The Sussex European Institute (SEI) was set up in 1992 and has developed into an outstanding postgraduate training and research centre of excellence in contemporary European studies. As well as delivering internationally renowned Masters and doctoral courses, the SEI is also one of the foremost centres of cutting edge academic research on contemporary Europe. The SEI:
- Publishes highly influential working papers and briefing papers.
- Holds seminars and conferences involving leading academics and practitioners working on Europe, including our prestigious weekly research-in-progress seminars
- Acts as a hub for scholars involved in research on many aspects of contemporary Europe both within Sussex and beyond through internationally renowned collaborative networks such as the European Parties Elections and Referendums Network (EPERN) and the Jean Monnet Wider Europe Network.
You can find out more about SEI’s activities in ‘Euroscope’, our termly newsletter.
The SEI’s distinctive core intellectual mission, and what makes its approach to studying and research contemporary Europe distinctive, is built on four pillars:
1. Inter-disciplinarity
For the SEI inter-discplinarity is based on the notion that you need to bring to bear insights from a variety of disciplines in order to make sense of the key issues confronting contemporary Europe. Problems such as migration in Europe, EU enlargement, economic and monetary union, and European security, to name a few, require an inter-disciplinary approach. Inter-disciplinarity was part of the original Sussex ethos dating back to when the University was established in the 1960s and the SEI is now one of main repositories of this tradition. The SEI is the hub of a network of scholars researching contemporary Europe at Sussex and beyond from a range of disciplines: political science, law, sociology, economics, geography, anthropology, international relations, history, linguistics and media studies.
2. Breadth and inclusivity
The SEI treats Europe as a whole and not just ‘the EU’ or ‘Western Europe’ engaging with the often ‘forgotten’ parts of the continent, particularly the former communist states of Central and Eastern Europe that form the ‘new EU’ and ‘European neighbourhood’. Many ‘European studies’ researchers and institutes often simply treat these countries as an ‘add on’. This gives a broader perspective to the SEI’s postgraduate students and researchers - who often end up working in European institutions or in jobs which bring them contact with the European integration process - compared to those who take a straight ‘EU studies’ postgraduate courses.
3. Grounded, policy-relevant research at the academic cutting edge
The SEI comprises outstanding academic researchers. It produces bold and ambitious scholarship that is at the academic cutting edge and pushes forward the conceptual and theoretical boundaries of knowledge. But the SEI also believes strongly in making its research policy relevant and accessible to a wide range of non-academic audiences, including: policy-makers, think tanks, NGOs, the media and business community. This underpins our development of a vibrant network of so-called ‘practitioner fellows’ but all SEI researchers believe in engaging with, and producing research that is relevant to, non-academic audiences as a core elements of the Institute’s rationale and ethos.
4. Integrating the European and national levels of analysis
In recent years in particular, the SEI has developed a critical fourth distinctive strand to its core mission: integrating the European and national levels by studying how the European integration processes inter-acts with, shapes and is shaped by domestic political processes. Recent European referendums and elections that point to the collapse of the ‘permissive consensus’ have, to take one example, demonstrate the absolute necessity of understanding this European-domestic inter-face. The SEI’s ability to grasp this problematic place it at the forefront of an emerging academic sub-field and gives it a crucial advantage over other European studies research and postgraduate training centres. It is another example of how the fact that SEI is at the cutting edge and engaging with a new, emerging field of scholarship in European studies gives its postgraduate students and researchers an ‘edge’ when trying to sell themselves as European specialists.
Nicholas Doyle, MA in Contemporary European Studies