The economic, political and social roles of the European Union will be examined in a series of programs during European Union Week at Illinois State University, Sept. 12-15
The events, which are all free and open to the public, are sponsored by Illinois State in collaboration with the European Union Center at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

On Monday, Sept. 12, at 3 p.m., Graham Paul, consul general of France in Chicago, will present The European Union as an Agent of Peaceful and Democratic Change in the Bone Student Center Prairie Room. A response to that presentation will be given by Emanuel Rota, an assistant professor in the Department of Spanish, Italian and Portuguese at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The presentations will be followed by a public reception in the Prairie Room.

Anne Mette Vestergaard, deputy chief of mission at the Danish embassy in Washington D.C., will speak on Green Europe on Tuesday, Sept. 13, at 3 p.m. on the main floor of Illinois State’s Milner Library.

Steven Hill, author of Europe’s Promise, will present Why the European Way Is the Best Hope in an Insecure Future on Wednesday, Sept. 14, at noon in the Bone Student Center’s First Floor West Lounge. That evening at 6:30 p.m., the documentary film What’s an Economy Good for, Anyway? will be screened in conjunction with the presentation Europe’s Alternative to Wall Street Capitalism and an open discussion led by Steven Hill in Stevenson Hall room 101.

Thomas Geoghegan, author of Were You Born on the Wrong Continent? will speak on Work and Well-Being in Europe on Thursday, Sept. 15, at 3 p.m. in the Bone Student Center’s Prairie Room.
Sponsors of European Union Week include Illinois State’s Department of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures; Milner Library; Department of History; Department of Sociology and Anthropology; College of Business; College of Applied Science and Technology; Pi Sigma Alpha political science honor society; Unit for International Linkages and Office of International Studies and Programs.

Additional information on European Union Week programs and speakers can be found at http://cas.illinoisstate.edu/sites/eu/