[MGSA-L] Prof. Kevin Featherstone-Lessons for the Greek Crisis in Managing the "Euro"

Katsikas, Stefanos skatsika at illinois.edu
Wed Nov 6 22:37:41 PST 2013



Dear all,

Next week our program of Modern Greek Studies has the pleasure and honor to host Professor Kevin Featherstone, Eleftherios Venizelos Professor of Contemporary Greek Studies and Professor of European Politics at the London School of Economics and Political Sciences. Professor Featherstone will give two public lectures: one at the premises of the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) in Chicago and another one in Urbana.  More information on Professor Featherstone’s public lectures you can find below and in the two posters, which are attached to this message:

CHICAGO:

Title: “Of Bailouts, Populists and Inertia: Lessons from the Greek Crisis for Managing the Euro”

Wednesday November 13, 2013, 12:50-1:50pm

McCormick Tribune Campus Center (MTCC), 3201 S. State St., Chicago, IL 60616

Description: Almost everyone now agrees that the rules and institutions set up to manage the 'euro' currency have proved inadequate to the task.  The single currency project was always ahead of what economic theory might dictate, but the debt crises that have consumed Europe's leaders since 2010 have revealed fundamental questions of politics and of good governance that will linger on the agenda for some years to come. Reforms to the institutional management of the 'euro' have been rightly criticised for being delayed, inadequate and largely locked-in to the same paradigm that created the imbalances in the first place.  Of equal concern is the unprecedented intervention of the European Union at the domestic level to enforce discipline and a set of reforms.  Both developments - at the European and the national level - stretch and expose 'Europe' to further risks of failure.  What are the lessons to be drawn from the Greek crisis?  The developments also expose 'Europe', and its advocates, to attacks from the political extremes.  An agenda that once united and was a synonym for 'modernisation' has provoked new divisions.  Can the European Union regain its momentum?  This is an opportune time to examine the lessons and prospects - with further experience of Greece's performance and after the German elections.


URBANA-CHAMPAIGN


Title: “A System Fit for Purpose? The Challenge of Governance in Greece”

Thursday November 14, 2013, 4pm Knight Auditorium, Spurlock Museum, 600 South Gregory Street, Urbana, IL 61801


Description: Why do Greek governments fail? Governments in Athens have achieved great national projects in key historical periods, but the current crisis has exposed endemic problems in the capacity of governments to deliver reform.  These problems will continue to impact on Greece's way out of the crisis, whatever the terms of its "bail-outs."  As such, they will define key central challenges not only for Greece, but also for the European Union in managing a heterogeneous union.



Biographical Information:


Kevin Featherstone is Eleftherios Venizelos Professor of Contemporary Greek Studies and Professor of European Politics.  He is the long-term Director of the Hellenic Observatory and Co-Chair of LSEE: Research on South-East Europe within the European Institute. Between 2004 and 2007, and then 2012-13, he also served as Director/Head of the European Institute. He has held visiting positions at the University of Minnesota; New York University; and Harvard University.  Before LSE, he held academic posts at the universities of Stirling and Bradford.  In 2009-10 he served on an advisory committee for the reform of the Greek government.  He is the first foreign member of the National Council for Research and Technology (ESET) in Greece.  He is also Vice-Chair of the Academic Council of 'Atomium Culture', Brussels, a not-for-profit promoting collaboration within the European Research Area. On September 17 2013, Professor Featherstone was awarded the Order of the Phoenix of the Hellenic Republic. The Award was presented to Professor Featherstone by H.E Mr. Konstantinos Bikas, Ambassador of Greece in the U.K at the Ambassador’s residence in London. The Order of the Phoenix is awarded to Greeks who have distinguished themselves in the fields of public administration, science, arts and letter, commerce, industry and shipping. It is also conferred on foreigners who have contributed to improving Greece’s stature abroad in the above fields.



All very best,

Dr. Stephanos Katsikas



______________________________________

Dr. Stephanos Katsikas BA (Greece), MA, PhD (London),
Historian of Modern Greece and the Eastern Mediterranean,
Director of the Modern Greek Studies Program &
Language Coordinator of Modern Greek,
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign,
School of Literatures, Cultures and Linguistics,
707 S. Matthews Avenue,
Urbana, Illinois 61801 USA
Tel (217) 372-1997
Fax (217) 244-8430

Website: http://www.linguistics.illinois.edu/people/skatsika

Modern Greek Studies Program Website:
http://www.moderngreek.illinois.edu/

Modern Greek Studies Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Modern-Greek-Studies-at-Illinois/137216379679018

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