Connecting Europe and Asia: People, Power and Policies (CEAPPP)

In September 2020, Prof. Dr. Sebastian Bersick was awarded a Jean Monnet Chair by the European Commission under the Erasmus+ Program. The funding enables the Ruhr-Universität Bochum (RUB), the Faculty of East Asian Studies, and the Department of International Political Economy of East Asia to intensify EU-related teaching and research activities, and to also actively contribute to the study of EU-Asia relations.

You can find the project on the European Commission’s website.

Teaching

The project “Connecting Europe and Asia: People, Power and Policies” (CEAPPP) aims at promoting excellence in teaching and research in European Union studies. CEAPPP deals with the external dimension of EU integration by focusing on the evolving relationship between the EU and the Asian region. At the same time, it tackles the external dimension of regional cooperation and integration processes in Asia.

Traditional EU studies programs in universities and colleges do not regularly include novel and new topics in their curricula. CEAPPP considers that hosting a Jean Monnet Chair focusing on EU-Asia connectivity, which is per se a novel topic, should also embrace novelty in the teaching curricula, learning material, methods, and tools. The teaching coursesare delivered to RUB’s students and connecting them to partner universities in Europe and Asia thus enhancing the connecting people dimension, particularly students do not automatically come into contact with EU studies.

Teaching activity is conducted by the chair holder, Prof. Sebastian Bersick, and one of the academic staff members at the Department of International Political Economy of East Asia, Ms. Mireia Paulo.

Activities

The Faculty of East Asian Studies, and particularly the Department of International Political Economy of East Asia, is able to organize a series of events (include boxes with hyperlinks to other pages or videos). The activities seek to create public interest in questions of EU studies in general and EU-Asia relations in particular. Further, these activities also bring together students, researchers, practitioners, and civil society from various sectors of society.

• #ErasmusDay
• Workshop on “Politics and Policies of EU-Asia Connectivity”
• Digital Connectivity (YouTube Playlist)
• Jean Monnet Lecture Series on EU-Asia Connectivity