July 22, 2019
The Master of Arts (M.A.) program in Government and Politics hosted an academic discussion on the European debt crisis (also known as the Eurozone crisis) on St. John’s University’s Rome, Italy campus on July 9, 2019. Students and alumni joined expert speakers and guests from the Turkish Embassy, the United Nations (U.N.) World Food Programme, the Instituto Affari Internazionali, John Cabot University, and Temple University for the event, “The Eurozone Crisis 10 Years On – Crisis, Austerity, Sovereignty & International Law.”
Said M.A. student Alessandra Marra, who attended the event, “The Eurozone discussion exemplified the great opportunities that being a Rome campus graduate student has to offer. I was able to hear directly from scholars and specialists what their takes were on the Eurozone Crisis. Their convincing arguments enlightened me on the gravity of the situation in Italy and gave me a wider perspective by which to understand the material I am studying.”
Dr. Sergio Fabbrini from LUISS Guido Carli, Dr. Dorothee Bohle from the European University Institute, and Dr. Simone Romano from the Istituto Affari Internazionali (IAI) discussed how the debt crisis unfolded over the past decade, how both national and transnational European institution responded to the burgeoning crisis, and how their responses impacted the democratic practices of the European Union and its constituent states. Associate Professor and Chair of Government and Politics Fred P. Cocozzelli, Ph.D. moderated the discussion.
“The Department was very happy to be able to host the discussion on the Eurozone Crisis,” said Dr. Cocozzelli. “Not only was it a tremendous opportunity for students to learn about the issues, it was also a great way for St. John’s to further its relations with academics and scholars in Rome and Italy.”
“The varying viewpoints from the panel participants provided a wealth of context to the challenges the EU faces in terms of dealing with the debt crisis,” said Matthew Steigerwald ‘19C, who also attended the event. “From the highly enthusiastic comments shared by Dr. Fabbrini, to the analytical points made by Dr. Bohle, I feel I have expanded my understanding of both European politics and the dynamics of neoliberal ideology.”
The event, which was free and open to the public, preceded the start of two summer graduate seminars on the Rome campus which were related to the discussion: International Law and International Financial Interventions, and Capitalism, Democracy, and Crisis.
About the Speakers
Dr. Fabbrini is Dean of the Department of Political Sciences and Professor of Political Science and International Relations at LUISS Guido Carli, where he holds a Jean Monnet Chair in European Institutions and Politics. Since 1996, he is Recurrent Professor of Comparative Politics at the Department of Political Science and Institute of Governmental Studies, University of California at Berkeley. In 2004 he succeeded Giovanni Sartori as Editor of “Rivista Italiana di Scienza Politica” that he directed until 2009. He received several academic prizes and lectured and taught in many countries of Europe, North and South America and Asia. By the end of 2016, he published fifteen books, two co-authored books and nineteen edited or co-edited books or journal special issues, and hundreds of articles and essays in seven languages. He is editorialist of the daily financial newspaper “Il Sole 24Ore.”
Dr. Bohle holds a chair in social and political change at the Department of Political and Social Sciences of the European University Institute. She was previously a professor of political science at Central European University, Budapest, and from 1995-2001 a research fellow at the Social Science Research Center, Berlin. She held numerous visiting positions, including at the Center for European Studies, Harvard University; the European University Institute, where she was a Fernand Braudel Fellow, the University of Florida, Gainesville and the University of Osnabrück. She received her Ph.D. from the Free University of Berlin. Prof. Bohle’s research focusses on comparative political economy with a special emphasis on East Central Europe. She has participated in a number of EU-funded research projects, most recently as work package leader in the Horizon 2020 ENLIGHTEN (European Legitimacy in Governing through Hard Times: the Role of European Networks) project. She has published two books, and numerous book chapters and journal articles. Her co-authored book on Eastern Europe’s capitalist diversity has received the 2013 Stein Rokkan Prize for Comparative Social Research. She is associate editor of the Journal of International Relations and Development (JIRD), and sits on the editorial boards of the journals New Perspectives, Österreichische Zeitschrift für Politikwissenschaft, and European Journal of Industrial Relations. She serves as a member of the executive council of the Society for Advancement of Socioeconomics (SASE), as board member of the CES Network on the Historical Study of States and Regimes, and as scientific board member of the Institute for Research on Eastern and Southeastern Europe in Regensburg.
Dr. Romano is a postdoctoral researcher and adjunct professor at Roma Tre University and advisor in the G7/G20 Sherpa Unit at the Office of the Prime Minister of Italy. He is also associate fellow at IAI. Previously he was visiting professor at the Freie Universität in Berlin. He holds a PhD in Economics from Roma Tre University and a Master’s in Macroeconomic Policy and Financial Markets from the Barcelona Graduate School of Economics (BGSE). He graduated with a BA in Political Science and an MA in International Relations from Roma Tre University. During his academic career, he was a visiting student at Birkbeck College (University of London) and Universidad Autonoma de Madrid. His research interests lie in the fields of global and European economic governance, international macroeconomics and geo-finance.