The British Socio-Political Studies Research Group BRITANNIA was established in spring 2009 on the initiative of members of the Faculty of Journalism and Political Science, University of Warsaw, whose scientific interests focus on widely understood British and Commonwealth politics. We remain open to cooperation with academics representing universities in Poland and abroad.

Our research interests cover wide range of problems regarding different dimensions of politics, including the international, economic, or cultural ones, with special emphasis on:

• British party system;
• Decentralisation and devolution;
• British constitutional system and constitutional reform;
• British social policies;
• British economic policy;
• UK’s foreign, security and defence policy;
• UK’s European policy-making;
• UK’s historical imperial policies and contemporary relations with the Commonwealth countries;
• Anglo-American relations;
• British political thought and intellectual tradition;
• British culture and its relations with English-speaking countries.
  
  

We wholeheartedly invite to our group all members of the academic and professional community who share our interest, especially the representatives or legal science, economy, history, sociology, anthropology, and literary studies. We strongly believe the British and Commonwealth Studies community in Poland needs more intensive debate and sharing of knowledge and research experience.

Our group also conducts on a continuous basis the project of the Bibliography of British Socio-Political Studies in Poland. The findings of this project have been available on our website since Autumn 2010. The Bibliography is to address a problem of time pressure and surge of publications, which seriously undermine the effective circulation of many valuable papers of our common interest.

During the previous BRITANNIA panel held shortly before the European Election 2014 we have discussed the prospects and possible outcomes of the Scottish referendum for the union of Britain as well as a wider European context of the UK–EU relations and Polish-British relations (issues of immigration and EU’s institutional framework).

This time we shall take a closer look at the recent European Election and its wider context. In the first part of the panel we shall discuss EU’s future scenarios in the EP’s 8th parliamentary term in the light of a notable success of Eurosceptical parties. The cases of the UK, Poland and other Central and Eastern European countries representing three stages of the big-bang enlargement of 2004-2007-2013 shall be analysed. 

In the second part of the panel we shall discuss the implications of the 2014 crisis in Ukrainian for European policy-making on the examples of UK Defence Policy and of Moldova’s relations with the EU in the context of Transnistria.

The aforementioned problems shall be presented by leading researchers from Britain, France and Poland.

Please register by June 14^th, 2014: 

• Registration Form (Participants)
• Registration Form (Paper Givers)

This year the annual Britannia panel is aimed at analysing the problems of British politics which play vital role form the point of view of the UK’s and Poland’s membership and cooperation in the EU.

The first part of the panel shall undertake to study the prospects and possible outcomes of the Scottish referendum for the union of Britain: its constitutional composition and national identity.

The second part of the panel is to set the UK–EU relations in a wider European context of EU–UK–Irish relations as well as the EU dimension of the Scottish Independence Referendum.

Last but not least, the third part of the panel is to study Polish-British relations in the security context of the Ukrainian crisis and of the immigration and Eurosceptical debate in the UK.

The aforementioned problems shall be presented by leading researchers and experts in the field from Britain, Poland and Czech Republic.

May 15^th, 2013 (Thursday), 9.00–15.30, University Library in Warsaw (BUW) Building,
Seminar Room 256 (2^nd floor), 56/66 Dobra Str. 

Welcome to the website of the British Socio-Political Studies Research Group BRITANNIA! 

You will find here full information about the Group’s and its members’ research,
publications and confrences.