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 The Ljubljana Preparatory Meeting   August 16 - August 22, 2003
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.

  - 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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