Europe through the Lens of its Young Citizens
What is Europe? What should Europe be? Two seemingly very simple questions, but with a variety of widely different answers. For some, Europe is a geographic concept. For others, a political one. Some look at it through the lens of the European Union and among them, there are those who view it primarily in economic and trade terms, while others believe it should be much more active in fields such as healthcare, employment, the social agenda, the environment, defence and foreign affairs.
On the eve of the 72nd anniversary of the Schuman Declaration (May 9, 1950), on May 7 and May 8, the House of European History and Professor Timothy Garton Ash team up to explore how young Europeans view their continent. The two-day event is part of the House of European History’s series Through the lens of....
May 7 – Europe’s Stories
Europe’s Stories is a research project of the Dahrendorf Programme at the European Studies Centre of the University of Oxford’s St. Antony’s College. Four rounds of EU-wide public opinion polling were carried out within the project’s framework and nearly 200 Europeans, including leading European experts and thought leaders, were interviewed on, and spoke about, their formative, best and worst, European moments.
On Saturday May 7, the findings of this project will be shown at the House of European History via video interviews, and visitors are welcomed to contribute their own testimonies on the day.
No registration is required for this all-day entrance-free event running from 10:00 to 18:00.
May 8 – Panel debates and roundtable discussion
Starting from 11:00 am, Prof. Garton Ash and six young European academics will come together to discuss the social and democratic processes and phenomena in contemporary Europe.
All panellists will be on-site at the museum and participants can freely engage with them during the panel breaks. Participants are also encouraged and welcomed to leave their own oral or written testimonies on Europe.
As this a hybrid event, guests are welcome to join in-person at the House of European History, or online via a live stream on the House of European History's YouTube channel.
To participate, please register in advance.
Below is the schedule of the panel debates and the roundtable discussion:
11.00 - 12.30 Europe: Social and Green (speakers: Kristijan Fidanovski, Marnie Howlett, Ana Martins; moderator: Timothy Garton Ash)
13.30 - 15.00 Europe: Democratic and Free (speakers: Liliia Antoniuk, Jan Farfal, Sophie Vériter; moderator: Timothy Garton Ash)
15.00 - 17.00 Round table: What young Europeans want the EU to do – and to be (speakers: all of the above; moderator: Chris Burns)
About the speakers
Professor Timothy Garton Ash is the author of 10 books, which have charted the transformation of Europe over the last half century. He is Professor of European Studies in the University of Oxford, Isaiah Berlin Professorial Fellow at St Antony’s College and a Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University. His essays appear regularly in the New York Review of Books. He also writes a column on international affairs in the Guardian.
Ana Martins is the Vice-Coordinator of the Studies Bureau for the Liberal Initiative Party in Portugal. She holds an MPhil in Politics from the University of Oxford (2018-2020), having previously studied Law and Political Science at the Catholic University of Portugal.
Jan Farfal is a doctoral candidate in Area Studies (Russia and East Europe) at the Oxford School of Global and Area Studies. He holds a MPhil in Russian and East European Studies from the University of Oxford.
Kristijan Fidanovski is a DPhil Candidate and Barnet Scholar at the University of Oxford’s Department of Social Policy and Intervention. He holds an MA in Eurasian, Russian and East European Studies from the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University.
Liliia Antoniuk holds two MAs, one from the Mykolas Romeris University in Vilnius, Lithuania) and one from the University College London. She is currently working on her Ph.D. at the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv.
Marnie Howlett holds a PhD in International Relations from the London School of Economics and Political Science and is a Departmental Lecturer in at the University of Oxford.
Sophie Vériter is a doctoral researcher at the Institute of Security and Global Affairs (ISGA) of Leiden University and a Europaeum Scholar. She is also an associate fellow at The Hague Program on International Cyber Security.