Social Sciences and Humanities Going Public - Research and Practice with, in and for the Society

This CIVIS blended intensive programme will introduce participating students to the field of Public Social Sciences and Humanities, with an emphasis on Anthropology, Ethnography, Literary and Folklore Studies and Education (AELFE).

The Public here means a shift in the dissemination of the knowledge that these disciplines produce, especially concerning issues of wider public interest, such as:

• inequalities and inequities regarding access to resources,
• participation and recognition,
• belonging and homemaking,
• discrimination and racism.

How do people and communities respond to these issues? How do they create belonging and acceptance or build communities around these issues? How do public state and non state institutions and organisations support community building? What can critical Human/ Social sciences contribute to enable processes of community-building? These are some of the questions we will address in this program.

The Public also means to not just work with and speak about communities, but to actively engage with stakeholders and members of the civil society and work jointly on solutions. These are e.g. museums, NGOs, local communities or neighbourhood associations.

AELFE, with their theoretical foundations and methodological apparatuses, are ideally placed to explore these social and communal issues as mentioned above. Yet, the challenge that these disciplines face today is to turn this potential into reality, return their knowledge to people and communities and engage with them once more, as scholars and partners.

Throughout this course, we will discuss how the concepts and methods of these different disciplines can contribute to this endeavour. Students will work in small groups on projects with an applied character. They will gain hands-on experience and learn how to work in an inter- and transdisciplinary fashion in order to achieve a better understanding of the contemporary societies we live in and the changes they undergo.

The members of our dynamic team of academics have had a long-term and productive collaboration relating to this BIP, which has been running for the past four years. We are combining our efforts to teach jointly the three streams into which our programme will be divided, so that our students may have the benefit of truly interdisciplinary perspectives, aligned with CIVIS’ strategic goals, such as inclusiveness, collaboration, a well-balanced geographical distribution of students and staff, and co-creation of knowledge and skills, proven by the extensive interaction with stakeholders that we are planning to have.

We have identified three broader common fields, which are strongly interlinked, but for practical purposes we use them as separate themes (and streams) to organise the teaching around them:

1. Museum and Material Culture and the formation of identities. This includes institutional collections and heritage sites as well as institutions such as state organized culture knowledge banks, and non-professional heritage institutions such as the internet. Important museums and archives expressing and promoting heritage aspects and practices in contemporary Bucharest will be visited during the course. Students will engage with the material collections and work together with the communities relating to these objects to understand the importance objects play for communities.
2. Folklore, Orality and local culture - focus on the formation of identities. Comparative folklore, local/public folklore, urban folklore/urban culture, folklore and/in education. Students will explore public spaces, such as streets and buildings, collect narratives and/or folkloristic expressions and research the meaning and practice of them for the creation of collective memories as well as for identity production.
3. Migration and Diversity – focus on identities, social inclusion and education. In this stream students engage e.g. with migrant, diasporic and refugee communities and individuals and research what migration means on the everyday level and how migration/movement impacts on groups' or individuals' belonging or non-belonging. Students learn e.g. how state institutions and N.G.O.’s establish programs and tools and foster and support inclusion and education and how those targeted respond to them.

Upon completion of the course, the students will have:

• gained an understanding of what publically oriented social sciences and humanities may mean;
• learnt about the prominent research and dissemination methods employed in the orientation of these disciplines towards a wider audience and develop a critical and constructive perspective on their uses;
• explored and understanded the ways and strategies through which local, regional, national and transnational identities are forged in the public sphere by means of joint academic and grassroots, i.e. community- and stakeholder-derived, exchanges in contemporary Europe;
• expanded and deepened the students’ knowledge regarding issues and challenges in the fields of material culture, local culture, narratives/oral tradition, folklore and migration, as they have developed in the social sciences and the humanities with an emphasis on contemporary Europe;
• appreciated the value of the comparative perspective when applied to the study of material culture, local culture, narratives/ oral tradition, folklore and migration in contemporary Europe;
• received training in these methods;
• acquired an understood of the interdisciplinary theoretical background of the methodologies used when addressing issues associated with the ‘Public’;
• been able to use this knowledge to complete the tasks assigned to the students and solve problems that require critical thinking;
• exchanged knowledge across disciplines and universities.

Additionally, some of the CIVIS and EU priorities that our BIP intends to work on with students and social partners include social equity, inclusiveness, a collaborative orientation, co-creation of knowledge and skills jointly with stakeholders, and emphasis on a well-balanced geographical distribution of our human (students, teachers, public speakers) and academic resources (interdisciplinary methodologies, theories, environments and ethnographic examples).

The physical mobility part will take place between 12-16 July 2027 in Bucharest, Romania. It will consist of lectures, workshops and visits to various places of interest, in which students will practice field research techniques, such as participant observation and interviews. There will also be times for study and co-creation of their projects, which they will present at the conclusion of the programme.

All students will visit heritage sites in Bucharest and surroundings to be given the opportunity to reflect on different types of heritage.

Students will visit public institutions, museums, organisations and NGOs as well as local urban areas and enterprises, according to their streams:

1. Stream One students will visit museums, such as the Museum of the Romanian Peasant and The Village Museum and will employ ethnographic walking in various districts of Athens, observing the interior and exterior of houses, galleries and cultural centres.
2. Stream Two students will also practice ethnographic walking through the central areas of Bucharest, where they will conduct fieldwork and interviews.
3. Stream Three students will immerse in the cultural diversity of Bucharest, where they will interact with migrants and refugees. They will participate in a workshop employing the world cafe methodology, entitled "Exploring Refugee and Migrant Subjectivity (Life Worlds) through Narratives", to become acquainted with the impact of education on the formation of heritage and social identities.

The students of each stream will work in smaller groups (around 3-5 students) on designated projects, which involve training fieldwork exercises, e.g. in the form of interviews and participant observation. The information gathered during this practice will be critically reflected, assessed and analysed in class and developed into group project presentations, taking place at the end of the week.

Collaboration among students and self-directed learning is employed in both our virtual and physical phases of the BIP. The hands-on element is present in their visits to museums and ethnographic experience and they are connected with real-world challenges during their visits and participation in the learning activities of the NGOs catering for migrants and refugees.

The virtual part of the course will consist of 4 online sessions, during which the main theoretical approaches of each stream will be dealt with. Teaching dates and hours are to be further decided on the basis of the number of students enrolled and their preferences for the streams. Possible problems on specific dates due to the university schedules of participant students will be dealt with accordingly. The classes will be held on Fridays, starting with 6 P.M., Bucharest time.

In the virtual component, we start with a kick-off meeting, in which teachers and students are introduced to each other and the entire BIP (aims, streams, objectives etc.). This is followed a keynote lesson, and then the lessons for each stream conducted by members of the teaching staff who deliver lectures introducing the topics, basic concepts, theories and methodologies employed by each stream, i.e. material culture and museums, local cultures, urban folklore and orality, and migration and diversity.

They also discuss the projects the students will have to deliver at the end of the physical phase of the course and provide bibliographical resources for their study. The students make acquaintances with their instructors and with each other. They may work in small mixed teams, read and discuss texts and develop their knowledge about the topics they study. They may also start preparing the practical component of their chosen stream.

The students' assessment will be based on their final presentation (written and oral). The criteria by which students' presentations will be evaluated are the following:

• coherence, understandability and stringency of the presentation - 50%
• consideration of societal issues and civic engagement - 25%
• theoretical contextualization of the empirical material - 25%

Motivation Letter

Level of english (According to CEFR)

CV

Students will be evaluated based on:

• motivation - the reason behind the application for the BIP;
• display of an inquisitive mind;
• display of interest in other cultures and in the "other";
• level of accomplishment in the English language;

• Vassiliki Chryssanthopoulou, National & Kapodistrian University of Athens, Professor of FolkloreStudies, is a social anthropologist-cum-folklorist specialized in the study of migration, ethnicity, diasporas andtransnationalism.
• Georgios Kouzas, National & Kapodistrian University of Athens, Assistant Professor of Urban Folklore. He is afolklorist with a wide experience in the areas of oral folklore and literature, but also material culture and identity,especially among marginalized groups, such as beggars in Athens.
• Marlen Mouliou, Assistant Professor of Museology at the NKUA (Dept. of History and Archaeology, Masters Programme in Museum Studies). Coordinator of the CIVIS Alliance Open Labs at the NKUA (2019-today). A Fulbright Fellow (2023), her research centers on museum interpretation and the social role of museums. Between 2023-2026, she participated in a national research project on the arts and mental health as a member of the Art on Prescription Research Committee. Previously, she spent 16 years as an archaeologist-museologist for the Hellenic Ministry of Culture. She has held leadership roles in major heritage organizations (EMYA, CAMOC-ICOM, UNIVERSEUM). She is also a member of the CoMuseum International Advisory Committee. She has been part or/and lead multiple museum and exhibition making projects. She co-edited the Routledge book Revisiting Museums of Influence. Four decades of Innovation and Public Quality in European Museums, Routledge, 2021. Mouliou holds an MA and PhD in Museology from the University of Leicester and a degree in Archaeology and History of Art from the NKUA.
• Gabriele Alex, Univeristy of Tübingen, Professor of Social and Cultural Anthropology, gained her PhD from BrunelUniversity and joined Tübingen University in 2010.
• Alessandra Broccolini, a cultural anthropologist, is an associate professor in the Department of Social and Economic Sciences at Sapienza University of Rome, where she teaches Cultural Anthropology and Territorial Anthropology. Her research focuses on “paesi” and inland areas, space and place, heritage-making processes, festive traditions, ethnographic museums, ecomuseums, and identity polics. She has written numerous essays on festivals and intangible heritage, carnivals, ethnographic museums, ecomuseums, local knowledge, sense of place and biocultural heritage. Her most recent publications include: «Agrifeasts: remarks on rural life's festivalisation», in P.B. Larsen, and F. Graezer Bideau (eds), Heritage and festival entanglements: Changing values, identities, and practices, 2026, Siracusa, Lettera Ventidue, pp. 63-80; «Safeguarding Living Heritage as Space for Collective Engagement. The Role of Civil Society and Heritage Communities», in P.L. Petrillo (ed.),  Intangible Cultural Heritage Law and the Digital Era Living Heritage, Civil Society, and Sustainable Development, London, Routledge, 2027 (in press).
• Olga Camdaco,  a socio-behavioural and public health researcher with doctoral training in Epidemiology and Public Health and current postdoctoral research in pediatric HIV at Eduardo Mondlane University. My work integrates epidemiological approaches with qualitative, participatory, and implementation-oriented research to understand how social and health-system factors influence health outcomes among vulnerable populations in resource-constrained settings.
• Adrian Stoicescu, University of Bucharest, Associate Professor of Ethnology and Folklore Studies. He got his PhD with a thesis on gender studies in oral epics from the University of Bucharest in 2011 and was a fellow of the Romanian Academy in the field of digital ethnography.
• Adelina Dogaru Alexa, University of Bucharest, is a Lecturer in the Department of Cultural Studies. Her research focuses on the anthropology of the senses, oral narratives, semiotics, and the arts.
• Gabriel Tamas, University of Bucharest, Assistant Professor of Ethnology and Folklore Studies. His main areas of interest are urban culture, contemporary folklore and mythology.

Blended Intensive Programme

This CIVIS course is a Blended Intensive Programme (BIP): a new format of Erasmus+ mobility which combines online teaching with a short trip to another campus to learn alongside students and professors across Europe.

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