FORTHEM summer school on Symbolic Boundaries has come to an end

The FORTHEM alliance's Diversity and Migration Lab summer school, Symbolic Boundaries & Multidisciplinary Perspectives: A Summer School on Diversity, Distinction and Difference (Frontières Symboliques et Perspectives Multidisciplinaires, Une Université d'Été sur la Diversité, la Distinction et la Différence) concluded on July 22, 2022.

The guests were welcomed by the UO Vice-Rector for Research, Prof. Jacek Lipok, who attended the opening of the school at the UO Museum, together with the Vice-Rector for Academic and Student Affairs, Prof. Izabella Pisarek, the Dean of the Faculty of Philology, Dr Elżbieta Szymańska-Czaplak, and the Director of the Institute of Literatures, Prof. Ryszard Wolny. The students listened to an inaugural lecture by Prof. Benno Herzog, president of DiscourseNet - International Association of Discourse Studies. The lecture dealt with the consequences of reification and was inspired by a quote from Pat Parker: The first thing you do is to forget that i'm Black. Second, you must never forget that i'm Black” The participants also took part in a sociological walk around Opole, led by Dr Borys Cymbrowski from the Jagiellonian University in Krakow. During the conference day, students listened to dozens of lectures by professors from Valencia, Palermo, Dijon and Opole, but also from Israel, the United States and Iran (Erasmus+ project KA107), who use the concept of symbolic borders in their work.

The participants also took a field trip to the Central Museum of Prisoners of War in Łambinowice, where they worked in the former POW - Lamsdorf camp analysing the social stratification of prisoners and the narratives associated with them. From the fourth day of the school, students presented, grosso modo, their doctoral, master's or bachelor's theses, inspired by Dr Natalia Krawczyk's lecture on invisible women in art and the works of the students of the Faculty of Art exhibited in the Contemporary Art Gallery. During several interactive sessions, colleagues from universities from Burgundy, Valencia, Opole and others answered students' questions. In the working week's closing session, students presented their final projects and critically discussed what they had learned during their short mobility at the UO. The projects focused on the body and gender in literature (literary studies), in sport (education), racism (philosophy) or racism against Spanish Roma (sociology), as well as violence against women (communication and media), etc.

The summer school was organised by members of the FORTHEM Diversity and Migration Lab - Dr Anna Ledwina, Prof. UO, Prof. Domingo Pujante, Dr Michal Wanke, Clara Kleininger-Wanik, M.A., Prof. Carmen Carmona, Prof. Benno Herzog, Dr David Bousquet, Dr Virginie Brinker, Dr Julia Haba-Osca et al. and Halina Palmer-Piestrak. The substantive sessions were accompanied by organized and informal walks, dinners and outings. This short-term joint mobility was so far the only activity organised by the FORTHEM alliance in Opole, and was attended by students from the universities from Latvia, Burgundy and Valencia, as well as the UO.

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