Stories of Cultural Conflict and Encounter

This school is designed for (Research) Master and PhD students in Humanities, Social Sciences and/or Philosophy.
It is expected that the participants have a sufficient command of the English language to actively participate in the discussions and to present their own work in English.

The workload is estimated at 40 hours (five days from 9-5 with lectures, workshops, assignments and (paper) presentations).
Participants who attend all sessions and who present a research proposal or paper on Friday will receive a certificate of participation signed by the coordinators of the summer school. Upon request the certificate can mention the workload of 40 hours (28 hours corresponds to 1 ECTS). Students can apply for recognition of these credits to the relevant authorities in their home institutions, therefore the final decision on awarding credits is at the discretion of their home institutions. We will be happy to provide any necessary information that might be requested in addition to the certificate of attendance.

The summer school starts on Sunday 21 August with a city tour and welcoming drinks.

The educational programme starts on Monday 22 August, 9AM, and ends on Friday 26 August, 1.30PM. 

Jesse van Amelsvoort is lecturer in modern European literature at the University of Amsterdam. His research on the social role of literature, gender and postcolonial studies, European studies, and the environmental humanities has been published or is forthcoming in Dutch Crossing, Global Perspectives, parallax, and Tulsa Studies in Women’s Literature. In November 2021, he defended his PhD dissertation entitled A Europe of Connections: Post-National Worlds in Contemporary Minority Literature with the University of Groningen and published Loft en lân. Gesprekken over Tsjêbbe Hettinga (Bornmeer).

Árpád Bak is a doctoral researcher at the School of Geography, University of Leeds. His research interests include Romani studies; racism and racialisation; memory politics and nationalism; heritage contestation; creolisation, hybridity and transculturation. He earned his BA/MA degree in English language and literature at the University of Debrecen, Hungary and a postgraduate diploma at MÚOSZ Bálint György Academy of Journalism, Budapest. Besides a career in journalism and editing, he worked with Budapest-based Romani and anti-discrimination organizations. His scholarly work was published in journals and edited volumes and in 2015, he curated the exhibition “Whose Nation? Reimagined National Identities” at Gallery8 – Roma Contemporary Art Space, Budapest. In 2018 he was a junior visiting research fellow at the Romani Studies Program of Central European University, Budapest.

Petra Broomans is Visiting Professor at Ghent University and Associate Professor emeritus with ius promovendi (University of Groningen). She was awarded an honorary doctorate by Uppsala University (Sweden) in 2020. She is the coordinator of the U4Society network in Cultural Transfer Research and the initiator and coordinator of the Dutch Translators’ Lexicon. She is member of several international associations and treasurer of the Committee of the International Federation for Modern Languages and Literatures (FILLM).

Claus Friede was born in Germany and studied Fine Arts and Romance Studies in the USA and Hamburg. Since 1990, he is the owner of the international operating art agency Claus Friede*Contemporary Arts. At the same time, he started his career as an author and journalist. For the time being and since 2008, he is working as editor-in-chief at KulturPort.De — Follow Arts, a digital portal published in German language. Since 1993, he has taught at universities in Norway, Turkey, Hong Kong, Japan, the Netherlands, and Germany. From 2012 to 2021, he has been teaching as a professor at the Latvian Academy of Culture in Riga/Latvia; since 2021 he is affiliated to the Institute for Culture and Media Management at the University of Music and Theater in Hamburg.

Stella Linn is Assistant Professor of translation studies and literature at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. She has published on a variety of topics such as translation, urban youth language, multicultural youth literature, reception, and literary prizes. Her recent research interests include the production, reception and translation of migration and ‘post-migration’ literature, especially in France and the Netherlands. See also https://www.rug.nl/staff/s.i.linn/ and https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Stella_Linn.

Dagmar Reichardt is Professor of Media Industry and Transcultural Studies at the Latvian Academy of Culture in Riga. In addition, she has been actively involved as a member of various academic associations in a number of countries such as Germany, Italy, the Benelux, and the USA. Since 2013, she volunteers as President of the Swiss fondation Erica Sauter and in 2015 she was the first Italian scholar who followed the literary production written in Italian by Jhumpa Lahiri on an internation level. Further topics that she addresses in her research are talian literature and cinema, Italian fashion, and the history of Italian migration in postmodern times. She has produced numerous publications in the domains of Comparative Literary and Cultural management, as well as Contemporary Romance studies and European Studies. In terms of methodology, she primarily engages in a critical disucssion of transculturalism, sociological and literary power discourses, as well as in comparative studies.

Jeanette den Toonder is Assistant Professor of French and Francophone literatures and cultures at the Department of European Languages and Cultures of the University of Groningen and director of the Centre for Canadian Studies at this university. Her research interests include questions of identity, autobiography, journey and space in the contemporary francophone novel in Canada. She is particularly interested in migrant writing and the female voice and has published in Voix et Images, Francophonies d’Amériques, Revue d’études canadiennes, Canadian literature and Dalhousie French Studies. She is currently working on a research project on Iranian women’s writing in Europe, examining migratory feminism from an intersectional and transnational perspective.

To apply, kindly fill out the online application form. Please note that you will be asked to upload the following documents:

• CV (max 2 pages)
• Letter of motivation (max 1 page)

The deadline for application is 1 June 2022. Students will receive notification of their selection within one week of the deadline.