About Us
ECSA-C Young Researchers Network
In 2004, the ECSA-C Young Researchers Network became an official section within the European Community Studies Association-Canada, and it is principally focused on creating resources and networks to connect graduate students, post-doctoral fellows and other young researchers and to provide them with relevant information for their research activities. In 2006, the ECSA-C YRN held a conference at the University of Victoria and in 2007 it organised a one-day conference at the European University Institute. In 2008 the ECSA-C YRN co-organized four panels at the ECSA-C Biennial Conference in Edmonton. The research findings of the previous two conferences are published in the online peer-reviewed Journal of European and Russian Affairs, which is currently in its 4th volume.
Rationale
The motivation for the developing the ECSA-C YRN is to
• create a network of young Europeanists across Canada
• inform and involve graduate students and young researchers in the community of European Studies in Canada
• establish, enhance, and maintain a framework of collaboration between young scholars working on the EU
• facilitate opportunities for closer collaboration and mentorship with senior Europeanist scholars
Executive Committee
Lyubov Zhyznomirska, President, University of Alberta
lyubov@ualberta.ca
Lyubov Zhyznomirska is Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Political Science, University of Alberta (Edmonton, Canada). She completed her B.A. degree (2002) at the “Kyiv-Mohyla Academy” University in Ukraine and M.A. degree (2005) at the University of Alberta in Canada, both in political science. Lyubov currently works on her dissertation that examines the external dimension of the EU’s immigration and asylum policies and evaluates the impact of these policies on the eastern neighbours of the Union. She is interested in EU’s foreign and security policies, the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP), and the politics of the EU enlargement. She published in the Review of European and Russian Affairs and had a chapter in Joan DeBardeleben’s The Boundaries of EU Enlargement (2008).
Heather MacRae, Vice-President, York University
hmacrae@yorku.ca
Heather earned her PhD from Carleton University in 2005. While working on her dissertation, she taught comparative politics and international relations at both Carleton and University of Victoria. During the period from 2000-2007, Heather moved back and forth between Canada and her “second home” in Germany where she was doing research.
Heather’s current research focuses on gender politics in the European Union. She has two main projects on the go: the first looks at the influence of multi-level governance on the activities of the German women’s movement and the redefinition of parental leave benefits. Her second area of interest examines the unintentional gender consequences of supposedly “gender neutral” EU policies.
Jurgita Kornijenko, Secretary/ Treasurer,University of Alberta
jurgita@ualberta.ca
Jurgita Kornijenko is a PhD student in the Department of Political Science at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada. Jurgita graduated from Klaipeda University (Lithuania) with a BA in Political Science in 2001, and received her first MA in International Studies from Uppsala University (Sweden) in 2002, followed by her second MA in the Baltic Sea Region, which she completed at Södertörn University College (Sweden) in 2004. Besides her strong interest in research, Jurgita is also drawn to policy oriented organizations. She has worked for Alberta Child and Youth Data Laboratory in Edmonton, Alberta Solicitor General and Public Security, Save the Children US in Washington, D.C. and Children’s Unit at the Council of the Baltic Sea States in Stockholm.
Her broad research interests are in the areas of migration/immigration and trafficking, citizenship and identity issues, statelessness, national, regional and international legislation as well as policy initiatives on immigration and trafficking.
Past Executive Committee
- 2006/2008 - Benjamin Zyla (Queen's University), Bart Paudyn (Carleton University), Daniel V. Preece (University of Alberta/ Grant MacEwan College)
- 2004/2006 - Saime Ozcurumez (McGill University), Lloy Wylie (UBC)
