May 23-25, 2024
Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, politics in the European Union (EU) and its member states has been dominated by the war at its eastern borders. Policies that respond to the war, including the provision of military support to Ukraine or attempts to secure energy independence from Russia, have overshadowed previous EU priorities such as the European Green Deal, the post-Covid economic reconstruction, or ambitions to build Europe’s “strategic autonomy”. Political conflict about relations with Ukraine and Russia has pushed public debates about contentious trade agreements, refugee and migration policy, the entrenchment of populism and Euroskepticism, or the democratic backsliding in several EU member states from media headlines and social media feeds.
The war has transformed EU politics in the short term, but it has also raised questions for the longer-term future of European integration. How does the EU seek to define its geostrategic role alongside global powers like the United States and China, as well as middle powers such as Canada? Which internal and external policies will define the EU in the next decade? How can the EU reshape relations with its eastern and southern neighbours? How does it deliver on the accession promise to Ukraine and Moldova? Will there be changes to the EU’s institutional setup, including its democratic mechanisms and protections of human rights? How will (or should) the EU respond to calls for greater social and environmental justice, equity and diversity, or to address the colonial origins of European integration? Questions such as these force policy practitioners and scholars to reimagine European integration, and the answers that they find will define Europe’s new post-war era.
The 2024 ECSA-C biennial conference will provide an interdisciplinary forum to explore these questions, as well as other topics in EU Studies. It will be an opportunity for members of the Canadian EU Studies community to reconnect with each other and with their peers from across the world. We invite proposals for individual papers or for panels of 4-5 papers, by senior and junior scholars and practitioners, from Canada and elsewhere. The conference will take place in a face-to-face format; conference languages are English and French.
Please submit your paper title and a short abstract (maximum 300 words) to ecsa-c-2024@carleton.ca. When submitting a panel proposal, include a short description (maximum 300 words) and list participants and titles of their presentations.
The submission deadline is Friday, December 1, 2023.
PDF: Call for papers / Appel à communications
