Working with University Students for Inclusion, Solidarity and Citizen Participation in the EU

The concepts at the heart of the Connected Community are European citizenship, democratic participation, inclusion and solidarity in the EU. We aim to invite students and the civil society to reflect on issues on which the academic members of the community have developed research of a political, legal, linguistic, and historical nature, as well as on artistic and audio-visual representations of these notions, or lack of.

Programme 

The Connected Community will address two sets of questions through several online and in-person activities that will involve students of all levels, researchers and experts, NGOs, EU officials, and members of the European Parliament.

The first set of questions concerns the involvement of European citizens in EU political debates: how do we understand this notion of democratic participation? How can we measure it? How has it evolved? What mechanisms exist to involve European citizens in EU political debates? How do these mechanisms enable citizens to participate actively? How do European citizens exercise their political rights? What are the barriers to using these mechanisms?

A second set of questions concerns the inclusion of non-European citizens and solidarity. The issue of solidarity has come to the fore with the years of “polycrisis” that the EU has been going through (economic and financial crisis, “refugee crisis”, sanitary crisis, etc.): What does solidarity mean in the EU? Is it mainly about solidarity between member states (for example in the case of the relocation programme)? What about solidarity with non-European citizens (Ukraine and EU’s migration and asylum policy come to mind)? How is solidarity framed by the EU institutions? How do EU public policies take solidarity into account? What is the impact of these policies on inclusion and sustainability? 

Here are some examples of the planned activities, but stay tuned for updates!

• Cross-campus learning activity with a negotiation simulation on the EU migration and asylum policy
• Workshops and student debates on the European citizens' initiative and how to access information on the EU decision-making process
• Presentation on the artistic exploration of Forensic Architecture

Connected Community Activities

Upcoming Activities

Coming soon

Past activities

How to get involved 

Contacts
Lead: Prof. Stéphanie Novak (stephanie.novak@unive.it)
Local Facilitator: Laura Cappellesso (eutopia@unive.it)

 

Connected Community Members 

Lead: Prof. Stéphanie Novak (UNIVE). Email: stephanie.novak@unive.it

Stéphanie Novak is associate professor of political science and international relations at Ca’ Foscari University in Venice. She holds a PhD in political science from Sciences Po Paris.

Co-lead: Prof. Miriam De Rosa (UNIVE). Email: miriam.derosa@unive.it

Miriam De Rosa researches and teaches film, visual cultures and media archaeology at Ca' Foscari, University of Venice, where she is associate professor in film and media. She is the author and editor of several publications on these topics, amongst which Cinema e postmedia (postmediabooks 2013), Post-what? Post-when? (2016), Gesture (2019), Film and Domestic space (2020) and the forthcoming Grosse Fatigue (Mimesis 2024). She is sitting in the steering committee of NECS, the European Network for Cinema and Media Studies and is the general coordinator of IMACS.

Co-lead: Prof. Sara De Vido (UNIVE). Email: sara.devido@unive.it

Sara De Vido is Associate Professor of International Law at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, Italy, where she teaches International Law, EU Law and Human Rights Law. She is an affiliate to the Manchester International Law Centre, UK, where she co-founded the Women in International Law Network. She is a delegate of the Rector for Gender Equality, and a member of the Centre for Human Rights at Ca’ Foscari University. She is member of the academic council of Venice International University, Venice, Italy. She is also part of the National network on countering hate speech. She has been working on countering violence against women for years as expert on the Istanbul Convention and her most recent book is Violence against Women’s Health in International Law (Manchester University Press, Melland Schill Studies in International Law, 2020). She co-edited the first commentary to the Council of Europe Istanbul Convention (with M. Frulli) with the contribution of more than 70 authors for Elgar Publishing. She is legal expert for the European Union Network on preventing gender-based violence and domestic violence established by the European Commission. 

Partner: Prof. Roland Hinterölzl (UNIVE). Email: rolandh@unive.it 

Coming soon 

Partner: Prof. François Pernot (CY). Email: francois.pernot@cyu.fr

As a full professor in Early Modern History and Modern History at CY Cergy Paris University, François Pernot teaches at Bachelor, Master and PhD levels. He is also the author of various books, works, articles, reports and papers for colloquiums on War studies, political, military and diplomatic history of Modern Europe and European countries from the XVth century to the XIXth century, Borders studies, the history of the “Lotharingian Europe”, heritage studies and the history of events and actors. He works too on war, defence, security, armament and arms in the XXIst century and on the XXIst century wars (European Wars Studies, cyberwar, climatic wars, future wars, ultrawars…). In September 2017, he obtained the Jean Monnet European Chair in History: “War and Europe: Defense, Security, Heritage, Memory and Culture”. As such, he is leading research on European War Studies. Author of L'Histoire de la Guerre, de Antiquité à demain (Ellipses, 2021), he has just published Guerres et batailles de l'époque moderne, de Marignan à Yorktown (Perrin/Ministry of Defence, 2024) and is preparing a book on The Battle of Rocroi in 2025 (Perrin, Ministry of Defence).
François Pernot is also director of the Doctoral College of all the Doctoral Schools of CY Cergy Paris University, director of the Graduate School “Humanities, Creation, Heritage”, member of the CNRS’s major unity of research (UMR – CNRS) 9022 Héritages - culture/s, patrimoine/s, création/s (CYU – CNRS) and coordinator of the Quality Council of Eutopia Alliance. He is also Security and Defence Officer of CY Cergy Paris University and former auditor — and graduate — of the “High Level course of Armament” (2007-2008) (École militaire – Paris). Besides, François Pernot is the special international advisor of France Universités (2024 - …) ; former director of the Europe and International Department (EID) of Hcéres (former AERES) (September 1st 2013-September 1st 2021) and former member of the board and vice-president of ENQA (European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education) (2017-2021). François Pernot was vice-chairman of the University of Cergy-Pontoise (2002-2007) (300 professors, 15,000 students), and dean of the Faculty of Literature and Human Sciences (2007-2013) (60 professors, 1,500 students).
For further info about his academic profile: http://www.u-cergy.fr/fr/~pernot - https://heritages.cyu.fr/

Partner: Prof. Vasilka Sancin (UL). Email: vasilka.sancin@pf.uni-lj.si

Vasilka Sancin, PhD, is a Full Professor of International Law, Head of Department of International Law and Director of the Institute for International Law and International Relations at University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Law (Slovenia). She is currently a member of the United Nations Human Rights Council Advisory Committee (2022-2025) and its Vice-Chair. She previously served as a member (2019-2022) and Vice-Chair of the United Nations Human Rights Committee and its Special Rapporteur for the Follow-up process to Concluding observations. Among others, she serves as ad hoc judge at the European Court of Human Rights; an arbitrator and a Bureau member of the Court of Conciliation and Arbitration within OSCE; an expert of the OSCE Moscow mechanism on Human Rights; and a member of the UNODC Anti-Corruption Academic (ACAD) Initiative. She (co)authored and (co)edited numerous articles/books in the field of international law, and, among other professional affiliations, acts as a President of the Slovene Branch of the International Law Association (ILA).

Partner: Prof. Katarzyna Ruchel-Stockmans (VUB). Email: katarzyna.ruchel-stockmans@vub.be

Katarzyna Ruchel-Stockmans teaches contemporary art, photography, and new media at Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB). Having pursued studies in philosophy and art history in Cracow, Poland, she completed a master in cultural studies and a PhD in art history at KULeuven, Belgium. Her research and teaching are situated at an intersection between art, lens media, participation, politics, and history. Currently, she leads a team of international researchers exploring vernacular lens media archives at the peripheries of Europe. She publishes on photography and art theory, visualizations of grass-roots protest movements, as well as East European cultures, history and representations. Her book Images Performing History appeared in 2015 in Leuven University Press.
 

Partner: Prof. Florian Trauner (VUB). Email: florian.trauner@vub.be

Florian Trauner is the Dean of the Brussels School of Governance (BSoG) at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB). Situated in the heart of Europe, the BSoG strives to be a hub for interdisciplinary teaching and cutting-edge research. Its purpose is to understand and help tackle key societal dynamics and challenges such as migration, the digital transformation of society and climate change. 
Research-wise, Florian Trauner has been interested in the EU’s institutions and decision-making as well as policy outcomes in the fields of asylum, migration, border controls and policing. He is a regular Visiting Professor at the College of Europe (Natolin Campus) and has held permanent or visiting positions at the University of Vienna, Renmin University of China (in Beijing), Sciences Po Paris and the EU Institute for Security Studies. He also acted as an external expert for different EU institutions and UN organisations.