The EUCAnet Team

Oliver Schmidtke

Co-Lead of the EUCAnet project, University of Victoria

Oliver Schmidtke is the director for the Center for Global Studies and Professor in the Departments of History and Political Science. He holds the Jean Monnet Chair in European Studies. Dr. Schmidtke is the former Director of the European Studies Program (2005-2008) and President of the ECSA-C (European Community Studies Association-Canada 2004-2006).

Dr. Schmidtke received his Ph.D. from the European University Institute in Florence. After teaching at the Humboldt University in Berlin, Germany he was a J.F. Kennedy fellow at Harvard University, a F. Braudel Fellow at the European University Institute and a Marie Curie Fellow at Hamburg University. From 1999-2002 he was the DAAD lecturer in European and German Studies at the University of Victoria. His research interests are in the field of European politics, contemporary European history, and comparative politics with a focus on migration from a comparative transatlantic perspective.

Derek Fraser

Advisor, University of Victoria

Mr. Fraser also acted as a legal adviser, and analyst in many other capacities after joining the Department of External Affairs in 1963. In addition, after the election of the Parti Quebecois in 1976, he was temporarily assigned to the Federal-Provincial Relations Bureau of the Privy Council Office to work on the implications of the victory for Canadian federalism.

Professional Experience
Derek Fraser served as Ambassador at the Canadian Embassy in Ukraine from 1998 to 2001, in Greece from 1995 to 1998, and in Hungary from 1988 to 1993. He has also worked at Canadian missions in Vietnam, Germany, Russia and Belgium. At headquarters, he was variously Acting Director General, Cultural Affairs and Higher Education Bureau, Director at different times of the East and West European Divisions, and Deputy Director of Latin American Division.

Beate Schmidtke

Co-Lead & Manager of the EUCAnet projects: CEDoM/CEDoD/MSEUCA/ECSA-Cn and the Jean Monnet Network European Memory Politics), University of Victoria

Beate Schmidtke brought to the EUCAnet project experience of several projects that she managed with the funds of the European Commission (yearly up to 1.5 million Euros) focusing on implementation of the New Media in the field of culture and education in close collaboration with the Council of Europe and European wide networks (Germany, Italy, Poland, Netherlands).

Professional Experience
Since 2004 she concentrates on developing networking and outreach strategies in the field of European Studies in Canada. Past projects developed and managed are the Young Researchers Network in Canada (2005-2007) , the DAAD German Studies network (2005-2008), and the EUCAnet outreach branch for the Canada Europe Transatlantic Dialogue Strategic Knowledge Cluster (2008-2016).

Fazila Mat

Communications & Media Officer
PhD Student, Dept. of Political Science

Fazıla Mat is currently a Ph.D. student at the University of Victoria in the faculty of Political Science under the supervision of Dr. Oliver Schmidtke. Fazıla holds an MA degree in Humanities from the University of Milan and she has worked for 12 years as a journalist and commentator for Osservatorio Balcani e Caucaso Transeuropa (OBCT) and other Italian and Swiss media covering Turkish politics, EU-Turkey relations, migration, civil society and media issues. For OBCT she has also carried out research on the EU-Turkey refugee deal (2017), media freedom in Turkey (2014 and 2018) and academic freedom in Turkey (2018). Her research interests include populism, migration and EU-Turkey relations.

Karen Yen

Design Advisor

Karen Yen is a freelance graphic designer with 20 years of experience that started in San Francisco, continuing on in New York and Barcelona, and now in Victoria.

She has had the experience of working on a variety of projects, ranging from nationwide retailers to small businesses, academic research and alternative projects. She has created logos, stationery, printed material as well packaging and websites. Karen has a BA in Communications from Simon Fraser University in Canada and a BFA in Graphic Design from the Academy of Art College in San Francisco, US. She is also a practicing artist whose medium of expression is painting and drawing.

Laurence Claussen

MA, University of British Columbia
Assistant to the Jean Monnet Projects

Laurence Claussen graduated from the University of British Columbia in November 2020 with an MA in Political Science. His thesis focused on whether the US president promotes bipartisan policy-making, but he also focused on migration politics, ethics in democracy, and public opinion while at UBC. He received his BA in History from the University of Aberdeen. His studies there focused on Western European political and legal history, as well as Western ethics and English literature.

Currently, Laurence is an Assistant to the Jean Monnet Projects for EUCAnet. In this role he offers internal administrative support, as well as serving in a broader capacity as a writer and researcher. He also works as a Communications Assistant for the Centre for Global Studies at the University of Victoria, compiling and publishing the weekly newsletter and helping out with Social Media.

Interns

Sophie Schmidtke

BA Student, Intern

Sophie is a 2nd year student at the University of British Columbia, she is currently exploring the fields of international relations and anthropology. In 2020 she was part of the Foundation Year Program at the University of Kings College in Halifax where she studied a mixture of philosophy, history and English literature.

Sebastien Leroy

BA Student, Intern

Sébastien is a student at the University of Victoria entering his second year of study. He is pursuing a BA in Philosophy and a Minor in Political Science. As a French and Canadian citizen he is interested in international perspectives and their effects on history and politics.