The Jean Monnet Center of Excellence (JMCE) at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill 2018-2021: “The EU and the US: Common Challenges. Common Solutions?” will address issues currently facing the EU and the EU-US relationship. At this moment, there is uncertainty amongst our populations and perceived threats to peace and stability. Our three-year strategic plan focuses on a comparative EU-US examination of Europe 2020’s strategic issues: social inclusion, social investment and labor market policy, sustainable economic growth, and employment while assessing risks such as Brexit and European integration, populist challenges to liberal democracy, migration and minority rights, and climate change. Thirteen Key staff Members from five disciplines (Political Science, History, Geography, Romance Studies, and German Studies) will look at issues of joint interest to the EU and the US to determine how these issues may be addressed. The JMCE at UNC will be a research-based think-tank with an overall objective of supporting the strong EU-US relationship and long-standing transatlantic engagement through promotion of EU Studies. Our specific objectives are to 1) increase visibility of the EU, 2) foster dialogue and critical debate on issues facing the EU and the EU-US relationship; 3) promote EU studies research 4) encourage young people to study the EU at the BA, MA, and PhD level. We will reach these objectives through a series of activities including 10 research-driven events, 4 lectures with EU Centers in the US, student and junior faculty EU research awards, participation at EUSA conferences, and the JM@UNC social media campaign. Main outputs will include increased knowledge of the EU through two new waves of datasets, publications, research reports and presentations, photo essays, blog posts, new course modules, an “EU Today” podcast series, and a website. All deliverables, tools to be used in various educational settings, will be open educational resources.

Over the past three years, the Jean Monnet Center of Excellence at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (JMCE at UNC) has been a hub for European Union studies. We have provided our target groups, which span a campus-wide, state-wide, national and transatlantic community, with leading research and teaching as well as events and information on the EU. The JMCE with a focus on ‘The EU: its People, Policies, and Politics’, fostered a dialogue on issues facing the EU – EU foreign policy, debt management in the EU, criminal law in the EU, immigration and European identity, immigration and terrorism in a transatlantic context, social inequality, social policy, and welfare systems in the EU, and the policy and ideological stances of national political parties – through events on campus amongst Key Staff Members, other faculty, BA, MA, and PhD students, community representatives, and the general public as well as at events, conferences, and at partner institutions throughout the US and the EU. New connections have been formed with community partners such as K-12 schools, town and state governments, and local businesses.We have supported research and travel as well as conferences and workshops on and off-campus related to Key Staff Member research on the EU. This has amplified the impact of each individual activity. The Chapel Hill Expert Survey Team (JMCE Key Staff Members Hooghe/Marks/Vachudova) launched a special 2017 survey tapping positioning, salience, and divisions on European integration, immigration, redistribution, corruption, populism, as well as conventional party ideology, which covers 14 EU members and 132 political parties. A beta version of the data set and a codebook were deposited with the European Commission in February 2018 with the official dataset made public in Summer 2018. To prepare this survey, the CHES workshop was held in Florence in June 2017 with JMCE support. Several publications have resulted using this CHES data. Layna Mosely continued her research on debt management in the EU, held her workshop at UNC, has presented at several conferences, including DebtCon2 with JMCE support, and produced several publications. Research for the Comparative Welfare States Database was fostered by the conference Huber and Stephens held at UNC with special guests from the EU and by their travel to and presentations at the Europeanists conference with JMCE support. Further travel by JMCE staff and MA students increased visibility of our Center and activities and forged new partnerships. We promote EU studies amongst students through the new “EU Today” course taught each spring by our JM EU Visiting Scholar. Interest in this position was strong: we received 26 applications for the 2018 position. We further foster learning about the EU through the TransAtlantic Masters (TAM) Program’s Friday Lecture Series by inviting three specific speakers on the EU each fall. We have increased the number of Contemporary European Studies majors (currently 51, up from 9 in spring 2015), and the number of TransAtlantic Masters students (currently 34, up from 24 in fall 2015). JMCE deliverables reach a wide and broad audience as an increase in Twitter followers, Facebook likes, and JMCE EuroFile Newsletter subscriptions shows. Social media, our bi-weekly EuroFile newsletter and new website allow us to bring information about JMCE events, research, publication, and opportunities to our target groups. Blog posts feature JM EU Visiting Scholars’ research and BA and MA student voices. The conference section on the website provide resources related to each event so audiences can research further. Videos of events posted to YouTube also provide lasting resources for researchers, students, K-12 teachers, and the public.Overall, the JMCE at UNC increased visibility of, interest in, and understanding of the EU through teaching, research, travel, events, and dissemination of results through deliverables.

The Jean Monnet Project “The European Union in North Carolina” at the Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill will offer two in-depth Study Tours to primary and secondary school teachers and Community College educators from across NC. These educators are in need of appropriate content and effective tools to teach relevant issues facing the EU to their pupils and students. The Study Tours will encompass two themes: “The European Union Today: The EU as a Global and Local Actor” and “The EU Citizen: Issues Facing the Contemporary European”. These themes will guide the content of campus briefings by JMCE Key Staff Members and the Jean Monnet Chair and at the local site visits with both Key Staff and community experts with ties to the EU. The Tours will create a hybrid, equal-status professional development space in which academics, educators, and local hosts share and develop knowledge alongside one another.Deliverables will include a Study Tour Web Portal (jmce.unc.edu), open to the public. Information about the Tours will be housed here including each participant’s newly created lesson plan or course module, allowing teachers nationwide to access and implement the tools. Two extensive evaluation reports (pre- and post-Tour) will result. Intangible results include knowledge gained about the EU, its institutions, the European integration process, and a greater understanding of the EU citizen. The Tours will create positive affinity for the EU, creating stronger and lasting ties between the US and the EU. The newly gained knowledge and created pedagogical tools will benefit at least 1200 pupils and students directly after the Tours plus many more as the participants continue to teach the EU. In the next five years, we estimate over 7200 pupils and students will benefit. The Web Portal, Twitter, Facebook, and the JMCE Newsletter will be used to disseminate and exploit results thereby reaching far beyond NC’s borders.

"<< Background >>The BEAR network ""Between the EU and Russia: Domains of Diversity and Contestation"" brings together 25 scholars from 11 universities in six countries to explore attempts to mobilize, influence, protect, and claim regional minority groups on the EU's eastern borders, as well as to investigate how societal actors in the region draw upon, react to, and engage with the overlapping influences of the EU and Russia.<< Objectives >>The BEAR Network's key objective is to promote a better understanding of how the EU and Russia influence and inspire minority politics, integration efforts, and societal contestation on the EU's eastern borders by: 1) stimulating knowledge development through academic collaborations and connections; 2) conducting high-quality teaching activities across Europe, North America and Russia; and 3) disseminating our knowledge to policymakers, the public and other key constituencies.<< Implementation >>BEAR organized three policy conferences, four summer schools, three public roundtables, three team workshops, seven master classes, one undergraduate research trip, one multi-methods workshop, two writing workshops, two webinars, and promoted student mobility through four rounds of Graduate Mobility Grants (GMG). During its final year, BEAR had a Canada-wide meeting to plan for sustainability. All planned activities were implemented.<< Results >>Through our activities, website, and social media outreach, in-person, hybrid, and online events BEAR engaged 1072 direct participants and more than 89,000 indirect ones. Through our policy conferences, BEAR engaged policymakers, students, scholars, and practitioners. Through our team workshops, BEAR strengthened its scholarly clusters and published academic works. Through our summer schools, GMGs, field trips and workshops, BEAR fostered student mobility and supported young researchers."