Missouri Transatlantic Center

Wednesday
11 January 2012, 3-5 p.m.
Missouri School of Journalism Brussels Office
Rue de Stassart 117
1050 Brussels 

The Missouri Transatlantic Center at the University of Missouri is pleased to announce a conference at its Brussels location on the idea of citizenship and how the world’s citizens identify themselves as they are constantly becoming more interconnected. 

The conference will seek to address the following questions:

• How has the globalized age changed the nature of citizenship? With international travel, news, information, entertainment and products available to so many, do we still identify as strongly with our nations or regions?
  
  
• Conversely, in an age defined by eroding boundaries, do we take some comfort in reaffirming attachments to our regions and nations to counter the forces of internationalization?
  
  
• What can the US and Europe learn from each other when it coms to citizenship and nationality questions?
  
  
• Would the world be better off if Americans were a bit less American and Europeans a bit more European?
  
  
• In what ways do citizenship policies influence the way integration/immigration issues are dealt with in the US and Europe?
  
  
• Is global citizenship a pipe dream or do experiments like the EU show citizens are willing to accept a higher level of authority—and belonging—than the nation state?

Keynote Speakers 
Christina Hawley is Political Analyst and Campaigner for Crisis Action in Brussels. Christina comes to Crisis Action with a background in conflict management. She previously worked in the Office of the Secretary General of the OSCE in Vienna and for Independent Diplomat in Brussels. She has also worked in Brussels at the European Parliament and the German Marshall Fund of the United States. Christina holds a Bachelor¹s degree in philosophy and a postgraduate degree in international relations, law and economics.

Amy Studdart  is a Program Associate at the German Marshall Fund where she works on Chinese foreign policy, strategic issues in North East Asia, and EU-U.S. cooperation on Asia policy. She previously worked at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, where, amongst other duties, she led their Asia programming in Europe. She was born in Antigua to English parents, grew up in Grenada, studied East Asia in the UK, and now lives in Brussels.


Host 
Brady Deaton - Chancellor, University of Missouri

We’d be delighted if you’d join us for what promises to be a stimulating conversation. 

On Tuesday, Oct. 11, representatives from the Delegation of the European Union to the USA came to Columbia to visit the Missouri School of Journalism and to promote understanding and awareness of the EU to the Midwest.

Head of Press and Diplomacy Silvia Kofler spoke with the journalism school’s NPR affiliate KBIA to discuss the current Euro crisis and contemplate potential impacts of the crisis on the Midwest.

Kofler also presented a brown-bag lunch discussion where she underlined that the EU developed the Euro as an integrating political project rather than a solely financial project, and therefore she said there is no question the shared currency or the EU establishment will fail.

Accompanying Kofler was press and diplomacy officer Silvia Prisco. The two delegates met with Fritz Cropp, director the Missouri Transatlantic Center and of the International Programs Office for the journalism school. Together, they discussed the link between the journalism school and its European partner institutions, particularly highlighting the school’s Brussels program that sends more than 50 students to the EU capital city to intern in European media outlets.

Prisco and Kofler toured the Missouri School of Journalism with Cropp and Dean Brian Brooks. They later visited the school’s NBC affiliate KOMU and gave a lecture at Rock Bridge High School.

EU officials will make a final decision in coming weeks to deal with the Euro crisis. While this decision may be slow for American standards, Kofler said, it will be one to ensure the survival and growth of the EU.