Spring 2007 - European University Institute

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few more months to go, but no more funding, provided
me with a few extra months of ‘completion grant’.
I also owe a debt of gratitude to Yves Mény. In 199
he urged me to talk to Jeremy Richardson, who was
visiting the EUI to recruit post-doctoral fellows. Richardson
needed to find people fluent in English, who
had not recently resided in the United Kingdom, and
who did not have British citizenship, and where else to
find them but the EUI? Again, I was lucky and ended
up with a two-year post-doc at the University of Essex
on an HCM fellowship.
After my time at Essex I applied for a EUI Forum
Fellowship and was ‘returned’ to the EUI. I worked
under the supervision of Professors Michael Artis and
Ramon Marimon examining the political economy of
an integrated Europe. It was basically an economists’
forum, but luckily there a few political scientists, and I
was one of them. I loved every minute of it.
At this time I met my partner with whom I have had
three more daughters. We got together in April 1997
when I had just accepted a job on Vancouver Island,
off the West Coast of Canada. Paul, was a second-year
ricercatore in Economics. We spent a wonderful three
months in Florence before I headed off to Canada. For
three years we managed to commute between Canada
and Florence, thanks in part to Yves Mény who allowed
me to be a visiting fellow at the Robert Schuman Cen-
tre. In 001 we had our second daughter, and in spring
00 we came back to the EUI as visitors to the Robert
Schuman Centre, this time thanks to the new Director,
Helen Wallace. In the past few months Paul received
word of his tenure at UVic and we have had our third
daughter (see announcement in the EUI Review).
In summary, the EUI profoundly changed my life. It
made me the researcher I am today, it put me on track
for wonderful academic positions, and it touched me
personally. I learnt more than I could have ever imagined
about the other cultures in the world. Contrary to
what others may have said about the EUI reinforcing
prejudices, for me the opposite is true. Meeting all
those people from different countries and continents
helped me appreciate the richness of the variety of
cultures and how every person deals with similar
challenges in their own way, often consistent with
their culture and background. For me that experience
was part of the special contribution of the EUI—on a
par with the wonderful formal training and academic
experience we had. n
Amy Verdun is Professor in the Department of
Political Science, holds a Jean Monnet Chair in
European Integration Studies and is the Director of
the Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence, University of
Victoria.
Paul Schure is Assistant Professor in the
Department of of Economics, University of Victoria
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