The European Politics and Society – Václav Havel Joint Master Programme is a multidisciplinary two-year Erasmus Mundus Joint Master degree linking the fields of European politics, contemporary history and culture, economy, international relations and policymaking. The key role of the programme is to identify and analyse challenges Europe faces today (migration, security, populism).

The Barcelona Research Seminar is a unique chance where the 1st-year and 2nd-year students can meet all together and meet academics from partner universities. The event provides all MA students with Opening lectures from esteemed academics on solid examples of quantitative and qualitative research methods (Dr. Natasza Styczyńska and Dr. Łucja Piekarska-Duraj from Jagiellonian University, and Dr. Theresa Kuhn from University of Amsterdam). Furthermore, it provides a space for smaller seminar groups where students are divided and encourage to present research relative to their Dissertation while both giving and receiving precious feedback. Alumni who received the Best EPS Master Thesis mention last year are also invited to take part in this bigger conversation presenting the basic structure of their research.

As in previous editions, the COVID-19 pandemic prevented most students from gathering together in Barcelona. Instead, the Research Seminar took place online via the Zoom platform. All research and teaching activities were adapted for this eventuality. Nonetheless, we were able to host the presentation of the European Waves' Student Platform in a hybrid modality, and some EPS students could follow the whole event from Pompeu Fabra's venues. Likewise, students could choose among small-size methodological workshops on a variety of topics - Case Studies, Analysis of Foreign Policy, Working with Primary Sources, Elite Interviewing, and Causal Inference. 

The event involved almost 90 students and 16 professors from all EPS partner universities. It took place on January, 17th, 2021 (Monday) - January, 18th, 2021 (09:00 AM to 17:30PM) on the Zoom Platform.  Both BACES and the EUGov JMC express their satisfaction for the succesful development of the event. While we do hope to go back to face-to-face meetings in the future, the realization of BRS is a solid proof of our teams' experience in the organization and management of online and hybrid academic events. 

You can check a detailed programme of the event here. 

Below, you can see a selection of pictures from the 2-days event.