This is the fourth and the last post on my semester at the EUI which has now unfortunately come to an end.

All in all the four month I spend in Fiesole at this truly inspiring and unique place have been an amazing experience professionally and personally. 

Professionally, the exchange at the EUI with various communities of researchers has helped me a lot to narrow and cut down my research into more doable pieces. The comments I received in different contexts and formats at the EUI have been very valuable. More than that, the place and the people inspired me to follow up on new projects and establishn new collaborations.

I tried to make use of the fact that in terms of my research topics there was not really a clear affiliation to one research group through engaging with various research groups and disciplines at the EUI. During my last weeks I presented my research in the COSMOS group on social movements, in the International Relations working group, the Middle Eastern working group and the Europe in the World seminar series at the Robert Schumann Center. Engaging with researchers stemming from different dsciplinary backgrounds that confront my work from different angles was a truly unique and inspiring experience for me. To some degree the commonalities of the comments have led to major reformulations and a more specific focus of my disseration project on authoritarian learning processes. With regards to the two papers I presented in the working groups, the discussions really helped me to see the weaknesses and the blind spots and was hence very helpful.

Personally, during my time at the EUI I have gotten to know so many lovely people that leaving now feels actually kind of wrong. The christmas festivities during the last week with the EUIs christmas party and the many dinners with groups of friends towards the end of the semester did not contribute to make leaving this place any easier either. However of course no goodbye is everlasting. As I have been ‘recruited’ to play in the EUIs yearly football tournament in June –the famous Copa Pavone– I will return for that occasion and hope to see many familiar faces around.

Surely the picture perfect sunsets, the city that is basically an open air museum and the sorrounding green hills of tuscany have also made the last few months an amazing experience. No doubt I will miss the dolce vita and the italian lifestyle with the passion for good food, coffee and wine.

After just two months at the EUI as a visiting student I can say this place is a great environment for pursuing a PhD! (the following observations are based on my experience within the SPS department)
The international environment coupled with the beautiful location, inspiring faculty and smart peers among the PhD students is definately making the EUI a unique place on the continent. The close ties between professors and PhD students and Post-doc fellows is another great feature that I have barely experienced elsewhere to this extend.

The compulsory courses offered are quiet common for PhD graduate programms. Beyond the those a wide array of electoral courses are offered that mirror the interests and diversity of the faculty. Furthermore the many workshops and lectures with dustinguished academics from outside the EUI form a platform of constant inspiration and exchange for young researchers.

Last but not least the EUI also tries to enhance the exchange with practioneers. Although in my perception there is still room for improvement on this issue. Through inviting more practioneers as fellows from different fields -not only EU institutions- such exchange could be further enhanced. Despite all the advantages, if you do not want to stay in academia or go to EU institutions in your professional career after the PhD the possibilities to build a network or gain from exchange with others during your studies at the EUI are rather slim. In the end the EUI largely remains an ivory tower. But definately the nicest one I have seen up till now.

However, socially the EUI also is a bubble. Even more so being situated outside the city of Florence on the hills of Fiesole and in a country with a language that most people arriving here cannot speak. Although the EUI offers italian courses and does everything it can as an institution to make the affiliates learn the language, this of course just works to some extend.

The "EUI bubble" is enhanced through the wide range of possibilities of leisure activities that are organized wuthin the EUI framework (not to mention the Bar Fiasko). From a gym to a chess club a lot of activities are offered. Just that this even enhances your social live also being attached to the institute.

Also this week I was able to participate in a methods workshop on qualitative comparative case studies by Professor Claudius Waageman from the Goethe Universuty of Frankfurt. It was held at the newly established Scuola Normale Superiore (SNS), a joint venture of the University of Bologna, Pisa and Florence, which establishes an integrated graduate school for the social sciences in Florence. The rooms at Palazzo Strozzi in the heart of the cities old town are breathtaking. Participating in the course I enjoyed the possibility to exchange views with PhD students from outside the EUI world.




Just yesterday the school (SNS) was officially inaugurated with a lot of tamtam, local politicians and academic celebreties. The inaugural lecture was held by Professor Sydney Tarrow from Cornell University. Safe to say, one of the grandfathers of social movement studies. His talk on the US as an "infrastructural state", which in his view is dominated by a security paradigm that grew out of the war-torn history of the country and is hollowing out important democratic principles was critical and at the same time very interesting. Although the evidence presented was mainly anecdotical and descriptive the narrative was quite convincing.