Founded in 1992, the Sussex European Institute (SEI) is the leading research and postgraduate training centre on contemporary European issues.
SEI facilitates a dialogue between scholars based in various departments across and beyond the University of Sussex, including disciplines such as History, Sociology, Politics, Law, International Relations and Postcolonial Studies, Anthropology, Migration Studies, and European Studies. Our community of scholars also works closely with practitioners, policy makers and the voluntary sector.
Europe is often seen as a realm - or even cradle of - democracy, freedom, and rights. Other times, European integration is viewed as in perpetual crisis. In our understanding, Europe not only takes shape through such projected self-images, but also constitutes itself through European states’ and institutions’ historic and contemporary actions – which have crafted internal power asymmetries and produced global inequalities.
Upcoming Events
- To be confirmed
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TBC
Past Events
- Wednesday 23 June 2021, The Ongoing Politics of Brexit and Ireland
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The Ongoing Politics of Brexit and Ireland
Date: Wednesday 23rd June 2021
Time: 4-6pm London UK time
Venue: On-line via Zoom
Speakers: Prof Katy Hayward, Prof Brigid Laffan, Prof John O’Brennan
Chair: Dr Neil Dooley, University of Sussex
Abstract
The ‘unique circumstances on the island of Ireland’ have fundamentally shaped the negotiations around, the outcomes of, and the aftermath of Brexit. While the impact of Brexit on Ireland and Northern Ireland barely featured during the 2016 referendum campaign, it quickly became one of the thorniest and most defining issues in negotiations. Despite pledges to ‘get Brexit done’ and the UK formally exiting the EU on January 31st 2021, tensions and negotiations around the Northern Ireland protocol have persisted. Ireland was, and remains absolutely central to the ongoing politics of Brexit.
Presented by the Sussex European Institute, this workshop will explore questions around the centrality of Ireland's interests in Brexit negotiations, the current UK government position on the Northern Ireland protocol, the impact of Brexit and ‘de-Europeanisation’ on British-Irish relations and how the politics of Ireland/Northern Ireland understood and framed by UK political elites. It will broadly consider, if the politics of Brexit are ongoing, what role will ‘the unique circumstances on the island of Ireland’ play in their evolution?Presented by the Sussex European Institute, this workshop will explore questions around the centrality of Ireland's interests in Brexit negotiations, the current UK government position on the Northern Ireland protocol, the impact of Brexit and ‘de-Europeanisation’ on British-Irish relations and how the politics of Ireland/Northern Ireland understood and framed by UK political elites. It will broadly consider, if the politics of Brexit are ongoing, what role will ‘the unique circumstances on the island of Ireland’ play in their evolution?
- Wednesday 17 March 2021, Europe's unsafe environment anti-migrant violence in COVID times
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Date: Wednesday 17 March 2021
Time: 4-5pm London UK time
Venue: On-line via Zoom
Speaker: Dr Maurice Stierl, University of Warwick
Abstract
The Covid-19 crisis has prompted a range of novel mobility restrictions that have impacted migrant and displaced communities particularly harshly. Focussing on the situation at Europe’s external borders, I will examine the drastic anti-migrant deterrence and racialised containment measures that have emerged over the first year of the pandemic. Although these measures need to be understood in the continuity of the EU border regime, we can nonetheless observe a shift: from hostile Europe to unsafe Europe. While practically, Europe’s manifold hostile environment policies vis-à-vis precarious migrants persist, the Covid-19 emergency has allowed to justify ‘keeping them out’ or ‘containing them elsewhere’ in the name of their own protection, far away from Europe’s unsafe environment, plagued by a rampant pandemic.
Chair: Dr Aleks Lewicki, University of Sussex
