E4b EUROMEC Summer school 2016

Second Jean Monnet Summer School for PhD students

“The idea of Europe and its borders in social sciences and the humanities”
25 June–02 July 2016, Kiten, Bulgaria

The summer school brought together 56 doctorate students, young researchers with recent PhD degrees and several students at the end of their MA studies from various areas of the social sciences and the humanities from the partner countries and other countries and universities in Europe and outsider Europe. They come from 22 countries from virtually all over the world and every continent was represented: Poland, Vietnam, Ireland, USA, France, UK, Luxembourg, Portugal, India, Kazakhstan, Belgium, the Netherlands, Nepal, China, Ukraine, Slovakia, Georgia, Russia, Bulgaria, Romania, Brazil and Greece.

The summer school served two objectives: first, it presented some of the findings within the research projects envisaged in the network activities and secondly, it allowed for discussions and debates on doctorate students’ research.

The keynote speakers included researchers from the partner network universities, Jean Monnet Chairs and researchers working in EU-related areas from Europe and outside Europe: Bulgaria, Poland, New Zealand, Brazil, UK, Mexico. The programme included panel discussions on topics of current interest in EU studies – such as Brexit and the refugee issue. The afternoons were devoted to discussions on doctorate students’ presentations. This enabled the students to discuss the topics in depth and contributed to the process of learning. The participating doctorate students were awarded credits for their work during the summer school.

The participants have shared that the impact of the intensive work at the summer school is leading to:

Increased interest among PhD students in linking their studies to EU-related topics
Attained greater visibility of EU Studies and the Jean Monnet Action (to a great number of the participants this had been their first encounter with the Jean Monnet Programme)
Fostered engagement of young academics and PhD students in research on European topics
Insights into understanding of European identity content and meaning from outside the EU.