by Stefano Pellegrino
On February 7th, 1992, one of the founding agreements of the European Union was signed: the Treaty of Maastricht. This year it turned 30 and, as is tradition, the School of Political Sciences “Cesare Alfieri” could not let the occasion pass without celebrating it and turning it into an opportunity to discuss and debate what the politics of the European Union look like 30 years after the signing of the treaty. To this end, the 3rd edition of the International Week was envisioned.
As is customary, every March and April a new set of Erasmus+ programs is published, and thousands of Unifi students eagerly participate in order to internationalize their university career. The International Week is hence an occasion for all students of social sciences and beyond to get to know foreign institutions more personally by speaking directly with their representatives. On April 6th, representatives gathered for the “Presentation of the Erasmus+ Exchange Programs”, with multiple institutions called upon to introduce themselves, notably the University of Warsaw, the Gdansk University of Technology, la Universidad Complutense de Madrid, as well as others.
Moreover, during the International Week prominent names in the international academia, together with local Unifi professors, were called upon by the University of Florence to participate into seminars, roundtables, and panels. Topics discussed spanned across highly controversial and debated ones in the academic world: the future of the European Union, the integration of Eastern Europe, migration policies in the EU, and EU foreign policy.
Finally, the International Week was closed by the students: around 20 of them, coming from various backgrounds of social sciences, organized by themselves a roundtable as its main topic that of migration policies. Students took this role seriously and were gladly supervised by numerous Unifi professors.
The RISE Blog staff reminds that this was only the 3rd edition of the International Week. The next ones are likely to be as engaging as this year’s, and we suggest that all students always participate in extracurricular activities, as it is an enrichment of their career.