FORTHEM workshops in Mainz and Luxembourg

In the week of June 19-24, the members of the Diversity and Migration Lab were working with the Lab colleagues at the Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz and with the Migration and Inclusive Societies Lab at the University of Luxembourg on visual inquiry. The workshops and screenings evolved around the documentaries produced in Opole during the September 2022 SPOTLIGHT summer school.

On 21st June, the event, titled “Illuminating placemaking and identity” took place at the KINOSCH cinema hall of the Kulturfabrik centre, in Esch-sur-Alzette in Luxembourg. The afternoon screening and podium discussion were organized by Prof. Gabriele Budach (University of Luxembourg) and Dr Michał Wanke (University of Opole). Following the screening of Spotlight student short etudes, Madelaine Wood, a PhD candidate at the University of Luxembourg and the participant of the Spotlight Summer School in 2022, moderated the roundtable discussion with Dr Karina Gaibulina (University of St.Gallen/University of Opole fellow), Dr Ágnes Erőss (Geographical Institute, RCAES, Budapest) and Dr Michał Wanke, instructors and organizers of the summer school, and Karolina Fernandez (MA student of the Learning and Communication in Multilingual and Multicultural Contexts, University of Luxembourg https://wwwen.uni.lu/studies/fhse/master_in_learning_and_communication_in_multilingual_and_multicultural_contexts), who was also a Spotlight 2022 participant. After the introduction of the concept of the Spotlight Summer School, they shared their experiences, and thanks to the questions and comments from the audience, a vivid discussion unfolded.  

On the 23rd and 24th June, another workshop was organized by the team from the Institute of Geography, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Prof. Veronika Cummings, Dr Elizabeth Sommerland, Julian Zschocke, MA, and Dr Michał Wanke. In Mainz Clara Kleininger-Wanik (University of Opole/University of Exeter), an instructor at the Spotlight Summer School, and two former Spotlight participants, Sasha Ongley and Toriqul Islam, students of the JGU’s Globalisation, Media and Culture MA programme (https://www.studying.uni-mainz.de/globalization-media-and-culture-human-geography-m-a/) joined in the conversation about Spotlight 2022. The two-day workshop, titled „Doing Film Geography: Using Videography and Film Making in Research and Teaching” gave the participants an opportunity not only to present and promote the Spotlight among colleagues and students of the JGU Mainz, but to work together and exchange ideas about using film in geography, what makes a film geographical or what we can learn from visual anthropology.

Before the event in Mainz, another Diversity and Migration Lab meeting was held together with Prof. David Bousquet (University of Burgundy, Dijon) and Joanna Wrzesień-Kwiatkowska (PhD candidate in linguistics at the JGU) and Prof. Gerhard Kruip (JGU) and Edith Wittenbrink - former Lab coordinators in Mainz. IncluKIT project, financed by FIT FORTHEM, was further developed and future endeavours planned, which include a joint research grant application by the involved parties and continuation of other Lab projects.

The next SPOTLIGHT summer school will take place in August and September 2023 in Józsefváros, the 8th district of Budapest with the involvement of many FORTHEM students and UO Erasmus partners, including visual anthropologists from the KA171 partner FLACSO Ecuador. Workshops and screening sessions in Mainz and Luxembourg will follow next year as well.

The SPOTLIGHT summer school was generously funded by the University of St. Gallen, and the June events were funded by the FORTHEM office of JGU, the University of Luxembourg and individual KA103 mobility grants of the UO Lab members.