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Events

The Centre is active in hosting regular events. These include lectures or other addresses by distinguished guest speakers from academia and the practitioner community, as well as book launches, plus conferences, both as sole organiser and in collaboration with colleagues in other institutions.

Conferences, Events and Guest Speakers
DateEvent
13 - 14 May 2026 Conference: The European Masters in Public Administration Network (EMPA)
Professors Paul Carmichael and Ann Marie Gray attended the annual meeting of the European MPA Network. This year’s gathering was in Tallinn, Estonia. The network brings together teachers involved in the delivery of public administration courses and related provision, chiefly at postgraduate level at selected higher education institutions across Europe, including prestigious universities such as Erasmus University Rotterdam, Cornivus University Budapest, and Catholic University of Leuven, most of which offer substantial part of their tuition in English. Ulster and Limerick are the only 2 members on the island of Ireland, while Ulster is one of only two UK member institutions (along with Edinburgh). The EMPA Consortium was established in 1990-1991 as one of the first pioneering exchange frameworks for master students in public administration, originally supported by the EC-Erasmus bureau. Over time, it has broadened its scope and seeks to foster cooperation and exchange of staff and students as well as curriculum coordination. With the imminent return of the UK to the ERASMUS programme, but also mindful of changing patterns of study for many students who also work while undertaking part-time study, the meeting explored scope for new forms of exchange, based around COIL and shorter periods of study abroad.Ulster University hosted the event in 2022.
11 - 12 May 2026
Conference: Evolving Relationships: Ireland, the UK and Beyond
Together with Professor Gisela Holfter, Director, Centre for Irish-German Studies, University of Limerick (Limerick), Professor Paul Carmichael, Director of Ulster’s Centre for Public Administration, co-organised a two-day event that was recently held at the Centre for British Studies, Humboldt University of Berlin. The Conference was the latest in a series they have devised and organised jointly. Building on the success of earlier gatherings in Belfast and Limerick, this event multi- and interdisciplinary in nature, explored the changing nature of political, governmental, diplomatic, economic, social, literary, artistic and cultural relations within and the between the various parts of Ireland, the UK and beyond. A range of distinguished speakers including serving and former ambassadors, diplomats, cabinet ministers, and parliamentarians joined writers, academics and journalists to consider the issues involved. The event was supported by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), Irish Embassy in Berlin, and the organising universities. Joining him, among the speakers and panel chairs was our Ulster colleague, Professor Deirdre Heenan.
December 2025 Guest lecture: Prof Conchúr Ó Giollagáin (University of Highlands and Islands). "A Sociological Reassessment of Ethnolinguistic Vitality: Bridging the Reality Gap in Minority Language Policy and Promotion"
Guest lecture: Ms Sophie Mangutsch (Free university of Bozen/Bolzano): "Towards a comparative analysis of the language policies for the Friulian, Romansh and Ladin language"
26 September 2025 At the invitation of the Department of Language Policy of the Catalan Regional Government, Michele Gazzola presented at the international event on "Linguistic diversity in today's world", Barcelona
10 - 12 September 2025 UKAPA Conference 2025 was held at Ulster University, Belfast campus
UKAPA hosts International Conference at Ulster University
8 - 11 July 2025 Michele Gazzola taught at the International Summer School Language Policy and Language Planning: "Bilingual minds and translingual practices in multicultural contexts".  University for Foreigners of Siena
9 June 2025 At the invitation of the Regional Government of Friuli Venezia Giulia (Italy), Michele Gazzola presented at the conference reviewing the implementation of language policy in favour of Friulian, Gorizia
May 2025 In May 2025, Professor Paul Carmichael was invited by the Maison du Futur organisation to give a presentation at its event entitled ‘Overcoming Divisions: A Conference for LeRecent banon’s Future’. Organised in conjunction with the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, Lebanon Office, and held in Bekfaya, near the capital city, Beirut, the conference aimed to seize the current renewed momentum for national dialogue in Lebanon, and bring local and international voices to explore sustainable pathway towards peace, stability and renewed national identity. Professor Carmichael spoke in the panel entitled ‘Remembering the Past, Imagining the Future’ on the experience of Northern Ireland. Maison du Futur was established by the former President of Lebanon, Amine Gemayel, who was present at the proceedings along with a range of other current and former senior leaders from across the political and religious spectrum in the country.
25 March 2025 Professor Paul Carmichael was invited by Dr Giada Lagana to give a lecture to students and staff with the School of Law and Politics at Cardiff University on 25 March 2025. The presentation was entitled ‘Borders, Brexit, breakaways and benefits amid the changing nature of the devolution settlement in Northern Ireland’. It considered how the arrangements established under the Good Friday Agreement had fared as a result of Brexit as well as other disruptions to the devolved government of Northern Ireland, while also considering the recent spate of calls for a referendum on reunification, in the longer context of the history of the island of Ireland. In contending that the evidence for organising such a poll remains insufficient, with the outcome unlikely to change the status quo, the lecture focussed instead on how ‘making Northern Ireland work better’ with pragmatic further cross-border cooperation were more fruitful avenues for local leaders to pursue. He noted how the reforms made in respect of fair employment and the continued nature of the financial settlement for Northern Ireland, provided a stable basis for a fairer and more inclusive society.
28-29 November 2024 Conference – ‘Reflections on a Changing Ireland and its Relationships’ (organised jointly with the Centre for Irish-German Studies at the University of Limerick Wilfreed Martens Centre for European Studies and the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung (KAS) UK & Ireland office), and to be held at Ulster University.
4 October 2024 Visit by Dr Sara Dybris McQuaid, Associate Professor in British-Irish History, Society & Culture, Aarhus University, Denmark.  Lecture entitled - Administrations of Memory and the Politics of Northern Ireland 1994-2024.
June 2024 Co-organisation (with University Roviri I Vergili, Tarragona, and University of Barcelona) of the Fifth biannual REAL symposium on "Human Capital, Languages, and New Literacies: Theories, Policies, and Impacts"
19 September 2024 Visit by  Professor Hiroyuki Ogawa, Graduate School of Interdisciplinary Information Studies & British Studies Section, Department of Area Studies and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences, The University of Tokyo, Japan.  Lecture entitled - The Irish Question from the perspectives of Japanese Intellectuals and Politicians from the late 19th to early 20th Centuries.
18 September 2024 Visit by Dr Mansour Nasasra, Senior Lecturer in Middle East Politics and International Relations, Department of Politics and Government, Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Israel.
Lecture entitled - Jerusalem since the Jordanian Rule and the Oslo Peace Accords.
14 March 2024 Book Launch – Book entitled The Routledge Handbook of Language Policy and Planning. Editors – Michele Gazzola (Ulster University), François Grin (Université de Genève), Linda Cardinal (Université de l'Ontario français) and Kathleen Heugh (University of South Australia). Discussant, Iker Erdocia (Dublin City University). Moderator: Nicole Marinaro (Ulster University).
13 December 2023 Visit by Dr Jane Morrice, former journalist, MLA, Deputy Speaker, Northern Ireland Assembly. Lecture entitled - The role of USA & EU in the Northern Ireland Peace Process - different means to the same end.
16-17 November 2023 Conference - ‘Engaging Cross Borders: Perspectives from Ireland and Europe’ (organised jointly with the Centre for Irish-German Studies at the University of Limerick Wilfreed Martens Centre for European Studies and the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung (KAS) UK & Ireland office), and held at the University of Limerick as the 20th International Conference in Irish-German Studies),
18 October 2023 Visit by Nina Teigland, University of Bergen. Lecture entitled - Language Policy and the Public Administration in Norway: Issues and Challenges.
13-15 September 2023 Conference - 39th Annual ‘International Society for the Study of Subjectivity’ (ISSSS) conference (known by its more familiar term of Q Methodology),
July 2023 Co-organisation (with the University of Turin) of the 9th Nitobe Symposium on "75th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: what is the status of the implementation of language rights?"
9 March 2023 Visit by H.E. Piotr Wilczek, the Ambassador of Poland to the United Kingdom. Lecture entitled Polish diplomacy: the case of relations with the United States and the United Kingdom (event co-organised with Professor Jan Jedrzejewski).
3-4 November 2022 Conference - ‘New Ways of Engagement and the International Context: Northern Ireland and Ireland’ (organised jointly with the Centre for Irish-German Studies at the University of Limerick and the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung (KAS) UK and Ireland office), and held at Clifton House and Ulster University Belfast.
2 November 2022 Visit by Professor Luc Turgeon, University of Ottowa, Canada. Lecture entitled – ‘The Politics of Representative Bureaucracy in Multilingual Public Administrations’.
4-5 November 2021 Conference - ‘Unions, Break-ups and Special Relationships – Aspects of the Irish-German-UK Relationships’ (organised jointly with the Centre for Irish-German Studies at the University of Limerick and the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung (KAS) UK and Ireland office), and held at the University of Limerick as the 18th International Conference in Irish-German Studies)
26-27 July 2021

Nitobe Symposium – ‘Language, Conflict, and Security’ organised jointly with Centre for Research and Documentation on World Language Problems (CED) with financial support of the Esperantic Studies Foundation.

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