What brought you to ECSA-C?

After moving to Canada in 2007 to take up my faculty position at Carleton University, I was keen to get to know other EU scholars in this country. ECSA-C provided an ideal forum to do so. My first ECSA-C conference was in Edmonton in 2008. I remember that I was impressed, and frankly surprised, by how active – and how collaborative – Canada’s European Studies community turned out to be!

What do you think ECSA-C's role is in Canada?

ECSA-C is the primary vehicle to connect members of Canada’s European Studies community with each other, and also with our colleagues in other countries. We face a number of challenges in trying to establish collaboration: the size of the country, the fact that we teach in a variety of disciplines, also the geographical distance from Europe. ECSA-C’s activities, especially our biennial conferences, are essential for bringing us all together.

Another key mission of ECSA-C is supporting the next generation of Europeanists in Canada. Our conferences are a forum for emerging scholars to present their work to colleagues from other universities and to build their own professional networks. We are very proud of our Young Researchers Network (YRN), which works to connect emerging scholars and offers its own events, such as workshops, webinars, or sessions on professional development.

How do you see the current state of European or EU Studies in Canada? What are the challenges and opportunities for ECSA-C in this context?

Canada is a great place for research, teaching, and learning about Europe. We have a number of established centres for EU Studies, which have been astonishingly successful in winning competitive research grants, for instance from the EU’s Erasmus+ Programme. But there are also lots of scholars at smaller universities who do fantastic work on the EU or other aspects of European affairs.

Unfortunately, it has become more difficult in recent years to get grant funding for initiatives that connect these scholars, or build collaborative research networks with colleagues in Europe. In my view, that makes ECSA-C’s role all the more important. Canada’s recent association with the EU’s Horizon Europe Programme might also bring positive change.

What are your plans for your presidency?

The ECSA-C board has already started planning for the next biennial conference, which will be held in Victoria in 2026. In addition, we would like to strengthen regional networks and outreach to universities whose scholars and students may not have been so actively involved in ECSA-C activities in the past. And we are hoping to sponsor some online events, such as roundtables in which experts from different Canadian universities discuss current European events or important new research.

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This interview was conducted online with Beate Schmidtke in July 2024