JMCE Seminar Series

JMCE Events Academic Year 2025-2026

Semester 1

We look forward to welcoming you to our next seminar on Childhood and Humanitarian Mobilisations in Historical Perspective.
The Session will be a  roundtable around Célia Keren’s new book La cause des enfants. Humanitaire et politique pendant la guerre d’Espagne (1936–1939

Date: Wednesday, 29 April 2026
Time: 11:00 – 16:15   

Venue: Roscoe 3.3, University of ManchesterThe discussion will engage key questions on the relationship between humanitarianism and politics, and how child protection has been shaped across local, transnational, and global contexts.

Please see the programme attached for full details on panel sessions and speakers. Programme-Childhood and humanitarian mobilisation (1)

We would appreciate you sharing this invitation within your networks.

PREVIOUS SEMINARS

Date : February 18th 2026 

Time: 3pm

Venue : Samuel Alexander Building, Room A101, University of Manchester  

19th November 2025

Title : How to Write a Transimperial History of Europe?

Speaker : PD DR. Daniel Hedinge (Universität Leipzig)

Join us at the Samuel Alexander Building, A 101, UoM.

11th November 2025

Title: Free Trade Unraveling

Chair : Silke Trommer

Speakers:

• Laura Macdonald (Carleton University),
• Shamel Azmeh (Global Development Institute, UoM),
• Ellie Gore (Politics, UoM),
• Adrienne Roberts (Political Economy Centre, UoM)
• Diletta Pegoraro (AMBS, UoM)

Join us at Mansfeild Cooper Building, Room, 4.10, UoM.

JMCE Events Academic Year 2024-2025

Semester  2

10th April 2025

Title : ”It would have slowed down the work”- The Challenges of Gender Sensitive Economic Policies in the EU

Speaker: Murieann O’Dwyer

12th March 2025

Title: ”A place where freedom means something”: James Baldin’s Global Maroon geographies. 

Speaker: Ida Danewid (University of Sussex)

12th February 2025

Title: Oceans Rise Empires Fall

Speaker: Gerard Toal, Virginia Tech

5th February 2025

Title: The UK and the War On Ukraine, Seeking Status in Europe after Brexit

Speaker : Richard Whitmann, University of Kent

Semester  1

4th December 2024

Title ‘New Approaches on the Collapse of the Habsburg Empire’. The talk was centred around Claire Morelon’s Streetscapes of War and Revolution: Prague 1914–1920 (Cambridge University Press, 2024).

Speakers:

• Claire Morelon (University of Manchester)

• Jakub Beneš (University College London)

• Doina Anca Cretu (University of Warwick)

• Markian Prokopovych (Durham University)

Chair: Christian Goeschel (University of Manchester)

Wednesday, 13th November 2024

Title : Extreme Nationalism in Contemporary Norway: Ideologies, Mobilisation and Activism.

Speaker : Cristopher Fardan. 

The Manchester Jean Monnet Centre hosted an online talk by the first recipient of its Doctoral Thesis Prize, Cristopher Fardan. Christopher received the award for his thesis titled : Extreme Nationalism in Contemporary Norway: Ideologies, Mobilisation and Activism. In accepting the award, Christopher said: “My thesis started from my concern about how the far right paralyses democratic engagement, target minorities and inspire politically motivated violence and terrorism – even in a country like Norway where a generous welfare system based on a strong economy and relatively low levels of unemployment, crime and socioeconomic inequalities would be expected to limit the resonance of far-right rhetoric. I understand far-right extremism as a fundamental opposition to liberal democratic principles and universal human rights, combined with an extreme form of nationalism that justifies exclusion of people based on cultural, ethnic or “racial” differences. Such views do not exist in a vacuum, however, and my thesis set out to understand the relational, historical, political and geographical context that sustains the far-right movement in Norway today.

Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork, including in-depth interviews with far-right activists and observation at protest events, I found no single “pathway” into such movements nor any single “profile” of activists that might predict who will join far-right groups. They are young and old, men and women. They live in gloomy basement flats and in extravagant villas, in the city and in the village. They have low and high educational attainments, and they are driven by ideology, social and emotional communities, excitement and adrenaline. ‘Beyond contributing an understanding of the complexity and diversity of far-right movements to the academic field, I hope this study will be of use to civil society and state actors focussing on social inclusion and Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism (P/CVE). In this way, I hope it can make a modest contribution also to Jean Monnet’s legacy and efforts to forging a more peaceful Europe”

10th September 2024

Title: Trade Seduction : Magical and Materialst Thinking in Global Trade

Speakers

• Gavin Fridell (St Mary’s University)
• Japhy Wilson (Bangor University)

JMCE Events Academic Year 2023-2024

Semester 2

• Wednesday 28th February, 2024 15:00-16:00

Title: Humanitarian Borders: Unequal Mobility and Saving Lives

Speaker: Dr Polly Pallister-Wilkins, University of Amsterdam

Chair: Dr Davide Schmid (MMU)

Geoffrey Manton Building, MMU, GM 2.26

• Wednesday 13th March 2024, 15:00-16:00

Title: The Balkans and the EU: Prospects and Controversies

Speaker: Professor Dejan Jović

Chair: Professor Erika Harris

University of Liverpool, Rendall Building, Seminar Room 10

• Wednesday 17th April, 2024, 15:00-16:00

Title: Pax Economica: Left Wing Visions of a Free Trade World

Speaker: Dr Marc William Palen, University of Exeter

Chair: Dr Adrienne Roberts (UoM Politics)

Co-organised with the Political Economy Centre

Ellen Wilkinson, University of Manchester, A3.7

• Wednesday 1st May 2024, 15:00-16:00

Title: Capturing Women’s Standpoint in EU–Turkey Studies: The Evolution of Gendered Publication and Citation Patterns

Speaker: Dr Rahime Süleymanoğlu-Kürüm

MMU, Geoffrey Manton Building, GM 2.25

• Wednesday 12th June,  15:00-16:00

Title: Governing the Displaced: Race and Ambivalence in Global Capitalism

Speaker: Dr Ali Bhagat

Co-organised with the Political Economy Centre, and the Critical Global Politics and Global Political Economy clusters

University of Manchester, Samuel Alexander Building, A104

JMCE Events Academic Year 2023-2024

Semester 1

• Wednesday, 25 October 2023. 15.00-16.00

Title: Immigrant Empires: Habsburg Europe’s Legacy in the United States

Speaker: Professor Dominique Kirchner Reill, University of Miami

Chair: Dr Christian Goeschel (UoM SALC)

Co-Organiser: Dr Claire Morelon (UoM History)

Samuel Alexander Building Room A101

• Wednesday, 22 November 2023. 15.00-16.15

Title: The Resistible Corrosion of Europe’s Centre Left After 2008

Speaker: Professor Georg Menz, Old Dominion University

Chair: Dr Silke Trommer (UoM SoSS)

Discussants: Gergely Agoston (UoM Politics), Jose Lopez (UoM Politics) and Davide Monaco (UoM Politics)

University Place Room 3.212

• Wednesday, 29 November 2023. 15.00-16.00

Title: The Russian-Ukrainian War and Ukraine’s European FutureSpeaker: Dr Alina Nychyk, ETH Zurich

Chair: Dr Eleonor Bindman (MMU)

Manchester Metropolitan University (Room TBC)

• Wednesday. 13 December 2023. 15.00-16.00

Title: Eurowhiteness: Culture, Empire and Race in the European Project

Speaker: Dr Hans Kundnani, Chatham House

Chair: Dr Davide Schmid (MMU)

Discussant: Professor Toni Haastrup (UoM Politics)

University Place Room 3.205