Summer with Science: two schools, 25 scholarship

“Africas: mobility, violence, memory and creativity” and “Summer School in Communication and Culture for Development” are the names of the two CECS projects included in the “Summer with Science” program. In operation between July and October, the initiative aims to stimulate the development of “Summer Schools”, with integrated initiatives of R&D and higher education in person. In this context, 20 research grants and 5 research initiation grants were awarded to the CECS.

João Sarmento, a researcher at CECS and professor of Geography at the UMinho Institute of Social Sciences, is responsible for the school “Africas: mobility, violence, memory and creativity“. This summer school, which holds 15 of the 25 scholarships financed, seeks to stimulate a multidisciplinary look from the social sciences, humanities and arts to, on and from the African continent, and provide specific training on this territory. The objectives are the training of students for critical thinking, and strategies, methods, objects and research topics. Knowledge and skills are developed to enable the design and continuation of an autonomous research project, allowing candidates to acquire skills in research, analysis, interpretation and criticism of sources, mainly from digital archives and resources. present at the university and at the research centre.

Lurdes Macedo, a researcher at CECS, coordinates the “Summer School in Communication and Culture for Development” that seeks to problematize the social functions of communication and culture in a post-industrial world. The school’s 10 fellows will also reflect on the practices undertaken in strategic planning projects for development. Communication and culture can be used at various levels in these contexts, most of the time, more for their instrumental nature than for their transformative nature in the face of intervention processes and change objectives. The same is to say that the effects of persuasion are far more explored than the virtues of training when planning the social functions of communication and culture in development projects. Experiences and critical reflections on this type of interventions will be shared by several of the trainers of the seminars of this Summer School.

[Posted: 03-08-2020]