The EURASIA consortium organised an online dissemination conference on May 28th and 29th 2020. Issues related to the internationalisation of higher education, new perspectives of teaching EU law at Asian universities, the challenges of teaching and learning in the conditions of the COVID-19 pandemic, and EU language policies were discussed during the four conference panels.
Keynote Speakers
Teaching EU studies in the Post-Pandemic Era
Prof. Dr. Francesca Longo, Deputy Rector for international Relations, University of Catania, Italy
EU language policies: Are they still relevant in the time of coronavirus?
Dr. Lid King, The Languages Company, London, United Kingdom
Multilingualism, plurilingualism and language learning in the EU
Prof. Dr. Michael Byram, Professor Emeritus University of Durham
European Studies: The Future – Hope and Promise
Dr. Shashikala Gurpur, Director, Symbiosis Law School, Pune, Dean, Faculty of Law, Symbiosis International University, Pune, India
Re-thinking higher education in a post-pandemic world
Prof. Dr. Vesselin Popovski, Vice Dean and Executive Director, Centre for the Study of United Nations, O.P. Jindal Global University
Panel One
Internationalisation of Higher Education. Strengthening partnerships across the EU and beyond
Dr. Desislava Karaasenova teaches at the European Studies Department, Sofia University St. Kliment Ohridski, Bulgaria. Her main research interests include internationalisation of academia, transnational academic mobility, and intercultural communication.
Dr. Alice Chik is Senior Lecturer in the School of Education and Associate Director of Multilingualism Research Centre, Macquarie University. Her main research interests include language learning in informal contexts, urban multilingualism and literacy education.
Dr. Nikolina Tsvetkova is an Associate Professor at the European Studies Department, Sofia University St. Kliment Ohridski, Bulgaria, where she teaches ESP, Intercultural communication, and Project terminology. She has also been involved in teacher training, material design, intercultural learning, using ICT and especially Web 2.0 in formal and non-formal education. Her research interests are in the field of language education, intercultural education, and applying ICTs in teaching and learning.
Panel Three
EU Studies and New Challenges
Prof. Dr. Francesa Longo is a PhD doctor in International Relations, a full Professor of Political Science and a Jean Monnet Professor of European Union Public Policies at the University of Catania, Italy. She is the President of the Italian Political Science Association, Convenor of the Standing Group on Organised Crime – European Consortium for Political Research, member of the academic board of the PhD Program on Political Science and Sociology at the School of Advanced Studies, Pisa. Her research interests are focused on the EU migration Policy, EU policy against organised crime and the security policy of the EU. She has been a member of several international research group on the topic of the fight against organised crime and Immigration policy.
Prof. Dr. Vesselin Popovski, Vice Dean and Executive Director, Centre for the Study of United Nations, O.P. Jindal Global University
Dr. Natasza Styczyńska is an assistant professor at the Institute of European Studies of the Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland. Currently, she is a researcher in two H2020 projects: Populist rebellion against modernity in 21st-century Eastern Europe: neo-traditionalism and neo-feudalism (POPREBEL) and EU Differentiation, Dominance and Democracy (EU3D). Her academic interests include transformation processes in Central and Eastern Europe, party politics, nationalism, populism and euroscepticism in the CEE region.
Lin Wenshuang is professor of Bulgarian Studies at her alma mater, Beijing Foreign Studies University. She pursued further education at the University of Sofia in Bulgaria, and earned a Ph.D degree in humanities from the University of Louisville in the USA. She has published a number of papers and translations in international journals. Her work Bulgarian Nation: Imagining and Re-imagining examines the fluidity of Bulgarian national identity.
For her dedication to the cultural exchanges between Bulgaria and China, Michail Mikov awarded her a Medal of the Republic Bulgaria National Assembly in 2013. She was also awarded the “Contribution Award for the Communication of Bulgarian Language and Culture” by Krasimir Valchev, Bulgarian Minister of Education and Science in the year of 2019.
Currently she serves as Director of the Center for Bulgarian Studies and Vice Dean of the School of European Languages and Cultures, BFSU.
Panel Two
New
Perspectives of Teaching EU Law
in Asian Universities
Dr. Shashikala Gurpur, Director, Symbiosis Law School, Pune, Dean, Faculty of Law, Symbiosis International (Deemed University) (SIU), India
Dr. Aparajita Mohanty, Assoc. Professor, Symbiosis Law School, Pune, Symbiosis International (Deemed University) (SIU), India
Ms. Sujata Arya, Asst. Professor, Symbiosis Law School, Pune, Symbiosis International (Deemed University) (SIU), India
Dr. Rupal Rautdesai, Professor, Symbiosis Law School, Pune, Symbiosis International (Deemed University) (SIU), India
Ms. Sudipta Chakraborty, Distinguished Visiting Faculty, Symbiosis Law School, Pune, Symbiosis International (Deemed University) (SIU), India
Dr. Shashikala Gurpur, Director, Symbiosis Law School, Pune, Dean, Faculty of Law, Symbiosis International (Deemed University) (SIU), India
Dr. Bindu S Ronald, Professor and Deputy Director, Symbiosis Law School, Pune, Symbiosis International (Deemed University) (SIU), India
Mr. Abhijit Vasmatkar, Asst. Professor, Symbiosis Law School, Pune, Symbiosis International (Deemed University) (SIU), India
Panel Four
EU Language policies
Dr. Lorna Carson is Head of the School of Linguistic, Speech and Communication Sciences and Associate Professor in Applied Linguistics at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland. She is also the founding Director of the Trinity Centre for Asian Studies, a multidisciplinary teaching and research centre. Her research on language learning addresses issues located at the interface between individual and societal multilingualism, with a particular attention on the language classroom, with a focus on language learning, language education policy and assessment.
Prof. Dr. Michael Byram studied languages at King’s College Cambridge, wrote a PhD in Danish literature, and then taught French and German in secondary and adult education. He was at Durham University from 1980, now Professor Emeritus. He has trained teachers and researched linguistic minorities and foreign language education. In the 2000s he was Adviser to the Language Policy Division of the Council of Europe. He is now involved in the Council of Europe’s work on Competences for Democratic Culture.
Dr. Lid King was Director of the UK National Centre for Languages and then National Director for Languages in England responsible for the National Languages Strategy (2003 to 2011). As Director of the Languages Company he has advised national and regional administrations on languages and has coordinated and supported projects on language policy and languages pedagogy.
You can watch the keynote speeches here
Recordings of all the conference presentations are available upon special request. Please write to: sueurasia@gmail.com