to weigh their recommendations and consider several options:  publish, publish with revisions, ask the author to make specific revisions and then resubmit the manuscript for consideration, or reject the manuscript.  Depending upon how long authors take to make requested revisions, this could add many more months to the process.  The life of an article is long and sometimes arduous.  But the advantage of an electronic journal like ours is that at least one part of the process is sped up considerably: we are not bound by printers’ schedules or publishing deadlines.  Once an article is ready, it can be published. 

Having established that the article is likely to make a significant academic contribution, that it is well-argued and that the argument is substantiated by strong evidence (all of which are established by our outside reviewers), we then move into the copyediting stage, during which we work on stylistic, grammatical, and typographical issues.  This part of the process can go very quickly. The final stage, the layout, happens with even greater speed, since the ULS’s OJS platform presets the journal’s style template and making each article conform to a coherent “look” is as easy as highlighting and clicking each heading and section.  Once the article is made to conform to our template, it can be published on our website: http://pgheupapers.pitt.edu/ojs/index.php/pgheupapers.  Our first article is on track to be published later this summer.

Once published, Pittsburgh Papers articles will be available free of charge to any interested readers.  Individuals interested in reading each issue of the Papers can subscribe at no cost and will receive alerts whenever articles are published.  In addition, articles will be available to  anyone who finds references to them through internet search engines.  After all, metadata for the materials published in the Pittsburgh Papers is freely available for harvesting by search engines, a fact that allows for greater access by researchers worldwide through major indexes of scholarly research.  The EUCE/ESC is excited to contribute in this new way to the field of European Studies, and we anticipate that the journal will grow into a rich resource for EU scholars and practitioners alike.

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In Review

European Studies Alumni Panel: “Making International Studies Work for You”

Above, left to right:  Carrie Weintraub, Christopher Burdick, and Benjamin Keller.

On April 3rd, three EUCE/ESC alumni visited Pitt to discuss how foreign language and international studies have shaped their postgraduate lives.  Panelists included: Christopher Burdick, Policy Advisor for the U.S. Treasury; Benjamin Keller, lawyer for DLA Piper in New York City; and Carrie Weintraub, International Relations graduate from the London School of Economics.  Some of the issues discussed included: pursuing graduate studies in Europe, preparing for law/graduate school, the importance of networking, what it is like working for law firms and/or the government, and what tips and suggestions they would offer undergraduates in European or international studies programs now.  International Studies and pre-law counselors from the Career Center were also available to answer questions and provide information about resources and planning strategies.

 

EUCE/ESC Advisory Board Luncheon

On April 4th, the EUCE/ESC convened its second External Advisory Board.  The External Advisory Board was launched in fall 2011 to help facilitate the ongoing development and advancement of the Centers. The meeting was chaired by David Murdoch, and those present included Peter Beaman, Gail Becker, Anne Lackner, Ralf Drews, William O’Rouke, Gabe Pellathy, Steve Sokol, and UCIS Director Lawrence Feick. The agenda for the luncheon included discussions of how the EUCE/ESC aligns with the University’s broader goal of internationalization, raising participation in certificate programs, and ongoing advancement efforts.

Jean Monnet Symposium: “Empires Past and Present:  Is the EU a New Empire?”

Above: Elizabeth Covington, Associate Director, University of Wisconsin--Madison EUCE, moderates discussion concerning Joshua Walker’s presentation,“The Colonial Past and its Influence on the EU in the Present” at the Jean Monnet Symposium.

On April 6th, the EUCE/ESC at the University of Pittsburgh brought historians and political scientists together to discuss empires old and new at the 2012 Jean Monnet Symposium.  The goal of the Symposium was to advance the current discussion of how to define empire, to look at how empires have defined themselves in the past, and to build upon our understanding of historical empires to refine new categories of analysis applicable to the EU of the present. Featured presenters included Patrick Manning, Martha Chaiklin, and Peter Karsten from the Department of History at the University of Pittsburgh, along with Magali Gravier (Copenhagen Business School), Josep Colomer (George Washington University), and Joshua W. Walker (German Marshall Fund). For more information, visit the http://www.ucis.pitt.edu/euce/content/empires-past-and-present. The symposium was sponsored by the EUCE/ESC, Global Studies Center, World History Center, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison EUCE.

 

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West European and EU Studies Certificate Students

Congratulations to the following undergraduate and graduate students who will graduate with certificates in West European and/or European Union Studies this year:

 

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Alumni Spotlight:  Lindsey Bailet

This month, the EUCE/ESC had the opportunity to reconnect with alumna Lindsey Bailet, who graduated from the University of Pittsburgh in April 2008 with a Bachelor’s degree in political science and history.

Q: What type of certificate did you earn (EU Studies or Western European Studies) from the EUCE/ESC? How did the offerings of the EUCE/ESC (such as visiting lecturers, language study grants, research grants, etc.) supplement your education at Pitt?

A: I earned a European Union Studies Certificate, in addition to a certificate in German Language Studies and a minor in Sociology. The guest speakers the EUCE/ESC brought to Pitt tremendously enhanced my academic experience. It was nice to learn about a topic or issue in the classroom and then be able to hear how those in the field, such as high-level diplomats, were actually confronting the challenges facing the EU. My studies through the EUCE/ESC also enriched my study abroad experience in Germany. My coursework, supplemented by guest lectures, gave me a lens through which to understand developments in Europe while I lived there and traveled to many countries.

Q:  Could you talk about a specific EU-related paper or project you worked on en route to completing your EU Studies Certificate?

A:  As part of the EU Capstone Seminar, I wrote a paper on the European Union’s administration of Mostar, a town in Bosnia and Herzegovina. After I read conflicting assessments of the EU’s actions in Mostar, with some experts lauding the EU’s work while others condemned it, reconciling these two interpretations became the central focus of my paper. I established parameters for successful post-conflict reconstruction and after an extensive review of both primary and secondary sources, concluded that while the EU was successful in rebuilding the infrastructure of Mostar, they were unsuccessful in creating a unified city, as the Bosnian Croat and Bosnian Muslim populations remained divided. I was able to present this paper at the Undergraduate Research Symposium, “Europe: East and West.” 

Q: What are you doing now? Could you tell us about any current research projects?

A: After graduating from Pitt, I worked with the World Affairs Council in Jacksonville, Florida before moving back to Pennsylvania to work on a U.S. Senate campaign. I enjoyed getting to be directly involved in domestic politics but realized my strongest interest is in international relations. Currently, I am a graduate student at the University of Denver’s Josef Korbel School of International Studies and am pursuing an M.A. in International Security. My focus is on the impact of globalization, and I have also been expanding my knowledge of Latin America. I continue to follow developments in the Balkans closely and am currently learning Bosnian. 

Q: What are your career goals for after you graduate from your current program? 

A: My eventual career goal is to become a Foreign Service Officer with the U.S. State Department. To this end, I recently took the Foreign Service Officer Test and am waiting to hear the results. While I would ultimately like to live and work abroad, I am also interested in working in the United States, potentially at a think tank focused on foreign policy or at a consulting firm.   

Q: What influenced your decision to study international security and pursue a career in the foreign service?

A: I knew before I started pursuing a graduate education that I was interested in joining the Foreign Service. I have always felt compelled to serve the country in some capacity, and I think I can best do this by representing the U.S. government abroad. I chose to study International Security at the University of Denver because it was the best match for my interests. The International Security program takes a macro level approach, focusing primarily on states, militaries, and international organizations. Because I ultimately want to work for the U.S. government, this approach suits my interests and career goals.

 

Note to EUCE/ESC Alumni:  

Please keep in touch! We would love to hear about and celebrate your accomplishments. Send news of awards offered, grants received, books recently published, job appointments accepted, etc., to the Newsletter Editor at eucnews@pitt.edu.

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Upcoming Grant & Fellowship Deadlines

EUCE/ESC Travel Grants for Graduate Students

The EUCE/ESC has funds available to graduate students to help defray costs involved in traveling to and participating in regional, national, or international scholarly conferences. In order to be eligible, graduate students must: 1) be presenting a paper (i.e., not acting as discussant or chair) and be on the program of the conference; 2) Be presenting a paper that has some aspect of European life, historical or contemporary, domestic or international, or European integration as its main focus.  (Topics in the humanities as well as in the social sciences and those dealing with the countries of Europe and/or the European Union are eligible. For contemporary East European countries, topics must deal with links to or the impact of the European Union.)  For more information, please visit http://www.ucis.pitt.edu/euce/system/files/resources/images/Graduate Student Conference Small Grant Application.pdf. There is no fixed deadline.

 

Institut D’Etudes Politiques de Paris (Sciences Po) Exchange Program 

The University of Pittsburgh offers a direct exchange program for GSPIA graduate students with Sciences Po in Paris, France. Sciences Po maintains such programs with institutions around the world. Courses are taught in English, French, and other languages; however, proficiency in French is not required to take classes, write papers or take exams. Nevertheless, a working knowledge of French will assist students with non-academic practical matters.  For more information, please contact Dr. Allyson Delnore at adelnore@pitt.edu or visit the Sciences Po website at http://www.international.sciences-po.fr/en. The deadline is October 1, 2012 (for the spring term 2013).

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A Farewell

It has been my great pleasure to serve as the Newsletter Editor for the EUCE/ESC Newsletter these past four years.  As I graduate this spring with a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing with a concentration in fiction, I will be passing on the torch to a new, incoming graduate student, beginning with the September 2012 issue. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Delegation of the European Union in Washington, D.C. and the University of Pittsburgh for supporting my graduate studies, as well as the EUCE/ESC staff and affiliated faculty and students with whom I have had the privilege of working. I am sure you will all be pleased to learn that, in significant part due to my immersion in all things European at the Center, after graduation I plan to continue researching and writing a novel about a young woman who emigrates to Pittsburgh from Slovenia (then part of Austria) in the very early twentieth century. 

With gratitude,

Julie Tremeryn

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EUCE/ESC Newsletter:

Director: Professor Ronald H. Linden
Associate Director: Timothy S. Thompson
Editor: Julie Tremeryn

For newsletter announcements, comments, or submissions, please email eucnews@pitt.edu.

EUCE/ESC would like to thank the Delegation of the European Union for support for the Center.

European Union Center of Excellence 4200 Posvar Hall, University of Pittsburgh e-mail: eucnews at pitt.edu Phone: | Fax: (412) 648-2199