Researching “eight days a week”? Reflections on the UACES Annual Conference 2025
- Hope Philpott
- Dec 5, 2025
- 5 min read
Updated: Dec 6, 2025
Hosting a European Studies conference in Liverpool, a city both shaped by global exchange and (now) situated outside of the EU, felt like an apt metaphor for the discipline itself: conflicted, transnational, and deeply introspective. Over three days, the UACES Annual Conference 2025 showcased just how alive European Studies remains, even amid Europe’s deep political, environmental, and epistemological uncertainties. Indeed, to borrow from Liverpool’s very own Beatles, the dynamic academics that I met appear to be working at a pace approaching “eight days a week”.
Hope Philpott
Europe in Liverpool?
On reading a call for papers for the University Association for Contemporary European Studies (UACES) Annual Conference in Liverpool this September, I was amused by the prospect of a European Studies conference convening in the UK, which has a notoriously fraught European identity. Moreover, delegates would not even rush to London, Brighton, or some other practically continental location. They were heading to Liverpool, a gritty, dynamic Northern city enriched by the transatlantic slave trade and concomitant industrial wealth in the 19th century, more recently famous for its vibrant music scene and obsession with football. I am from nearby Manchester, which shares a similar profile. Neither are, to my knowledge, world centres within European Studies research. With a hint of irony, I applied to present at the conference and was surprised when my abstract on gender and celebrity populism was accepted.
On stepping off the train at Lime Street I was greeted by a characteristic Liverpudlian downpour. I located Liverpool John Moores University, grabbed my lanyard and headed to a packed lecture theatre filled with coffee-clasping researchers and dripping umbrellas. 75 years on from the Schuman Declaration, professors Brigitte Leucht and Carine Germond spoke candidly about the past, present and future of the European Studies discipline, revising institutional, ‘permissive consensus’ accounts of early European integration. Rather, they noted, a diverse cast of actors, networks and social movements shaped and contested Europe and its messy integration, far from the meeting rooms of Monnet, Schuman and De Gasperi. Professor Simona Guerra shone a light on the EU’s often-overlooked ‘founding mothers’, some of whom were written out of official records or mis-recorded under male names. Prof. Peo Hansen provided an instructive rebuke to the ‘grand peace project’ narrative by reminding us of the profoundly colonial dimensions of early European integration, which was as much about control over Algeria as it was coal and steel, or Franco-German cooperation.
From populism to the Green Deal (and back)
After this dose of macro-level food for thought, it was time for lunch, where I caught up with Prof. Tomáš Weiss over samosas. After caffeine, I headed to a panel on gender and identity in socio-political spheres, which included a fascinating presentation on the (paradoxical) performance of elitism among populist radical right parties. Then it was time for a panel on discourse, narratives and networks surrounding the European Green Deal (EGD). Presenters illuminated the tensions and obstacles facing the EGD, as governments, parties and coalitions within the EU drag their heels on decarbonisation for the sake of votes and clicks, or, worse still, frame the EGD as a Brussels-led destroyer of sovereignty and prosperity. As someone seeking to write my thesis on the economic paradigms surrounding the EGD and how to make it more radical still, this was a depressing but welcome reality check.
Networking and nightlife
Next, I headed with a new friend and fellow populism researcher to Punch Tarmey’s, a deliciously cosy underground Irish bar in Liverpool’s Baltic Quarter, for UACES drinks. Accompanied by live music and the musings of a local historian, I met a range of fascinating academics, researching everything from labour precarity to Brexit. Despite being by far the youngest and least qualified delegate, everyone was extremely friendly and welcoming towards me; UACES exceeds its warm reputation! PhD student Caroline and I chatted populism (of course), sampled some whiskey and dropped in on the UACES graduate forum drinks, where we exchanged tales of the trials and tribulations of academia.
Normative power and migration policy
Onto Tuesday, where I attended a fascinating roundtable on normative power and the planetary-organic crisis. Professors Ian Manners, Roberta Guerrina and others discussed, as well as dystopian cinema, the interconnectedness of the mounting global crises, and fruitfulness of feminist perspectives, intersectional justice and relationality in addressing them. After lunch with new friends, I headed to a pertinent plenary on migration, security and democracy. Professor Sonia Morano-Foadi discussed the pitfalls of current EU migration and asylum measures, notably the 2024 EU Pact on Migration and Asylum, and the need for a radical rethink which engages with significant holes in current labour markets. Jonas Grimheden, Fundamental Rights Officer at Frontex, presented an amusingly selective account of Frontex’s apparently limited, supportive role and unfortunate lack of leverage, omitting the various accusations of fundamental rights violations by the EU agency. A questioner epitomised all panellists’ reticence by noting that racism and xenophobia were key tenets of Europe’s broken systems and discourses on migration and asylum, yet neither had been addressed in the lengthy plenary. Panellists’ strained answers were revealing.
Gender, sexuality and celebrity populism: my experience presenting
After a short tea break, it was time for my panel. In an airy second floor classroom with brilliant views of the bustling station, I listened to fascinating presentations providing critical and legal perspectives on the EU’s LGBTQI+ equality promotion strategies. Malte Breiding applied the concept of ‘transitivity’ to these strategies, resisting normative engagement with culture war antagonisms, while Curzio Fossati delved into the successes and failures of the EU’s 2020-2025 LGBTIQ equality strategy with regards to those in cross-border situations. Finally, I delivered my presentation, entitled ‘Servants of which people? Gender, celebrity populism and digital perceptions of Giorgia Meloni and Alice Weidel’. For the last month, I had spent an unhealthy amount of time analysing comments on Meloni and Weidel’s TikTok pages, coding these responses into various constructions of (populist) leadership. I had encountered many bot responses, professions of “love”, and a whole lot of Italian flag emojis. Terrified about presenting to a bunch of esteemed post-docs and professors, I had printed eight pages of notes and filled my PowerPoint with graphs and references. Yet to my surprise, words flowed naturally, and I outlined my research with ease and humour. The panel chair and attendees were incredibly kind, providing encouraging feedback and a myriad of useful suggestions on how to take my research further.
Final takeaways
From its rainy beginnings to its sunny endings, the UACES Annual Conference checked my imposter syndrome and affirmed my belief that research is powerful. Meeting so many accomplished yet welcoming people, hearing about pertinent and novel research, and getting instrumental feedback on my own work was deeply enriching. I hope to attend next year, when the conference will be hosted by none other than Charles University!
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