This project builds on the EUC funded "Muslims in Europe" research project conducted by Professor Ken Kollman and the group of researchers in Europe. A group of five teachers from three Ann Arbor high schools created a curriculum unit to examine the concept of European citizenship and religion in various countries. Each teacher wrote a part of the curriculum unit to be used in high schools. Covered topics: Ottoman heritage; European expansion/imperialism in Muslim areas; the post-war economic boom and resulting migration to Europe; diverse expressions of Islam; geography and Muslim populations; defining Europe and Europeans; social problems, economic situations, and political issues.
THE CONNECTING SEA: CHARTING THE MEDITERRANEAN ACROSS THE DISCIPLINES
Few world regions concentrate in themselves so many of today's most pressing geopolitical issues as the Mediterranean. Long studied in a fragmented way, the Mediterranean is now being reinterpreted as a space of connections, exchanges, and contacts made possible by the sea, and as the stage for the possible emergence of new collective identities. In 2011 and 2012, the Center for European Studies—in collaboration with many units across the university—held a series of events highlighting the changing political and cultural landscape taking shape along the Mediterranean's shores. Migration processes across the Mediterranean have provided an especially topical focus. Anthropologists Marco Jacquemet, Liliana Suarez-Navaz, and Gregory Feldman, who have carried out both field work and theoretical reflection about migration and its consequences on both shores of the Mediterranean, helped us set the current anti-authoritarian revolts on the southern shores of the Mediterranean in a broader context. Lectures devoted to history of the Mediterranean were given by Peregrine Horden, Ruth Ben-Ghiat, Pamela Ballinger, and Natalie Rothman. Art history is the focus of talks by Emine Fatvaci and Mary Roberts, and Gazmend Kapllani and Mehmet Yashin focused on literature. This series involved lectures, interdisciplinary workshops, library exhibitions, and film screenings. The series was part of LSA Theme Semesters on Water and Language.
"The Balkan Sight of the Mediterranean (or the Unbearable Similarity of the Other)." Gazmend Kapllani, author.
"Cultural Hybridity in the Medieval Mediterranean: A Concept in Search of Evidence?" Peregrine Horden, professor of history, University of London.
"The Sultan’s Album: Bringing the Empire into the Palace." Emine Fetvaci, assistant professor of art history, Boston University.
"'Fortress Europe': Pushing Back Unwanted Migrants." Marco Jacquemet, associate professor and chair of communication studies, University of San Francisco.
"The Rebordering of the Mediterranean. European Citizenship and Migration from the Spanish Perspective." Liliana Suárez Navaz, professor of anthropology and director, Action on Migration and Community Relations, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid.
"The Connecting Sea: Charting the Mediterranean across the Disciplines." Roundtable moderator: Dario Gaggio (history); w/ Maria Hadjipolycarpou and Amr Kamal (comparative lit.); and Karla Mallette (Italian and Near Eastern studies). U-M.
"Italian Fascism's Empire Cinema: The Conquest of Libya and the Assault on the Nomadic." Ruth Ben-Ghiat, chair, department of Italian studies and professor of Italian studies and history, New York University.
"Milan's Chinatown: The Chinese in Italy's Cultural Imagination." Graziella Parati, Paul D. Pagnucci Professor of Italian literature and language, and chair of the French and Italian department, Dartmouth College.
"Billy and the Apparatus: The Isolating Effects of 'Managed Migration' to the European Union." Gregory Feldman, Simon Fraser University.
"Transcultural Aesthetics and Inscriptions of the Artist: Self-portraiture in Nineteenth-century Istanbul." Mary Roberts, John Schaeffer Associate Professor of British Art, University of Sydney.
"Between Empire and Gaddafi: Italian Settlers in Libya, 1943-1960." Pamela Ballinger, Fred Cuny Professor of International Human Rights and associate professor of history, U-M.
"Trans-imperial Subjects and the Mediation of Sovereignty in the Early Modern Mediterranean." Natalie Rothman, assistant professor of history, University of Toronto.
“Writing from a Mediterranean Island: In-Between Languages and Literary Spaces.” Mehmet Yashin, poet and author.
"The Colonial Mediterranean and Its Place in European History." Sakis Gekas, assistant professor and Hellenic Heritage Foundation Chair in Modern Greek History, York University.
Films available at the U-M Askwith Media Library:
A Touch of Spice. Tassos Boulmetis, director. In Turkish and Greek with English subtitles (108 min., 2003).
A Talking Picture. Manoel de Oliviera, director. In Portuguese, French, and Greek with English subtitles (93 min., 2003).
I, the Other. Mohsen Melliti, director. In Italian with English, French, and Italian subtitles (78 min., 2007).
Eden is West. Costa-Gavras, director. In French, English, and Greek with English subtitles (107 min., 2009).
Giallo a Milano (Made in Chinatown). Sergio Basso, director. In Italian and Mandarin with English subtitles (75 min., 2009).
Spain's Transition to Democracy
In conjunction with the Spanish presidency of the European Union, the University of Michigan's Center for European Studies-European Union Center (CES-EUC), in collaboration with the Weiser Center for Emerging Democracies (WCED), devoted the winter semester of 2010 to exploring recent debates about the meanings of transition and memory in democratic Spain.
Since Francisco Franco's death in 1975, Spain's transition from dictatorship to democracy, culminating in the country's full integration in the European Union, has been hailed in some quarters as a model transition for the countries of Eastern Europe and Latin America. The political, juridical, and cultural composition of Spain's transition, still up for debate 35 years after its inception, has attracted the interest of the Spanish public and scholars of history, political science, and cultural studies. The Conversations on Europe series attempted to place Spain’s experience in a broad conceptual and comparative framework and to explore how the transition to democracy has affected both the construction of historical discourses and the experience of the present. Included in the discussions are the historical, political, and cultural tensions underlying the controversial laws of historical memory, recently approved by the Spanish parliament; the juridical and political status of "the disappeared"; and the language of disagreement between "Left" and "Right" in contemporary Spain.
"Dealing with the Legacy of Political Violence: Memory Debates and the Role of the Audiovisual Media in Spain." Jo Labanyi, professor of Spanish and Portuguese and director, King Juan Carlos I of Spain Center, New York University.
"The Spanish Transition to Democracy as Postwar Times." Joan Ramon Resina, professor of Iberian and Latin American cultures and director, Institute for Iberian Studies, Stanford University.
"The Unfinished Business of the Spanish Transition to Democracy." Gema Pérez-Sánchez, associate professor of Spanish, University of Miami.
"Past (Im)perfect or Present Continuous? The Greek and Spanish Democratic Transitions in Retrospect." Konstantinos Kornetis, visiting assistant professor of modern Greek and Balkan history, Brown University. Co-sponsor: Modern Greek Program.
"History, Memory, Fiction: The Struggle over Discursive Hegemony in the Representation of Spain’s Violent Past." Sebastiaan Faber, professor and chair of Hispanic studies,Oberlin College.
Read article in the LSA WIRE: "Breaking the Silence." May 4, 2010.
- EU Lesson Plans and Teaching Material - Free resources on contemporary Europe offered by the Delegation of the European Union to the United States.
- EU Educational Resources - Lesson plans and syllabi offered by the Network of European Union Centers of Excellence in the United States.
- The European Union at a Glance - Basic information about the European Union and links to more detailed information.
- EURO School - Site created by the European Central Bank to familiarize audience with the euro banknotes and coins. Includes games and other activities.
- European Higher Education Area - The Bologna Process
- EU Youth Portal
- Goethe-Institut Transatlantic Outreach Program (TOP) - TOP aims to enhance the quality of classroom teaching about Germany today by developing and disseminating teaching materials about modern Germany to K-12 social studies educators and social studies methods professors at the university level and by organizing study/travel tours to Germany.