Founded in 1992, the Sussex European Institute (SEI) is an interdisciplinary research hub that brings together scholars and experts whose work engages with Europe’s political institutions, political economy and historical legacies.
SEI facilitates a dialogue between scholars based in various departments across and beyond the University of Sussex, including disciplines such as Anthropology, History, International Relations, Law, Sociology, Politics, Law, and Economics. 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
Spring 2026
- 25 February 2026: Maryam Daras and Eva Poɫońska-Kimunguyi, ‘Decolonising the Study of European Union’s External Relations: the Case of Palestine’
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SEI seminar (in-person):
Title: ‘Decolonising the Study of European Union’s External Relations: the Case of Palestine’
Maryam Daras and Eva Poɫońska-Kimunguyi (European Institute at London School of Economics)
Chair: Aleks Lewicki
Date: 25 February 2026, 2-3.30pm
Please contact Cristiano Bee at C.Bee@sussex.ac.uk to register.
Abstract: Scholarship of the European Union’s (EU) foreign policy towards Israel/Palestine finds itself unable or unwilling to explain the genocide that has taken place in Gaza since October 2023. This is because existing research on EU policy towards Israel/Palestine is overwhelmingly Eurocentric and does not ‘remember’ the colonial dimension of these relations. The lack of colonial history and context, the absence of violence of settler-colonial project as an analytical category, the silencing of Palestinian voices, experiences and resistance to Israeli colonialism and occupation are the main features of scholarship of EU-Israel/Palestine relations. By packaging the Israel-Palestine relations as ‘conflict’, as if parties to this conflict were equal, this research is conceptually misleading, and thus, complicit in the colonial order it produces. The chapter brings history back to the story of Europe’s engagement with the region. It puts the settler colonial project, its violence, racism, and Palestinian lived experiences into the centre of discussions of EU’s relations with Israel/Palestine to advance a revisionist account of approaches promoted by EU studies. The chapter challenges scholars to rethink the ‘peace/conflict’ paradigm that informs research on EU foreign policy towards the region.
- 4 March 2026: Ugo Gaudino, with responses from James Hampshire and Faiz Sheikh, ‘Islamophobia and Translations of Securitisation in Britain, France and Italy’
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SEI and IR book launch (in-person)
Title: ‘Islamophobia and Translations of Securitisation in Britain, France and Italy’
Ugo Gaudino (IR at Sussex), with responses from James Hampshire (SEI & Politics at Sussex) and Faiz Sheikh (IR at Sussex)
Chair: Aleks Lewicki
Date: 4th March 2026, 3-4.30pm
Venue: Global Studies Resource Centre
Abstract: This book contributes to research on Islamophobia and critical security studies by exploring the historical trajectory and the intra-party dynamics that led three Western European centre-left parties (British Labour Party, French Socialist Party, and Italian Democratic Party) to securitize Islam. Western governments have increasingly framed Islam as a threat to national security in recent decades. Yet, the ideas and languages through which securitization manifests across and inside right-wing and left-wing parties is less examined by current literature. This book shows that political parties translate security (particularly the securitization of Islam) in the name of various ideological references. This is necessary to understand why the same securitized threat (Muslims) is interpreted differently by political parties on the Right and the Left. The author engages with one main question: How do Islamophobia and specifically its securitarian dimension travel across and inside political parties? The author argues that the securitization of Islam travels across and inside parties through a process called translation, which occurs through the appropriation of tropes traditionally belonging to the other political pole. Translation is active, because Islamophobic tropes are translated into a language coherent with partisan ideologies. Translation is also collective. If the securitization audiences are not persuaded by translation, the process might be rejected, and such rejection can lead to de-securitization. Translation is also influenced and made possible by contextual elements: the party history, the interaction between the Right and the Left, and significant external events that increased the perception of insecurity raised by Muslims.
- 11 March 2026: Ayhan Kaya, ‘Epistemic Injustice and Ressentiment among Marginalized Youth across Europe’
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SEI seminar (online):
Title: ‘Epistemic Injustice and Ressentiment among Marginalized Youth across Europe’
Ayhan Kaya (Istanbul Bilgi University)
Chair: Cristiano Bee
Date: 11 March 2026, 2-3.30pm
Please email the SocSci-Research Team SocSci-ResearchTeam@sussex.ac.uk for the Zoom link.
- View our previous events