Dear UACES Colleagues,  I hope you have been spending some time away from your computer screens and recharging the batteries over the summer months. It has again been a challenging year for the academic community faced with the ongoing uncertainties posed by the pandemic. Let us hope that things are a little more straightforward in […]

We regret to announce the death of Sir Leslie Fielding on 4 March 2021, who was Honorary President of UACES between 1990-96.  Leslie was a larger than life figure – extrovert, engaging and energetic.  There were at least three sides to his career – the public official, the academic, and involvement in the Church of England. 

Since I wrote my last Chair’s column, we have taken the decision to host the 51st UACES Annual Conference virtually due to the ongoing situation with the COVID pandemic. We held our first virtual conference last September and we look forward to seeing friends and colleagues again from the UACES community, albeit, sadly, again in a virtual environment. The call for papers remains open until the 1st of April so do consider submitting a paper or a panel if you have not already done so. This year, we are hoping, restrictions permitting, that we will be able to host a small number of local bubble events to give members the chance to meet up in person in various locations - watch this space. Here’s hoping that the 2022 Annual Conference will take place in Lille as scheduled.

As I write this message the deadline for the Brexit talks have been extended once again and we still do not know what the full implications will be for our association and the wider academic community.

UACES Annual Conference 2020 brought our research group a mixture of excitement and poignancy. We are enormously grateful to the UACES team for their phenomenal work in organising and hosting a superb event, which was not only highly intellectually stimulating but which was also a tour de force of smooth and highly effective e-learning.

The third virtual coffee meeting encouraged our community to talk about the current work-life balance everyone is experiencing. We hope that everyone keeps going to maintaining a good work-life balance as it works best for each of you.

Funded by the UACES small event grant and a grant from the European Studies and the Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence at the University of Victoria, Canada The aim of the workshop was to discuss, inform, and connect junior and well-established border and governance scholars from different regions and universities for future projects, facilitate field […]