Lecture Series / Brown Bag

In the past year more people have become familiar with the graph of the epidemic curve than ever before. Beginnings, peaks and endings of COVID-19 occupy everyday discussions, inform policies, shape social interactions and provide bases for criticism and political action. What constitutes an ending, when that endpoint is and what might bring it about is more and more unclear, however.

#JMintheUS

As part of our Miami-Florida Jean Monnet Center of Excellence grant, Dr. joaquín Roy, Jean Monnet Professor and Director University of Miami European Union Center of Excellence, will make a presentation on Europe and Latin American Relations under the impact of COVID-19. Joaquín Roy, (Lic. Law, University of Barcelona, 1966; Ph.D, Georgetown University, 1973), is Jean Monnet Professor and Director of University of Miami European Union Center of Excellence. He has published over 200 academic articles and reviews, and he is the author or editor of 39 books.

https://europe.wisc.edu/event/ulrike-guerot-the-german-presidency-of-the... #JMintheUS

A documentary by Mo Asumang, German media personality, filmmaker, and Afro-German activist. After receiving death threats from the White Aryan Rebels, Mo Asumang sets out to discover the history and meaning of the word Aryan. This designation was used by racists in the 19th century, designated the master race in Nazi Germany, and is used by white supremacists today. After finding her own grandmother's Aryan Pass, Mo Asumang begins a journey that takes her to Nazi rallies and meetings with racists in Germany but also to KKK gatherings and conversations with white supremacists in the USA.

Through much of its history, Italy was Europe’s "seat of the arts," an artistic playground for foreign élites and powers who bought, sold, and sometimes plundered millions of artworks and antiquities. Today, Italy asserts control over its cultural heritage through an activist legal model and influential art police unit, which dedicates itself to the eradication of tomb robbing. Italy has turned heritage into cultural power—a controversial convergence of art, money, and diplomacy.

On June 15th 2020, the EU officially reopened its inner borders, effectively lifting the travel restrictions put in place to contain the spread of COVID-19. The Schengen Agreement’s ‘Free Movement of Persons’ —considered as one of the most meaningful, and also the most popular accomplishments ever of European integration— was then back in force. This lecture invites participants to look back into history to see beyond in terms of building a commonly inclusive and sustainable future by highlighting Human Mobility Rights as fundamental human rights.

The New Speed of Politics: Is Gender Equality Accelerating or Shutting Down? With Former MEP Maria Gabriela Zoana and faculty discussant Helga Varden, Assoc. Professor of Philosophy and Women and Gender Studies, U of I. #JMintheUS

The United Kingdom's relationship within the European Union has always been a hesitant one, late to the party of European integration. Now since that relationship is coming to an end, the once-powerful union of the United Kingdom itself looks fragile and in question. John Edward will look at the UK's seemingly inexorable exit from the EU, and how that has mirrored a growth in national political sentiment in the constituent parts of the UK itself. How will Edinburgh, London and the other capitals of Europe respond?

The ESC’s 2020-21 theme, Creating Europe, explores both the political, social, cultural, and geographical forces that have given shape to contemporary Europe and also individuals who create and are creative in their daily or artistic expressions of what it means to be European. In celebration of German Campus Week, this month’s Conversations on Europe focuses on topic of cultural diversity in Germany and how the European nation has aimed to create inclusive community building.