3rd Summer School 2007
Aims of the Summer School
The aims of the Summer School include
- to expose junior academics to a wider range of expertise on theoretical and methodological approaches than would normally be available at a single institution,
- to provide a forum to discuss empirical developments and other academic matters with students and specialized staff from Western and Central Eastern Europe,
- to help graduate / PhD researchers develop their dissertation projects / theses, and
- to stimulate closer academic co-operation between junior researchers in Political Science across Europe.
The more general objectives of the Summer School include:
- promoting the Europeanisation of Political Science teaching and research skills,
- disseminating best practice in research on governance and democracy, and
- helping to shape the awareness of Central Eastern European issues amongst participating student cohorts that will no doubt include future European university academics.
Themes and Subjects of the Summer School
The overall theme of the Standing Group’s Summer School will focus on the performance of governance and democracy in Central Eastern Europe during and after the phase of transition and consolidation. Thus, the PhD-training will build upon the comparative research findings of democratic politics in Western Europe (Powell, Lijphart, Keman, Schmidt). It will attempt to analyze the basic assumptions of these studies for Central Eastern European countries.
In addition to this academic program, a one-day excursion to Hamburg and a twoday academic excursion to Berlin is integral part of the program. This excursion takes place over the weekend. Participants will visit the German Bundestag and meet members of parliament specialized on EU policy and on the relationship between Germany and Central and Eastern Europe.
Course Organization
The Summer School comprizes an intensive program of lectures, seminars and presentations of students’ research projects. The teaching language will be English. It is expected that there will be ten teaching days, each of which will be organized around a topical research question related to the overall theme of the Summer School. Each day will consist of two main teaching elements, each of which is scheduled to last 3 hours. The overall number of class contact hours will thus be about 60. The first teaching element will commence with a presentation by a staff member of his / her ongoing research project, or forthcoming publication. This will be followed by a question-and-answer session designed to enable the students to gain better understanding of how theoretical, methodological and empirical aspects are being utilized at the cutting edge of the discipline. Staff will be asked to elaborate on these aspects and, if possible, relate them to the topics that are studied by the students. In the second teaching element, two or more students will each present a paper of approx. 30 minutes duration on the design or empirical findings of their research proposal. The presentations will be followed by a period of intensive discussion between all participants.
Student Contributions
A Summer School is only as good as its participants. To ensure the active involvement of all researchers, participants will be expected to fulfill certain requirements:
- Each participant will be required to prepare a paper related to the topic of their research and to lead the discussion on the paper.
- Researchers' papers must be produced in typescript in advance of the Summer School and should comprize no less than 7,000 - 8,000 words.
- It is the responsibility of participants to ensure that:
- a copy of their final paper and of their abstract in word.doc is sent to the Director in Lüneburg, to arrive no later than July 30, 2007 (daadsummerschool@uni-lueneburg.de).
- that their paper is sent by email to all participants of the Summer School before arrival.
- A complete list of participants´ email adressess will be circulated to all successful applicants.
Student Assessment and Accreditation
Each participant fulfilling the above mentioned requirements will receive a certificate of participation. In general, the procedure of assessment and accreditation would be as follows:
Assessment of Student Work
- Each researcher will be assessed by the paper presented at the Summer School.
- The paper will be graded by members of teaching staff.
Accreditation of Assessed Work
- The credits awarded for successful participation and assessment will be an equivalent of 10 European Credit Transfer System (ECTS) credits. This corresponds to four 600 level credits for the American university system. Students wishing to have their work accredited are advised to consult the director of the Summer School at an early stage.