Welcome to the Institute of European Studies project to promote dialogue about EU-Canada relations. Here you will find traditional research in the form of brief policy papers and analysis. The site is also an interface for the public to express their opinions on EU-Canada relations in general and economic and environmental cooperation in particular. The site will hopefully act as a gateway to the wider news and opinion forums that are available.
Project Director
Kurt Hübner is professor of European studies and director at the Institute for European Studies at UBC.Central to Hübner’s research are topics of global and European currency regimes, international regimes of foreign direct investment, and the relations between innovation and sustainability. His latest research focuses on the economic and socio-political foundations of technical innovations in a transatlantic perspective. Currently he is working on a project on currency competition and currency co-operation, which analyses the relations between the US Dollar, the Euro and the Japanese Yen. For more information, click here.
Project Coordinator
Kerstin Lüttich came to the IES from Berlin via Toronto. She holds an MA in Education and worked as a high school teacher and educational consultant before she joined the IES team in 2006. As the IES program coordinator, she put together a large number of international conferences, co-organized international summer schools, and was responsible for the logistics of the Visiting Scholar Program. Kerstin has been the program coordinator for the EU-funded 'Public Diplomacy' project since September 2010.
Research Contributor
Paco Beltrán has taught political theory and international relations at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM), and currently teaches political science at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC), in Barcelona. He is involved in several research projects at the IES, such as 'Politics and Economics of Multiculturalism in Canada and Western Europe: A Comparative Approach', which focuses on basic aspects of the political and economic integration of ethno-cultural minorities and immigrant groups in Canada and Europe. As part of his academic interests, he also researches political economy and some other theoretical aspects of European integration.
Researcher/Web Administrator
Robertson earned his bachelor's (Political Science & German) and master's (Library & Information Sciences) degrees from the University of Alabama. Over the years he has studied at the Universiteit van Amsterdam and the Freie Universität - Berlin. While completing his previous degrees, Robertson held several library and research related positions as well as a political/economics internship at the United States embassy in Chișinău, Moldova. In addition to his activities at IES, he currently maintains and contributes to several blogs related to European current affairs and politics. His areas of interest include EU consumer protection and environmental policy.