Born in 1998, Ohrid Summer University is an academic program for young faculty, PhD candidates, postgraduates, researchers and professionals, which offers intensive, problem oriented and research based courses from the domain of social sciences and humanities. Initiated as a result of the efforts to promote a new, alternative approach in higher education, OSU acts as an educational forum for an open intellectual debate, bringing theoretical investigation and teaching practice, placing together interdisciplinary methodologies and international academic achievements, and providing effective opportunities for educational development of the new generation faculty of different geographical, cultural and ethnic background.
Each year hosting up to 100 participants from the countries of Central, Eastern, Southeastern Europe and NIS, who attend the Summer Schools' program, and engaging the most prominent professors in appropriate disciplines from the Universities around the globe, OSU has established an international academic cooperation, creating a network of continuous and productive collaboration. Encouraging renewal of the current curricula and syllabi, through creative restructuring of the contents, as well as application of innovative teaching methods and techniques, OSU promotes the establishment of efficient academic curriculum, in line with the recognized standards of international university institutions.
During the seven years-long period of its existence, through organization of the Summer Schools' program, OSU has engaged itself in: adequate and effective training of the academic staff, demonstration of successful linkage of state-of-the-art scholarship and effective and innovative teaching, promotion of academic excellence and ability to facilitate creation and sustenance of active networks of academics, as well as collaborative advancement of learning in certain disciplines within the international context.
This year several Summer Schools are with the following titles will be held:
“Interdisciplinary Summer School in Macedonian Cultural Identities” - 19th June to 3th July
In the context of the actual situation and artificially generated issues with the constitutional name of our country, the language, as well as the identity of Macedonian population, it is necessary to think of a seriously conceived and scholarly established inquiry of all the relevant elements related to the expression “Macedonian cultural identity” not as an exclusive feature of the dominant ethnicity in the Republic of Macedonia, rather as a historical category reflecting the cultural existence of Macedonians through the centuries, today reflecting itself in the political and social actuality. The analysis of the binary categories, such are: the Slav ship and the Antique tradition, the national consensus and the multi-ethnical character of the modern state, the deeply rooted orthodox tradition and the respect for the confessional freedom of the population, the national treasury of cultural legacy and the multicultural concept of ethnical cohabitation, created a great deal of confusion at open debates and other subjective forms of discussion and generated negative results reflected in the escalation of the inter-ethnical and inter-religious dialog in the Republic of Macedonia. In that regard, the aim of the School is the professional and scientific analysis of the: historical categories, socio-ethnical and confessional components, language and linguistic forms, cultural traditions and artistic creativity, which should determine and define the components of Macedonian cultural identity as an unity of historical memory, collective awareness and creative potential of the entire population of contemporary Macedonian state.
Eligibility and fees:
Participants must be MA or PhD students from the fields of: history, art history, philosophy, literature, linguistics, cultural studies and cultural anthropology (not older than 36 years of age).
Participants must be a national of one of the countries from Southeastern Europe in order for her/his accommodation costs to be fully covered by the Organizer. The total participation fee will be 150 euro.
Participants from other countries are also eligible to participate, but ineligible for the financial support provided by the organizers. These applicants will have to cover participation fee of 150 euro and accommodation costs.
Number of participants: 15
Working language of the Summer School will be English.
Deadline for submitting the application: April 15th 2011
Deadline for announcing the results of the selection process: May 1st 2011
The full program of the school will be announced: March 1st 2011
Contact persons:
Prof. Elizabeta Sheleva
Director of the Summer School
Ss. Cyril and Methodius University in Skopje
Faculty of Philology
Email: selieva@gmail.com
Ivana Krajcinovik, MA candidate
Coordinator of the Summer School
Institute “Euro-Balkan”
Blvd. Partizanski Odredi 63, 1000, Skopje, Republic of Macedonia
Tel/Fax. + 389 2 30 75 570
Email: ivana_krajcinovik@yahoo.com
”Dialectical interdependencies of theory and practice in feminism:
Exploring the issues of gender, transition, and the Balkans“ - June 19th – June 30th 2011 in Ohrid, Macedonia
“Euro-Balkan” Institute’s Department of Gender Studies within the framework of the Regional Network for Gender and Women’s Studies in Southeastern Europe is announcing the summer school “Dialectical Interdependencies of Theory and Practice in Feminism: Exploring the Issues of Gender, Transition and the Balkans”, to be held 19-30 of June 2011 in Ohrid, Macedonia. The summer school will focus on the question of transition in the Balkans, discourses of Balkanization, and the issues of gender scholarship and activism in the region.
Working language of the summer school will be English.
Eligibility:
- Participants must be MA candidate or PhD student in gender studies or any other field belonging to the social sciences and humanities provided that the issues of gender are one of her/his major research/study topics;
- Participants are expected to be affiliated in any way to one of the institutions members of the Network or can be an individual member of the Network or nationals of the countries represented in the Network (http://www.gendersee.org.mk/conference/index.asp?id=227).
- Affiliates of the cooperating institutions from Switzerland are also eligible.
- Participant must submit an abstract for a presentation in one of the summer school’s workshops or for one of the final presentations sessions (see detailed information below).
- Participants from other countries are also eligible to participate, but ineligible for the financial support provided by the organizers; for these applicants, the fee for participation will be 90 euro.
Number of participants: 20
Process of selection: Selection Committee of five senior scholars, members of the Network and invited teachers of the summer school will be set up; this Committee will evaluate the presentation proposals (the submitted abstracts) and based on the above mentioned criteria of eligibility and on the quality of the applications will choose the participants of this event.
Interested applicants should send short CV, abstract for presentation and the available application form.
The application form can be downloaded here.
Interested applicants should send short CV, abstract for presentation and the available application form.
The application form can be downloaded here.
Deadline for submitting an application: February 28th 2011
Deadline for announcing the results of the selection process: March 10th 2011
Important note: Accommodation and fee costs for the Southeastern European and Swiss nationals will be covered by the organizer; also, certain amounts for the travel expenses will be subsidised by the Organizer.
Contact persons :
Slavco Dimitrov, Project Coordinator
e-mail: slavco.euba@gmail.com, poslediplomski.euba@gmail.com. Applications should be sent to the Project Coordinator to either of these two addresses.
Dr. Katerina Kolozova, Department for Gender Studies and Dean of the Institute
e-mail: kkolozova@euba.edu.mk
Address: No. 63, “Partizanski odredi” Blvd., 1000 Skopje, Republic of Macedonia
Tel/Fax: +389 2 3075 570
Tel/Fax: +389 2 3075 570
www.euba.edu.mk
www.gendersee.org.mk
“Macedonia on the Pages of Arab and Ottoman Travel Writings” - 19th June to 3th July
Travel writing literature is a testimony to the narrative of the history of travel. Recognised as a secondary source, it nevertheless begs some questions on a strictly academic level: on the one hand, to what extent does it provide appropriate, objective and selective historical and historiographic arguments and, on the other hand, to what degree does travel writing constitute a recorded historicised memory about the geographic, ethnographic, cultural and socio-political circumstances as seen through the prism of the travelling missionaries visiting a particular geographic area.
The academic goal of the “Macedonia on the Pages of Arab and Ottoman Travel Writings” Summer School is to address the issue of a critical reading of the history of Macedonia in the context of the Balkans and the Mediterranean by examining such sources as travel writings from the period of Byzanthine and Ottoman rule (XI-XIX c.), written in the Turkish and Arab languages. This inter-historic analytical approach will also foster meaningful academic discussions about some important questions: Whether that which the Arab and Ottoman travel writers communicate about Macedonia is a portrayal of a mythologised reality that aspires to become historiographically attested? To what degree and in what way do these secondary sources contribute to the serious formulation of a historical and cultural picture of Macedonia? What should be the methodological approach to the travel narratives – the narratives about the crossover of religions and cultures in identity formation, the aspects of the colonialist policy, the presence, contacts and influences of other communities in Macedonia (Jews, Vlachs, Turks), as well as their political, secular, religious and cultural reflections in this region – in order for these secondary sources to both receive an adequate treatment and acquire the applicative value that the purposes of the science of history require?
In this regard the School will contribute, on the one hand, to extending the knowledge of Macedonia through the views of Arabic and Ottoman itinerary authors contextualised in given historical and culturological horizon, and, on the other hand, to the analysis of their impact on the forming of cultural-historical image of Macedonia, respectively for the population which has inhabited its spaces.
The discursive critical approach to travel narratives maintains multidisciplinary links with the linguistic, literary, folkloric, religious, socio-economic and legal aspects of their re-reading. On the other hand, such a multidimensional approach to travel writing literature expands this school’s primary filed of interest: it does so from a historical perspective and affirms today’s serious methodological need for the techniques of using travel writings to formulate the cultural and historical picture about and of Macedonia.
Eligibility and fees:
Participants must be MA or PhD students interested in exploring the issues of comparative literature, history, ethnology, history of religions, literary studies, linguistics, cultural studies (not older than 36 years of age).
Participant must be a national of one of the countries from Southeastern Europe in order for her/his accommodation costs to be fully covered by the Organizer. The total participation fee will be 150 euro.
Participants from other countries are also eligible to participate, but ineligible for the financial support provided by the organizers. These applicants will have to cover participation fee of 150 euro and accommodation costs.
Number of participants: 15
Working language of the Summer School will be English.
Deadline for submitting the application: April 15th 2011
Deadline for announcing the results of the selection process: May 1st 2011
The full program of the school will be announced: March 1st 2011
Contact persons:
Doc. Dr. Sofija Grandakovska,
Director of the Summer School
Euro-Balkan Institute
Blvd. Partizanski Odredi 63, 1000, Skopje, Republic of Macedonia
Tel/Fax. + 389 2 30 75 570
Email: sofija.grandakovska@euba.edu.mk; grandakovska@gmail.com
Dragana Karovska Cemerska, MA Candidate
Coordinator of the Summer School
Email: dragana.karovska@gmail.com
More information on Ohrid Summer University 2011: http://www.euba.edu.mk/about-osu.html