Student Trip to Morocco
Recently some of our students took a trip to Rabat, Morocco. Whilst there, they visited the Université Internationale de Rabat and the Human Rights Council of Morocco, as well as a tour of historical Rabat. Mariana, who was on the trip, shared her experiences below.
Hi guys!
My name is Mariana, I’m from Brazil and currently in the fourth and final semester of EUROSUD. I’m here to show you a little bit about our trip to Morocco!
The first visit we did was to the Université Internationale de Rabat to get to know more about the Medina Masters. The Medina Program brings a holistic perspective on North Africa and Arabic studies covering political, cultural, gender, and urban perspectives of the region, with a historical approach to the region and the latest developments.
In the afternoon we had a tour around historical Rabat with Abdel (@abdelsrabattours on Instagram) and it was very interesting! We visited the Mausoleum of Mohamed V, the Hassan Tower, the Bab el Rahba, the Old Jewish Quarter, the Old Medina and the Kasbah of the Udayas. It was a very beautiful walk, the historical sites were amazing, and we had tea with beautiful views of the Udayas.
Our third visit was to the Human Rights Council of Morocco, where we could understand better how the Council works in association with international institutes and according to the UN guidelines, and also to ask questions about the development of the human rights agenda in Morocco.
Our fourth visit was to the Policy Center for the New South, which is a Moroccan think tank aiming to contribute to the improvement of economic and social public policies that challenge Morocco and the rest of Africa as integral parts of the global South. After, we had the opportunity to meet some leadership of the Mohammed VI Polytechnic University.
And of course, we could not leave Morocco without buying souvenirs from the Old Medina! But fun fact: we got lost and we were helped by this lovely girl that lives in the Medina and her dog.
EUROSUD Induction at the The National and Kapodistrian University of Athens
After the first semester at the University of Glasgow, EUROSUD students have their second semester either at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens or at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid.
This year, the Athens induction programme took place from from 25/1 to 27/1. On the first day, students met the Programme Director and Assistant Professor Susannah Verney and the Programme Assistant Evelyn Karakatsani, at the Aioulou building (where most of the classes take place), and also visited the library and had an orientation meeting.
On day two, students had the opportunity to visit the Greek Parliament and meet EUROSUD students from the 2021-2023 cohort.
On the last day, students visited the ΕΑΤ-ΕΣΑ building, a former centre of special investigation for the department of the military police of the dictorship regime in 1964-1974. The visit was guided by the general secretary of the Association of Prisoners and Exiled 1967-74, Nikos Manios.
Monday 30 January was the first day of classes! We wish you all a great semester!
Click here to check out the induction video.
Interested? Applications to join this EUROSUD cohort are now open - apply here today!
Shubhankar Paul - EUROSUD Research Track at the LUISS Guido Carli University
I’m Shubhankar Paul and I’m a student of the EUROSUD Cohort 2021-23 from India, with a background in European Studies and International Relations. I had the chance to attend my second semester of the programme in Athens and I am currently in Rome for my third mobility at LUISS Guido Carli University. For me, EUROSUD and its research track was a natural extension of my studies about Europe, and I was particularly attracted to the components of the coursework on migration: I represent the third generation in a twice-migrated family that migrated from Pakistan to India in the late 1940s, and later internally migrated across the linguistically and culturally diverse states of India, over the next few decades.
While being in the research track and anticipating its academic demands, I always found myself torn between the public policy side of migration and the ethnographic and anthropological side of migration. For my thesis, I have attempted to find a middle ground between my research interests, and I am scheduled to begin work on my master’s thesis on acculturation strategies of South Asian migrants in Italy and Greece this upcoming semester.
I chose Luiss Guido Carli University for my third mobility because I was attracted to the coursework on Migration Politics in the Mediterranean region, and rightly so. Prof. Stefania Panebianco helped us learn hands-on multilateralism and diplomacy with the help of a two-day simulation exercise. I must mention that this interest in migration was instilled in my second semester in Athens while studying the coursework on migration with Prof. Angeliki Dimitriadi. As well as the courses themselves at LUISS that I learned a lot from – Business Environment in the Mediterranean region and History of European Integration to name a few – I greatly benefitted from the learning infrastructure at LUISS. The infrastructure is built to help students function efficiently: well-lit and equipped reading rooms, computer rooms, libraries, a 24-hour canteen and a beautiful campus with intriguing architecture, all serve as icing on the cake.
At LUISS, you also get the opportunity to socialise with the academic elites and professionals from the disciplines of politics, diplomacy, law and journalism – this greatly enhances the socio-cultural capital of the students in my opinion.
I also feel a certain sense of pleasure and responsibility to be studying what I do because migrants and migration will determine the future of not only the affairs of Europe, but also the rest of the world. As a student from the Global South with research interests in migrants’ lives, I would urge more students to pursue this discipline – the academic output on migrants from particularly South Asia in South Europe, is disproportionately understudied, in my opinion, when examined with respect to the migrant population they represent in south European countries. I am grateful to EUROSUD and LUISS faculties for their efforts to contribute to more academic output in this understudied field and at the same time, helping me, as a post-graduate student to accurately identify the intersection of my broader research interests in European studies and my associated identity as a Global South student from South Asia.
Shubhankar Paul
Anne Jensen Sand - EUROSUD Research Track at the Aix-Marseille Université!
Hi everybody!
My name is Anne, and I am a Danish master’s student of EUROSUD with a background in journalism. I have for some time wanted to add an academic specialization to my more practical profile. When I saw that the EUROSUD master existed, this was the perfect option for me, as it allowed me to dig into one of my all-time favourite subjects - Southern Europe - and combine it with in-depth research, particularly when doing the dissertation in the fourth and final semester.
Wanting to improve my French, I therefore chose to spend my third and fourth mobility at Aix-Marseille Université as a student on their research track. As most people choose the professional track, we were the only 2 EUROSUD students on the research track, and the only 6 French students. This made teaching very intense, but it was also a privilege having so few of us in class, as it made it easier for everyone to engage in discussions. We had classes on methodology, nationalism, religion, migration, borders, political transitions, cultural and collective memory in South Europe, with some classes specifically focused on the Balkans. We also had a French language course and one compulsory language class, which in my case was Italian.
As our schedule was almost entirely different from the one that professional track students follow, and the fact that they often had classes at another facility, we unfortunately didn’t see the other EUROSUD students at the university, unless we bumped into each other at the library or at lunch at the university cafeteria. However, this was made up for in the evenings or weekends, since I lived in a university dorm with four other EUROSUD students.
I never doubted that I wanted to choose the research track, and this didn’t change while being in Aix-en-Provence. Furthermore, if you’re really keen on an internship, it’s possible to do that on a part-time basis while also writing the dissertation. However, this requires a great amount of discipline. I have chosen to focus solely on the dissertation and possibly hand it in in June instead of September, and I am actually looking forward to it. After having moved around and gotten used to new universities, subjects and classes on a half-yearly basis, it is going to be interesting to get the time to really dig into one subject, in my case left-wing populism. If you are going to Aix and have any questions, feel free to reach out!
Anne Jensen Sand