MC Meeting: European University of Tirana (UET) (May 30-31, 2019)

Final Agenda

Please download NEP4DISSENT Tirana Welcome Guide for further details.

DAY ONE (May 30, 2019)

European University of Tirana, Bulevardi “Gjergj Fishta”, Nd.70, H.1, 1023, Tiranë

09.00-11.00 Visit at Bunk’Art 2 Museum | Rruga Abdi Toptani, Tiranë
09:30-11:30 Core Group Meeting (CG MEMBERS ONLY) | Building A, Inno-Lab
11:30-12:00 Registration/Coffee Break | Building A, Aula Magna
12:00-14:30 Plenary Session and Management Committee Meeting (Open to all participants) | Building A, Aula Magna
14.30-15.30 Lunch  (not arranged, self-paid)
15:30-17:30 Working Groups Break-Out Sessions

| WG 1 Inno-Lab  |  WG 2 B304 | WG 3 B305 | WG 4 B405 | WG 5 B406 |WG 6 B413 |

17.30-18:00 Coffee Break | Building A, Entrance Hall
18.00-18.30 Exhibition Inauguration “Religious Dissent in Communist Albania” | Building A, Entrance Hall
18:30-20:00 Panel Discussion “Religious Dissent in Communist Albania” | Building A, Aula Magna
20.00-21:30 Dinner | UET Refectory
Afterparty at LaVeen Tirana.

DAY TWO (May 31, 2019)

European University of Tirana, Bulevardi “Gjergj Fishta”, Nd.70, H.1, 1023, Tiranë

09.00-11.00 Workshop Session 1
Genealogies and Framing of Alternative Cultures | B313
Digital Humanities and Dissent Research: What you and your students want to know (But had no time to ask) | B405
11.00-11.30 Coffee Break
11.30-13.30 Workshop Session 2
Genealogies and Framing of Alternative Cultures | B313
Digital Humanities and Dissent Research: What you and your students want to know (But had no time to ask) | B405
13:30-14:30 Lunch  (not arranged, self-paid)
15:00-17:00 Visit at National Historical Museum | Sheshi “Skënderbej”, Bulevardi Zogu I, Tiranë
17.00-17.30 Book presentation at National Historical Museum 

Muriel Blaive and Libora Oates-Indruchova, two of the co-authors, will present the volume Perceptions of Society in Communist Europe. Regimes Archives and Popular Opinion (London: Bloomsbury, 2018). James Kapalo will offer a short commentary and lead the discussion.

DAY THREE (June 1, 2019) | optional activities only |

09:00-12:30 Visit at Bunk’Art 1 Museum | Rruga Fadil Deliu, Tiranë
12.30-14.00 Lunch  (not arranged, self-paid)
14:00-17:00 Visit at the “House of Leaves” Museum of Secret Surveillance | Rruga Dëshmorët e 4 Shkurtit, Tirana

ABOUT THE WORKSHOPS:

Workshop on the Genealogies and Framing of Alternative Culture

The topic of this workshop is centered around the question of where the term ‘alternative culture’, and its many synonyms, come from. WG3 is interested in the origins, the translation, the adaptation, the production, the reproduction and the distribution of this terminology both as a historic and as a contemporary phenomenon.

Short ‘pitches’ will approach a relatively wide geopolitical area, including Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Lithuania and Yugoslavia. The scope of topics expands over the use and origins of the term ‘alternative culture’, and its many variations, in aesthetic thought, its manifestation in a variety of artistic genres, its nature as a travelling concept between and within different ideological worlds, the relation of alternative and mainstream cultures, the term’s (re-)invention in youth culture and methodological challenges (misconceptions?) that are attached to the (retrospective/historical) separation of ‘culture’ into many typologies.

These brief impulse presentations aim to trigger discussion across disciplines, areas and time. Purpose of the workshop is to create a mind map of interconnected, parallel and even contradictory ideas attached to the origins and framing of alternative culture(s). By the end of the day we expect an exchange about the potential outcome of the workshop.

Digital Humanities and Dissent Research:  What you – and your students – want to know (But had no time to ask)

Digital methods are becoming more and more prevalent in humanities research, but this is not to say that the adoption of such methodologies is easy, or appropriate in every project or discipline.

In preparation of the NEP4DISSENT Joint Research Report, WG5 (Digital Technology and Dissent Research) has been developing an assessment of how technology-driven approaches are being used within dissent research, and in particular of the challenges facing those early adopters building digital projects.

This workshop will highlight some of those findings, but will focus primarily on helping the NEP4DISSENT community to understand the why and how of bringing digital elements into your research workflows.  It is intended to spark the imagination of those who may never have used digital humanities in their work, and expand the horizons of those who have.  In particular, we hope this will help those teaching about dissent to identify and evaluate resources for use in research and teaching, and improve their ability to mentor students who may want to give them a try.