Ralph Weber Participates at UACES Virtual Conference
On September 11, 2020, Prof. Dr. Ralph Weber presented a paper on European Studies in the United States at the virtual conference of the "University Association for Contemporary European Studies" (UACES).
In his article titled "European Studies, quo vadis? Some Lessons from Past Trajectories of European Studies in the United States", Weber examines diverging historical narratives regarding the origin of European Studies in the United States. He identifies the economics and politics of the professional study of Europe in the United States as driven not only by geopolitical, but also by academic competition. His analysis thus contributes to the growing literature on the sociology of European Studies. Turning from the US case to a more global perspective, Weber argues that important practical and theoretical contentions raised in them remain unresolved and continue to trouble the identity and impact of European Studies. He offers a relational conceptualization of European Studies with important consequences for its academic institutionalization, its interdisciplinarity and its potential to become a more global discipline. The paper was presented at the panel "Understanding European Studies: Practice, Curricula, History" chaired by Mary Farrell.
Ralph Weber is Associate Professor of European Global Studies at the Institute for European Global Studies. He specializes in Political Theory, Chinese Politics, and modern Confucianism. Currently, he is the President of the European Association for Chinese Philosophy and the Chair of the Section on Political Theory in the Swiss Political Science Association.