The Institutum Studiorum Humanitatis – School
of Graduate Studies in the Humanities hosted our project's preparatory
meeting between August 16 – August 22, 2003. Members of the
resource faculty and project staff were in session during the first
four days. On the sixth day, they were joined by the representatives
of the partner institutions. Also attending the sessions were dr.
Dana Howell, the evaluator invited by the HESP to chair an independent
Advisory Committee of the ReSET programme as an independent academic,
and Ms Marianna Jo, the OSI-HESP programme coordinator.
The agenda of the meeting covered:
- The selection of applicants. Out of 29 application received, 18
were accepted by the resource faculty and staff, and confirmed by
the partner organisations' representatives. As there were, after the
selection process, no applications from two eligible countries, it
was decided that four more applications from these countries be invited,
and applications completed by September 15. The applicants selected
at the meeting are to be notified by e-mail and regular mail on September
2, 2003.
- The three-year program and its contents. The themes under study
were elaborated in some detail. As a starting point, several conceptual
pairs that define the social scientific thinking on post-colony
and post-socialism were identified. Based on these, six principal
problem fields that cover both post-colony and post-socialism contexts
were articulated. These problem fields were further supplemented
with an inventory of possible case studies to bring into discussion.
Based on an exhaustive literature list (over 250 volumes) that was
compiled and purchased prior to the meeting, the resource faculty
put together a list of immediately pertinent works, and a basic
reading list that will serve as a starting point for the discussions
within the project group. The three-year plan and its academic context
are to be finalised step by step once the input from participant
colleagues is obtained.
- Year one plan. The plan, and timetable for the first year of
the project, for the period from September 1, 2003 – September
2, 2004 was drafted. Our first, takeoff contact session, is scheduled
for 8 – 12 January, 2004, in Slovenia. Our first-year work
is to be concluded with the first Summer School, scheduled for August
12 – 22, 2003. The host of the first summer session is the
SEE University in Tetovo, Macedonia. Intersession activities will
begin immediately after September 15, 2003, when the group of participant
colleagues is complete.
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- Activities to facilitate contacts among
the project group members were also drawn. In order to get to know
each other and start the exchange, the resource faculty’s “identity
cards” are already published. All participant colleagues will
be asked to send us their photo, basic data on their areas of interest,
and institutional affiliation. All these data will be uploaded into
a similar “identity card” gallery. Additionally, all members
of the project group, resource faculty as well as participant colleagues,
will be asked to fill out a detailed report on their research and
teaching practice, interests and aspirations. To begin the work on
our subject matter, however, all participants will be sent the basic
literature comprised of 12 article-length pieces in all, and annotated
by the resource faculty. We will then hold discussions based on these
pieces by way of preparation for the Ljubljana takeoff meeting in
January. All copyrighted materials will be sent via regular mail.
- Organising the work in intersession time. Our website was furnished
with an on-line forum software appliance to make our mutual discussions
more fluent and easy. Additionally, we will communicate in smaller
groups over e-mail. Some documents, notably reading lists, meetings
minutes, detailed workplans, and lengthier pieces of our written
exchange and feedback will be accessible to the group members only
on a password protected page of this site.
- Last but not least, the participants of the Ljubljana meeting
enjoyed a day in the coastal region of Slovenia – see the
excursion photoreport.
See also:
>> Year One Plan
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