Summer universities
From 1994 to 2003, Transeuropéennes has organised 23 interdisciplinary summer universities, intended for graduate students in the humanities, social science, political science, journalism and communication, who all had in common some form of political involvement. Transeuropéennes’ and its partner-organisations’ goal is to provide an alternative form of training for young students and professionals from the Balkans, on crucial subjects for the region.
Those training courses, either French or English-speaking, lasted three weeks and took place every year in the Balkans and in Strasbourg, in partnership with local organisations (universities, NGOs, foundations). They were launched in Rennes in 1994.
Aiming both at creating an informal Euro-Mediterranean space for cooperation and interaction and at developing and reinforcing innovative networks involved in the ongoing democratisation processes in the Balkans, Transeuropéennes draws upon a double network.
More than 700 young opinion shapers, former participants in Transeuropéennes summer university programmes, have been encouraged to develop networking activities aimed at fighting ideologies of hatred and violence, struggling against the manipulation of culture and knowledge for political purposes, and to foster the democratising of academic life (i.e. organisation of meetings, forums of discussion, etc.). Some 400 professors, researchers, NGO activists, writers, artists, journalists, local representatives… took part either in the recruitment of students for the summer universities or/and participated in the summer univresities as speakers.
XXth English Speaking Summer University
The XXth Summer University took place in Macedonia, a very symbolic country for what concerns the relationships between the Religion and the Politics and their role in the identity building or claiming processes. Co-organised for the second year with the Skopje-based Euro-Balkan Institute, the Summer University has been held in the aftermath of Macedonian events and in the expectation of the forthcoming general elections of September, crucial moment for the future stability of Macedonia.
XIXth Summer University
Transeuropéennes’ nineteenth summer university was held in Strasbourg from 10 - 30 September 2001 and brought together twenty-five young French-speaking journalists or journalism students from twelve different countries in the region to collectively reflect on the theme of borders in Europe.
XVIIIth French-language Summer University in the Humanities
The summer university, organised for the sixth year in a row in conjunction with the Marc Bloch University, brought together twenty-nine third or fourth-year students in the humanities and political science from all the countries of the region, with the exception of Cyprus.
XVIIth English Speaking Summer University
The programme is based upon the recognition of the role played by the human sciences and culture in the forms of ethno-nationalism which have developed in the Balkans, and above all in the countries which made up the former Yugoslavia, over the past ten years, and of the weight of the communist heritage in the renewal of the humanities and culture.
XVIth French-language summer university for young and future professionals in the field of journalism
The summer university jointly organised with the University centre for journalism studies and ARTE focused on investigative journalism, and, in its relationship with practices of inquiry, on documentary film. What need is there, for a journalist, to carry out inquiries into the past? Should journalists leave the past to historians? What are the skills and techniques required for a job that has to do with verifying information, exploiting archives and making use of testimony?
XVth French-language Summer University for students in the humanities
Transeuropéennes’ fifteenth summer university took place for the fifth consecutive year in partnership with the Marc Bloch University, from 3 - 23 September 2000 in Strasbourg. It brought together twenty-eight students from Southeast Europe around the following question: “Can we get rid of the past?”
XIVth English-language Summer University for students in the humanities
Close to the working title in 1999 (Communitybased strategies and civil society), the title for 2000 sought to formulate more straightforwardly the problematic of the individual, as a political subject, caught between the community in which he or she is rooted and the transversal dynamics of the civil society.