The Digital Scholar: How Technology Is Transforming Scholarly Practice < Open Access Book

While industries such as music, newspapers, film and publishing have seen radical changes in their business models and practices as a direct result of new technologies, higher education has so far resisted the wholesale changes we have seen elsewhere. However, a gradual and fundamental shift in the practice of academics is taking place. Every aspect of scholarly practice is seeing changes effected by the adoption and possibilities of new technologies. This book will explore these changes, their implications for higher education, the possibilities for new forms of scholarly practice and what lessons can be drawn from other sectors.


Table of Contents

Acknowledgements
Digital, Networked and Open
Is the Revolution Justified?
Lessons from Other Sectors
The Nature of Scholarship
Researchers and New Technology
Interdisciplinarity and Permeable Boundaries
Public Engagement as Collateral Damage
A Pedagogy of Abundance
Openness in Education
Network Weather
Reward and Tenure
Publishing
The Medals of Our Defeats
Digital Resilience
References

Martin Weller / September 2011 / 256 pp. / http://dx.doi.org/10.5040/9781849666275

Available At 

[http://bit.ly/pvz7pz]

Conference: International Balkan Symposium - Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow and the Change, Süleyman Şah University, Istanbul, 24-26 September 2012‏

International Balkan Symposium: Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow and the Change, Süleyman Şah University, Istanbul, 24-26 September 2012

http://www.ssu.edu.tr/ibs/index.php?callforpaper



General Frame of the Symposium
Name of the Symposium: I. International Balkan Symposium
Topic: Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow and the Change
Date of the Symposium: 24th-26th September 2012
Place: Süleyman Şah University, İstanbul, Turkey.

Important Dates
Deadline for the summary: 30th May 2012
Abstract acceptance notification: 15th June 2012
Deadline for the full paper: 27th August 2012

Areas (Topics should be related to the Balkan societies)
I. Humanities and Social Sciences:
Literature, Sociology, Folklore, History, Philosophy, Religion, Anthropology, Language, Psychology, Cultural Geography.

II. Management and Administrative Sciences:
Management, Economics, Politics, International Relations, Logistics, Finance, Public Administration, Media.

III. Educational Sciences: Psychological Counseling and Guidance, Education of Language, Education of Religion, Non-formal Education, Formal Education.

Language:
English, Turkish (in addition to the fact that paper is only accepted in English and Turkish, presenter can present his/her paper in his/her language on the condition that presenter provides his/her own translator.) Publishing of the Symposium Proceedings:
Symposium proceedings to be published will be submitted to the participants in the form of CD with ISSN

Master: MIREES of the University of Bologna‏

Master's degree in Interdisciplinary research and studies on Eastern Europe (MIREES) jointly offered by the University of Bologna (Faculty of Political Science "Roberto Ruffilli") together with Vytautas Magnus University at Kaunas, Corvinus University of Budapest, Saint Petersburg State University, and the cooperation of the University of Ljubljana, I would like to remind you that the next deadline to apply is May 21st, 2012.

The programme is especially recommended for prospective PhD students. Our best alumni are currently attending doctorate programmes at the Universities of Oxford, Kent, the New School in New York and other prestigious international academic institutions. Moreover, the programme is designed to forge analysts, area experts, consultants and mediators, to meet the needs of research institutes, the European Commission, international agencies, voluntary organizations and NGO's, public administration, managers, corporations and banks located in East-Central Europe and the Balkans or promoting investments in these regions. Most of our alumni have found employment precisely in these fields.

The MIREES programme offers specialized, in-depth knowledge of the post-socialist countries in transition, the new EU member states, and the new East-European neighbour countries to students with a BA in Economics, Politics, International Relations, History, Languages (and Slavic languages in particular), agricultural studies and cultural studies generally.

The programme aims at developing language skills. MIREES offers courses in Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian, Bulgarian, Russian, Slovak, Lithuanian (Hungarian is also available in the 2nd year), as well as Italian for foreigners as an additional option. The curriculum is focused on Central, Eastern Europe and the Balkans and includes interdisciplinary studies in economics; history, media and international relations; politics and sociology. The international dimension of the programme is enhanced through student mobility abroad, through courses offered by an international faculty composed of prominent scholars of international repute, and by a genuinely international student body. In the previous cycles we enrolled students from 31 countries including China, USA, Mexico, Russia, Georgia, Estonia, Macedonia, Croatia, Bulgaria, Hungary, Serbia, Germany, United Kingdom, Turkey, Albania, Poland, Armenia, Norway, Slovenia, Ukraine, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Azerbaijan, Slovakia, Finland, Ireland, Lithuania, Belarus, Moldova, Romania, Austria and, of course, Italy.

Therefore, I would be extremely grateful if you could encourage your BA students to consider applying to our two-year Master programme and, at the same time, if you could forward this message to your colleagues interested in this part of the world.

Should you need further information, please feel free to contact the Tutor of the course at leonas.tolvaisis@unibo.it

Master: Interdisciplinary Joint Master's Programme in South-Eastern European Studies, University of Belgrade [DL: 31 May 2012]‏

Call for Applications: Interdisciplinary Joint Master’s Programme in South-Eastern European Studies – University of Belgrade

Deadline 31 May 2012
University of Belgrade – Faculty of Political Sciences (FPS) is pleased to announce the call for applications for the Interdisciplinary Joint Master’s Programme in South-Eastern European Studies.
This two year MA programme is conducted as a joint degree between four partner universities (Graz, Belgrade, Skopje and Zagreb) and commences in Belgrade in October 2012.
Students enroll in and spend the first year at the University of Belgrade – Faculty of Political Sciences. In the second year, students spend at least one semester on mobility at a partner university. Partner universities include Graz, Skopje, Zagreb, Bologna, Ljubljana, Novi Sad, Poitiers, Sarajevo and Tetovo.

Why Southeast European Studies in Belgrade?
First of all, you will be studying South Eastern Europe in its very centre. In this way, you will be able not only to better understand your chosen field of interest, but also to learn one or more languages of the region.

Secondly, you will profit learning from a group of outstanding FPS and foreign professors, with excellent academic records and long-time expertise in South-Eastern Europe.

Last, but not least, as part of an academic community with strong international character, you’ll enjoy the exciting social life in Belgrade, too.


Content of the Programme
The Interdisciplinary Joint Master in South-Eastern European Studies is an international and interdisciplinary programme in social sciences and humanities of the highest quality which enables participants to effectively understand the interrelationship between law, politics, economics and culture with an emphasis on South-Eastern Europe. The programme prepares students for doctoral studies and professional life in a variety of other fields including work in international, local governmental and non-governmental organisations, journalism, business, scientific research, and consultancy.
In the first year , students take core courses which include an introduction to multidisciplinary approaches in the study of South-East Europe, public law, political science, history, economics and cultural studies. In the summer after the first year a joint summer school is held for all students from the participating universities to complete the compulsory core modules. In the second year, students attend one of the partner universities and specialize in their desired field. There are also optional provisions in place to offer students professional trainings and internship positions.
In the final semester students write a master thesis reflecting their capacity to work on a scientific subject independently.
All compulsory subjects are conducted in English though students are able to take classes in other languages. Language acquisition is an important key aspect of the joint degree and students are expected to learn a regional language and/or the predominant language of their mobility institution.

Teaching staff
We proud ourselves for being able to gather an international team of teachers from the leading universities and research institutes in Serbia, Austria, Great Britain and the US. For further details on lecturers and compulsory courses they teach during the first two semesters, please, see: link prema CIVI

You will be able to expand your choices even more, by opting to spend the third - mobility – semester at one of nine partner universities in eight European countries, where you will specialize in one of many fields.


Academic Degree
Students completing the Interdisciplinary Joint Master’s Programme in South-Eastern European Studies earn the degree “Master of Arts”, abbreviated MA. The joint degree is awarded by all four partners (pending accreditation at some partners).

Admission
The Interdisciplinary Joint Master’s Programme in South-Eastern European Studies welcomes applicants who hold an academic degree of at least 180 ECTS credits (bachelor’s degree or equivalent) who can demonstrate their basic knowledge of social sciences or humanities -- law, political, social, cultural or economic sciences -- and who have some general insight and interest in South-Eastern Europe.
The full application should consist of

· completed application form (link ka Application Form)

· at least one letter of recommendation (preferably from a university professor or employer)

· certificate/diploma obtained at the undergraduate level (certified translation into Serbian shall be required additionally)

· transcript of records obtained at the undergraduate level (certified translation into Serbian shall be required additionally)

· letter of motivation

· proof of proficiency in English language: IELTS (required minimum score: 6.0), a TOEFL (required minimum score: 210 on the computerised test, 547 on the paper based test, 78 on the internet based test), a Cambridge Exam (required level: FCE) or an equivalent certificate. Students who have completed their BA in English are not required to provide this proof of proficiency but may be interviewed.

Please send the application form with all supporting documents to the University of Belgrade by registered mail (see address below) and send a scan of the entire application as a single pdf email attachment to gordana.ristic@fpn.bg.ac.rs
Postal applications should be directed to:

Gordana Ristic
University of Belgrade – Faculty of Political Sciences
Jove Ilica 165
11000 Belgrade
Serbia

For enquiries about the admission procedure and tuition fees at the University of Belgrade please contact gordana.ristic@fpn.bg.ac.rs and see http://www.seestudies.eu/node/38



Tuition fees

3,400 EUR in Serbian dinars, including all costs of a four-semester studying and the two week compulsory Summer School – payable in eight installments – for citizens of Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia and Turkey.

4,500 EUR in Serbian dinars, including all costs of a four-semester studying and the two week compulsory Summer School – payable in eight installments – for citizens of all other countries. Please note that the University of Belgrade is not in a position to provide financial support

The deadline for applications is 31st of May 2012 (date of receipt of email/postmark)

PressForward > Scholarship and Publication, The Web Way

Bringing together the best scholarship from across the web, producing vital, open publications scholarly communities can gather around.

The Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media at George Mason University created PressForward to explore and produce the best means for collecting, screening, and drawing attention to the vast expanse of scholarship that is currently decentralized across the web or does not fit into traditional genres such as the journal article or the monograph.

The web beyond academia has had to develop mechanisms for filtering for quantity, on sites such as Techmeme and The Browser; the academy has honed a set of methods of filtering for quality, through peer review. PressForward aims to marry these old and new methods to expose and disseminate the very best in online scholarship.

PressForward will pioneer new methods for capturing and highlighting presently orphaned or underappreciated scholarship—including “gray literature” such as conference papers, white papers, reports, scholarly blogs, and digital projects—in ways that are useful to scholarly communities. Through a structured study of existing methods and by modeling a new kind of active publication, PressForward will collect data to provide the project and other organizations improved knowledge about open-web scholarly curation. Meanwhile, PressForward will release an open-source platform for scholarly communities and organizations to create their own trusted, high-value streams of relevant content. All data and code produced by PressForward will be freely available on this site.


Source 

[http://pressforward.org/]

Synthesizing New Forms of Scholarly Communication

Keynote Speaker: Dan Cohen, Associate Professor, Department of History and Art History and Director, Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media at George Mason University

Scholarship and scholarly discussion is increasing occurring outside of the normal channels of scholarly communication, and in new shapes and sizes. Moreover, through social media scholars are able to more rapidly disseminate their work and engage their colleagues and a broader audience. Yet much of this scholarship languishes in these more informal venues. Might it be possible to aggregate, curate, and highlight this content, currently in circulation on blogs and personal, institutional, and conference websites? The PressForward project is exploring methods for filtering and building audiences for this new scholarship that may not fit into the form of an article or monograph. For instance, Digital Humanities Now, one of the PressForward publications, highlights work that has come to the attention of the digital humanities community through distribution via social media and open peer review. Dan Cohen will elaborate on the nature of this new "grey literature," its circulation, and the possible platforms for organizing and distributing it to scholarly communities.

Source

[http://bit.ly/IicEEe]

The Future of Peer Review

This guest post was written by Richard Price, founder and CEO of Academia.edu — a site that serves as a platform for academics to share their research papers and to interact with each other



Instant distribution

Many academics are excited about the future of instant distribution of research. Right now the time lag between finishing a paper, and the relevant worldwide research community seeing it, is between 6 months and 2 years. [snip].

Many platforms are springing up which enable research distribution to be instant, ,,, . [snip]. Some of the strong platforms are Academia.edu, arXiv, Mendeley, ResearchGate and SSRN.

What about peer review?

One question many academics have is: in a future where research is distributed instantly, what happens to peer review? [snip].

Content discovery on the web

Instant distribution is a characteristic of web content, and the web has thrived without a system of formal peer review in place. [snip].

The web has thrived because powerful discovery systems have sprung up that separate the wheat from the chaff for users. The main two systems that people use to discover content on the web are:

• Search engines (Google, Bing)
• Social platforms (mainly sites like Facebook and Twitter, but also generic communication platforms like email, IM etc)

Both search engines and social platforms are peer review systems in different ways. One can think of these two systems as “Crowd Review” and “Social Review” respectively:

• Crowd Review: Google’s PageRank algorithm looks at the link structure of the entire web, and extracts a number (PageRank) that represents how positively the web thinks about a particular website.
• Social Review: Twitter and Facebook show you links that have been shared explicitly by your friends, and people you follow.

One can think of the peer review system in the journal industry as “two person review”:

• Two Person review: Two people are selected to review the paper on behalf of the entire possible audience for that paper.

 The drawbacks of the Two Person review process are that it is:

• expensive [snip].
• slow: [snip].
• of questionable quality [snip].
• unchanging [snip].
• a lot of work for the reviewers: [snip].

More and more, academics are discovering research papers nowadays via the web, and in particular, via search engines and social platforms:

• Search engines: Google, Google Scholar, Pubmed
• Social platforms: Academia.edu, arXiv, Mendeley, ResearchGate, blogs, conversations with colleagues over email or IM, Facebook and Twitter.

As research distribution has moved to the web mostly, so the discovery engines for research content are the same as those for general web content. The peer review mechanism is evolving from The Two Person review process to the Crowd Review process, and the Social Review process.

But has the research been done to a high standard?

People often say that the formal peer review process helps ensure that all the accessible research is above a certain minimum quality. [snip].

The experience of the web is that this fear is over-blown. There is no quality floor for content on the web. There is bad content on the web, and there is great content. The job of search engines and social platforms is to ensure that the content that you discover, either via Google or Facebook, is of the good kind. [snip]

Discovery and credit systems are powered by the same metrics

Peer review in the journal industry has historically played another interesting role, other than powering research discovery. [snip]..

The peer review system has historically played this dual role, in powering both the discovery system and the credit system, because ultimately research discovery and research credit are about the same issue: which is the good research? [snip].

One new metric of academic credit that has emerged over the last few years is the citation count. Google Scholar makes citation counts public for papers, and so now everyone can see them easily. Citations between papers are like links between websites, and citation counts are an instance of the Crowd Review process.

Legend has it that Larry Page came up with the idea of PageRank after reflecting on the analogy between citations and links. Citation counts nowadays play the dual role of driving discovery on Google Scholar, as they determine the ordering of the search results, and help to determine academic credit.

Academic credit from social platforms

In the case of social platforms, the metric that drives discovery is how much interaction there is with your content on the social platform in question. Examples of such interaction include:

• numbers of followers you have
• the number of times your content is shared, liked, commented on, viewed.

These metrics show how much interest there is in your papers, and how widely they are read right now, and thus provide a sense of their level of impact.

One drawback of citation counts as a metric of academic credit is that they are a lagging indicator, in that they take a while to build up. [snip]..

The advantage of the kinds of metrics that social platforms like Academia.edu, Mendeley, and SSRN provide is that they are real time, and they fill this credit gap. Academics are increasingly including these real time metrics in their applications for jobs and for grants. [snip].

[snip]

Instant Distribution and Peer Review

The prospect of instant distribution of research is tremendously exciting. If you can tap the global brain of your research community in effectively close to real time, as opposed to waiting 6 months to 24 months to distribute your ideas, there could be a wonderful acceleration in the rate of idea generation.

[snip]

The web is also an incredible place for new ideas to be invented and to take hold. No doubt new peer review mechanisms will emerge in the future that will advance beyond Crowd Review and Social Review.

Source and Fulltext Available At 

[http://techcrunch.com/2012/02/05/the-future-of-peer-review/]

Conference: European Youth Forum PiloramaLAB, Perm, Russia, 25-28 July 2012‏

Starting from April 9, 2012, applications for the participation in the European Youth Forum “Pilorama Lab“ will be accepted, which is going to take place from July 25-28, 2012 in the City of Perm and on the territory of the Memorial Centre of the History of Political Repressions “Perm 36“ (www.perm36.ru).

The major distinctions of the “Pilorama Lab“ are, first of all, three factors – invitation of young professionals at the age from 25 to 35 years old, who obtained positive working experiences in the fields of socioeconomic, political, cultural questions and in the realm of civic education and initiatives; carrying-out of interdisciplinary master classes and discussions, as long as many problems in the globalizing world can’t be solved by using knowledge and tools of one branch only; European dimension (equal attendance of participants and experts from Russia and European states in the event – 40 participants as well as 8 experts from each party accordingly). The themes of the anticipating master classes within the EYF “Pilorama Lab“ will be “Urban Space. Ecology. Civic Participation“, “Ethnic Minorities. Access to Natural Resources. Human Rights“, “Historical Legacy. Political Education. Design“ as well as “Social Entrepreneurship. Businesses and NGOs“.

An additional synergetic effect of the Forum will be corresponded by its carrying-out in Perm, the Eastern-most city of Europe situated on the foothills of the Ural Mountains and called the civil capital of Russia, as well as on the territory of the Memorial Centre of the History of Political Repressions “Perm 36“ – the only museum from the GULAG times, located 90 km from Perm, which had been serving as a camp for political prisoners from 1946 until 1987. Since 2005, the International Civil Forum “Pilorama“ (http://pilorama.perm36.ru) has been held here, which attracts politicians, human rights activists, journalists, artists, actors, musicians, and the general public and which will take place from July 27th-29th this year.

Application form and detailed information on the event will be available at the website of the European Youth Forum “Pilorama Lab“: www.piloramalab.org. Applications should be submitted before May 15, 2012.

Co-organizers of the Forum are ANO “Civic Engagement Institute“ (Perm. Russia), Memorial Centre of the History of Political Repressions “Perm 36“, MitOst Association (Germany), Association “German-Russian Exchange“ (Germany-Russia) supported by the Civil Society Forum “Russia-EU“, the Ministry of Culture, Youth Policy, and Mass Communications of the Perm Region as well as Ombudsman for Human Rights in the Perm Region.

Summer School: Comparative Conflict Studies, Faculty of Media, Belgrade, 9-16 July 2012‏

The Center for Comparative Conflict Studies (CFCCS) at the Faculty of Media
and Communications (FMK), Singidunum University invites you to apply for
the third *Summer School in Comparative Conflict Studies*. The 2012 Summer

School will take place at the Faculty of Media and Communications in
Belgrade, from July 9-16, 2012.


We are now receiving applications for the following three courses to choose
from:

*International Intervention in a Globalised World*

Dr. Maxine David (University of Surrey, UK)

*The Role of Social Memory Studies in Conflict Analysis and Transformation*

 Dr. Orli Fridman  (FMK & SIT study Abroad, Serbia)

*From the discourse of brotherhood and unity to the discourses of EU
integration: the case of "transition" in Serbia*

Dr. Jelisaveta Blagojević (FMK, Serbia)

*Language instruction in all courses is English.*

We invite undergraduate, graduate students, NGO leaders and activists from
all countries to apply.

Reduced tuition is available for applicants from Bosnia-Herzegovina,
Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, and Serbia. This reduced tuition is
also available for students from other conflict or post-conflict regions.


Travel and accommodation scholarships may be available for participants
from Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, and
Serbia.

*Deadline to submit applications: May 11, 2012*

Application form and cost information are available on our website and
Facebook page.


FOR MORE DETAILS please visit www.cfccs.org

Conference: Middle East Technical University Balkan Conference, Ankara, 23-24 May 2012‏

The Centenary of the Balkan Wars (1912-1913):

Contested Stances

Middle East Technical University

Department of International Relations, Ankara-Turkey

23-24 May 2013



The Centenary of the Balkan Wars (1912-1913): Contested Stances



For details http://www.ir.metu.edu.tr/v2/metu-balkan-conferences.html



Conference Topic Description

As its centenary will take place in 2012-13, the Balkan Wars of 1912-13 is very important for world history and international relations, owing to its results at the beginning of the 20th century and its effects transmitted to the beginning of the 21st century. Not surprisingly, it is still a controversial issue.



Aims of the Conference



The Balkan Wars of 1912-13 have created significant migration, population and land distribution problems and have contributed to the formation of conflicting stances, even prevailing in the region today. The primary objective of the conference is to foster an academic debate on the Balkan Wars of 1912-13, shedding light on the connection between these factors with the conflicting attitudes in the region. An important number of publications and records on the subject in question suggest that the conflicting stances are mainly due to local causes. Given the fact that the most important deficiency here is the lack of proper linkage to the structural causes of the Balkan Wars that stem from the nature of the international system, the second objective of the conference is, thus, to explore the systemic, regional and national dynamics and their connections in the creation and reproduction of contested stances. The third objective of the conference is to enhance cooperation among scholars from the Balkan region and the world. Finally, it is hoped that the debate at the conference may contribute to increase in the level of analytical knowledge in the formation of regional and international actors policies towards the region.



Themes of the conference are as follows:



-National historiographies on the Balkan Wars of 1912-13

-Inward and outward migrations

-Diplomacy, formation of alliances, power distribution

-War and peace strategies

-Competitive nationalisms, irredentist claims

-Reports of NGOs on the Balkan Wars, press coverage of the Balkan Wars

-International law and the Balkan Wars

-International politics and foreign policy

-The international order at the beginning of the 20th century

-Systemic, regional and national dynamics

-Theoretical debates on the Balkan Wars

-Photographs of the Balkan Wars

-Other important aspects of the Balkan Wars

Scholarship: Google Scholarships for Master of Journalism at the University of Hong Kong Location: in HongKong DL: 31 May 2012

Google will fund two full-tuition scholarships for Master of Journalism candidates with solid computer technology backgrounds.

The scholarships will provide support for the field of data journalism, one of the new areas of focus at the JMSC.

The scholarships, for the 2012-13 academic year, are designed to teach journalism to computer scientists and specialists in related disciplines who are interested in pursuing a media-related career.

The emphasis is on developing digital journalism tools for news gathering, storytelling, data analysis and data visualisation.

“As technology develops at break-neck speed, the industry needs developers and programmers who are knowledgeable about journalism,” said Professor Ying Chan, Director of the JMSC.

“We need them to help develop new ways of telling stories, analyze massive amounts of data and develop web and mobile applications for news delivery.”

As part of the programme, successful candidates will participate in JMSC data journalism research projects.

The scholarships will cover full tuition for the 2012-13 academic year, and will be awarded on the basis of academic merit or outstanding experience.

“We are grateful for the support from Google, which helps the JMSC advance the frontiers of journalism education,” Chan said.

How to Apply

Applicants should have at least a bachelor’s degree in computer science, information science, information engineering or a related discipline, and must demonstrate competency in computational problem solving, computer programming and database management.

Applicants with knowledge of data mining, data visualisation and digital storytelling will have a definite advantage. Those with innovative ideas or entrepreneurial talents are particularly encouraged to apply.

Scholarship holders will study the core and elective courses offered by the JMSC and may also take elective courses offered by the Faculty of Engineering’s Electronic Commerce and Internet Computing Programme.

The application deadline is May 31, 2012.

For further information, visit http://jmsc.hku.hk/mjadmissions.

To apply for a scholarship, please contact Jason Hui at 2219-4113 or e-mail jmscmj@hku.hk.

Internships: European Centre for Minority Issues is offering internship Location: in Flensburg in Germany DL: 30 June 2012

The ECMI’s Internship Programme has operated since the establishment of the Centre. We consider it a very important part of our mission to offer young scholars an opportunity to experience the real world of international research and project work. Internship positions are considered part of our educational work, and we strive to make sure that participants have an opportunity to expand their academic knowledge as well as to fine-tune their practical skills.

The ECMI is an international institution. We work closely with the Council of Europe, the OSCE and the High Commissioner on National Minorities as well as with the European Commission and national governments throughout Europe. Our working language is English. In addition to research and project work, we also run an extensive publication programme, trainings and a summer school. Interns will be able to participate in all aspects of our work.

The Centre also co-operates directly with a number of research institutions around Europe as well as with the two universities in the region, Flensburg University and the University of Southern Denmark. Interns will have an opportunity to visit these universities and use some of their facilities. For more on our co-operation partners, click here.

The Programme recruits four times a year from an application roster solicited publicly as well as through special announcements for specific projects made by Heads of Clusters on the ECMI website.

The ECMI regional offices are included in the Programme.

Participants are invited to specify in their application which Research Cluster or Regional Office they wish to be considered for.



Internship periods

January to March
Deadline for application: 30 September
Notification: before 30 October

April to June
Deadline for application: 31 December
Notification: before 31 January

July to September
Deadline for application: 31 March
Notification: before 30 April

October to December
Deadline for application: 30 June
Notification: before 31 July

It is possible to negotiate other time slots upon request, especially to accomodate the different university terms in Europe and overseas. Please specify this in your application.

The Positions

As an ECMI intern, you will participate in the research and administration of the ongoing ECMI projects, under the direction of the responsible Head of Cluster or relevant ECMI researcher. Interns particiate in all the activities of the Centre, and an excursion to visit the minority institutions in the region is offered once during eah internship period.

You will also have the opportunity to work on your own research in agreement with your superisor and under his or her guidance. A work plan setting out goals and objectives as well as specific tasks is usually drafted at the beginning of the internship.

Intern positions are normally full-time, but part-time is also possible in agreement with your supervisor.

The internship positions are unpaid and the ECMI is not able to cover travel expenses.

There is a possibility to remunerate some interns through the Flensburg Stadt Fellowship. This provides accommodation in an apartment supplied by the Flensburg Town Hall for interns of lesser means. The selection of Flensburg Stadt Fellows is done on a case-by-case basis and only after successful application process has taken place. For more on the Flensburg Stadt Fellowships, click here.

How to apply

Application BY ELECTRONIC MAIL ONLY; no phone calls please. A letter of application with the reference "Internship programme", accompanied by a curriculum vitae, the names, contact details (including e-mail addresses) of three references, and an unedited writing sample in English (an extract of maximum 5 pages from a research paper not edited by someone else), should be sent to: Maj-Britt Risbjerg Hansen

Please specify when you would be available and the area you are interested in. Incomplete applications are not taken into consideration.

You will be contacted after an initial review and asked to provide academic/professional references in case you have been shortlisted.

Workshop: Bringing class back in: The dynamics of social change in (post) Yugoslavia, Zagreb, December 2012‏

Bringing class back in: The dynamics of social change in (post) Yugoslavia

Centre for Southeast European Studies, University of Graz and the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, Zagreb



Zagreb, 7-8 December 2012



***please note the change of venue! The workshop has moved to Zagreb with the support of the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung***





The Centre for Southeast European Studies, University of Graz and the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, Zagreb, invites submissions for a two day workshop to be held in Zagreb on the 7th and 8th of December 2012. The goal of the workshop is to collect contributions which flesh out the notion of social class in socialist Yugoslavia, during the state’s dissolution and in its contemporary successor states. We invite draft abstract submissions for eventual papers/chapters. An edited volume on this theme is foreseen for 2013.

Social class is understood in its broadest sense as a set of contested concepts centred on models of social stratification in which people are grouped according to social categories defined in terms of material wealth, occupation, genealogy etc… This workshop seeks to assess the validity of class concepts in the study of Yugoslavia and the state’s demise. Our starting point for this workshop is the paradox that although class conflict had been eliminated according to state ideology, stratification was deeply ingrained in the social fabric of the state and has not been sufficiently tackled in the academic literature. Social divisions in Yugoslav and post-Yugoslav societies have primarily been conceived of in terms of nationalism and ethnicity, rural/urban cleavages, political orientation and notions of culture (kultura/nekultura).

We invite proposals from scholars of social sciences/interdisciplinary backgrounds. While the primary focus is on the latter years of Yugoslavia (1970s and 1980s), the state’s dissolution and the contemporary Yugoslav successor states (1990s-2000s), we are open to complimentary themes (e.g. non-Yugoslav states, other time periods) and comparative approaches (comparing Yugoslavia with other countries or comparing components of Yugoslavia with each other) providing it fits into the workshop’s aim which is to assess the utility of social class in the Yugoslav and post Yugoslav contexts.

All proposals should consider the particular empirical, methodological and/or theoretical contributions that a focus on social class can bring to the study of Yugoslavia and its dissolution.

Some other questions and themes to be addressed at the workshop include (but are not limited to):

· Is there an autochthonous Yugoslav understanding of class? Can a model based on Western European societies be productive in (post) Yugoslav contexts?

· How does the officially sanctioned understanding of class diverge from lived experience, self-perceptions, in the realm of the everyday?

· How can one differentiate class from concepts like culture (kultura/nekultura), social capital, cosmopolitanism, in the Yugoslav context? Is class/social stratification conceptually useful?

· How can one account for the dynamism of class relations overtime – transformation and/or continuity? (In particular, the creation of new social categories during the growth of consumerism in the 1980s and the nascent free market and economic collapse/sanctions of the 1990s?)

· Class and everyday life – how did the experience of Yugoslavia differ according to social stratification? Was there a Yugoslav “underclass”?

· Does class bear any relation to processes such as state dissolution, war, and democratisation? How do such processes impact upon class relations, perceptions, animosities, solidarity?

· Class and ethnicity – ethnicised social stratification?

· (How) do notions of rural/urban differentiation translate to class?

· Class and migration – how have class differences influenced migration patterns such as the gastarbajter phenomenon?

· Detailed, theoretically informed case study contributions



Please send abstracts (max. 500 words) to Rory Archer rory.archer@uni-graz.at by the 1st of May 2012 along with a short CV/list of publications. Accepted participants will be notified by the 31st of May 31st and draft papers of 6,000-8,000 words need to be submitted by the 15th of October 2012.

Accommodation and board as well as transport to and from Zagreb will be covered for participants conditional on the submission of the draft paper by the mid-October deadline.

Conference: Identity, Identities and New Media, Conference of Postgraduate Studies, Euro-Balkan, Skopje, 19-20 May 2012‏

INSTITUTE FOR SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES RESEARCH

"EURO-BALKAN"

(SKOPJE, MACEDONIA)



OPEN CALL FOR



THE FIRST CONFERENCE OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIES IN SOCIAL

SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES



IDENTITY, IDENTITITES AND NEW MEDIA



TO BE HELD ON 19-20 MAY 2012 IN SKOPJE





The time of the XXI century imposes the testimony of the expansion of universal interconnectedness of audio, visual and electronic texts and communications. The intersection of computers, social sciences and humanities as well as visual and performative arts discloses the relationship between technical innovation and diverse cultural expressions and forms. Thus, digital networks establish themselves as space destination for the message that is about the democratization of the idea, its distribution and the way that it is consumed.


Hence, the issues raised by this academic event are related to researching the relations between new media and identity today. In what way can we identify the cultural identity as a coherent entity within the various petitions and localization of gender, nationality, race, language, sexuality, religious discourse, political, ideological and historical context? On the other hand - the era of digital media when the importance of geographical distance is being lost, when the level of communication takes place with the speed of light, when democratization and universalization become the virtual geographic world - how in such conditions and circumstances can we talk about preservation of cultural identity and how could it be the driving force in a society and how cosmopolitan dimensions of new media enable cultural identity to be a citizen of the world?


The aim of the conference “Identity, Identities and the New Media” is to open an academic discussion of postgraduate, master's, doctoral students and all scholars dealing with critical thought in the country and the region. Registration and fee (30 eur) for the Conference is mandatory. The deadline for registration is May 1 st 2011.



Please send your Curriculum Vitae

and an abstract (300 words)to: jordan@euba.edu.mk

Conference: Economic Development and Political Transition in Kosovo, Pristina, 7-8 September 2012‏

The American University in Kosovo (AUK) and Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) – AUK’s academic partner – are organizing an international conference on “Economic Development and Political Transition in Kosovo” on Friday 7 – Saturday 8 September 2012 at the AUK Campus in Pristina, Kosovo.

The aim is to further develop an international research network of scholars working on the political economy of Kosovo’s development and to transcend the focus on post-conflict transformation that has characterized the recent literature on Kosovo. Furthermore, the Conference aims to promote professional and scholarly cooperation between international academic circles, on the one hand, and Kosovar researchers and policy-makers, on the other.

Call for Papers:

We aim to attract contributions from scholars based at international and regional universities or affiliated with other research or policy institutions. 20 papers will be selected from a pool of open submissions based on peer review.

The Conference aims at including contributions from economists and political scientists interested in the institutional determinants of economic development and political change in Kosovo. Papers are solicited on (but will not be limited to) the topics listed below. While papers may adopt a comparative perspective, the core focus should be on Kosovo.

1.      General topics - Kosovo’s political and economic development in comparative and regional perspective:

-Kosovo’s economic policy, how it affects development outcomes and how it is influenced by domestic constituencies and the donor/international community

- Economic development of post-independence Kosovo in regional/global political economy perspective

- Comparative growth and development experiences in the Yugoslav successor state

- Kosovo’s sovereignty dispute in political economy perspective

- Economic, political and material history of Kosovo and Yugoslavia

- Impact of euro-crisis on the monetary system in Kosovo

- Kosovo’s integration in regional, international and European institutional structures (UN, EU, NATO, etc.) and its implications for economic and political change

- Forms of local resistance to economic and political reform in Kosovo

2. Sectoral debates:

- Regional trade integration in the Western Balkans; Kosovo’s trade policy and CEFTA; Kosovo’s accession to the WTO; trade disputes and emerging forms of economic nationalism

- Investment policy, industrial policy and industrial development in Kosovo; procurement and concessioning rules in Kosovo

- SME development and business environment in political economy perspective

- Mining and natural resources development in Kosovo and its impact on growth and the environment

- Energy-sector governance and carbon policy in a transition economy; regional integration through energy trade

- The political economy of privatization and infrastructure development

- Rural development, agricultural growth and agrarian change

- Environmental challenges to sustainable development

- Financial and banking system in Kosovo

- Parallel structures in northern Kosovo and the their impact on economic development, rule of law and state-building

- Party and electoral politics in Kosovo in political economy perspective, including issues of party-funding

- The democratization/development nexus in Kosovo

- Aid and donor coordination in Kosovo

- Labor relations and informal economy in Kosovo

- Migration and remittances and their impact on socio-economic development

- Decentralization and institutional reform in Kosovo

- Issues of post-socialist transition in Kosovo

- The political economy of peace-building

- Health-care, education reform, welfare state and social policy in Kosovo

Publications:

We have secured preliminary expressions of interest from South East European and Black Sea Studies and the Journal of Balkan and Near Eastern Studies for the publication of a selection of the conference’s papers as a thematic special issue. After the Conference, paper-presenters are given time to revise and resubmit their papers before the conference proceedings are passed on to the journals’ editors for review. By participating in the Conference, paper-presenters agree to having their papers considered for publication in the above journals. Possibilities for a guest-editor position might also be explored.

The papers will also be translated into Albanian and Serbian, to facilitate dissemination into local (non-English-speaking) academic and policy-making circles. Replies and commentaries from local scholars, researchers and policy practitioners will be actively sought during and after the Conference. All Albanian- and Serbian-language contributions will be collated in an edited volume to be published by RIT Press.

Important Dates:

10th June – Deadline for submission of extended abstract (800 words)

25th June – Notification of acceptance

31st August – Deadline for submission of full papers

7th-8th September – Conference

28th September – Deadline for submission of revised papers

Submissions:

To submit abstracts and papers, or for further details about the Conference or the planned publications, please contact Luca J. Uberti (luberti@aukonline.org). The subject line of all emails should be “AUK Conference 2012”. Please also include a one-page resume or a short bio, clearly indicating contact details and institutional affiliation.

Funding:

Participation in the event is free. AUK hopes to offer paper-presenters a conference grant to cover travel and accommodation expenses. USAID-BEEP and the Balkan Trust for Democracy have expressed their interest in potentially supporting the Conference and the associated follow-on activities.

Guest-speakers:

The Conference will feature two renowned academic guest-speakers and one guest-speaker from a Kosovar policy-making institution.

Review Committee:

Michael Waschak, Visiting Assistant Professor, Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT)

Petrit Gashi, Assistant Professor, University of Prishtina

Besnik Bislimi, Lecturer, American University in Kosovo (AUK)

Luca J. Uberti, Research Fellow, Centre for Energy and Natural Resources, AUK

Gëzim Visoka, Dublin City University

William Wechsler, Lecturer and Vice-President for Academic Development, AUK

Jim Myers, Centre for Multidisciplinary Studies, RIT

Venera Demukaj, Lecturer, AUK

altmetrics12: An ACM Web Science Conference 2012 Workshop > Evanston IL > 21 June 2011

About the Workshop

Increasing scholarly use of Web2.0 tools like CiteULike, Mendeley, Twitter, and blog-style article commenting presents an opportunity to track scholarly impact in novel ways. Metrics based on this diverse set of Web sources could yield broader, richer, and more timely assessments of current and potential scholarly impact. Realizing this, many authors have begun to investigate these altmetrics.

altmetrics12 encourages continued investigation into the the properties of these metrics: their validity, their potential value and flaws, and their relationship to established measures. Submissions are invited from a variety of areas:

• New metrics based on social media
• Tracking science communication on the Web
• Relation between traditional metrics and altmetrics
• Peer-review and altmetrics
• Tools for gathering, analyzing, disseminating altmetrics
• This workshop is a follow-up to the successful altmetrics11 workshop hosted by WebSci’11.

Important Dates

• 2-page abstracts due > May 18, 2012
• Acceptance and abstract publication >  May 22, 2012
• Open pre-workshop discussion  > May 22 – June 18, 2012
• Workshop at WebSci 12 > June 21, 2012
• Discussion closed >June 30, 2012
• Invitations for post-workshop proceedings > TBA  

[more]

Source and Links Available At 

[http://altmetrics.org/altmetrics12/]

Internship: Secretariat of the European Ombudsman is offering internship Location: Strasbourg in France

The Ombudsman offers traineeships, twice a year, primarily to university law graduates. The traineeships take place either in Strasbourg or in Brussels according to the needs of the Office. They start on 1 September and 1 January each year.

Trainees in the Ombudsman's Office must necessarily have a very good command of the English language. Applications must therefore be submitted in English. For the same reasons, the documents concerning traineeship applications are only available in English.

• Decision of the European Ombudsman concerning traineeships
• Traineeship application form (PDF)

Summer School: AUK Summer Program in Peace-building, Post-Conflict Transformation, and Development, American University in Kosovo‏

In the summer of 2012, the American University in Kosovo will host its third Summer Program on Peace-building, Post-Conflict Transformation, and Development. The 2012 program, open to undergraduate, graduate, and professional students, will consist of three courses (four credits each) and includes a trip to Albania, Bosnia, Montenegro and Serbia. This program will be held from June 24th until July 27th. Transferrable undergraduate credits will be offered by our partner university in the United States, the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT).

Kosovo offers unique opportunities to learn about Peace-building, Post-conflict transitioning, and the prospects for regional co-operation and economic development in the Balkans. It combines post-conflict reality with access to decision makers, all in a safe, vibrant environment. Several students from last year’s program referred to their experiences in the program as “life transforming”.

By including a wide range of renowned international scholars, retired and active diplomats and military personnel, government officials, journalists, transnational actors from international organizations, representatives of NGO’s, and former combatants, the program seeks to bridge the gap between theory and practice in facilitating explorations of both contemporary and timeless issues of war and peace.

We would greatly appreciate you sharing this information with potential attendees. Please feel free to contact us with any questions.

Many thanks for your considerations and my best personal wishes,

Mjellma Asllani - Jupolli

Manager, Office of the President

Manager, Summer Program 2012

Telephone +381 (0)38 608 608

Conference: Migration from and towards Bulgaria (1989-2011), Jena , 27-28 April 2012‏

The aim of the conference is not just to update and summarize the stage of knowledge, but, first and foremost, to identify existing gaps and opportunities for their future replenishment.
Migration is a well-known phenomenon throughout the development of mankind, however, its pace and importance began to increase significantly during the last two centuries, especially in the 20th century. In the last 20 years, Southeastern Europe, including Bulgaria, is one of the worlds’ regions with extremely prominent migration processes. In Bulgaria, as in other post-communist countries, migration flows have run with different intensity and directions and, in certain periods, marked by deep social and economic crisis, they have become extremely intensive. According to some data of the Bulgarian State Agency for the Bulgarians Abroad and of the Ministry of the Interior, around 650,000 Bulgarians live in different countries of the EU, around 350,000 in the USA and Canada and other 50,000 in Australia, New Zealand and the Republic of South Africa. These figures clearly indicate the presence of a significant Bulgarian diaspora in many countries, fact that imposes a number of
questions regarding both the countries of settlement and the sending countries. At the same time, Bulgaria started to experience the opposite processes as transit migration and immigration. The existing research on the migratory movements and transnational mobility to and from Bulgaria over the last 20 years is generally fragmentary and only covers certain aspects of the phenomenon. This conference’s goal is to help shaping the profile of migration flows and to lead to a systematization of the acquired knowledge. It’s international and interdisciplinary character is due to lead to positive results.

Programe:

Welcome addresses by:
Prof. Herman Funk, Dean of Faculty of Philosophy, Friedrich Schiller University Jena The Ambassador of Republic of Bulgaria in Germany His Excellency Radi Najdenov Prof. Wolfgang Dahmen, representative of “Südosteuropa Gesellschaft“ in Jena Prof. Thede Kahl, Chair of the Department for Southeastern European Studies in Friedrich Schiller University Jena First Session Anna Krasteva (New Bulgarian University, Sofia, Bulgaria) – Bulgarian and Balkan migrations in a comparative perspective Thede Kahl (Friedrich Schiller University, Jena, Germany) – Types of migration and their effects on identity Rumiana Koneva (University of Freiburg, Germany): "Erweiterten Grenzen - erweiterte Bildung. Bulgarische Jugend in Deutschland nach Wendepunkten 1878 -1989"

Discussion

Lunch Break

Second Session
Silvia Gomez i Mestres (University of Barcelona, Spain) - "Social networks and migratory chains of Bulgarians in Spain and Catalonia"
Sofiya Zahova (IFSEM, BAS, Sofia, Bulgaria) – “Informal and Formal Networks of Bulgarians in Italy and their Impact on the Migrants’ Social Life”
Mirella Decheva (Museum of Sofia, Bulgaria) – “Life strategies among Bulgarian migrants in Spain at the end of 20th century“ Discussion Coffee Break Third Session Magdalena Slavkova (IEFSEM, BAS, Sofia, Bulgaria) – “Experiences of the Bulgarian ‘’pioneers’’ in Spain and Portugal”
Anna Triandafyllidou and Marina Nikolova (ELIAMEP, Athens) “Bulgarian migration in Greece: past trends and current challenges”
Eugenia Markova (London Metropolitan University, London, UK) “Bulgarian migration to Greece: home-host country effects”

Discussion

Assos. Prof. Rumiana Koneva presents “Bulgarien in Europa. Ivan Shishmanov (1862-1928)”. Unveiling of photo exhibition, dedicated to Prof. Ivan Shishmanov Movie Screening – “Varshets: The Town of Badante Women” – a film by Stefan Komandarev and Diana Ivanova Discussion
Location: Senatsaal, UHG, Fürstengraben 1, 07743 Jena First Session Natasha Yaneva (Friedrich-Schiller University, Jena, Germany) – „The concept of Bulgaria, Germany and EU among Bulgarian highly qualified migrants”
Yelis Erolova (IEFSEM, BAS, Sofia, Bulgaria) Bulgarian migrant community in Cyprus Jon Fox (University of Bristol) “Racialisation without racism: British immigration control and the lightening and darkening of East European migrant workers”

Discussion
Coffee Break

Second Session
Elton Prifti (University of Potsdam, Germany) Variationale Migrationslinguistik: Arbeitsmethode und einige Analyseelemente Mila Maeva (IEFSEM, BAS, Sofia, Bulgaria) – "Language and National Identity (Bulgarian Emigrants in the United Kingdom)"
Tanya Dimitrova (Friedrich-Schiller University, Jena, Germany) – “Bulgarian Labor Migration in Greece and the Process of Creation of Transnational, Migrant Identity”
Anne Sturm (University of Leipzig, Germany) – “Migration and Literature. Migration in the early works of Dimitré Dinev and Iliya Troyanow”


Discussion

Lunch Break

Third Session
Elena Marushiakova, Veselin Popov (IEFSEM, BAS, Sofia, Bulgaria) – “Migration of Roma people from Southeastern Europe towards Western Europe (chronology and typology) Marina Liakova (University of Education, Karlsruhe, Germany) “Die Bulgarische Migration nach Deutschland nach 1989: Versuch einer sozialwissenschaftlichen Typologisierung”
Ekaterina Anastasova (IEFSEM, BAS, Sofia, Bulgaria) – “Russians in Bulgaria (from Russian Old Believers to Soviet Daughters in Low)”
Discussion
Overview of the Conference, Guidelines for the proceedings, Concluding Remarks

Master: Launch of the Interdisciplinary Joint Master's Programme in South-Eastern European Studies, Faculty of Political Sciences, Belgrade, 27 April 2012‏

The Faculty of Political Sciences in Belgrade proudly presents its first international joint master degree programme:

Interdisciplinary South-Eastern European Studies

This unique two-year programme, carried out in English, and developed within the Tempus project of the European Union, is realized by universities in Belgrade, Graz, Skopje and Zagreb. Start in Belgrade: in October, 2012.

If you want to learn about the Balkans in the Balkans

from the best foreign and local professors

with colleagues from entire world with compulsory semester abroad

joint summer school at an attractive location

diverse specializations and possibility for internship abroad

and obtain a universally recognized joint diploma of four universities, join us at the programme’s presentation
on Friday, April 27, 2012 at the Faculty of Political Sciences, Belgrade, Jove Ilica 165, classroom No. 3/I, 11:00-12:00.

Speakers:
Prof. Jovan Teokarevic (FPS), programme’s academic coordinator
Prof. Milada Anna Vachudova (University of North Carolina, USA), one of six foreign lecturers
Prof. Predrag Simic (FPS), one of several local lecturers
Prof. Jelena Djordjevic (FPS), Vice-Dean for 2nd and 3rd Cycle Studies

www.seestudies.eu

Conference: Enlarging the Territory of Citizens’ Participation, Sofia, 1-8 May 2012‏

ENLARGING THE TERRITORY OF CITIZENS’ PARTICIPATION
1-8 May 2012, Sofia

The National Student Confederation along with JEF and UEF-Bulgaria have the pleasure of inviting you to participate in the international seminar "Enlarging the Territory of Citizens’ Participation".

The development of a European Public Sphere is a key challenge in the EU integration process. Its structure and dimension influence the democratic quality and the social cohesion within EU.

The introduction of the citizens' initiative from April 1st 2012 will give a stronger voice to EU citizens by giving them the right to call directly on the Commission to bring forward new policy initiatives.It will add a new dimension to European democracy, complement the set of rights related to the citizenship of the Union and increase the public debate around European politics, helping to build a genuine European public space. Its implementation will reinforce citizens' and organised civil society's involvement in the shaping of EU policies.

The international seminar "Enlarging the Territory of Citizens’ Participation" to be held in Sofia from 1 to 8 May, 2012 will provide young people with knowledge and skills for active participation in the democratic life of the union. The political, social, economic and cultural aspects that the seminar addresses will contribute to shape a vision how to strengthen European democracy and reaffirm the concept of active European citizenship.

The participants will acquaint with all direct and indirect instruments of citizen involvement, from the European Citizens Initiative to the structured dialogue with civil society organizations and a modernized system of European Elections. The ideas and knowledge generated during the seminar can be used by every participant and be implemented at local level

Methodology:

Panel discussions, working groups, lectures, plenary sessions, simulation games and information market will be some of the methods used to debate these issues.


The rich social program will enable the participants to explore the night life in Sofia, enjoy a horse ride in Vitosha mountain (optional) and see the Rila Monastery, one of the most significant and picturesque monuments on the Balkans, part of the UNESCO book of world heritage.



PARTICIPATING CONDITIONS


Age 18-30
Countries EU Member states
Costs 70% of Travel Costs will be reimbursed (up to 230 Euro)
Fee/person 75 Euro participation fee/person
Board & lodging covered by the organisers

Deadline for applying: 22 April 2012!!!

FOR MORE DETAILS AND APPLICATION FORM:

nsc@scas.acad.bg

Summer School: EUROPEUM Institute for European Policy, EU Summer School, Prague, 7-19 July 2012‏

We would like to inform you that EUROPEUM Institute for European Policy – a Prague-based institute – organises the 10th year of its European Summer School in association with the Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence in European Studies at the Faculty of Social Sciences of Charles University.

This year’s European Summer School is titled ‘Europe at the Crossroads’ and we are currently seeking for interested students and young professionals from around the world. Last year, students from 26 different nations attended. We are particularly keen on welcoming students from the Balkans in order to allow them to gain insight into the EU framework and to get know how they perceive the current situation of Europe.

We are a non-profit organisation and are committed to keep the tuition fee of our school affordable for all social backgrounds. Hence, our fee does not only cover expenses for all the lectures and seminars, but also housing, breakfast and lunch expenses, as well as costs for all cultural activities.

The school will be held in Prague from 7-19 July 2012. Detailed information on the European Summer School can be obtained from our website

http://www.europeum.org/ess2012

Summer School: Romanian Summer Course, Study Romanian in the Summer Holiday From July 16th to July 21st For students and adults

This year, why not take the chance to combine your holiday with the opportunity to learn a language?

Learn Romanian on this one week Romanian course suitable for all language levels.
A visit to Oradea gives you the opportunity to practice Romanian in real-life situations and thus gain more confidence in speaking the language, as well as to learn more about Romania and make new friends.
We offer a really worthwhile, mind expanding experience. We place emphasis on both learning and leisure time. Our courses offer an integrated programme of Romanian lessons, excursions and recreational activities under the guidance of our teachers, who ensure that you continue to practice your Romanian during the leisure activities outside the classroom. The instructors selected for teaching the Romanian classes are chosen primarily for their professional skills, but also for their friendly attitude and enthusiasm.
For a period of one week the summer vacation courses include:
• 4 hours of Romanian tuition per day in small classes
• education material
• leisure programs and excursions including entrance fees
• full board in the university campus canteen
• certificate of attendance and progress report at the end of your stay
Tuition takes place on 5 mornings a week between 09: 00 and 13: 00. The aim is not only to improve language ability but also to provide a deeper understanding of life in Romania. Emphasis in the lessons is on active student participation in a variety of practical language activities.

Excursions and Activities
Various activities in the afternoon (such as walking, art tours, lectures, and other evening activities).
Excursions are made to some famous sights in Romania:
• Baile Felix thermal spa resort located in a hilly area with beach and oak tree woods near Oradea
• Peștera Urșilor (Bears' Cave) located in the western Apuseni Mountains contains numerous complete skeletons of extinct cave bears. It also contains an extraordinary range of stalagmite and stalactite formations varying in size and forms.

Locations, venues
Colloquia Language Center is an institution under the auspices of Partium Christian University. Language classes will take place at the university, which is located close to the centre of the city, providing you with excellent access to shops and open-air cafes.

Accommodation
We offer twin dormitory accommodation.
On request we offer single dormitory accommodation for 10 € extra charge.

Prices (excluding travel expenses)
Date: July 16th –July 21st
Price: 1 Week 450 €

Website: http://www.partium.ro/colloquia/
E-mail: colloquia@ymail.com

http://www.partium.ro/colloquia/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=20%3Aromlanguagecourse&catid=1%3Ageneral&lang=en

Summer School: Hungarian Summer Course, Study Hungarian in the Summer Holiday From July 16th to July 21st For students and adults

This year, why not take the chance to combine your holiday with the opportunity to learn a language?

Learn Hungarian on this one week Hungarian course suitable for all language levels.
Oradea is a city in Romania, near the Hungarian border with an approximately 23% Hungarian population.
A visit to this multicultural city gives you the opportunity to practice Hungarian in real-life situations and thus gain more confidence in speaking the language, as well as to learn more about the country and make new friends.
We offer a really worthwhile, mind expanding experience. We place emphasis on both learning and leisure time. Our courses offer an integrated programme of Hungarian lessons, excursions and recreational activities under the guidance of our teachers, who ensure that you continue to practice your Hungarian during the leisure activities outside the classroom. The instructors selected for teaching the classes are Hungarian native speakers and were chosen primarily for their professional skills, but also for their friendly attitude and enthusiasm.
For a period of one week the summer vacation courses include:
• 4 hours of Hungarian tuition per day in small classes
• education material
• leisure programs and excursions including entrance fees
• full board in the university campus canteen
• certificate of attendance and progress report at the end of your stay
Tuition takes place on 5 mornings a week between 09: 00 and 13: 00. The aim is not only to improve language ability but also to provide a deeper understanding of the Hungarian minority’s life in Romania. Emphasis in the lessons is on active student participation in a variety of practical language activities.

Excursions and Activities
Various activities in the afternoon (such as walking, art tours, lectures, and other evening activities)
In order to provide a closer insight into Hungarian traditions and as a further opportunity to practice the Hungarian language excursions are made to Hungary
• Debrecen, the second largest city in Hungary after the capital city
• Hortobágy national park, Hungary’s largest protected area and the largest natural grassland in Europe

Locations, venues
Colloquia Language Center is an institution under the auspices of Partium Christian University. Language classes will take place at the university, which is located close to the centre of the city, providing you with excellent access to shops and open-air cafes.

Accommodation
We offer twin dormitory accommodation.
On request we offer single dormitory accommodation for 10 € extra charge.

Prices (excluding travel expenses)
Date: July 16th –July 21st
Price: 1 Week 450 €

Website: http://www.partium.ro/colloquia/
E-mail: colloquia@ymail.com

 

http://www.partium.ro/colloquia/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=21%3Ahungariansummerholidaycourse&catid=1%3Ageneral&lang=en

Conference: Mapping Generations of Traumatic Memory in American City Narratives (workshop organized within the 2012 RAAS-Fulbright Conference Remapping Urban Spaces – American Challenges, 4-6 October 2012, “Ovidius” University of Constanta)

This panel welcomes papers that explore the connection between the performance of post-traumatic memory and urban space in the United States. Identifying the mechanisms of traumatic memory for various generations of trauma survivors has been an increasing focus of scholarship and public attention in recent decades, in the works of important scholars such as Mieke Bal, Shoshana Felman, Dominick La Capra, Marianne Hirsch, Leo Spitzer, Nancy K. Miller, Michael Rothberg, Cathy Caruth, and others. Marianne Hirsch’s concept of “postmemory” (1997) as a type of memory transmitted from generation to generation through family ties, responsibilities and storytelling, as well as Peggy Phelan\'s “performative memory” (1997), Dora Apel’s “secondary witnessing” (2002), Alison Landsberg’s “prosthetic memory” (2004) and Michael Rothberg’s “multidirectional memory” (2009) are all essential to current scholarly examinations of generations of (post)traumatic memory and their manifestation in a public space which is often that of the city. In the US, this research topic has regained momentum especially after the events of September 11. The area is rapidly growing, especially because mapping generations of traumatic memory lends itself to an extremely productive interdisciplinary framework, from psychology to literary, visual, ethnic and gender studies.
The connection between memory and the city has been most famously explored by Pierre Nora’s monumental collection Lieux de mémoire/Sites of Memory (1984, 1989), where he diagnosed the death of “authentic memory” and its replacement in the urban space with sites such as memorials, museums, and other visual representations that, together with various commemoration practices, regulate national life frames (cf. Butler). More recently, Andreas Huyssen’s Present Pasts: Urban Palimpsests and the Politics of Memory (Stanford, 2003) emphasized the high stakes of urban spaces and media as material palimpsests offering “traces of the historical past in the present.” More specifically related to the American urban space, Marita Sturken’s Tourists of History (2007) demonstrated the embeddedness of trauma in particular American urban spaces, such as Oklahoma City and Ground Zero.

Workshop organizers:
Dr. Roxana Oltean (University of Bucharest)
Prof. Rodica Mihaila (University of Bucharest) Dr. Mihaela Precup (University of Bucharest)
Dr. Dana Mihailescu (University of Bucharest)  

Our panel is part of this particular conversation as it attempts to explore the innovative insights American Studies scholars can gain from analyzing particular features of cross-generational traumatic memories that inscribe themselves in urban spaces, past and present.

We particularly welcome proposals addressing one of the following topics (applied to literature, film, popular culture, visual culture, media etc.):

- urban spaces and the poetics/politics of memory
- personal/historical traumas of the city
- U.S. cities/city narratives as sites of traumatic memory / comparative perspectives on U.S. and Eastern European cities/city narratives as sites of traumatic memory
- utopian/dystopian cities and trauma
- gendered traumas and city life
- violence, genocide, and traumatic transmission in the city
- city memorials/museums constructed as sites of mourning
- commemoration practices related to post-war/post-traumatic events
- cross-generational configurations of trauma and city life
- celebrity deaths and urban shrines
- violence and public mourning (as in public riots etc.)
- autobiography, trauma, and the city
- visual and verbal accounts of trauma and the city
- contested spaces of memory and trauma in the city
- the post-human and post-traumatic in fantastic urban spaces or cities of the future (SciFi, fantasy)

 

Our panel is part of this particular conversation as it attempts to explore the innovative insights American Studies scholars can gain from analyzing particular features of cross-generational traumatic memories that inscribe themselves in urban spaces, past and present.

 

We particularly welcome proposals addressing one of the following topics (applied to literature, film, popular culture, visual culture, media etc.):

- urban spaces and the poetics/politics of memory
- personal/historical traumas of the city
- U.S. cities/city narratives as sites of traumatic memory / comparative perspectives on U.S. and Eastern European cities/city narratives as sites of traumatic memory
- utopian/dystopian cities and trauma
- gendered traumas and city life
- violence, genocide, and traumatic transmission in the city
- city memorials/museums constructed as sites of mourning
- commemoration practices related to post-war/post-traumatic events
- cross-generational configurations of trauma and city life
- celebrity deaths and urban shrines
- violence and public mourning (as in public riots etc.)
- autobiography, trauma, and the city
- visual and verbal accounts of trauma and the city
- contested spaces of memory and trauma in the city
- the post-human and post-traumatic in fantastic urban spaces or cities of the future (SciFi, fantasy)

Please send you proposals, including the title of your presentation, your affiliation, an abstract of 150-200 words, and a bio of 100-150 words, to the following email addresses: raas.panel.2012@americanstudies.ro; raas.conference@yahoo.com.
As each paper will be followed by 10-minute discussions, participants are kindly asked to limit the presentation to their time-slot. More information about the 2012 RAAS-Fulbright Conference Remapping Urban Spaces – American Challenges, 4-6 October 2012, “Ovidius” University of Constanta, can be found here: http://raas.ro/conferences

Conference fees: RAAS members: 100 RON;
Non-RAAS members: 75 EURO/100 USD

Conference: Oikos Young Scholars Economics Academy (Scholarships Available)

The oikos Foundation and The Graduate Institute's Programme for the Study of Global Migration (Geneva) are organizing the oikos Young Scholars Economics Academy on August 19-24, 2012 in Geneva, Switzerland.

The topic is “The Dynamics of Migration”. The Academy provides 15 PhD students and young scholars a global platform to identify and advance rigorous policy-oriented research on migration and its multiple causes and effects.

Eligibility

PhD students and young scholars (recent PhD holders) working on migration topics are eligible to apply.

Application Details

• Application deadline 15 May 2012 • Applicants are notified by 31 May 2012 • Final papers must be received for circulation to academy participants by 15 July 2012

Your application should contain: 

• A proposal abstract of max. 2-3 pages
• A short curriculum vitae,
• A letter of interest in the oikos Young scholars Economics Academy

Scholarships/ Travel and Paper Development Grants
• Up to three grants (travel, fee, and accommodation) are available for outstanding young scholars coming from developing countries.

• A Paper Development Grant will be given to a selected participant, consisting of coaching by a faculty and a 1500 CHF stipend for the recipient to advance her/his work submitted to the academy.

• Two of the best papers selected will be published in the Graduate Institute’s Global Migration Research Paper Series.

Please send your application via email to economics@oikos-international.org. For more information, please visit our website: http://www.oikos-international.org/academic/iea/oikos-young-scholars-economics-academy-2012.html

Post-Publication Peer Review: What Value Do Usage-Based Metrics Offer?

Posted by David Crotty ⋅ Apr 19, 2012⋅ 13 Comments


A PLoS ONE article recently went viral, hitting the front page of Reddit and garnering an amazing amount of reader interest. This was great news for the journal and the paper’s authors, but raises questions for the notion of post-publication peer review.

As Kent Anderson recently discussed, the idea of post-publication peer review is nothing new — it’s called “science”. Publication of the paper is an end of one process but the beginning of another. [snip].

The proposed revolution then, is not in the concept, but in the tools available, ways to open that conversation worldwide and to track the life of that paper after it has been published, to better measure its true impact. Despite initial momentum, movement toward implementation of these new technologies seems to have hit a stalling point.

[snip]

Doing away with pre-publication peer review and replacing it entirely seems to have garnered little support in the research community. F1000 Research will be the biggest test of whether this has any viability. Their approach seems more a strategy meant to increase publisher revenue, rather than to benefit researchers. [snip].

[snip]

That leaves the search for new metrics (“altmetrics“) as perhaps the greatest hope for near-term improvement in our post-publication understanding of a paper’s value. The Impact Factor is a reasonable, if flawed measurement of a journal, but a terrible method for measuring the quality of work in individual papers or from individual researchers. [snip]

[snip]

Metrics based on social media coverage of an article tell us more about the author’s ability to network than about their actual experiments. Metrics based on article usage are even harder to interpret as they offer information on reader interest and subject popularity, rather than quality of the article itself.

[snip]

For the mainstream of science journals, usage based metrics don’t seem to offer the much-desired replacement for the Impact Factor. There is value in understanding the interest drawn by research, but that value is not the same as measuring the quality of that research.

So far we’re mining all the easy and obvious metrics we can find. But they don’t offer us the information we really need. Until better metrics that truly deliver meaningful data on impact are offered, the altmetrics approach is in danger of stalling out. This points to a major crossroads for the field.

Like so many new technologies, there’s an initial rush of enthusiasm as we think about how it could fit with scholarly publishing. But then we hit a point where the easy and obvious approaches are exhausted without much return. Now the hard work begins.

Source and Fulltext Available At 

[http://bit.ly/IQ9W2N]

Is Google Scholar Useful for Bibliometrics? A Webometric Analysis

Aguillo, I.F. /  (2012) Scientometrics, 91 (2), pp. 343-351.

Abstract

Google Scholar, the academic bibliographic database provided free-of-charge by the search engine giant Google, has been suggested as an alternative or complementary resource to the commercial citation databases like Web of Knowledge (ISI/Thomson) or Scopus (Elsevier). In order to check the usefulness of this database for bibliometric analysis, and especially research evaluation, a novel approach is introduced. Instead of names of authors or institutions, a webometric analysis of academic web domains is performed.

The bibliographic records for 225 top level web domains (TLD), 19,240 university and 6,380 research centres institutional web domains have been collected from the Google Scholar database. About 63. 8% of the records are hosted in generic domains like. com or. org, confirming that most of the Scholar data come from large commercial or non-profit sources. Considering only institutions with at least one record, one-third of the other items (10. 6% from the global) are hosted by the 10,442 universities, while 3,901 research centres amount for an additional 7. 9% from the total.

The individual analysis show that universities from China, Brazil, Spain, Taiwan or Indonesia are far better ranked than expected. In some cases, large international or national databases, or repositories are responsible for the high numbers found. However, in many others, the local contents, including papers in low impact journals, popular scientific literature, and unpublished reports or teaching supporting materials are clearly overrepresented. Google Scholar lacks the quality control needed for its use as a bibliometric tool; the larger coverage it provides consists in some cases of items not comparable with those provided by other similar databases.

Source

[http://bit.ly/IyJTPD]