Broadcasting the Americas: Academic reflections and Media Practice on Politics and Culture
International Summer School – July 20th to August 1st 2014 at Bielefeld University; organized by the Center for InterAmerican Studies
Scope:
The international Summer School “Broadcasting the Americas: Academic Reflections and Media Practice on Politics and Culture” is a joint project of nine European institutions of higher education (Bern, Bielefeld, Coimbra, Cologne, Cork, Duisburg-Essen, Graz, Ljubljana, Venice), sponsored by the Erasmus Lifelong Learning Program. It is based on an innovative articulation of media practice and academic discussion. Grounded in the educational philosophy of a problem-based learning approach, students are introduced to academic reflections of current conflicts and are asked to express their own opinions in international teams. In a second step, students themselves will act as transmitters of knowledge as they develop a radio-feature during the project based part of the summer school.
Program:
The program of the Summer School is divided into three parts: Workshops, media practice and round table discussions.
A) Participants choose among four interdisciplinary workshops each organized by a team of three scholars from different European universities.
Workshop 1: Ethnicity & Identities
This workshop focuses on recent developments regarding ethnic identity politics in the Americas from the perspective of history, social anthropology and literary studies.
Workshop 2: Caribbean History & Literature
This workshop will address the Greater Caribbean Region as a space of entanglements between North and South America, shaped by a peculiar connection between history and literature.
Workshop 3: Social Movements & Human Rights
This workshop will handle the situation of social movements in the Americas in relation to topics such as megaprojects and human rights.
Workshop 4: Borderland Studies
This workshop will discuss borders in the Americas from a variety of perspectives and
disciplinary angles, from the frontier-discourse of the 19th century up to recent cultural developments in the Mexican-US-American borderlands.
B) Broadcasting the Summer School
A professional journalist and media trainer will teach the basics of science journalism, radio practice and will also guide students’ radio features. Participants will be introduced to
special editing software, interview techniques and how to deal with recording equipment. A field trip will lead to the installations of the Deutschlandfunk in Cologne. Finally, the audio material will be presented and broadcasted at the end of the Summer School.
C) Keynotes & Roundtable Discussions
International experts from various fields of knowledge will be invited as guest lecturers and panelists at round tables to discuss topics related to the situation of (sonic) media in the Americas, political developments and academic approaches to Inter-American Studies from a European vantage point
Application and Fees:
The total fee of 90 € covers course costs, tuition fees, the field trip, several social events and Media Practice. Students from the IP partner universities will have their travel expenses reimbursed and are offered free lodging.
The application deadline is March 15th 2014
For further information see
http://www.uni-bielefeld.de/cias/summerschool/2014/index.html
