Jean Monnet Chair for Gijsbert Oonk

Gijsbert Oonk was awarded a Jean Monnet (ad Personam)  Chair on Migration, Citizenship and Identity in September 2019. The Jean Monnet chairs are established by the European Commission as an initiative to promote teaching, research and reflection in the field of European integration studies in higher education institutions. This chair promotes teaching and research in the field of Global History, European Studies and National Identity with a grant of Euro 50.000 for three years.

Project activities

This project consists of four interrelated projects:

1) Developing a new course in the International Bachelor of History programme of the Erasmus School of History, Culture and Communication. The course will deepen teaching in European Union Studies. The name of the course is: Europe in a Globalising World: Migration, Citizenship and Identity. It is part of the curriculum of the International Bachelor of History teaching programme for students specialising in the focus areas International Relations and/or Cultural History. In addition, the course will be open to exchange students at Erasmus University. Find out more about the course on Canvas and the Course catalogue.

2) Integrate the course in an online platform (COIL and Canvas) to encourage debate and learning tools through blogging. By blogging you can make the classroom experience public. After students have debated their positions within the safety of the classroom, they are now encouraged to put their position on paper. Putting your thoughts on paper is an important learning skill. Blogging helps students articulate their views and build a readership, which can be a very motivating experience for them. Sharing ideas on the internet can also put them in touch with like-minded individuals and with those who may challenge their ideas, which means that they may be required to defend their opinions (which is valuable preparation for the academic rigour of university). Blogging demonstrates enthusiasm for the subject, and a willingness to share ideas with others, as well as developing enthusiasm for communicating ideas in a way that will prove useful beyond the classroom. It also teaches students about the importance of ‘responsible journalism’ such as backing up ideas with concrete evidence, citing research and so on.

3) Teaching the teachers: Presenting tools –based on successful cases developed in the course Europe in a Globalizing World (EUROGLO) to teach high school teachers on the subject of European Integration through the EUROCLIO network. Gijsbert Oonk is one of EUROCLIO’s academic advisors. The impact and dissemination through the ‘teaching the teachers’ project is ensured by EUROCLIO. This European Association of History Educators is an umbrella association of more than seventy history, heritage, and citizenship educators' associations and other organisations active in the field. The organisation was established in 1992 at the request of the Council of Europe. Since then EUROCLIO has worked in many European countries and beyond on a large variety of issues related to learning and teaching history. There has been a special focus on countries undergoing political transformation and in particular those with inter-ethnic and inter-religious tensions such as Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Romania, Russia and Ukraine. It also worked in regions and countries that have experienced recent violent conflicts such as former Yugoslavia, Cyprus, Lebanon and the Caucasus. The work has brought together hundreds of historians and history educators to share experiences, to implement innovative learning about the past and to discuss sensitive and controversial issues, creating new and inclusive historical narratives in the process. We aim to organize two conferences to make available successful cases from the EUROGLO course. Look at the EUROCLIO activities.

4) The proposed chair holder is project leader of the Sport and Nation research project. The research project ‘Sport and Nation’ focuses on talented migrant athletes in football and the Olympics in the context of changing citizenship, ‘complex nationality issues’ and elite migration. The interrelation between citizenship, nation and state has been called into question over the last few decades. Transnationalism, multiple and flexible citizenship and the discourses in the rights and obligations of citizens and migrants are increasingly changing. This project emphasizes how ideas, institutions and context in this global ‘race for talent’ have changed over the past century and highlight the paradox of states promoting the ‘nation’ without ‘nationals’. The results of this research and the debates that the research project Sport and Nation attracts will be integrated in EUROGLO especially related to the question: who may represent the nation? Have a look at Sport and Nation Activities.