IU School of Liberal Arts

John McCormick Awarded Jean Monnet Chair in EU Politics

News Categories: Faculty and Staff | International | Political Science | Research

Professor John McCormick (Political Science) has spent the bulk of the past two decades dedicating his research and teaching to the politics of the European Union (EU). The results include five books on the topic, a faculty and student exchange between the School of Liberal Arts and six European universities, and the Midwest Model European Union which attracts as many as 180 students from across the region each year.

Now, McCormick has achieved his greatest academic recognition-and one of IUPUI’s as well: the award of a Jean Monnet Chair in EU Politics.

"I’m delighted by the news," says the IU School of Liberal Arts professor.  "It’s an acknowledgement that my work is being recognized by the European Union, the organization to which I have devoted so much of my professional life."

The Jean Monnet program (named for one of the founding fathers of the European Union) has made awards in support of exchanges, research and teaching since 1989, however the number presented outside Europe has been relatively limited. Out of thirty-five Jean Monnet Chairs in 2010 only 12 were outside Europe and just four in the United States.

As well as the title of "Jean Monnet Professor," the award comes with a three-year grant of nearly $55,000. McCormick will use the funds to support his courses on the European Union, transatlantic relations, and comparative federalism. He will also organize two workshops for high school teachers aimed at helping them integrate material on the European Union into their teaching. The funding will also help him organize a conference at IUPUI on European Union studies, and support the annual intercollegiate Model European Union, the creation and maintenance of a website on EU studies, and work on new editions of his two EU textbooks.

 "Although most Americans are familiar with the euro," he says, "the European Union has not only revolutionized politics and economics in Europe but has also had a huge impact on political and commercial life in the United States. For that reason alone it is important that those of us involved in studying the EU on this side of the Atlantic are more engaged in reaching out to the community."

McCormick points out that the EU is the world’s biggest economy, the world’s biggest trading power, the biggest trading partner of the US, and in spite of problems in the transatlantic relationship since the 2003 invasion of Iraq, its most important political ally.

The Jean Monnet award comes hard on the heels of the publication by Oxford University Press of McCormick’s latest book, titled "Europeanism". Concerned by repeated charges that the experiment in European economic and political integration is not working, McCormick decided to study what Europeans have in common and how there has been the rise of a European consciousness.

"The book doesn’t just look at the negatives," he says, "but looks at what Europeans agree on and how European ideas and attitudes are distinctive from those in other parts of the world." Amongst the issues McCormick examines: the European idea of welfare compared to America’s idea of self-reliance, the widespread opposition in Europe to capital punishment, the declining role of religion in European public life, and the preference among Europeans for using soft power and multilateral approaches to international relations.

McCormick’s undergraduate textbook, "Understanding the European Union," due to be published in 2011 in a fifth edition, is one of the projects supported by the Jean Monnet award. June saw the release of a Polish edition. The textbook is also available in Slovak and Romanian translations, and translation rights have been sold for Croatian, Macedonian, and Ukrainian editions.

The Jean Monnet Chair and the fiscal award it carries will create new avenues for McCormick to continue his life work: researching, teaching, and contributing to the public dialogue about the EU.

Photo: Professor John McCormick (right) with a group of IUPUI students at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France.

Published on: August 23, 2010