CORDIS - Forschungsergebnisse der EU
CORDIS

Security and Citizenship: European and Global Dimensions

Final Activity Report Summary - APSAC (Security and citizenship: European and global dimensions)

The Department of International Politics at Aberystwyth University proposed to establish in 2006 a new Marie Curie host fellowship for early stage research training (EST) in 'Security and citizenship: European and global dimensions'. The original aims of the proposal indicated that the EST programme would focus on three principal interrelated themes of training and research, namely contemporary theories of European security and citizenship, the European Union policy responses to contemporary security and citizenship challenges and the east and west European perspectives on security, citizenship and enlargement.

The EST was envisaged to have three main training structures in the form of four new PhDs, with the fellows being recruited in the first year for 36 months, eight new research training Masters degrees, which lasted 12 months, and an internship scheme in the areas of European security, European Union enlargement and citizenship at relevant European institutions, intergovernmental bodies, civil society groups and security organisations. The European Commission generously funded the proposal and, since 2006, the department of international politics managed to successfully fulfil all of the original aims and objectives of the EST programme.

All four doctoral fellows successfully submitted their PhD projects within three to four years as the culmination of their 36 month training programme. Two of the fellows were already awarded their doctorates by the time of the project completion, with two more awaiting the results of their impending external examination (viva). The details of the fellows and their projects are briefly provided below:

1. Dr Marjanna Jauhola, whose doctoral project was titled, 'Becoming better 'Men' and 'Women'- Negotiating normativity through gender mainstreaming in post-tsunami reconstruction initiatives in Aceh, Indonesia'. The PhD was awarded on the 17th June 2010.
2. Dr Claudia Hillebrand, whose doctoral project was titled, 'The democratic legitimacy of European Union counter-terrorism policing: Challenges for parliamentary and judicial scrutiny'. Her PhD was awarded on the 30th March 2010.
3. Jan Ruzicka, whose doctoral project was titled, 'Securitisation theory and revolutions'. By the end of the reporting period the PhD thesis had been submitted and the viva was pending.
4. Joao Reis Nunes, whose doctoral project was titled, 'Rethinking emancipation in critical security studies'. By the end of the reporting period the PhD thesis had been submitted and the viva was pending.

In addition, all eight early stage research training masters fellows successfully completed their 12 month Masters degree in 'Security and citizenship: European and global dimensions'. All eight fellows had received, by the time of the projecy completion, their Masters degrees from Aberystwyth University. In brief, the details of the fellows and the academic year that they completed their training are set out below:

1. Academic year 2006-2007, students Alexandru-Ion Coita MSc (ECON), Oliver Bisazza MSc (ECON), Zeynap Yanasmayan MSc (ECON), David Casale MSc (ECON)
2. Academic year 2007-2008, students Adam Sandor MSc (ECON), Katya Ivanova MSc (ECON), deferred after the first semester and completed during the academic year 2008-2009
3. Academic year 2008-2009, students Ioana Lung MSc (ECON) and Katarzyna Karpowicz MSc (ECON).

Finally, a number of EST Masters fellows took up the opportunity to undertake internships abroad at European institutions to augment their dissertation projects, the nature of which determined the need to exploit this valuable component of the Marie Curie host fellowships for EST in 'Security and citizenship: European and global dimensions'. Internships were spent at the Graduate Institute of International Studies at the University of Geneva; the Georgian Foundation for Strategic and International Studies in Tbilisi and Eurojust at The Hague in the Netherlands. Overall, the Department of International Politics successfully fulfilled all of the original aims of the Marie Curie host fellowships.