An International Seminar Concerning European Studies in a Global Perspective held at GDUFS

On September 19th, an international seminar concerning European studies in a global perspective was held in B415, No.6 Teaching Building on the North Campus. The seminar was organized by the Center for European Studies, Guangdong Institute for International Strategies. Experts of European Projects; Professor Maria Stoicheva, Vice-Rector of Sofia University; teachers and students of the Center for European Studies, Guangdong Institute for International Strategies, and leaders from GDUFS attended the seminar.

In the opening ceremony, Professor CHEN Hanxi, Director of the Center for European Studies, extended a warm welcome to the attendance of all the people present. After this, he welcomed Maria Stoicheva to make a speech for the opening ceremony.

In her speech, Professor Maria Stoicheva broke the ice by sharing the feelings they had when they came to China. She said that they didn't know each other until Prof. WANG Xiaohai, Research Fellow of Guangdong Guangdong Institute for International Strategies and other people came to help. That was how they found each other. And she expressed her pleasure to attend the seminar. She attached great significance to the seminar and she said that she was happy about the contributions the seminar would make.

After her speech, professors including Dimitar Denkov, Dean of the Faculty of Philosophy; Michael Byram, Professor Emeritus; Elidir King, Former National Director for language, England; Natasza Styczynska, Institute of European Studies, Jagiellonian University, Poland; and Nikolina Tsvetkova, Professor Faculty of Philosophy, took turns to give a self-introduction and meanwhile expressed their pleasure to introduce and thus promote their universities. They also mentioned that young people are very important because they are the future. And they were glad to share ideas with young people.

The scene of the seminar

The seminar mainly comprised of three sessions. Session One was a discussion on EUROMEC. Professor Maria Stoicheva gave an introduction of EUROMEC with regard to The Jean Monnet Network European Identity, Culture, Exchanges and Multilingualism. Session Two was about Language and Europe. In this session, some professors shared their opinion regarding the topic. And in Session Three, other professors had a discussion about Regional Integration: Advantages and Challenges of Europe.

As early as in November, 2014, professors from China, Bulgaria, England, Ireland, Poland, Luxembourg and so on, had united to apply for project approval and were successful. The project was also about European Identity, Culture, Exchanges and Multilingualism. So to some extent, the seminar held today actually served as a great platform for them to review, to do a specific summary, and to effectively reflect. It is hoped that GDUFS and other universities involved in European studies in a global perspective will go further on this basis. And that is the most significant meaning of this seminar.

Group Photo