[MGSA-L] RPF:

[Alexandra Filindra]

REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS

Fortress Europe or E Pluribus Unum? : Multilevel governance and the
governance of migration and asylum in the EU

Conference to be held on September 22-24, 2016 in Chicago, IL
Submission deadline: March 5th, 2016


As hundreds of thousands of refugees are risking their lives to reach the
European Union (EU), countries from Greece to Finland and from Poland to the
UK are forced to address the issue.   Unlike what was envisioned by the
Dublin regulations, a system designed primarily as a framework to address
limited flows of migration and especially irregular migration, today’s
refugee crisis has enveloped all levels of European governance from local
authorities to the EU.  Each level is forced to innovate under extreme
conditions. Ill-equipped and under-funded municipalities have transformed
into tent cities, civil society associations and various NGOs are brought in
to fill the void in service delivery, while regional and national
governments are struggling to document and process thousands of applicants.
At the same time, both within states and at the EU level an intense conflict
has arisen that is both normative and economic.  In the midst of a crippling
economic recession and while still battling over the politics of austerity,
Europe is called upon to provide long-term shelter to millions of refugees.
The battle over resources is fierce but fiercer still is the identity
struggle over competing visions of Europe: one that is accepting and
tolerant and the other xenophobic and ethnocentric. 

Thus, a crisis of governance is manifesting itself within European states,
in conflicts between localities and national governments, across states by
straining relations between neighbors, and at the EU-level between European
institutions and member states. These clashes are both structural and
ideological and they are testing the political foundations of the European
Union as they reveal powerful centrifugal trends that favor closed borders
and narrowly defined ethnic and national identities.

This academic symposium, a joint effort between the University of Illinois
and Rutgers University, will bring together scholars working of questions of
EU governance as well as migration policy to present their most recent
research. The symposium is supported by a generous grant from the European
Union Studies Association (EUSA).  We are currently soliciting proposals
touching on one or more of the following topics:

•	What have been the responses of the individual actors across the
European Union, including at the supranational, national, and sub-national
levels to the refugee crisis? 
•	What does the combination of large migratory flows and politics of
austerity mean for European politics at the national, local and/or
supranational level?
•	What does the past teach us about this identity crisis in Europe? Do
the exchange of populations and refugee waves of the post-WWI era provide a
lens for our understanding of European political dynamics today?
•	What are the possible long-term strategies to address the ongoing
refugee crisis?
•	How is forced migration affecting the interaction between the
different levels of EU governance? 
•	Is the crisis moving the EU in a more federalist, a more
regionalist, or a more nationalist direction? 
•	How might the crisis affect the shaping of European identity? 
•	Fortress Europe or E Pluribus Unum? 

The workshop highlights what is without a doubt the most serious crisis
facing the European continent, and the European Union idea since the Second
World War. How the EU, its member states, and those along its periphery
respond to it will help shape the future of Europe. With stakes this high,
it is critical that scholars continue to build expertise on this topic, and
further, that this expertise is presented to the wider community. We
envision that this workshop will result in a special issue of an academic
journal or an edited volume publication as well as long-term lasting
collaborations among participants. 

The symposium will take place on September 22-24th, 2016 at the University
of Illinois, Chicago campus.  The deadline for submission of abstracts
(300-500 words) is March 5th, 2016 via email to Amanda D’Urso,
EUconference.uic at gmail.com. There is limited travel funding available on a
competitive basis especially for international scholars and doctoral
students. Invitations to participate will be extended by March 30. Invited
participants will be expected to circulate a fully developed article-length
paper to the organizers and all participants by September 15th, 2016. 

Alexandra Filindra, University of Illinois, Chicago (aleka at uic.edu)
Petia Kostadinova, University of Illinois, Chicago (pkostad at uic.edu)
R. Daniel Kelemen, Rutgers University (dkelemen at polisci.rutgers.edu)


******************************************************
Alexandra Filindra, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Acting Director of Graduate Studies
Department of Political Science
University of Illinois at Chicago
1108D BSB
1007 W. Harrison St. (M/C 276)
Chicago IL 60607-1234
 
email: aleka at uic.edu
cell: (848) 218-1943
 
'Even the invisible hand does not want to pick beans," Stephen Colbert's
testimony in Congress

"I have always been a fan of establishing reality by majority vote," Stephen
Colbert (in response to Texas school board decision to remove discussion of
evolution from school books)


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