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 its 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
- Wednesday 11 February 2026, David Davies, ‘The Regulation of Gender Stereotypes in Advertising Law and Policy in Europe’
-
SEI book launch (in-person)
Title: ‘The Regulation of Gender Stereotypes in Advertising Law and Policy in Europe’
David Davies (Criminology at Sussex)
Chair: Aleks Lewicki
Date: 11 February 2026, 1-2pm
Venue: Sabina Avdagic Room (F30) Freeman.
Abstract: This book provides an innovative and policy-oriented analysis of gender stereotypes in advertising regulation from a socio-legal perspective. Examining the law and policy of the European Union and three case studies in Sweden, Spain and the UK, the book draws on interviews, focus group data and desk research to critically assess the legislation and regulation on the use of gender stereotypes in advertising. Its focus is on the largely neglected question of the EU’s competence in the area of gender. And to assess this, the book considers various forms of ‘good practice’ through legislation, regulation and policy. It also explores the proscribing of gender stereotypes in advertising through ‘soft law’ measures such as self-regulation at state level, and action programmes and roadmaps at EU level. Finally, it critiques the lack of progress in achieving a unified code on the regulation of gender stereotypes whilst imagining what such a code might look like. The book will appeal to academics with research and teaching interests in EU law, gender equality and comparative law, as well as academics and practitioners involved with media and advertising regulation, anti-discrimination law and freedom of expression.
- 25 February 2026, Maryam Daras and Eva Poɫońska-Kimunguyi, ‘Decolonising the Study of European Union’s External Relations: the Case of Palestine’
-
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
Venue: F40, Freeman
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’
-
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’
-
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