EC EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN SUMMER PROGRAMS: Guest Lecture at the University of the Aegean in Rhodes

Thursday, July 14, 2016

Guest Lecture at the University of the Aegean in Rhodes

Today we had two lectures from a professor and a Ph.D. candidate at the University of the Aegean in Rhodes. The university is spread out on five different Greek islands, but this one focuses on international relations and the Mediterranean. Both lectures were extremely pertinent to the discussions we've been having over the nearly four weeks we've been in Greece regarding migration and security in the Eastern Mediterranean. These lectures also encompassed the role of international institutions and resources in global security, and how both of these things intertwine with issues of migration. I really enjoyed hearing about the role of climate change in all of this, and would really like to find out more about how this affects global security. If I have learned one thing on this trip, it is that nothing is ever as simple as it seems, and global issues are multilayered with the different perspectives and roles of international organizations, national governments, and individuals.

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EC Eastern Security Studies Program

In the summer of 2011, as the "Arab Spring" was unfolding and the "Eurozone Crisis" was entering its second year, the Emmanuel College Eastern Mediterranean Security Studies Program was established in Crete, as a way to make the location the classroom. Beyond the grand theoretical, historical and political understanding that can be achieved through reading and classroom discussion and exchange, a more immediate, intimate and truer appreciation of the complexities can only achieved by experiencing the cultures, languages of personal interaction.

Since 2012 students have been able to combine an intensive curricular study, with the experience of immersion and living in a local setting. The geopolitical and geoeconomic forces that have acted in the region for centuries, can be identified in the classroom, but they can only be understood by being there. This year's EC EMSS Program will add a fourth week of study, experience and exploration and will also travel to the islands of Rhodes, and Cyprus. In Rhodes we will be partnering with the Prefecture of Southern Aegean and the Aegean University, while in Cyprus we will be hosted by the University of Nicosia.