WEST Announcements: 4/25/2013 – Faculty Edition
WEST Announcements, April 25, 2013
-Faculty Edition-
Events:
- TODAY: Lecture: “Modern Greece, the Mediterranean, and the Postcolonial” Dr. Vassiliki Tsitsopoulou, 4/25/2013 2:00PM
- TONIGHT: International Studies Undergraduate Capstone Symposium: 4/25/2013 5:00PM
- European History Workshop: “A Realistic Utopia: Jewish Agricultural Colonies in Interwar France,” Erin Corber (IU) 4/26/2013 1:00PM
- Lecture: “Animal Cognition: Is there a feature that marks an anthropoligical borderline?” A. Bartel Newen (Ruhr-University) 4/26/2013 1:30PM
- Lecture: “Distant Lands: An Anthology of Poets Who Don’t Exist,” Karen Kovacik, 4/26/2013 5:30PM
Opportunities:
- Been to Venice? Here’s an opportunity to be interviewed about your experience!
- Need access to the Stalin Digital Archive? Look here for a message about online access.
- Monash University European and EU Centre Grants- Applications close 5/31/2013
- “Criminological Approaches to the Study of Terrorism.” Manuscripts due 6/1/2013
- Smith Richardson Foundation Research Fellowship: Applications due June 14, 2013
- Call for papers on post communism
- University of Minnesota’s CARLA lesser-known second languages workshop
- Carrie Chapman Catt Prize for Research on Women in Politics: materials must be postmarked by 11/29/2013
- 8th International Conference on Language Teacher Education- May 30-June 1, 2013
- CIES Fulbright Opportunities for 2014-2015
- Call for papers: “Regionalism, Norm Diffusion and Social Policy: Dealing with old and new crises in Europe and Latin America.” Proposals due 5/31/13
WEST Announcements: April 25, 2013 -Graduate Student Edition
WEST Announcements: April 25, 2013
-Graduate Student Edition-
WEST European Studies is now accepting applications for a Graduate Assistant Position for 2013-2014. Interested individuals please click here for more information.
Events:
- TODAY: Lecture: “Modern Greece, the Mediterranean, and the Postcolonial” Dr. Vassiliki Tsitsopoulou, 4/25/2013 2:00PM
- TONIGHT: International Studies Undergraduate Capstone Symposium: 4/25/2013 5:00PM
- European History Workshop: “A Realistic Utopia: Jewish Agricultural Colonies in Interwar France,” Erin Corber (IU) 4/26/2013 1:00PM
- Lecture: “Animal Cognition: Is there a feature that marks an anthropoligical borderline?” A. Bartel Newen (Ruhr-University) 4/26/2013 1:30PM
- Lecture: “Distant Lands: An Anthology of Poets Who Don’t Exist,” Karen Kovacik, 4/26/2013 5:30PM
Summer Course Listings:
- First Four Weeks: Topics in Scandinavian Literature: Hans Christian Andersen with Prof. Gergana May
- First Four Weeks: Greek Sovereign Debt Crisis with Prof. Frank Hess
- First Six Weeks: The Politics of Immigration with Prof. C. Kevin Taber
- All Summer: First Year Dutch with Prof. Esther Ham
Opportunities:
- Turkish Flagship Program here at IU: Scholarships for Summer 2013
- Been to Venice? Here’s an opportunity to be interviewed about your experience!
- Need access to the Stalin Digital Archive? Look here for a message about online access.
- University of Illinois Summer Research Lab
- German Chancellor Fellowships for Prospective Leaders- Now Accepting Applications
- CAGS Internships for Fall 13/Spring 14
Job Listings:
- Foreign Policy Association: Global Jobs
- Global Career Boot Camps
- Summer Teaching Jobs: Institute of Reading Development
- Apply for an Internship at the Institute for World Politics!
- Year-Round Position as a distance educator for a museum in Alberta
- Assistant Director of Student Services Program at the Global Village
Call for Papers:
- PHD Students: EGPA Symposium (University of Edinburgh) Conference Papers, applications due 5/15/2013
- Call for papers: “Regionalism, Norm Diffusion and Social Policy: Dealing with old and new crises in Europe and Latin America.” Proposals due 5/31/13
- “Criminological Approaches to the Study of Terrorism.” Manuscripts due 6/1/2013
- University at Buffalo Graduate Student Conference, “On Bridges, Breaches, and Borders”; submissions due 6/1/2013
- Call for papers on post communism
- Carrie Chapman Catt Prize for Research on Women in Politics: materials must be postmarked by 11/29/2013
Funding:
- AES Scholarship: Applications due 10/4/2013
- PHD Students: Hunt Scholarship on German History- Applications due 6/1/2013
- PHD Students: Goldman Scholarship on German Politics- Applications due 6/1/2013
Study Abroad:
- Postdoctoral Fellowship: Research College at the Free University Berlin
- Prague Summer School: Applications due 4/30/2013
- Study in Vienna: Applications due 4/30/2013
- Lilly Lorenzen Scholarship to study in Sweden: Applications Due 5/1/2013
- German Chancellor Fellowship: Applications due 10/15 annually
- Summer University in Prague: 9/7-9/22/2013
Fall Course Listings:
Still haven’t found what you were looking for? Try the GPSO Newsletter!
or the CASLS Newsletter
Something Somewhat Caused by the Greek Financial Crisis
How’s this for labor relations? On April 17, three Greek foremen on a strawberry farm in the south Peloponnese were jailed for opening fire on a crowd of Bangladeshi workers who were asking for their pay from the last six months. They used shotguns. Nobody died, but 28 were wounded. The Greek foremen were aged 21, 27, and 39. Public Order Minister Nikos Dendias said that this attack “does not only violate our laws but any sense of humanity and is foreign to our culture.” This is not an isolated incident. In Nea Manolada, where this took place, violence against migrant workers has been an issue for several years. The regional police said that while none of the incurred injuries were life-threatening, they “are still treating this as a very, very serious incident.” The 27-year-old foreman involved in this current attack was awaiting trial for an attack last year on an Egyptian worker whose head was bashed against a car before being dragged along a country road.
Golden Dawn, a political party that has problems with immigrants in Greece (to put it mildly) condemned the attack, saying:
“Golden Dawn condemns the perpetrators of the incidents at Manolada and the shootings against the foreigners. She also condemns those that employ illegal immigrants, depriving a living from thousands Greek families.
…
Politicians of the Left and the Right, supposedly “humanists”, share responsibility for both the slave trade and the huge problems foreigners cause against the Greek People. Only Golden Dawn has a clear solution for this: Deportation of all illegal immigrants! A definitive end to the black labor of the immigrants!”
The All-militant Workers’ Front (PAME), closely associated with the Communist Party of Greece, had this to say:
“The immigrant agricultural workers in Manolada are on the receiving end not only of state but also employer intimidation on a daily basis. They work without any protective measures and without social-security cover. They live in terrible conditions and without any measures for their health and medical care. Today they were attacked in a murderous way, when the employers’ thugs opened fire on them. This resulted in 28 of them being taken to [the] hospital.”
About 124 miles away from Nea Manolada (as the crow flies), Golden Dawn had a meeting. The Municipal Theater in Piraeus was the home of a Neo-Nazi demonstration under the helm of Golden Dawn, a right-wing extremist group which has recently been polling around 10 to 12 percent support among voters. Way back in 2005, the leader of the party, Nikos Michaloliakos was quoted as saying “When we are strong, we will show no mercy. It won’t be democratic anymore.” This was written off as right-wing nonsense at the time. Then the Sovereign Debt Crisis happened.
Now Michaloliakos says, “No one can stop us- not the bombs, not all your filth. We will triumph!” Lots of people listening to him (clothed in black hoods) responded “Zito!” which means something like “long-live,” but it’s intended to come out sounding like the chant of the National Socialists in Germany. Michaloliakos has some extreme views: he called the Holocaust an “exaggeration” and thinks that at Auschwitz “there were no gas chambers; that’s a lie.” That’s nonsense.
This group has proven to be extraordinarily nonsensical, conducting themselves in a peculiar form of disciplined brutality which smacks of a certain incivility which has proven itself to be a hallmark of right—wing extremism. On June 9, 2012, Ilias Kasidiaris, Golden Dawn spokesman, threw some water on a debate opponent and then slapped a left-wing candidate on the head three times. Within 24 hours of the incident, a Facebook page which said “blessed be the hand of Ilias Kasidiaris” who “did what the entire Greek people wanted: give a strong slap to the system and its representatives.” This is a sign of the times: Liana Kanelli, the woman who was slapped, is a member of the Communist Party of Greece. How is it that an organization that fought a civil war against the Greek government (which was backed by the British and the United States) could be considered a part of “the system”?
Back in 2011, Bill Frezza, a contributor to Forbes magazine, wrote that Greece “deserves” Communism. To quote Frezza: “What the world needs, lest we forget, is a contemporary example of Communism in action. What better candidate than Greece? They’ve been pining for it for years, exhibiting a level of anti-capitalist vitriol unmatched in any developed country… Just toss them out of the European Union, cut off the flow of free Euros, and hand them back the printing plates for their old drachmas. Then stand back for a generation and watch.”
A couple of years have passed since then, and popular support for the Communists is only about half of what it is for Golden Dawn, at about 5.5%. Regardless, these days in Greece there is a rise in support for parties at the far-ends of the political spectrum. Thus, when observations are made that conditions in Greece are “similar to those of Weimar Germany,” there is at least some kernel of truth.
Urging authorities to take prompt action in response to the violent attack on immigrant workers in Nea Manolada, representatives of the Council of Europe stated that “steep increase in hate crimes in Greece, primarily targeting migrants, is an issue of grave concern.” And it has been for a while: In 2009, a march by Golden Dawn was met with a counter-protest by various left-wing groups. The two sides threw petrol bombs and stones at one another, and then Golden Dawn marchers attacked an abandoned courthouse where immigrants had been living. A Moroccan immigrant who had been living there said this: “We didn’t do anything. Why do they treat us like this? The police did nothing. Here in Greece, human rights don’t exist.” This pattern of violence has gone on long enough, and certainly the conditions brought about by the debt crisis have contributed to these events.
WEST Announcements: 4/18/2013- Faculty Edition
WEST Announcements, April 18, 2013
-Faculty Edition-
Events:
- Tonight: Slavic Department Night of Talents 4/18/2013 7:00PM
- Tonight: Presentation/Discussion:”The Very Private Sector” Colin Johnson (IUB) 4/18/2013 4:00PM
- Lecture: “Divided We Stand: A Typology of Strategies to Deal with Cleavages in the Armed Forces.” Hendrik Spruyt (Northwestern University) 4/19/2013 5:30PM
- Ostrum Workshop Lecture: “Civil Society and Antislavery in Tocquevillian Perspective” Seymour Drescher (University of Pittsburgh) 4/19/2013 12:00PM
- Lecture: “Modern Greece, the Mediterranean, and the Postcolonial” Dr. Vassiliki Tsitsopoulou, 4/25/2013 2:00PM
- International Studies Undergraduate Capstone Symposium: 4/25/2013 5:00PM
- Lecture: “Distant Lands: An Anthology of Poets Who Don’t Exist,” Karen Kovacik, 4/26/2013 5:30PM
Opportunities:
- Been to Venice? Here’s an opportunity to be interviewed about your experience!
- Need access to the Stalin Digital Archive? Look here for a message about online access.
- Monash University European and EU Centre Grants- Applications close 5/31/2013
- “Criminological Approaches to the Study of Terrorism.” Manuscripts due 6/1/2013
- Smith Richardson Foundation Research Fellowship: Applications due June 14, 2013
- Call for papers on post communism
- University of Minnesota’s CARLA lesser-known second languages workshop
- Carrie Chapman Catt Prize for Research on Women in Politics: materials must be postmarked by 11/29/2013
- 8th International Conference on Language Teacher Education- May 30-June 1, 2013
- CIES Fulbright Opportunities for 2014-2015
WEST Announcements: 4/18/2013- Graduate Student Edition
WEST Announcements: April 18, 2013
-Graduate Student Edition-
WEST European Studies is now accepting applications for a Graduate Assistant Position for 2013-2014. Interested individuals please click here for more information.
Earlier today, the German Bundestag approved the bailout of Cyprus. The measure received 487 votes in favor, with 102 against, and 13 abstentions.
Events:
- Tonight: Presentation/Discussion:”The Very Private Sector” Colin Johnson (IUB) 4/18/2013 4:00PM
- Ostrum Workshop Lecture: “Civil Society and Antislavery in Tocquevillian Perspective” Seymour Drescher (University of Pittsburgh) 4/19/2013 12:00PM
- Lecture: “Divided We Stand: A Typology of Strategies to Deal with Cleavages in the Armed Forces.” Hendrik Spruyt (Northwestern University) 4/19/2013 5:30PM
- Lecture: “Modern Greece, the Mediterranean, and the Postcolonial” Dr. Vassiliki Tsitsopoulou, 4/25/2013 2:00PM
- International Studies Undergraduate Capstone Symposium: 4/25/2013 5:00PM
- Lecture: “Distant Lands: An Anthology of Poets Who Don’t Exist,” Karen Kovacik, 4/26/2013 5:30PM
Summer Course Listings:
- First Four Weeks: Topics in Scandinavian Literature: Hans Christian Andersen with Prof. Gergana May
- First Four Weeks: Greek Sovereign Debt Crisis with Prof. Frank Hess
- First Six Weeks: The Politics of Immigration with Prof. C. Kevin Taber
- All Summer: First Year Dutch with Prof. Esther Ham
Opportunities:
- Turkish Flagship Program here at IU: Scholarships for Summer 2013
- Been to Venice? Here’s an opportunity to be interviewed about your experience!
- Need access to the Stalin Digital Archive? Look here for a message about online access.
- University of Illinois Summer Research Lab
- Center for Constitutional Democracy Affiliate Program for MA and Ph.D. Students: Applications due 4/15
Job Listings:
- Foreign Policy Association: Global Jobs
- Global Career Boot Camps
- Summer Teaching Jobs: Institute of Reading Development
- Apply for an Internship at the Institute for World Politics!
- Year-Round Position as a distance educator for a museum in Alberta
- Assistant Director of Student Services Program at the Global Village
Call for Papers:
- PHD Students: EGPA Symposium (University of Edinburgh) Conference Papers, applications due 5/15/2013
- “Criminological Approaches to the Study of Terrorism.” Manuscripts due 6/1/2013
- University at Buffalo Graduate Student Conference, “On Bridges, Breaches, and Borders”; submissions due 6/1/2013
- Call for papers on post communism
- Carrie Chapman Catt Prize for Research on Women in Politics: materials must be postmarked by 11/29/2013
Funding:
Study Abroad:
- Postdoctoral Fellowship: Research College at the Free University Berlin
- Summer in Warsaw: Applications due 4/20/2013
- Prague Summer School: Applications due 4/30/2013
- Study in Vienna: Applications due 4/30/2013
- Lilly Lorenzen Scholarship to study in Sweden: Applications Due 5/1/2013
- German Chancellor Fellowship: Applications due 10/15 annually
- Summer University in Prague: 9/7-9/22/2013
Fall Course Listings:
Still haven’t found what you were looking for? Try the GPSO Newsletter!
or the CASLS Newsletter
Margaret Thatcher: Life and Legacy
On April 8, former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher died of a stroke at the age of 87. Few news sources and political figures have failed, four days after her passing, to participate in the discussion of her legacy and life. What is emerging from these statements is the divided and divisive memories of the “Iron Lady’s” role throughout her life as well as predictions of her lingering influence after death. Her time as a political figure touched many facets of British life and its relationship to the international community, and her legacy sheds an interesting light on the situation in the United Kingdom today.
It is difficult to argue against Thatcher’s importance, regardless of what side of the political divide one falls on. She was the longest-serving Prime Minister in the twentieth century, having been elected to three terms as leader of the Conservative Party from 1979-1990. Her name is memorialized through the collection of her political and economic agendas, known today as Thatcherism and used colloquially as well as in academic spheres. She has been continually called one of the most influential figures of the twentieth century; that she has been profoundly influential is not in question. The nature of that influence is decidedly more controversial.
Within the United Kingdom, her death was met with both grief and joy. Current Prime Minister David Cameron spoke at a six-hour tribute to Thatcher in a special session of the House of Commons. He praised her as an extraordinary political figure, stating “She made this country great again.” The session was filled with other politicians lauding the life and legacy of the former Prime Minister. However, there was much rejoicing among others at the news of her death; in Glasgow, parts of Wales, and London itself, celebrations broke out as Thatcher was remembered for her much-hated policies towards labor unions and regional independence outside England.
On a European scale, Thatcher is remembered both for her commitment to a single currency as well as her reservations about European unity in other facets. She was one of the main figures to push through the Single European Act in 1986, a forerunner to the implementation of the euro in 1999. However, she also battled for an EU rebate for the UK, famously saying “I want my money back.” National pride and identity was always to come before European identity, she said, a legacy continued today with serious talk of a UK withdrawal from the EU. However, Thatcher was also committed to bringing Eastern European countries into the EU, despite the “Iron Curtain” of the Cold War.
She is also being remembered as a powerful feminist symbol, though not without reservation. As the first and only woman to hold the position of Prime Minister in the UK, she was also the first woman to lead a major European democracy. However, the coincidence of her gender and position of power hardly equate to innate feminism. In her eleven years as PM, she promoted only one woman to her cabinet and was as ruthless with women’s care as she was with many social programs, maintaining or instituting them when she saw them as economically advantageous. In this realm, too, Thatcher’s legacy is complicated.
Margaret Thatcher’s death has served as catalyst for political debate and dissent. In the end, she will certainly be remembered in both the critical and laudatory terms that surrounded her throughout her life.
WEST Announcements: April 11, 2013- Graduate Student Edition
WEST Announcements: April 11, 2013
-Graduate Student Edition-
On April 12,1961, Soviet Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human in outer space, a momentous occasion in human history and in the Cold War.
Events:
- TONIGHT: Lecture: “Is Justice Possible in Russia’s Courts? An Analysis from the Bottom Up” Kathryn Hendley (U Wisconsin-Madison) 4/11/2013 4:00PM
- Catapult Workshop: “Linguistic Annotation” Sarah Kuebler 3/12/2013 10:00AM
- Graduate Research Symposium on Human Trafficking: 4/12/2013 12:15PM
- Lecture: “Re-inventing Hoodia: Boundary Objects and Benefit Sharing in Southern Africa” Laura Foster (IUB) 4/12/2013 1:30PM
- Lakha Khan Manganiyar in Concert: 4/12/2013 4:30PM
- International Vocal Ensemble Sings Estonian and Latvian Songs: 4/14/2013 2:00PM
- Lecture: “Rethinking the Canons of Islamic Intellectual History” Khaled El-Rouayheb (Harvard) 4/15/2013 7:00PM
- McCloskey Lecture: “A Future for Eastern Europe and Southeast Europe” Victor Jackovich (US Ambassador to Bosnia/Herzegovina)
- Presentation/Discussion:”The Very Private Sector” Colin Johnson (IUB) 4/18/2013 4:00PM
- Lecture: “Divided We Stand: A Typology of Strategies to Deal with Cleavages in the Armed Forces.” Hendrik Spruyt (Northwestern University) 4/19/2013 5:30PM
Summer Course Listings:
- First Four Weeks: Topics in Scandinavian Literature: Hans Christian Andersen with Prof. Gergana May
- First Four Weeks: Greek Sovereign Debt Crisis with Prof. Frank Hess
- First Six Weeks: The Politics of Immigration with Prof. C. Kevin Taber
- All Summer: First Year Dutch with Prof. Esther Ham
Opportunities:
- Been to Venice? Here’s an opportunity to be interviewed about your experience!
- Need access to the Stalin Digital Archive? Look here for a message about online access.
- University of Illinois Summer Research Lab
- Center for Constitutional Democracy Affiliate Program for MA and Ph.D. Students: Applications due 4/15
Job Listings:
- Foreign Policy Association: Global Jobs
- Global Career Boot Camps
- Summer Teaching Jobs: Institute of Reading Development
- Apply for an Internship at the Institute for World Politics!
- Year-Round Position as a distance educator for a museum in Alberta
- Assistant Director of Student Services Program at the Global Village
Call for Papers:
- PHD Students: Post-doctoral fellowship in Berlin, applications due: 4/15/2013
- Framing the Global: Center for the Study of Global Change(IU), proposals due 4/15/2013
- PHD Students: EGPA Symposium (University of Edinburgh) Conference Papers, applications due 5/15/2013
- “Criminological Approaches to the Study of Terrorism.” Manuscripts due 6/1/2013
- University at Buffalo Graduate Student Conference, “On Bridges, Breaches, and Borders”; submissions due 6/1/2013
- Call for papers on post communism
Funding:
Study Abroad:
- Postdoctoral Fellowship: Research College at the Free University Berlin
- Summer in Warsaw: Applications due 4/20/2013
- Prague Summer School: Applications due 4/30/2013
- Study in Vienna: Applications due 4/30/2013
- Lilly Lorenzen Scholarship to study in Sweden: Applications Due 5/1/2013
- German Chancellor Fellowship: Applications due 10/15 annually
- Summer University in Prague: 9/7-9/22/2013
Fall Course Listings:
Still haven’t found what you were looking for? Try the GPSO Newsletter!
or the CASLS Newsletter
