Blogs on Europe Competition

As one of its last activities in the 2014-17 cycle, the Jean Monnet Chair ran a blog competition for full-time first year undergraduate students in politics.

Students could submit 500 word blog posts on any topic related to Europe – e.g. European democracy, European migration, European security, European identity, European economics or Brexit-EU relations - and winners were rewarded with a £250 book voucher for the CCCU Bookshop. The idea behind the competition was not only to support students financially in the first couple of weeks at CCCU, but also to encourage think about key issues that they will be studying over the course of their degree.

The full list of winners and their blog posts can be found below: 

• Dorice Ahmed – “Brexit and its potential consequences”
• Darren Bullen – “Brexit-EU relations: A Messy Divorce”
• Jack Fisher – “The Duality of European Identity”
• Andrejs Ivanovs – “European Economics and Freedom of Movement”
• Thomas James – “UK-EU Brexit Negotiations: Explaining dark matter to a four-year-old”
• Baswasdip Limbu – “A second Brexit referendum could be right choice”
• Victoria Papeskov – “European identity in theory and practice”
• James Whiteman – “The development of European identity”

The following four third-year students, currently taking the Autumn Term, Level 6 Module entitled “European Power and Strategy” with Professor Hadfield, were also selected, on the insightful nature of their blogs on current European events:

• Sam Cairns - "The influence of HC Strache: How Austria’s election descended into blatant Islamophobia"
• John Smith - "Avoid the tax? Face the Commission"
• Elizabeth Bailey - "In Varietate Concordia"
• Edmund Watkinson - "Why Catalonia matters for EU foreign policy"