The Africa-EU relations, migration, development and integration (AEMDI) project, aims to bring into conversation leading academics, policy makers, political observers and practitioners from civil society to explore and examine intra-Africa migration on one hand and EU-Africa relationships vis-à-vis migration on the other hand. Efforts to integrate Africa, through the RECs, should, then, be informed by lessons and parallels drawn from across Africa, and chiefly, the integration experience of the EU—particularly the Schengen Area—in moving from free movement of labour (only) to EU citizenship, as enshrined in Article 20 (1) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. Its main activities of AEMDI will include two international workshops and one international conference. One workshop will be hosted by the University of Eastern Finland and another by the Centre for the Study of Governance Innovation (GovInn) at the University of Pretoria, South Africa. The main output of AEMDI activities will be a scientific edited volume, based on deliberations in and papers from the workshops. The main outcome of AEMDI is the promotion of the Jean Monnet Programme and adoption of best practices from the EU`s successes in regional integration, in Africa. The impacts of AEMDI will include increased networking and expertise between/of academics, policy makers, professionals and relevant stakeholders in Africa and the EU. AEMDI responds to the need to promote development and well-being in Africa through, among other things, learned experiences from observed successes in EU integration.
Sampo Mielityinen (sampo.mielityinen@uef.fi)
As the Vice-Head of Law School responsible for education, my tasks include:
- The running of annual curriculum process
- Developing pedagogical practices at Law School
- Supporting teachers with their pedagogical problems and questions
- Networking and competence development related to pedagogy
I teach legal study skills, private law, tort law and legal theory. My research focuses on tort law and university pedagogy. I also have national duties related to development of education.
Simo Mikkonen (simo.mikkonen@uef.fi)
I am specialist in 20th Century Eastern European, particularly Soviet cultural history, cultural diplomacy of the Cold War era, and memory studies. I have published extensively on cultural, international and transnational East-West connections, particularly from the Soviet perspective, including edited volumes Beyond the Curtain: Entangled Histories of the Cold War-Era Europe (Berghahn 2015), Music, Art, and Diplomacy: East-West Cultural Interactions and the Cold War (Routledge 2016), as well as Entangled East and West. Cultural Diplomacy and Artistic Interaction during the Cold War (Degruyter 2019). I have also authored a multi-author monograph Networking the Russian Diaspora: Russian Musicians and Musical Activities in Interwar Shanghai (Hawaii UP 2019). My current research involves cultural resistance against the Soviet central authorities especially in the Baltic republics during the late Soviet period.