All of us know of individuals who remain cognitively sharp at an advanced age. Identifying novel factors which associate with inter-individual variability in -and can be considered protective for- cognitive decline is a promising area in ageing research. Considering its strong implication in neuroprotective function, COGNAP predicts that variability in circadian rhythmicity explains a significant part of the age-related changes in human cognition. Circadian rhythms -one of the most fundamental processes of living organisms- are present throughout the nervous system and act on cognitive brain function. Circadian rhythms shape the temporal organization of sleep and wakefulness to achieve human diurnality, characterized by a consolidated bout of sleep during night-time and a continuous period of wakefulness during the day. Of prime importance is that the temporal organization of sleep and wakefulness evolves throughout the adult lifespan, leading to higher sleep-wake fragmentation with ageing. The increasing occurrence of daytime napping is the most visible manifestation of this fragmentation. Contrary to the common belief, napping stands as a health risk factor in seniors in epidemiological data. I posit that chronic napping in older people primarily reflects circadian disruption. Based on my preliminary findings, I predict that this disruption will lead to lower cognitive fitness. I further hypothesise that a re-stabilization of circadian sleep-wake organization through a nap prevention intervention will reduce age-related cognitive decline. Characterizing the link between cognitive ageing and the temporal distribution of sleep and wakefulness will not only bring ground-breaking advances at the scientific level, but is also timely in the ageing society. Cognitive decline, as well as inadequately timed sleep, represent dominant determinants of the health span of our fast ageing population and easy implementable intervention programs are urgently needed.

The negative employment and social developments across Europe since the start of the crisis, coupled with increased fiscal constraints and changing migration patterns, have led to increasing depictions of EU and third-country immigrants as ‘abusers’ of their social protection systems. Member States have accordingly sought reduce migrants’ ability to access social protection benefits, despite the fact that they are disproportionately at risk of poverty and social exclusion. This project looks at the different strategies that migrants have to access social protection within (post) crisis Europe and does so by explicitly integrating social policy and migration studies’ approaches on the phenomenon. More precisely, it aims to study transnational social protection, that we define as migrants’ cross-border strategies to cope with social risks in areas such as health, long-term care, pensions or unemployment that combine entitlements to host and home state-based public welfare policies and market-, family- and community-based practices. This study thus consists in, first, identifying the social protection policies and programs that home countries make accessible to their citizens abroad, and then compiling this information into an online database. We will then aggregate the results of the database into a Transnational Social Protection Index (TSPIx) in order to determine the overall level of engagement of each state with citizens abroad in a comparative way. Second, on the basis of the results of the index, we will select case studies of migrants from two EU and two non-EU countries that vary in their level of engagement in providing social protection to their citizens abroad. We will then undertake multi-sited ethnographic fieldwork to qualitatively assess the informal social protection strategies used by migrants and examine their interaction with formal host and home state social protection provision.

African literatures attest not only to the diversity of mobilities typical of the global era, but also to the fact that Europe continues to occupy a special place in the African literary imaginary. This study analyses the ways in which African Franco- and Anglophone diasporic literatures address the idea(l) of a cosmopolitan world citizenry in varied Afro-European contexts of mobility. In order to do so, the study critically revisits the concept of cosmopolitanism and, by drawing on theory and readings of African fiction, develops a new analytical pattern reflecting the privileged, practical and critical dimensions of the concept. The study’s interdisciplinary theoretical framework consists of postcolonial theory, cosmopolitanism, mobility studies and diaspora studies, and it applies a method of contextual close-reading which is motivated by a transnational impulse. By focusing on Afro-European mobilities, the study contributes to the topical scholarly endeavour of analysing the intertwinement of the two continents in a way that exceeds national boundaries. Studying fictional African cosmopolitanisms enhances our understanding of Europe in a changing global setting in terms of cultural encounters viewed from an Afro-European perspective, providing a literary articulation of the social exclusion that people with African origins often face in their attempt to claim cosmopolitan world citizenry in Europe. Fictive African mobile narratives are informed by such intersecting markers of difference as class, gender, nationality, and race. The study draws attention to how the universalising tendencies of traditional cosmopolitanisms and the elitism of some recently formulated Afropolitanisms are challenged in this setting. By developing and applying an analytical pattern of cosmopolitanisms, the study responds to the urgent call to revisit the slippery concept of cosmopolitanism by exploring its limits and potentials within the African literary context.