Welcome

This blog was created as part of the Erasmus Mundus Crossways in Cultural Narratives Masters programme, which is the only one of the EU approved and funded Erasmus Mundus Masters programmes to specialise in traditional humanities with a modern languages background. The Crossways Consortium comprises 6 top-class European universities.

For further information, please check the programme's official website and the universities' websites on the Useful Links section on the left. If you wish to have a specific question answered, please click on Email here and submit your query.

Mundus students, here you will find regular posts regarding the universities of the consortium, tips, activities, events, pictures, etc. Apart from checking it regularly to keep yourself up to date, a good way to use the blog is through the search device. We already have a significant amount of information on some universities of the consortium, so if you want to find information on a specific city, type its name in the search field (top left). You will then see all posts related to that specific city (because each post title contains the city's name in it). You can also type "General" in order to find information concerning everybody.

Saturday 8 August 2009

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.

Monday 3 August 2009

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.