The purpose of the course is to allow students to work together in small groups (3-4 people), to formulate a detailed synopsis for a (hypothetical) field research project discussing power, state and / or nationalism in a specific location in one of the countries in East / Central Europe. Students will not do actual fieldwork, but will go through the entire process of planning fieldwork and writing up a complete project proposal.
This is an Internet-assisted course, which will be held simultaneously at the universities of Copenhagen and Vilnius. Some of the student groups will be include students from both universities, who will cooperate on their project proposal via email. The Lithuanian students will be able to gather material from Lithuania and neighboring countries, which will greatly enhance the realism of the project work.
The course will be structured differently in Copenhagen and Vilnius. In Copenhagen, the course will consist of lectures, whole-day seminars, workshops and intensive councelling (see the course plan for details). After a three-week introduction, two whole-days seminars will be held, one discussing practical questions of formulating a research project and a fieldwork synopsis, the other discussing theoretical issues of power, nationalism and the state. The student groups will then work independently for several weeks, collecting material and formulating preliminary project proposals, which will be discussed at workshops and lectures in the beginning of the second half of the course. After further student work on the projects, including a week of intensive councelling, the finalized project formulations will be presented and discussed at a whole-day seminar.
In Vilnius, the course will consist of lectures, seminars and workshops which will be held every Thursday 12. 00 - 14.00 in room 29. After three introductory lectures follow two lectures on project work where students are already expected to present their first ideas of individual or group projects. Then three weeks are planned for seminars discussing theoretical issues of power, state and nationalism. After this some workshops are planned during which students are expected to present and discuss their project work. In week 46 teachers exchange is planned and we are looking forward to lectures given by Finn Sivert Nielsen (Copenhagen University). Then follow two weeks of intensive project work councelling. The finalized projects will be presented and discussed at the end of the course (week 49-50).