Apply for the Summer School

SUSO SUMMER SCHOOL 2018: CALL FOR PARTICIPANTS & APPLICATION PROCEDURE

We are happy to invite you to participate in the ECREA European Media and Communication Doctoral Summer School 2018 that will take place at Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milan, Italy, from July 19 to July 27, 2018.

THE FOCUS

The ECREA European Media and Communication Doctoral Summer School 2018 brings together members of the European research community to this summer school in order to debate contemporary issues in media, communication and cultural studies. The main emphasis of this summer school is not on a particular theme, but on providing structural and individuated PhD-support for young European scholars, through a variety of working forms, including feedback seminars, workshops, and lectures. The summer school aims to provide a supportive international setting where doctoral students can present their ongoing work, receive feedback on their PhD-projects from international experts and meet students and academics from other countries, establishing valuable contacts for the future.

International director: Pille Pruulmann-Vengerfeldt

Programme directors: Fausto Colombo, Simone Tosoni

Summer School coordinators: Maria Francesca Murru, Laura Peja

FEES

Payment of a registration fee of 890 Euros (included VAT) is required for consortium participants.

Payment of a registration fee of 1100 Euros (included VAT) is required for non-consortium participants

Applicants from consortium universities and from affiliated partners of the summer school must agree their submission with their institutional coordinators before submitting their application to the summer school. If selected, students coming from consortium universities but not appointed by their institutional coordinators, will pay non-consortium students fee. The total number of students will be limited to 45, part of them selected by the consortium members.

For all the students (consortium and non-consortium) the summer school will provide:

- tuition and study materials

- summer school materials (including 2 books)

- accommodation for the whole duration of the summer school

- breakfast

- welcome dinner

- farewell dinner

- lunch in working days (except Sunday July 22)

- welcome dinner

- coffee breaks with beverages, food and fruits during the breaks in the morning and in the afternoon

- WiFi access at the summer school venue

Students will be hosted in double rooms. Please notice that while students are allowed to find alternative solutions for their accommodation, this will be at their expense, and won’t affect the fee.

DEADLINES

The deadline for all the applications (both consortium and non-consortium) for the summer school is April 15, 2018. All applicants will be informed about the selection of participants before the end of April.

ECREA GRANTS

ECREA will be awarding grants for participation at the Summer School. More information on the grants will be available at the ECREA website (https://www.ecrea.eu) after 1st March 2018. This grant programme will be managed by ECREA and not by the summer school organisers.

APPLICATION PROCEDURE

Stage One

When applying, each interested student is expected tofill out the application form on the Summer School website. Prior registration on the website is necessary. Uncompleted applications will not be eligible for the selection process. Applications can only be submitted via this website.

The application form includes:

1. a 400 words abstract of the PhD project

2. a time table of the PhD project, indicating the present status of the project

3. a short CV according to the provided forms.

 The deadline for submitting the application is April 15, 2018, 23:59 hours. Notifications of acceptance will be sent before the end of April.

Stage Two

In second phase, students whose abstracts are accepted will be expected to fulfil the following requirements:

1. To write 10-page (3000 words) paper on their PhD project as a whole and to upload it on the website. The 10-page paper should be a report of the student’s ongoing doctoral research and not a conventional conference paper or a report of findings. Rather, it is expected that the student will briefly present the focus of the research and then take up aspects of the research process: methodology, theory and practical issues on which he/she would like to receive feedback (deadline: May 28).

2. To write a set of questions (maximum 1 page) with questions or problems that students would like to be discussed during the workshops. This one page needs to be part of the same Word/PDF file that also contains the 10-page paper (deadline: May 28).

3. Based on the abstracts and titles of other student papers, everyone is expected to choose up to 3 papers they would be interested in being a respondent (deadline: June 15; further details will be provided after selection).

4. Additional registration at the Università Cattolica website and payment of the registration fee (deadline: 1 June; further details will be provided after selection).

5. At the start of the Summer School, students have to have a 10-minute seminar presentation ready, covering the main points of their work. Each student is also expected to actively participate in the discussions of their own and other people’s work. In order to ensure maximum benefits of the seminars, everyone will have to read all other participants' papers before the Summer School begins.

SELECTION PROCESS AND CRITERIA

In respect of the selection of doctoral students from consortium universities, each one has appointed a summer school coordinator (see the current list here). The summer school coordinators are responsible for promoting the summer school within the consortium partner institution and to other academic institutions in their country. Consortium partner universities and departments are well-established and of best reputation in the field of media and communication, and have leading scholars in their faculties (see a list of previous lecturers). All participating institutions of the summer school have experience in local, national and international cooperation. The departments have institutional contacts with higher education institutions within their own country and abroad, and well-established doctoral programmes. The consortium partner institutions and their summer school coordinators are fully autonomous in selecting their PhD student(s).

The selection of doctoral students from other institutions are based on a review process organised by the executive committee of the summer school. This process is open to all PhD students (including students from the consortium universities not selected by their institutional coordinators). As already specified, each candidate has to submit electronically a) a 400-words proposal of his/her PhD project, b) a time table of the PhD project, indicating the present status of the project, and c) a CV (work and study history). This application will be subjected to a double blind peer review, coordinated by the summer school local organisers. Based on this review, the executive committee of the summer school will select the participants.

For both pathways, the selection criteria are:

  • quality of the PhD project, assessed in relation to its i) theoretical approach, ii) methodological standards and iii) potential for innovation;
  • the progression of the PhD project (projects in a “middle phase” are strongly preferred);
  • the relevance of the aims and objectives of the PhD project within communication and media studies.

CONTACTS

For accommodation, logistic and financial issues: elisa.ballerini@unicatt.it

For issues related to the programme: laura.peja@unicatt.it

For issues related to the website: simone.tosoni@unicatt.it