European Renaissance IV: Western versus Eastern Europe

The BIP will focus on the Renaissance culture (XIV-XVI cent.) and its Western and Eastern (later) facets, as a key to the construction of a European Cultural Tradition based on the classical heritage. The BIP will have a strong interdisciplinary perspective, from philosophy to religion, from literature and linguistics, to figurative arts and music; from history and historiography, to social and natural sciences.

European Renaissance IV is an interdisciplinary, cross-cultural and cross-national, research-based, pedagogy oriented, inclusive project, with a strong transEuropean perspective and focus.

The online seminars will be hosted in collaboration between the three organizing universities (University of Bucharest, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid and National and Kapodistrian University of Athens), with their parteners (Sapienza Università di Roma, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Aix-Marseille Université; Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen and Université Hassan II of Casablanca). 

The seminars will be coordinated by students in collaboration with guest speakers. Each seminar will cover a different area of the European Renaissance and the Mediterranean. The specific themes to be discussed will emerge from the concurring interests of the participants in the BIP, in a collaborative way. The platforms used will be Moodle and Zoom.

The 5 days face-to-face activities will be held at the University of Bucharest.

• Boundaries of the Renaissance in Western versus Eastern Europe
• The most important characteristics of the European Renaissance
• Evolution of Renaissance ideas in the various fields
• Diversity of cultural histories of European and Mediterranean lands and people shaped by and lived through in the light of European Renaissance
• Contribution of the European Renaissance in the birth and shaping of the following centuries, not only in Europe.

Taking this course, the students will get familiarized with the diversity of cultural histories. They will also understand how lands were shaped by and people and lived through in the light of European Renaissance.

The physical mobility part will be running from 9 to 13 June 2025 in Bucharest, Romania. 

Precisely because it is located in Eastern Europe, Romania is one of the best places to understand cultural differences in the XIV - XVI centuries. The University of Bucharest will organize workshops, visits to museums (The National Museum of the History of Romania, The National Museum of Art, The National Museum of Old Maps and Books Bucharest), trips to places where there are vestiges of the Oriental Renaissances: churches and monasteries, buildings - The Brâncovan Palace Museum in Mogoșoaia etc.

The program includes 10 online online meetings, spread between 6 February - 10 April 2025:

• 06.02.2025: Redescovering classicism. Renaissance philosophy 
• 13.02.2025: Social, political and religious changes
• 20.02.2025: Italian Renaissance Literature (1)
• 27.02.2025: Italian Renaissance Literature (2)
• 06.02.2025: English Reinassance Literature
• 13.03.2025: Renaissance in Iberian Peninsula, France, Germany and the Netherlands
• 20.03.2025: Renaissance Art
• 27.03.2025: Renaissance science and technology
• 03.04.2025: Eastern Reinassance (1)
• 10.04.2025: Eastern Reinassance (2)

The final evaluation will have two components:

• essay (50%)
• oral presentation (50%)

The attendees will receive 6 ECTS for this programme.

Motivation Letter

Level of english (According to CEFR)

CV

The relevance of this BIP for the candidate's further academic development; consistency with the candidate's study curriculum; (where applicable) successful participation in other BIPs.

The instructors are recognized members of the scientific community. Some of them are on their fifth collaboration in a Civis project, others - such as the African colleagues - are joining for the first time .

Their expertise is different, from history:

• Ecaterina Lung, Alexandrina Lițu-Gîrboviceanu, Marian Coman - UB
• Manuel and Antonio Sánchez, UAM; Gerassimos Pagratis - NKUA
• Leila Maziane - University Hassan II de Casablanca

to literature:

• Emilio Russo - SUR
• Claudio Gigante - ULB
• Sophie Singlard - AMU
• Roxana Utale - UB,

from sociology to economics, from music and figurativ arts to political science, from philosophy to religion.