CALL FOR PROPOSALS FOR THE CEU SUMMER UNIVERSITY 2008

The Summer University Program (SUN) of the Central European University (CEU) announces a call for course proposals for its summer school held in Budapest, June 30 - July 25, 2008.

Program name:	CALL FOR PROPOSALS FOR THE CEU SUMMER UNIVERSITY 2008
Location:	Budapest, Hungary
Application Deadline:	May 17, 2007

Program mission

The Summer University (SUN) of CEU aims to contribute to the growth of new knowledge globally by offering high-level, research based courses for the most gifted, research oriented, young academics and professionals. Our courses are designed to assist the development and refinement of participants' research and policy agenda, as well as the integration of teaching this agenda with innovative research.

While previously SUN was aimed almost exclusively at junior faculty from Central and Eastern Europe and countries of the former Soviet Union, we now encourage young faculty, postdoctoral fellows, advanced MA and Ph.D. students worldwide to participate in our summer school. Scholarships will be made available for those in need of financial assistance on an academic merit basis with continued preference for applicants from post-communist countries and emerging democracies.

SUN courses aim to open up new perspectives and generate new knowledge in cross-disciplinary and cross-national inquiry into currently relevant issues of cutting-edge research.

The program utilizes CEU's recognized regional expertise and our wider network, involving internationally acclaimed faculty worldwide, creating a space for mutually enriching dialogue between our regional and western scholarship. The teaching teams' joint expertise is shared with participants in a comparative framework during the summer courses.

Course offerings

SUN courses cater for the various needs of academic and professional development in the social sciences and humanities across a wide spectrum of disciplines. These include anthropology, art history, cognitive science, comparative religion, environmental sciences, international relations, legal studies, medieval studies, philosophy, political science, public policy, sociology, etc. The program encourages topics in newly emerging fields. Courses often tend to address currently relevant issues, such as ethnic relations, migration, nationalism and transnationalism, globalization, human rights, urban development, poverty reduction, religion and identity, and gender. These issues are discussed in a general theoretical framework as well as embedded in the context of the actual countries/regions the participants come from.

A list of previously held courses is available at www.sun.ceu.hu/2General/past_years.php. You may wish to review the courses prior to your own submission.

Tracks

There are two major tracks in the program. Track I contains the high-level, research oriented courses for academics. Track II courses mostly address the professional development needs of practitioners, policy-makers, etc. These courses tend to provide training and/or deal with policy issues at a practical, applied level. To be accepted, Track II courses are expected to offer 2/3 of the total expenses of running a course from non-CEU funds, which amounts to approximately 15,000 EUR.

Please indicate your preferred choice of Track and the amount and planned break-down of external funding if available in the relevant section of Datasheet I.

Course format

Courses typically last two weeks, but one-week workshops can also be offered. Based on the CEU credit hour system, each course has a teaching load of 24 hours per week (one teaching hour is 50 minutes long). Courses can be designed in various formats depending on what the organizers would like to focus on:

1. Developing participants' research agendas during the course

   Applicants submit a statement of purpose, a research proposal and a sample of their work in progress as part of their application. During the course while faculty members present their topics through lectures, seminars, panel and group discussions, etc., they should also facilitate work on the development of participants' research agendas through individual tutorials, office hours, and allot time for participants to do library research during their stay in Budapest. As an outcome of the course, participants are expected to give an individual or group presentation. With some follow-up help and additional research after the course, they should be encouraged to submit an article for publication.

2. Developing research into policy proposals

   Policy oriented courses may want to decide to focus on some theoretical issues which could be turned into policy proposals. The course can guide participants from identifying key questions, through the discussion of the research aspects of the selected issues to some conclusions, which could lead to formulating policy recommendations. In addition to providing relevant literature on the subject, such courses are advised to rely on faculty and participants' contribution with case studies, country reports, etc.

In combination with one of the above, you may also wish to consider these sub-formats (more than one sub-format can be applied in a course):

1. Curriculum development

   Courses interested in promoting newly emerging, often interdisciplinary subject areas may decide to work on how the research issues, the literature, etc. discussed during the SUN course could be turned into the syllabus of a course to be offered at the home institution of participants in the future. Along with the syllabus, the most appropriate teaching methodology for the proposed course could also be demonstrated and discussed.

2. Distance Learning

   Course proposals offering to prepare a distance-learning package are strongly encouraged. As the SUN program cannot fund the DL component, external funding should be secured and indicated, if available, in the course proposal. These courses, if approved, may be designed in various formats. For example, they can be divided into 3 phases: (1) pre-course Distance Learning, (2) one-week face-to-face, and (3) post-course Distance Learning.

Teaching mode

In addition to the academic quality of the course, one of the major contributors to its success is the variety of teaching modes it employs. Authors of proposals are encouraged to include a broad range of teaching methods, such as lectures, intensive reading seminars, discussions, individual and group projects, presentations, field trips, etc., thus avoiding lectures being the dominant medium for teaching. SUN courses aim to provide a model in terms of course design and methodology as well by exposing participants to a diversity of teaching methods they could adopt and experiment with in their own teaching.

Target audience

SUN courses are primarily designed for the most promising junior faculty, researchers, postdoctoral fellows, MA and Ph.D. students, and professionals. The minimum enrollment for a course to be launched is 15 participants; however, we prefer an enrollment of 20-25 participants.

For more information see
www.sun.ceu.hu/2General/proposal.php