Even More Electronic Resources

Here are some more useful electronic resources that are very helpful for academic work that have not yet been mentioned, some of them are only accessible to students in specific universities and should you know of any other (similar) resources feel free to add them in the comments.

Google Reader - Google mail is reasonably widely used and one of the most useful things about google mail, i find, is the ability to use google reader at the sama time. Google reader is essentially a way for you to easily keep track of new posts on websites (such as this one) and allows you to organise reading lists to streamline what you read. It updates in real time and has a lot of really cool features - including the suggestion of new sites based on the ones that you have already selected. I use it mostly to keep track of things posted on Infos Fabula, itself a very useful french language academic site, this website, news, and events feeds such as special deals on train fare, museum exhibitions etc. Its definitely easier than visiting a whole lot of different sites, or having to subscribe via email and suffering a constant stream of emails that you are not always prepared to read as they arrive.

Infos Fabula - mentioned above, Infos Fabula is a french language site that details job posting, calls for papers, scholarship advertisements, and new book publications. I personally have found it invaluable in terms of keeping on the cutting edge of academic trends and in keeping well informed about possible scholarships and academic posts available in french studies internationally.

VPN Client for St Andrews Students - all students who attend St Andrews should, before they leave, head on down to the library and have the VPN client installed and explained to them at the IT helpdesk. It'll allow you to access all the online journals that are available to St Andrews students from whereever you are in the world. This is especially useful if you are writing in English and are spending your last semester in a university that does not have such a well developed english library and find yourself suddenly in need of a few extra papers of citations. For those of you who have or are not going to St Andrews - make a friend, and hijack their VPN client for a few minutes, JSTOR, project MUSE and a whole lot of other resources are available online through the VPN client - its really worthwhile.

Refworks or EndNOTE - Refworks & Endnote are bibliographic database software programs that help you refernce more efficiently and both interface with Word to enable references, which are perfectly formatted to pop into your document at the touch of a button. I personally prefer Endnote but I believe that St Andrews allows students to download a version of RefWorks which operates in a similar fashion. You build a database of all the works you are using and then when you want to reference the work in Word, you hop into Endnote (or RefWorks), select the work to be cited and in it goes - perfectly formatted, saving you having to type out the reference again and again. MHRA referencing - which Mundus students are required to use - does take a little bit of tweaking but once you've got it set, its easy as pie. Also useful because you can easily change the citation style of the document should you want to submit it to a journal which requires a referencing style different to the one that you have selected.

Antidote RX Grammar Check - Microsoft Word's grammar check is notoriously bad in English and even worse in French, so one of the key elements of software that i use on a daily basis is the Antidote grammar check by Druide, well worth the money it integrates perfectly with Word and spots most mistakes, as well as offering advice on ambiguity. It serves equally well as an excellent dictionary.

InterZones Update - NB!

As a result of some uncertainty on the part of the European Commission, it may be possible for Mundus students to be considered under both Category A and Category B for the Interzones Scholarship. If you are interested in applying for the Interzones Doctoral Scholarship and wish to apply under both categories, I urge you to contect Prof Didier Girard with utmost urgency to express your desire for consideration. Please be reminded that the deadline for Category A applications is 10 December 2009. This applies equally to current and past doctoral students.

Interzones Applications Open

Applications for the Interzones Doctoral program, so highly anticipated, have opened. There are 4 places, under category B applications, open to candidates who have held Mundus Masters grants. These applications close at the end of February. The closing date for category A applications (European or non-European graduates who have not been residents nor have lived in Europe for study or work for more than 12 consecutive months duringthe 5 years prior to the application deadline) is listed as the 10th December. All the relevant information is available on the Interzones website.

Articles from students: Discontinuity in Qiu Anxiong’s work

Xu Sheng, one of the previous Mundus Master students was recently so kind as to send an article for publication on the blog, detailing the concept of 'the gap' in the work of Qiu Anxiong (the fascination with 'the gap' that is one of the hallmarks of the classes previously taught by Prof Girard will no doubt be familiar to many who have taken his course on 'applied heterology').

About discontinuity in Qiu Anxiong’s work

At the end of an article by Yuko Hasegawa on Qiu Anxiong’s video work, she mentioned “expressive artist” [1]. In “Utopia”, the solo exhibition of Qiu in Arken Art Museum, the artist has been classified into “magic realism” [2]. Although it’s true that the fantastic images in “The New Book of Mountains and Seas” accord with the sign of Magic realism, the meaning of this kind of classification has been limited within the words. From the beginning of modern art, the trends and styles of art has been defined through their appearance instead of their essence. Expressionism, cubism and their succeeders share a same pursue, that is to “transmit directly the spirit of artist” by the “discontinuity in logic” [3].

The discontinuity (or gap) has countless forms and exists in every successful modern art work. Before the discussion on its foundation, we can firstly find some “gap” in Qiu Anxiong’s work.

In “Jiang Nan Poem”, the most significant gap comes from the audience’s expectation of narration, as the only narration of the work is the passage of time. It’s exactly this gap that generates the aesthetic observation on the work. “The New Book of Mountains and Seas” has a firm background for interpretation, but the delicate polarization (gap) in the narration shows the inner confrontation of the work and of the artist himself. For example, in the representative scene, where the “men” in black get out from the earth and fly, logically, the “men” is no longer a creature described by the fictitious narrator of ancient time, but a symbolic sign put into the scene by the artist himself. In “Minguo Landscape”, the narration has been weakened again and gaps between scenes are common. Each scene has then adopted their own artistic conception.

Qiu said that his resource of art creation is his experience. The signs from “In the Sky” look like a direct representation of the artist’s inner experience， while interpretation from audiences can only depend on their own experience. The discontinuity comes then from the gap between different backgrounds of the author and the audience. In front of this gap, audience turns automatically to the “common sense” to get a “reasonable” interpretation – for example the “self destructive civilization” – so that the gap can be filled up. The aesthetics of a work are usually destroyed by this kind of “common sense” – “In the Sky” can be only a musing of the artist.

Welch wrote a letter on the day the war was broken. And the whole letter described a doll shop. The letter looks quite special as it gives a signal against the war and expresses the nostalgia for happy time, but the fact is that Mr. Welch didn’t know the war had been broken at all. If we read articles by Qiu Anxiong himself, we can see that his ideas have something in common with the “magic realism”, but being exhausted in finding any clew to rebuild the connection is not an aesthetic action. It’s better to go back to the work itself.

Being a philosophical exploration of the aesthetic methodology, “discontinuity” comes from “Matière et Mémoire” (by Henri Bergson), a work that explores the relation between man and the world around. Perception, in short, is by dividing the continuity of material and is only for part of it (man can’t perceive the whole world in a time). This divided perception selects related memory; and the memory brings related action as feedback to the perception. The process, where the discontinuous perception of the world engages the memory of a man, is where the affection is generated. In an aesthetic point of view, the process where audience discovers the discontinuity of an artist’s work and gives inner feedback, is where the transmission happens.

The western analytical methodology can actually be applied to the eastern art. The discontinuity by Bergson finds its earliest illustration on the blank of Chinese traditional painting. In Qiu Anxiong’s work, the “blank” has been treated in a new way and brings new discontinuity to the moving paintings.

In Qiu’ earliest video work “Jiang Nan Poem”, the real perspective has been compressed into an imaginary space of Chinese Painting. Later, by movements, “In the Sky” tries to put space into the blank of the flat paper. Spaces created by movements become common in “New Book of Mountains and Seas” and “Minguo Landscape”. A typical creation of space is the following: in “Minguo Landscape”, we don’t “see” the lake until a small boat passes by. Blank in Chinese painting is regarded as “imaginary truth”. Qiu turns the blank into a logical space by movements. This game with perception is only the first step.

In Qiu’s work, the expression of space and movement of every scene is based on one painting. He never represents a same space in different perspectives. On one hand , it’s limited by the technique; on the other hand, the still “camera” and single point of view denies the existence of “outre-champ”. His work is rather a theatre than a movie, as the stage can’t move, only the actors and sets can. The representation of the world is through switches of different scenes. Traditional Chinese paintings inspire imagination for time and space. In Qiu’s work, time and space has been represented, and imagination comes from the transition of scenes itself…

What’s important is not to find out all the discontinuity, but to perceive the transmission it generates. Yuko Hasegawa compares the last scene of “The New Book of Mountains and Seas” to the paintings of Caspar David Friedrich. It gives us a hint that Qiu’s work is rather a stage of spirit than expression.

[1] From the article of Yuko Hasegawa: “Witness of an enchanted land – Qiu AnXiong”

[2] http://www.arken.dk/composite-1210.htm

[3] A translation from the Chinese version. Sarah Connor, Art, A Histroy of Changing Style, translated by Ouyang Ying & Fan Xiaomin, 1992, p.209

[4] Refer to the discussion between the author and Qiu Anxiong.

[5] http://www.qiuanxiong.com

[6] This opinion is only applicable for Qiu’s published work until now.

Crossways gets to 'News and Events'

The University of St Andrews has published the information concerning our General Meeting in Lisbon, in the 'News and Events' section of the website!

www.st-andrews.ac.uk/modlangs/news.

Check it out!

More electronic

Poonam Ganglani recently attended a Research Methodology workshop and sent some interesting research links featured below. While these may interest students that are doing their theses in French or dealing with french texts, they may nevertheless be of use to other students. All of the sites, except the last, have English and Spanish interfaces and are reasonably user friendly. They are specifically related to theses and so may be most useful in checking whether a given topic has already been treated, and in which was it was dealt with.

1. FICHIER CENTRAL DE THESES:

http://fct.u-paris10.fr/FCT-APP/index.jsp

2. GALLICA

http://gallica.bnf.fr/

3. AGENCE BIBLIOGRAPHIQUE DE L'ENSEIGNEMENT SUPERIEUR

http://www.abes.fr/abes/index.html

4. ATELIER NATIONAL DE REPRODUCTION DES THESES

http://www.anrtheses.com.fr/

Café Philo Lisbon

Lorena Tiberi has just informed me of a wonderful initiative that the Crossways group in Lisbon is putting together - its essentially a Café Philo, a reading group and discussion group that is interested in taking, as a point of departure, extracts from a willing Crossways student's dissertation report or dissertation itself. The student would essentially offer their text, high-lighting perhaps the most important sections and then this text would form the basis of a round table discussion among the Crossways team and other interested students and academics in Lisbon. Needless to say this is a very interesting opportunity to gain both greater expousure and to also be able to respond to critisisms levelled at the work so as to improve it ahead of submission or publication.

The students who offer their work are not excluded from participation, and while physically going to lisbon may be a little far, Lorenza has suggested the use of Skype as a medium that would allow the student in question to take part no matter where they are within the Crossways consortium. Furthermore this initiative has implications for both the virtual symposium and the initiative by Roberta, to present more student research online. One could imagine that a podcast or video cast of the proceedings be linked online, or the participation of any number of students via a skype group call, these suggestions are not without technical difficulties, but are not insurmountable. Any thoughts, suggestions or volunteers would be most welcome in the comments suggestion below.

Electronic Academic Resources

Sorting out references and finding books can sometimes be a little challenging, especially given the fact that we move every semester. Carry your own portable library across the continent is both a recipe for disaster and can be a complete nightmare as books, while useful and necessary are also extremely heavy. E-books offer a fairly good solution to the problem, and while not all books are available online, you could at least reduce the amount of books and photocopies that you need to carry by using some of the online resources detailed below.

Google Books (http://books.google.com/books) is one of the best resources online, comprising a vast library of scanned searchable titles, Google books can help you track down that elusive citation or see whether a book you need is worthwhile ordering. Its especially useful when you only need to consult one or two pages or a single section – as the whole book is not always available.

JSTOR (http://www.jstor.org) is one of the best electronic journal archives out there, both Sheffield and St Andrews have access to this excellent resource. In addition St Andrews has off campus access so once you’ve been to St Andrews you can access the journal from anywhere. There are similar electronic journal archives for each of the major languages and the librarians at your current university will be able to help you gain access. Journal archives enable you to rapidly find papers on topics that you need, and generally provide these papers as PDF downloads, which you can store on your computer, search and even print should you need a hardcopy.

Google Scholar (http://scholar.google.com) is the academic search engine related to Google’s highly successful online search engine. Google scholar searches academic books, journals and conferences to deliver academically orientated results. This is a more general search than one that could be conducted in JSTOR and the only weak point is that the results are not always accessible, ie the search engine returns results for journal archives that require specific subscriptions that your university may or may not have. However it is a good way in which one may find out whether a vital paper exists on the required subject, which can then be ordered or accessed by other means.

Finally, probably the greatest benefit of electronic resources, over and above the fact that they weigh virtually nothing, is that they are fully searchable, which saves a lot of time skim reading and allows one to quickly establish the interest of a book or article when one is unsure of its validity.

Research Abstracts

As part of the effort to increase both the participation and the academic content of the Crossways blog, Roberta Gregoli suggested that we invite past and present members of the program to submit abstracts for the research that they are currently engaged in, be it for their Crossways Masters, or for further studies, or for conference or journal submission. Hopefully we can build up a data base of the research that has been performed and which is ongoing, enabling the demonstration of the academic quality of this program to potential employers, applicants and other stake holders.

Herewith the first abstract from Roberta Gregoli

TRANSNATIONAL RECEPTION OF CITY OF GOD AND ELITE SQUAD

GENDER, SPECTATORSHIP AND IDENTITY

Roberta Gregoli

Brazilian cinema has historically had a pivotal role in raising social issues. Recently, it has been the recipient of considerable attention worldwide, and a catalyst for the debate of urban problems such as social inequality, drug trafficking, and violence in the favelas (slums). Although the favela is not a new topos in Brazilian cinema, City of God (Cidade de Deus, 2002) and Elite Squad (Tropa de Elite, 2007) have been particularly successful in reviving its representation while problematising it in the public forum. Such vivid debate seems to reflect, and only be enabled by, spectators’ deep engagement with national film. Notwithstanding, despite the popularity of Brazilian cinema among the public, critics, and the media, the relationship between cinema and audience and its ability to reflect, as well as affect, social issues seem not to have been explored, there being a scarcity of research on film reception, particularly empirical, in Brazil. It is thus the aim of this study to investigate theories of reception and spectatorship through the analysis of audience reaction to City of God and Elite Squad. Due to current interest in transnational studies and the relevance of analysis involving empirical data, the two films are investigated through the examination of 238 responses collected from three groups: non-Brazilian, Brazilian middle class, and Brazilian favela inhabitants. The films will be examined through the weaving of empirical data and theories pertaining cinematic spectatorship, gender and the relationship between cinema and national identity. While analysis of the data has yielded thought-provoking insights on notions of masculinity and identity in the context of postmodern theorisation, the study advocates for further research in the field of cinematic spectatorship in Brazil.

15th EMA Newsletter

Dear EMA members,

Summer is over, but EMA is starting with plenty of activities into the new academic year.

Please consider especially the Call for Articles for the next Emanate magazine, as well as Calls for Applications for two upcoming large EMA events: GeoMundus Symposium 2009 and Erasmus Mundus Second Thematic Conference "Communication and Dialogue on Energy and Sustainable Development".

Yours,

EMA

EMA

Call for Articles and Photos for New Emanate Magazine!
The next issue of Emanate, EMA's own magazine, will be published in late autumn. Submit your articles and photos until September 20, 2009, and take your chance to share your thoughts with the EMA members in the new issue![more]

Thematic Conference: Communication and Dialogue on Energy and Sustainable Development

Call for applications is now open for the second Erasmus Mundus Thematic Conference organized together with N.V. Nederlandse Gasunie, University of Groningen and DG for Culture and Education of the European Commission. [more]

Latin American Chapter Directive Board Elections - Polls are now open!

Members of EMA Latin American Chapter can cast their votes in the elections of the Directive Boards, starting from now on. Polls will be open until 18 September 2009. [more]

Call for Industry Contacts! And other Updates from the EMA’s Jobs & Career Team.

Here you will find an update on the Jobs and Careers Team industrial networking, vacancies and outreach activities along with a glimpse of what is in store from the Team for this year... [more]

EMA Steering Committee Handover Meeting Report Online!

The Handover Meeting of EMA Steering Committee took place from 17 to 18 July 2009 in Frankfurt. [more]

EMA Taiwan Network

EMA Taiwan Network announces its upcoming activities and events. All Taiwanese EM students and alumni are invited to join the network! [more]

Iqbal Akbar New President of EMA SEA Chapter!

EMA South East Asia Chapter has conducted its presidential elections over the past weeks. Of the three candidates, Iqbal Akbar has won the presidency in a landslide victory... [more]

Field Reporter: Festival MED’s 6th edition!

From June 24th-28th, 2009, this year's Festival MED (http://www.festivalmed.com.pt) in Loulé, Portugal, showed once again its growth in the world music festival scene. Ariadna Purroy Albet experienced it also as an encounter and mixture of cultures in gastronomy, exhibitions, handicrafts and animated theater. [more]

Spanish Fulbright Alumni Association invites EMA Representative to Annual Dinner

Andrea Piehl was invited to represent EMA at the annual dinner of the Spanish Fulbright Association. In the following report, she discusses her impressions and the experiences of other Student and Alumni Associations, which she believes are valuable for the EMA as well... [more]

EMA invited to ALGANT Graduation Ceremony

Dane Lukic of EMA Conferences and Events Team (CAT) was present at the ALGANT graduation ceremony as official EMA representative. Read his report for expressions and suggestions... [more]

Field Report: Body World Exhibition in Seville

EM student Praveen Kumar, in his function as a Field Reporter for EMA, has made an exiting trip to Body World in Seville. The exposition has been discussed controversely throughout European media. Read the first hand account here... [more]

EMA Regional Chapter CIS and Mongolia

Online elections were held to choose the president and the vice-president of the newly launched EMA Chapter. [more]

Erasmus Mundus Programme

Upcoming Erasmus Mundus Event: GeoMundus Symposium 2009!
GeoMundus is the inaugural Erasmus Mundus Symposium on Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences to be held in Lisbon from October 30 to November 1, 2009 . The organizing committee is a group of students from the Erasmus Mundus Masters in Geospatial Technologies Program. [more]

Erasmus Mundus Pre-departure Orientation in Russia

The first Erasmus Mundus pre-departure orientation for Russian students took place in Moscow on 31 July 2009 in the office of the EC delegation to the Russian Federation. [more]

International Education Events

Opportunity for Environment Activists - EarthCorps International program
The internationally recognized organization EarthCorps offers a learning program in Seattle, Washington State. Find out more about the great opportunity to participipate in the 6-months program that charges no tuition or fees here...[more]

Climate 2009 - Online Conference

The 2nd online Climate Conference "Klima 2009/Climate 2009" will be held from 2nd to 6th November 2009. This year's conference will focus on the latest scientific findings and information on social, economic and political aspects of the climate change. [more]

One Issue One Programme

MSc in NeBCC – The Bits and Bytes of Information Technology and e-Business
MSc in Network and e-Business Centered Computing is today the focus of "One issue - One Programme" special feature... [more]

2nd CROSSWAYS GENERAL MEETING

2nd CROSSWAYS GENERAL MEETING

It is my pleasure to announce that the tradition started by Roberta Gregoli will continue this year, with the 2^nd Crossways General Meeting of Students. The GM allows students from all the 7 universities from the consortium to meet and discuss the changes that should be made to the program. Last year, issues such as that of the heavy workload in the 2^nd semester, were addressed to the director of the program after being discussed in the GM, and are now in the process of being changed. In addition, the General Meeting is a great opportunity to meet another university, another city, and students who otherwise you wouldn’t have met.

Where: Lisbon, Portugal

When: November 13-15, 2009

This year, for the first time, the Alumni meeting will be parallel to the students’ meeting, allowing for joint activities and discussions regarding the past, present and future of the program. In addition, students will have the opportunity to explore Lisbon and its wonders! Financial help will be available for accommodation in hostels.

If you are interested in participating, please send me an email (guerreiro.asofia@gmail.com) before Wednesday, 30^th September and let me know how many nights you’re spending in Lisbon, so that accommodation costs can be calculated.

I hope to see you all there!

Erasmus Mundus in Brazil Network

If you are a Brazilian Erasmus Mundus student or alumni, please read the following message in Portuguese.

Prezad@ ex-alun@ Erasmus Mundus,

Como parte da iniciativa de divulgar o programa Erasmus Mundus no território nacional, venho convidá-l@s a participar do grupo Erasmus Mundus no Brasil (http://groups.google.com/group/mundus-no-brasil).

Os objetivos do grupo são:

- Estabelecer uma rede sólida entre alumni brasileir@s de maneira a promover interação social e profissional;
- Discutir maneiras eficientes de promover e divulgar o EM no Brasil, bem como auxiliar candidat@s brasileir@s no processo de seleção;
- Organizar e realizar palestras informativas;
- Compartilhar materiais promocionais e promover treinamentos informais, de maneira que todos transmitamos a mesma mensagem.

Para entrar no grupo, por favor acesse 
   
      
   
   Subscribe to Erasmus Mundus no Brasil   
   
   
   Email:       
  
   Visit this group 
 
e clique em "Sign in and apply for membership".

A Rede EM no Brasil está em crescimento constante, tendo realizado mais de 10 visitas a universidades brasileiras, participado uma feira de educação de grande porte (ExpoBelta 2009) e em encontros de assessores internacionais.

Adoraríamos ter você a bordo! Você escolhe se quer participar mais ou menos ativamente (através da função "Edit my membership", onde você escolhe se quer receber emails diários ou não).

Qualquer dúvida ou esclarecimento, não hesite em me contactar pessoalmente em roberta.gregoli@ema-la.eu

Esperamos ver você em breve!

Roberta Gregoli
MA Erasmus Mundus Crossways in Humanities
University of Sheffield, Université de Perpignan and Universidade Nova de Lisboa

EMA Country Representative for Brazil
EMA Latin America Promotions Team

Virtual Symposium

The heterologies blog, while serving a noble purpose as the primary information point for the Crossways programme, has also the potential to unite the Crossways community in more active and more meaningful ways. One of the best ways in which to achieve this goal is essentially to enable the blog to be a point of dialog, essentially the means of conversation between both Crossways students, past and present, and academics.

The creation of a virtual symposium which operates within the blog serves precisely this purpose, and while I have some ideas, the point of the symposium is participation and to that end I would like to invite any suggestions that you, current and previous mundus students might have.

Several key features of the proposed symposium include:

Brevity – individual submissions should not exceed 2000 words, this is for a variety of reasons, Crossways students are generally rather occupied, as are academics, and a shorter length invites a greater level of participation, in so far as it is easier to read and respond to a shorter academic article.

Round table style discussion – the symposium as I would like to propose it would be centred on a specific subject area and consist of a variety of responses and counter responses, a slightly more elaborated academic debate, if you will, that one might be likely to find in a conference. Each submission may respond to one or more of the previous submissions creating a network of academic consideration that is heterogeneous, if not explicitly heterological.

Outside Academic Participation – following discussions with Prof Girard, the symposium would invite academics both within and without the program to both contribute and to evaluate potential submissions in order to ensure that the symposium conforms to the high academic standards that are demanded within the Mundus Crossways program.

One of the key features of such a symposium is precisely the potential pool of participation and of expertise, being a ‘virtual’ symposium there is no question of time limit or of location, all past and present Mundus Crossways students would be invited to participate, along with academics from a variety of locations. Also, nothing the importance of publications in academic life and the difficulty new academics experience in breaking into journal publications, this symposium could offer vital experience and serve as a stepping stone in the creation of an academic career.

The salient point is that while such a symposium has a lot of potential to be both engaging, exciting and useful to current and past students, the success of such a symposium rests on community participation.

To this end, and to enable further organisation of the symposium the question of the topic needs to be addressed. Again, in order to ensure maximum participation the subject in question should be accessible – that is not too domain specific, while nevertheless retaining a level of academic rigor. So, in the comments section of this post, feel free to suggest a topic, or topics, either in the form of a title, or of a quote that would be a point of departure.

Appartamento bergamasco in affito

Marco and Giulia Patelli are willing to welcome a Crossway’s tribe for the next semester to their wonderful flat at Bergamo. Here are 6 reasons why this flat is perfect for Mundus Students

1. It is 125 m2

2. And has Three bedrooms (two single and one double)

3. As well as a Living room

4. The Sixth and last floor has two (!) terraces, with views of the Città Alta and the gli Alpi Orobia.

5. A Complete kitchen and bathroom equipment including electric oven, washing machine, dish washer and Jacuzzi.

6. The Geographical situation: Borgo Santa Caterina District. Just 15 min. walk from Via Pignolo and St. Agostinho Library, 25 min. from Città Alta and Città Bassa Town Center (Train and Bus Station).

The owners are very kind people. Both are professors and know everything about Bergamo as Mrs. Patelli also works at the tourism office. They love discovering new cultures.

Contact: marcopatelli1@virgilio.it or (+39) 3472228229

They Speak Italian, German, English and Spanish.

Call for articles and photos - EMA Magazine

The next issue of Emanate, EMA's own magazine, will be published in late autumn. Submit your articles and photos until September 20, 2009, and take your chance to share your thoughts with the EMA members in the new issue!

Thanks to great contribution of EMA members, Emanate magazine has become a very successuful visual product of the Association. In order to give you, dear EMA members, more chances to express yourself, the Emanate magazine will now have two issues per year: in late autumn and in spring.

The Theme: "Solving Conflicts …. Let's Talk!"
We are facing conflicts everywhere around us - from personal to societal and global conflicts in areas as diverse as emotions, gender, equality, ethnicity, relationships, religion, culture, politics, economy, entertainment, science, healthcare, sports, climate, media, poverty, environment and other ... What can we do to solve them? Write about issues close to your heart or from your field of study and make yourself heard through Emanate!
As different as the realms in which conflicts seem to increasingly play a role, as interested are we to read your creative interpretations of the topic. Suggestive and objective articles that point out your opinion are welcome.

Guidelines and Requirements
If you would like to see your thoughts on this topic to be published in our magazine, please send your article to magazine AT em-a.eu before September 20, 2009.

Submitted articles should:
- be creative, ambitious, expressive.
- include a heading and briefly outline the content at the beginning.
- be between 500 and 1,000 words in length - longer articles, if selected, will be shortened.
- be interesting for all of the EMA community - Emanate is not an academic journal and while contributions from your field of study are welcome, articles should also be accessible for non-expert readers.
have in-text citations and references - the format of the magazine does not allow for bibliographies or footnotes.
- indicate your full name, study years, nationality and Erasmus Mundus Master Course.

You may also submit photos to illustrate your article, but please make sure that you own the rights of the pictures! Photos used for illustrations do not automatically take part in the photo competition. If you would like to participate, please make sure to submit your photo according to the guidelines stated below.

Photo Competition
We also encourage you to send your photos reflecting your understanding of solving conflicts to participate in the photo competition.

The photo should:
- have a resolution of 4 megapixels and higher - if there are problems with sending such a large file by email, you are welcome to submit a smaller preview. However, your photo must be available in high quality.
- be taken by the person who is submitting it.
- be accompanied by your full name, nationality, master course, and 2 or 3 lines explaining how your photograph illustrates the theme "Solving Conflicts .... Let's Talk".
- not be one of several - only one photo per participant is allowed for submission.
- Please note that you should hold all rights related to the photo - which is usually the case when you are the photographer. However, publication of photos of other persons or small groups require the consent of those portraited. It is your responsibility that your picture does not bear any legal infringements - please make sure of that when you submit your photograph.

The winner, chosen by EMA community, will be awarded with a nice prize.

Imagine a world without conflicts. Lets talk!

Submission Deadline
All work should be submitted by email before 20 September 2009. Please send your contributions to magazine(AT)em-a.eu.

Interzones - EACEA Report

Herewith further information regarding the Interzones doctoral program. The following information is drawn from the executive summary of the Education, Audiovisual & Cultural Executive Agency (EACEA) Joint Doctoral Program Evaluation Report and highlights several aspects of the program that were particularly interesting to the Education, Audiovisual & Cultural Executive Agency and which were consequently key in the decision to support the application.

One of the first elements which the committee commented upon as a particularly strong point in the program was the use of a poly-systemic and trans-disciplinary (as opposed to interdisciplinary) approach as well as the use of a broad set of comparative perspectives (past-present, geographical distance & cultural difference) in order to enable the potential doctoral students to “credibly anticipate the forthcoming challenges of European research”. Students who have already been involved in the Mundus Masters program will be familiar with the variety of approaches that are encouraged and, moreover, stimulated, by the ever changing academic environment in which the students find themselves. Quite evidently the doctoral program builds on this, in including 2 non-European universities, the diversity of this program is emphasised and students will consequently benefit from an exposure to vastly different ways of life both social and academic. The committee emphasise precisely this, valorising the lifetime and professional experience garnered as a result of zigzagging from one continent to the other in the course of the doctoral program. They also highlight the strong academic nature of the program and the challenging and enthusiastic approach that the doctoral program takes, as well as the importance placed on future “employability” given the links that have been and will continue to be forged between both partner institutions and the private sector.

Further remarks of importance include those related to the experience and excellence of the members of the committee that will run the doctoral program (including Prof. Didier Girard.) as well as their success in the Mundus program (it should be noted that the new and revised Mundus Masters Student handbook has been praised as an example of good practice by the EACEA – and as regards current Mundus students, it should be available at the start of the semester, if not earlier, from your respective universities). The EACEA praised the concept of a doctoral student logbook that would help enable supervision to be well coordinated and largely seamless between the various universities that doctoral students will attend. In a similar manner to the Mundus program, an internal blog will be created to facilitate communication, as well as an extensive website, which remains for the time being under construction.

In conclusion, while there are some small critiques regarding the nature of the organisation (for instance, poorly defined roles for certain participants, and a lack of external body assessment of the program) these critiques are easily surmountable and moreover, having been noted in the official report are sure to be addressed by Prof. Girard and his team in the coming months before the start of the program. Finally, the report notes clearly the “already elite and groundbreaking reputation” of the Interzones Doctoral program leaving no doubt that this is one of the most exciting multilingual and multinational programs in the humanities.