Bielefeld University has hosted the first NEOLAiA History Workshop on June 10th and 11th, with the participation of most of the partner universities of the Alliance.
The need to highlight the visibility of historical studies in the NEOLAiA Alliance was one of the main reasons for Bettina Brandt, Bielefeld University and Izabela Dahl, Örebro University, to organize and host this first history workshop during June, which has been followed physically and online.
One of the aims of this history workshop was to initiate an exchange about history within the NEOLAiA alliance and gather scholars from different fields of historical studies for a ‘bottom up’ discussion about our mutual interests in research and teaching. The attempt has been to get to know each other, and to elucidate possibilities for cooperation that have potential to grow within the framework of NEOLAiA. Objectives have been achieved due to the participation and interest of academic and administrative staff from each of the institutions involved (Bielefeld University, Örebro University, University of Ostrava, University of Tours and University of Nicosia, including the Coordinator of the Alliance, Sebastián Bruque Cámara, from the University of Jaén).
The workshop started with an introduction of the network and its state-of-the-art, which was followed by three round table discussions:
- (1) about individual and/or departmental research profiles,
- (2) about international teaching experience and expectations, and
- (3) about history as an academic discipline at the universities and beyond.
A communicative space was created, and possibilities of long-term cooperation gotten, by defining our needs and identifying potential synergies in research and teaching.
