Dr hab. Marcin Grabowski (Project Leader)
Dr hab. Ewa Trojnar, prof. UJ
Dr hab. Łukasz Gacek, prof. UJ
Dr Emilian Kavalski
Dr Sławomir Wyciślak
Dr Paolo Pizzolo
Jakub Stefanowski
Students Participation
One of the goals of the project is to apply a research-based teaching approach. Students will be included in the planned project’s activities, thus allowing them to develop skills, which may later enable them to look for plenty of opportunities to prepare their applications for grants and finally to successfully carry out the research.
The complexity of challenges for EU-China relations in a turbulent world research project provisions engagement of students in research tasks like literature review, organization and participation of scientific seminars with foreign Partners, data collection, and descriptive statistical data analysis. Students will increase their competencies due to the adaptation of already learned methods and techniques into the real-life scientific project. The variety of forms, as well as the participation of prominent scholars, will open a wide field for the development of research, intercultural, intersectoral and transversal skills, especially methodological skills, soft skills, and project management skills.
The research has been supported by a grant from the Faculty of International and Political Studies under tha Strategic Programme Excellence Initiative at Jagiellonian University.
Below there are short bios of the participating students (in alphabetic order):
Nazia Azim
Nazia Azim is a double degree student at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland, at the University of Siena in Italy. She was born in Kabul, Afghanistan, and lived there until she was five years old. Then, for humanitarian reasons, she came to Greece and lived there until she completed her undergraduate degree at the faculty of Balkan, Slavic, and Oriental Studies. Besides university activities, she likes to learn languages and participate in different social activities. After all, she wants to deepen her knowledge about European-Asian relations because she hopes that in the future, she can develop her career in the Asian continent. She learns quickly and is eager to follow the guidance of the supervisors to present a reliable and reasonable results on the research project. Her contribution to the research topic would be focused on adding novel research aspects to the matters of the Asian continent studies by providing innovative empirical findings about the area, thus to overall enrich to the complexity of the research. Moreover, her desire is to learn more about the differences splitting the European Union and the People's Republic of China and the role the United States of America plays in the researched relationship.
Claris Diaz
Claris Diaz is a graduate student in international security and development at Jagiellonian University. Her prior career was in science, where she completed her undergraduate degree in California, her graduate studies in the UK, and completed research publications in evolutionary biology and neuroscience. In the last two years, she was an intern for the US Department of State and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, with the National Counterintelligence and Security Center. This year, she works with the Department of Defense Information Strategy Research Center on cyber conflict. She is interested in emerging and disruptive technologies, outcomes of the geo-strategic alliances between the BRICS members, and how these can undermine security on a multi-dimensional level. She looks forward to contributing to work on China's growing involvement in Europe's SmartAg sector and its influence on the development of food economy-related policies, e.g. trade, management of natural resources, between China and the BRICS members. She aims to understand and extrapolate how these policies will impact the global food market and assess how interactions and agreements between China and other BRICS members can threaten regional and international food security.
Eeli Jämsä
I am eager to make research about EU-China relations in the Arctic area. For me, there are multiple intriguing matters to research around this topic as I come from Finnish town Oulu, 100 miles from the Arctic Circle and thus I have a feeling that I am personally connected to the area. In a broad sense, I want to gain clear picture of possible future scenarios that can take place in Arctic during World Order is being changed. In my opinion, there are clear indicators that China is increasingly challenging USA’s hegemonic position and tensions between the states are growing. I wonder how will this change affect the usually peaceful Arctic region? In addition, through this project, I am looking to gain understanding of complexity of relations between the states that are active in the region. By contributing in this project I want to help states and organizations to make the best policy actions and to find a common ground in building Arctic. Besides contributing to research of Arctic, I spend my time among hobbies like football, climbing and cycling without forgetting reading novels and having open-minded discussions with people
Helena Quis
I am an enthusiastic student researcher currently pursuing my studies in International Relations and Public Diplomacy. My academic journey embarked on a different path when I graduated with a degree in marketing communications in Berlin back in 2016. Following this, I ventured into the realm of strategic communication, public affairs, and public relations as a consultant, working for agencies in Vienna and Hamburg. My client base included a range of companies and initiatives across diverse sectors such as sustainability and environment, energy, technology, and aviation. Driven by a deepening interest in political processes, I decided to pivot my career toward political science, and I pursued a bachelor's degree in the according field at Hochschule Bremen. Throughout my undergraduate journey, I developed a particular fascination for European and international politics, with a keen focus on the intergovernmental dynamics within the European Union. Therefore my bachelor's thesis centred on the significance of the Franco-German cooperation treaties for the leadership potential of these two member states within the European community. When I started my master’s degree at Jagiellonian University, my EU focus broadened from a formerly internal to a global perspective, with a particular interest in European external relations in the field of security policy and crisis management. The European Union finds itself in a unique and complex position in today's global landscape, facing new global political rivalries, economic dependencies, and even a war on European soil. It is too economically significant to be a mere spectator in world politics but lacks the military capabilities as well as the coherent capacity to act of a nation state. As a distinctive player in international politics, it is now faced with the task of redefining its identity, role, and relations in a turbulent environment. The research project about "The complexity of challenges for EU-China relations in a turbulent world" contributes in my view to a better understanding of these processes by shedding light on the EU's relationship with a country that we still understand too little about, even though it is playing a crucial role in shaping our new world order. Through my involvement in it, I aspire to gain a deeper comprehension of the multifaceted challenges confronting EU-China relations in today's global landscape. Specifically, I aim to explore the intricate interplay between the EU's evolving role as a global actor, its foreign policy decisions, and the complex factors influencing China's foreign policy, particularly in the context of domestic legitimacy. In the course of my academic career, I have worked extensively on theories of power, hegemony and international cooperation, studied European security and integration policies in the EU neighbourhood, and gained initial insights into the complex interplay of China's domestic legitimacy and its impact on its foreign policy. My background in strategic communication additionally gives me a unique perspective on the communication strategies and diplomatic actions of the EU as well as China. I am therefore looking forward to contributing my knowledge and skills to the research project in order to better understand the EU as well as China as global actors, their relations with each other and the complex dynamics of a rapidly changing global environment.
Altynay Zhanayeva
As part of the project team, I am willing to get more experience as a researcher as it would be a significant asset to my career. Also, I would like to enhance my skills, such as data analysis, communication, teamwork, and problem-solving. While working closely with experienced researchers and professors, I expect to learn from their expertise in this field. I am certain that working with them will contribute to my personal and professional growth. While working as a research assistant, I would like to expand my knowledge about the foreign and domestic policy of the PRC, its role in the global arena, and its influence on its partners. More specifically, my area of interest is the relations between China and Central Asian countries. Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, there have been significant noticeable changes in relations between China and Central Asian countries. In collaboration with my colleagues, I would like to analyse changes in Chinese foreign policy towards Central Asia since the beginning of the war and the EU's opinion on Chinese actions. As a Kazakhstani, I can contribute to the research from the perspective of Central Asian and by using the knowledge of local languages during the literature review. I am equally interested in researching the many various topics around EU-China relations suggested by my colleagues and am strongly motivated to work on them.
