Academic Training: Information Sources and Research Design in European Studies

The purpose of this training is twofold. First we take you through the jungle of official EU documents and databases and discover paths to retrieve information easily. Secondly, we focus on European Studies research design: how to bring different approaches, theories and methods together in a coherent research design. Specific attention is paid to conventional versus critical methods in European Studies.

Tom Casier is Senior Lecturer in International Relations at the Brussels School of international Studies (University of Kent) and holds a Jean Monnet Chair. He is Deputy-Director of the Global Europe Centre, a recently established research centre at the University of Kent. Tom Casier is also Visiting Professor at the University of Leuven (KULeuven), where he lectures on political developments in Central and Eastern Europe. He obtained his PhD in Political Science from the University of Leuven with a dissertation on the transformation process in Central and Eastern Europe. From 1990 to 1999 he worked at the University of Leuven, first as a Researcher of the Belgian National Fund for Scientific Research, later as post-doctoral researcher and as coordinator European Studies. In the following years he worked as Lecturer at EIPA (European Institute of Public Administration) in Maastricht and at EHSAL/HUB in Brussels. From 2003 to 2007 he was Assistant Professor at the University of Maastricht, where he was also founding Director of the MA in European Studies. His research interests include EU external relations, EU-Russia relations, energy and European Neighbourhood Policy / Eastern Partnership. Currently he coordinates an international research project (Jean Monnet Multilateral Research Group) with St. Petersburg State University, Carleton University and the University of Mainz on EU-Russia relations. Recent articles have appeared in Europe-Asia Studies, International Politics, Journal of European Integration, Democratization and Geopolitics.