Jean Monnet Circle Seminar

The Jean Monnet Circle Seminar „How does the European Union work? Functions, institutions and ongoing challenges“ was established in 2008 within the framework of the Jean Monnet Program of the European Commission. The Ring Seminar is aimed equally at German and international students of all disciplines who wish to broaden their European competence. The seminar program addresses topics such as the socio-historical background of the EU, political, economic and legislative aspects of the unification process, legal issues of European integration and examines European institutions. It offers a look at identity and diversity within the EU, but also sheds light on the role of the EU in the world or the view of the EU from outside. These topics are presented by distinguished experts from various institutions.

The next Jean Monnet Circle Seminar will take place in the winter term 24/25 via zoom, on Fridays, 9.45 am to 13 am. Course language will be English. Further information will be updated regularly, as well as the registration link for SignMeUp.

Registration via campus+ / SignMeUp

 

25.10.2024

Prof. Dr. Ingo Bott

Law within the European Union; Human Rights

 

 

Abstract ⊻

Our workshop will begin by dealing with the sources of European Union Law. We will learn and discuss how European institutions deefine the normative groundwork upon which the Union is supposed to grow. Another mail topic will be how and why Human Rights apply when talking about the European Union and its institutions.

The lecture is meant to be and will be interactive. Active participation and discussion is highly encouraged. We will follow a very practical approach dealing with real cases and decisions. Exemplary scopes are: freedom of speech; migration; labour mobility; Brexit; Foreign relations; criminal investigation and prosecution beyond national borders.

 

Literature and links:

CV ⊻

Dr. Ingo Bott, lawyer and specialist attorney for criminal law, is founder and partner of Plan A - Kanzlei für Strafrecht. The law firm is based in Düsseldorf, Germany, but acts nationwide and internationally in cases involving white collar crime, compliance and "classic" criminal law. Dr. Ingo Bott held numerous lectures and workshops in Germany and abroad. Among others, he taught European law in Russia, lectured on environmental criminal law in Venezuela and on issues of transparency in criminal proceedings in Mexico. He also represented the Council of Europe in Romania on several occasions as an expert on white collar crime. In addition to his legal work, he writes novels. A new crime series, starting with debut PIRLO - Gegen alle Regeln, published by S. Fischer Verlag, was released in August 2023.

 

Contact: bott∂kanzleiplana.de

   

8.11.2024

PD Dr. Dr. Jesús Munoz-Morcillo

Europe and the Stars – Images, Narratives, and the Embodiment of a Cultural Vision

 

 

Abstract ⊻

The idea of Europe as a cultural entity is the result of manifold literary and visual traditions that suggest a civilizing movement from Orient to Occident, from the sunrise to the sunset, from the origin of things to the claim of perfection. An etiological myth about an abducted Asian Princess gave Europe its name, the exile of the Trojan warrior Aeneas that founded Rome gave Europe its political identity, and an Asian prophet called Jesus gave Europe its religion. Consider the European flag: A crown of twelve stars against a sunset-blue sky evokes a rich symbolism that connects Greek and Christian traditions - from Ariadne's wedding crown (constellation Corona Borealis) to the star crown of the Immaculate.

In this seminar, we will focus on canonical - and often ambiguous - narratives and pieces of art that still shape our awareness of Europe in cultural and political terms. We will discuss how strong these visual and literary traditions are, which artifacts and symbols embody them, and to what extent they have changed their meaning since the birth of the European project.

 

Literature:

  • Figes, Orlando (2019): The Europeans. Three Lives and the Making of a Cosmopolitan Culture. New York: Metropolitan Books.
  • Fornäs, Johan (2012): Signifying Europe. Bristol/Chicago: Intellect. - Friedmann, Rebecca/Thiel, Markus (ed) (2016): European Identity and Culture. Narratives of Transnational Belonging. London/New York: Routledge.
  • Padgen, Anthony (ed.) (2002): The Idea of Europe. From Antiquity to the European Union. Cambridge University Press.
  • Steiner, George (2012 [2004]): The Idea of Europe. An Essay. New York/London: Nexus Institute.
  • Wilson, Kevin/von der Dussen, Jan (1995 [1993]): The History of the idea of Europe. London/New York: The Open University/Routledge.
CV ⊻

Jesús Muñoz Morcillo is a classical philologist, art historian, researcher and lecturer at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT). He studied in Salamanca, Würzburg and Karlsruhe and, thanks to a grant from the Volkswagen Foundation, he was a fellow at the Getty Research Institute (GRI) in Los Angeles (September 2019 to June 2020). From March 2019 until his posting to the USA, he was acting spokesman for the ZAK | Center for Cultural and General Studies at KIT. His most recent publications include the edited volume "Genealogy of Popular Science. From Ancient Ecphrasis to Virtual Reality" (2020, transcript ed. With Caroline Y. Robertson-von Trotha) and the monograph "La ékfrasis griega, de la Antigüedad a Bizancio" (Peter Lang, in press). His research currently focuses on the reception of ancient descriptions and their influence on early modern visual cultures in art, literature, and science.

 

Contact: jesus.munozmorcillo∂kit.edu

   

15.11.2024

Porträt Wentzel

Prof. Dr. Dirk Wentzel

Europe seen from Outside: Europe and Its Role in the World

 

 

Abstract ⊻

European integration is a success model without precedent. The biggest internal market in the world and the strength of the European currency signify that the EU is an “economic giant“(Henry Kissinger) that continues to grow. The attractiveness of the European integration for non-EU-members still is enormous as the list of countries – in the Balkans and in former states of the Soviet Union – willing to join the EU shows. An obvious and astonishing discrepancy exists between the interior view of the Europeans, who become more and more aware of their strength, and the exterior view on Europe, which in manifold respects turns out to be more critical. European trade policy is perceived as unfair and protectionist by developing countries; European agricultural policy is an exclusive example of regulatory policy. At the same time, the European’s commitment is perceived as too little regarding peace making and peace keeping missions in global trouble spots. The odds of European foreign policy are an essential characteristic for the outside. This Jean Monnet lecture aims at a clear outside view on Europe on the basis of academic insights. Economic dynamics and political perspectives need to be developed in equal measure to sustainably strengthen Europe’s importance.

 

Literature:

  • Adam, Hans und Peter Mayer (2014): Europäische Integration, UVK Lucius, UTB-Taschenbuch. • El-Agraa, Ali M. (2011): The European Union. Economics and Policies, Cambridge University Press.
  • Leonard, Dick (2010): Guide to the European Union. The definitive guide to all aspects of the EU, THE ECONOMIST BOOK.
  • Neal, Larry (2007): The Economics of Europe and the European Union Cambridge University Press.
  • Wagener, Hans-Jürgen und Thomas Eger (2014): Europäische Integration. Wirtschaft und Recht, Geschichte und Politik, 3. Auflage, München.
  • Wentzel, Dirk (2006): Europäische Integration. Ordnungspolitische Chancen und Defizite, Schriften zu Ordnungsfragen der Wirtschaft, Band 82, Stuttgart und New York.
CV ⊻

Dirk Wentzel has been Professor of Economics and European Economic Relations at Pforzheim University since 2003. In 2005 he received an EU-funded Jean Monnet Chair. He has been director of the European Business, Politics, and Culture summer school in collaboration with Pennsylvania State University since 2008. Since 2019, he is also the dean of the economics department. Dirk Wentzel studied economics at the University of Bonn. He earned his doctoral degree in 1994, with a dissertation in monetary theory at the University of Marburg. In 2001 he completed his habilitation in media economics, also at the University of Marburg. He has had multiple research stays abroad, including at Lomonosov Moscow State University, at New York University, and at Pennsylvania State University. He was a visiting professor and Humboldt fellow between 2000 and 2002 at Penn State, where he also founded a summer school in cooperation with the Smeal College of Business.

 

Dirk Wentzel was a scholarship student of the Adenauer Foundation, for which he serves as trustee today. He was awarded the Herbert Quandt Prize for his dissertation and received a research fellow-ship from the Humboldt Foundation between 2000 and 2002. In 2011 he was named President of the Karlsruhe-Pforzheim region for the Humboldt Foundation. In 2013 he became president of the Forschungsseminar Radein (www.radein.de). Dirk Wentzel has been the editor of Schriften zu Ordnungsfragen der Wirtschaft since 2010 and writes regularly for Börsen-Zeitung.

 

Competences

Dirk Wentzel concentrates on institutional and regulatory economics in the tradition of Walter Eucken’s Freiburg School and Jean Monnet’s concept of European integration. In the course of completing his dissertation and habilitation (both supervised by Alfred Schüller) numerous articles of his have received accolades. As the new editor of Schriften zu Ordnungsfragen der Wirtschaft (founded by K. Paul Hensel), Wentzel is in charge of spreading regulatory policy opinions and supervising dissertations. Since being named Jean Monnet Professor for European Integration by the EU Commission in 2005, his publications have focused on European affairs. He has authored multiple books in addition to his monographs, some in collaboration with his colleagues. Since 2011 he has been a regular contributor to Börsen-Zeitung, concentrating on international economic policy and European integration. He also writes frequently for other national and regional newspapers. Since the beginning of the financial crisis in 2008 Dirk Wentzel has published numerous articles on stability policy and monetary constitution in Europe. He organized a large third-party EU project and in 2013 ran an international conference on European financial market architecture (with the proceedings published in a special 2013 volume of Kredit und Kapital). The proposals on state bankruptcy acts he developed with Hanno Beck have gained special attention among parliamentarians and legal professionals. In the future he will continue to devote time to stabilization policy in states with excessive debt. In recent research and seminars, Dirk Wentzel has put more emphasis on sport economics – a rich research area that brings together regulatory economics and game theory and is amenable to empirical study. His work covers the regulatory conditions in European sport markets, the rules for financial fair play and the application of financial market theory to sport and talent promotion. In addition to his other publications, Wentzel is completing an edited volume on basic questions of social market economy with regard to existing theory and to current and new fields of application. Dirk Wentzel makes every effort to link research and teaching. He currently supervises a huge variety bachelor’s and master’s theses.

 

Professional Activities

  • Director of the Summer University in Collaboration with Penn State
  • Editor of Schriften zu Ordnungsfragen der Wirtschaft, Verlag Lucius and Lucius, Stuttgart
  • Trustee of the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung
  • President of the Humboldt Gesellschaft, Karlsruhe-Pforzheim
  • President of the International Forschungsseminar Radein
  • Founding member of the Marburg Gesellschaft für Ordnungsfragen (MGOW) Awards
  • Appointed Jean Monnet Chair of the EU Commission, 2005
  • Research Fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt Stiftung, Feodor Lynen Scholarship, 2000–2002
  • Herbert Quandt Award from the TU Dresden for the best dissertation on system transformation, 1995
  • Scholarship student of the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung; division for gifted and outstanding students, 1986 Selected Publications
  • Wentzel, D. (2013): Ordnungspolitische Bausteine einer europäischen Stabilitätsverfassung. In: I. Pies (Hrsg.): Das weite Feld der Ökonomik: Von der Wirtschaftsforschung und Wirtschaftspolitik bis zur politischen Ökonomik und Wirtschaftsethik, Schriften zu Ordnungsfragen der Wirtschaft, Bd. 97, Stuttgart
  • Wentzel, D., Beck, H. (2012): Ist der Euro noch zu retten? In: Landeszentrale für politische Bildung Baden-Württemberg (Hrsg.): Deutschland und Europa, Sonderheft zur Eurokrise, April 2012
  • Wentzel, D., Beck, H. (2011): Ordnungspolitische Überlegungen zu Staatsinsolvenzen und einer Insolvenzordnung für Staaten. In: Ordo Jahrbuch für die Ordnung von Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft, Bd. 62, 71–100
  • Wentzel, D. (2002): Medien im Systemvergleich – Eine ordnungsökonomische Analyse des deutschen und amerikanischen Fernsehmarktes, Habilitationsschrift, Schriften zu Ordnungsfragen der Wirtschaft, Bd. 69, Stuttgart
  • Wentzel, D. (1995): Geldordnung und Systemtransformation: Ein Beitrag zur ökonomischen Theorie der Geldverfassung. Schriften zum Vergleich von Wirtschaftsordnungen, Bd. 50, Stuttgart. (Ausgezeichnet mit dem Herbert-Quandt-Förderpreis)

Contact: dirk.wentzel∂hs-pforzheim.de

   

22.11.2024

Porträt Anton Bada

Dr. Antor Bada

European defense policy

 

 

Abstract ⊻

Since the origins of European construction, the ambition to set up a defense Europe has come up against national sovereignties reluctant to get rid of a sovereign domain par excellence. After numerous failures, the first initiatives are emerging in a more favorable context due to the multiplication of threats and geopolitical tensions at the gates of the union. Furthermore, a common defense policy appears to be an essential complement to the common foreign security policy (CFSP) and the international affirmation of the union. What are the main constituent elements of a defense Europe and what are the future prospects?

 

During this conference it will be a question of returning to the slow emergence of a European defense policy, from the difficult failures to overcome to the now more favorable contexts. In this second part, it will also be a question of drawing up an assessment and prospects for the common security and defense policy. Finally, we will return to the thorny question of the European army.

 

Exercise to do in a small group Students must work on security theories in international relations in a small group and two other themes. A total of four themes to be divided into groups according to each person's choice

 

1-) Security community A security community is a region in which the large-scale use of violence has become very unlikely or even unthinkable. This notion was developed by the political scientist Karl Deutsch in 1957.

 

2-) Regionaler Sicherheitskomplex Regional security complex theory (RSCT) is a theory of international relations developed by Barry Buzan and Ole Wæver and advanced in their 2003 work Regions and Powers: The Structure of International Security.[1] Buzan and Wæver are perhaps best known as the key figures behind the influential Copenhagen School of security studies, in which the main principle is examining security as a social construct (see also securitization and constructivism). RSCT posits that international security should be examined from a regional perspective, and that relations between states (and other actors) exhibit regular, geographically clustered patterns. Regional security complex is the term coined by Buzan and Wæver to describe such structures.

 

3-) Permanent Structured Cooperation

 

4-) EU - NATO Kooperation

 

CV ⊻

Antor Bada is a researcher and lecturer in political science at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. His research focuses on European and transatlantic security, research methodology on military issues, Franco-German military cooperation, and more recently cybersecurity within the EU and NATO.

 

Selected bibliography:

His recent publications focus on Franco-German relations and European geopolitics (European University Edition, January 2024), 100 sheets for understanding defense Europe (European University Edition, August 2024).

 

Contact: antor.bada∂kit.edu

   

29.11.2024

Porträt Thomas Klöckner

Thomas Klöckner

The ‚Union of Equality‘ – Milestones and missed opportunities

 

 

Abstract ⊻

more information following soon.

CV ⊻

Thomas Klöckner (he/him) is a doctoral researcher in EU and Queer Studies. He has graduated from the Master’s program “Democracy and Governance in Europe” at the University of Tübingen in March 2022. His research interests revolve around European equality and diversity politics, LGBTIQ* rights, and constructions and representions of sexual and gender minorities in politics and media. In his research, he critically examines how the EU conceives LGBTIQ* rights and accommodates the vast diversity of the queer community in its equality framework. Thomas Klöckner is also the Scientific Coordinator of the European Centre for Research on Federalism (ECFR) and responsible for the editorial work on a number of publications, such as the “Yearbook of Federalism”. Thomas Klöckner is a long-standing member of the “Young European Federalists” (JEF) and a board member of “Tübingen Pride” (CSD Tübingen e.V.). 

 

Contact: thomas.kloeckner∂uni-tuebingen.de

   

6.12.2024

Julian Plottka

Institutions, Policies, Candidates, and Democracy after the European Elections. The New Institutional Cycle of the European Union

 

 

Abstract ⊻

In June 2024, Citizens’ of the European Union (EU) elected a new European Parliament. In the centre of the European Parliament, the European People’s Party (EPP) was the winner. Socialists (S&D) and the Left could stabilise their results. The parties on the far right gained substantially, while Green and Liberal parties lost. What is perceived as a move to the political right on the continent, is, however, not a univocal trend across Europe. While the far-right won in France, Germany, and Italy, citizens in Central and Eastern as well as Northern Europe (partly) turned their backs on the right-wing populists.

What mean these results for the future EU policies and European democracy? The seminar discusses explanations of the election results of June 2024 and the new composition of the political groups in the European Parliament. Will this change the functioning of the European Parliament, which was dominated by large and over-sized coalitions in the past?

The composition of the European Parliament is not the only update to the European institutions in 2024. The European Council elects a new permanent President, a new High Representative of the Union for Foreign and Security Policy is appointed and the European Parliament elects a new European Commission. The seminar discusses the new tableau of personnel on the EU-level and its effects on the future policy of the EU. What are the priorities of the new President of the European Commission and the European Council, having adopted a new strategic agenda for the next years?

 

Recommended readings:

CV ⊻

Julian Plottka is a Research Associate at the University of Passau and at the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn. Before joining the universities, he was a Senior Researche at the Institut für Europäische Politik in Berlin. He has studied political science at the University of Potsdam, Universitet i Bergen and the Free University Berlin. His research covers reforms of the EU political system, its legitimacy, inclusing the European Citizens' Initiative, and EU foreign policy with a special focus on the EU's relations with Central Asia. Mr. Plottka has managed a number of research projects, inclusing the "Study on Strenghtening the Democratic Legitimacy of the EU", the "Study on the European added Value of the European Citizens' Initiative" and the project "The Relaunch of Europe. Mapping Member State Reform Interests". He is part of the Jean Monnet Network The EU and the EEU: Between Conflict and Competition, Convergence and Cooperation".

 

For his publications, contact details and more information see here: https://www.politik-soziologie.uni-bonn.de/de/personal/plottka-julian

 

Contact: julian.plottka∂uni-passau.de

   

13.12.2024

Porträt Robertson

Prof. Dr. Caroline Y. Robertson-von Trotha

Europe in Times of Change: Between the „Glocal“ and the „Global“

 

 

Abstract ⊻

more information following soon.

CV ⊻

Prof. Dr. Caroline Y. Robertson-von Trotha, born in 1951, is Founding Director of the ZAK | Centre for Cultural and General Studies at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) in Germany, and Professor of Sociology and Cultural Studies. Her research interests include cultural change and globalisation, internationalisation and integration, foreign cultural and educational policy, and the theory and practice of public science. She is coordinator of the German network of the Anna Lindh Foundation (ALF), chairwoman of the Academic Council on Culture and Foreign Policy (WIKA) at ifa (Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen), and member of its advisory board. She is also a member of the advisory council of the Institute for Cultural Policy of the Association of Cultural Policy (Bonn) and spokeswoman of the scientific committee (Kleiner Konvent) of the Schader Foundation (Darmstadt). She was member of the Culture Committee of the German UNESCO Commission. Caroline Y. Robertson-von Trotha is the editor of numerous academic books and publication series. She is initiator and scientific convenor of a variety of teaching formats and public science events.

Contact: caroline.robertson∂kit.edu

 

 

Formal Requirements, ECTS and Academic Performance
 
  • Participation in all lectures of the Circle Seminar is obligatory.
  • Credits can be received through a paper which deepens the topic of one lecture (in agreement with the respective lecturer).
  • 2 credits: Regular active participation and short essay (about 7.000 characters)
  • 3 credits: Regular active participation and short essay (about 10.000 characters)
  • 4 credits: Regular active participation and written essay (8-10 pages, 24.000-30.000 characters)
  • 5 credits: Regular active participation and written essay (10-15 pages, 30.000-45.000 characters)
  • 6 credits: Regular active participation and written essay (15 – 20 pages, 45.000-60.000 characters).