bridging BORDERSPetro Mohyla Black Sea National UniversityUniversit�t des Saarlandes

Saarland-Ukraine Partnership Activities

The longstanding cooperation between the Chair of North-American Literatures and Cultures at Saarland University and the faculty of Philology at Petro Mohyla Black Sea National University in Mykolayiv, supported within the framework of the DAAD Eastpartnership program, has given rise to a series of follow-up projects, such as

StudyBridge Ukraine-Saar (2023 - cont'd)

funded by DAAD

Teaching project, DAAD funding line Ukraine digital: Ensuring academic success in times of crisis, 2023

First Phase

In the first phase (May 22 till now) we completed the first digital courses for English, German and Spanish Philology, available for students of Petro Mohyla Black Sea National University (see below for further details). We also established strategies / tools / help for lecturers to digitalize their courses and create digital content. Feedback from students was overwhelmingly positive. In the second phase (Nov-Dec 2022) the course materials will be expanded, e.g. further interactive activities will be added to the materials and course videos available already, and additional courses will be made available in a digital form (details see list attached). In the current situation further e-learning courses are needed, since lecturers as well as students are in different places in Ukraine and Europe. Especially for those physically in Mykolaiv, the disfunctional infrastructure, power outages and the destruction of the central university does not allow for “regular” teaching. Already at this stage the relevance of the DAAD-Studybridge is proved: it offers an important psychological support to students and lecturers and is an indispensable basis for the continuation of academic life (not only) in southern Ukraine.

A permanent “jour fixe” for the German lecturers already startet in August 2022 with one meeting per week. It became not only a platform for exchange of didactic ideas but also a forum to discuss the problems and challenges of the new courses (and contents) due to the redistribution of (additional) courses from colleagues who left the Ukraine. The hybrid- Workshop “STUDYBRIDGE UKRAINE SAAR.Best-Practice Examples of Blended Learning in a Global Classroom” (7th to 8th of October) with different sections in English and German language provided useful online-tools and instruction how to integrate activities in a virtual classroom environment. A one-day didactic-Workshop a the Spanish group was celebrated the 17th of October.

Second Phase

The English group successfully continues to work on the digitalization of main courses for the students in English philology on the BA and MA level. In the second phase of the project, the team decided to focus on the following theoretical and practical courses for BA students – Business English, Digital Learning and Pedagogy, Linguo-Country Studies and Lexicology. The choice is explained by the growing demand of high quality specialization courses from students of Petro Mohyla Black Sea National University. The courses will be aimed at the students, who already have good command in English (B1+) and want to deepen their professional knowledge of the language. These four disciplines will be created, using the example of the most successful digitalization model of the present phase of the project, which is created in the form of educational blog (http://digitallearningandpedagogy.blogspot.com). In every course, teachers will combine different educational digital tools (video lectures, quizzes, interactives tests etc.) to create interactive platforms which provide an effective self-paced learning for Ukrainian students.

The Spanish group will put the focus on four courses about Hispanic literary and cultural studies on BA and MA level: Cultural history of Spain, Spanish literature and film, Contemporary Latin American Literature. The fourth course will be a lecture on “Contemporary women writers from Spain” at Ivan Franko Lviv National University. This is not only a completely new topic for Ukraine, but also a new format, as it is planned to include interviews with women writers in the online teaching (initial commitments have already been obtained at the Frankfurt Book Fair in October 2022). All courses will include video contributions by international researchers in order to offer information and knowledge about the broad, intercontinental spectrum and forward-looking perspectives of Hispanic/Latin American Studies.

The German department at Saarland University is planning to integrate the scholarshipholder from Mykolajiw (3 students) in the new online-certificate „InterDiDaF“ (24 CP) that is a program of blended learning and blended mobility with a partely new content in intercultural communication and multilingualism at the workplace and at the university (including differences in academic cultures).

The possibility to observe the courses and to take part in them actively will enhance the quality of online-courses also from the perspective of the lecturers. Their training program (5 working days at Saarland University in July 2022 for 3 lecturers) will also focus on the curricula and methods of the different modules in this online-tool-orientated certificate.

DEFEP: Distance Education for Future

funded by Volkswagen Foundation

Erasmus + KA2 project, 2023-25

The idea of the project is to implement a sustainable, efficient, and effective system of distance education in the institutions of higher education of the Eastern Partnership countries as a separate and independent form of learning based on the principles and methods of didactics, most suitable for the formation of promising competencies of applicants, according to cognitive, behavioral, and technological transformations of individual, society, and the labor market.

Here you find more info...

Borders in Crisis: Discursive, Narrative, and Mediatic Border Struggles in Ukraine, Europe, and North America

funded by Volkswagen Foundation

Research project, Volkswagen Foundation funding line for displaced Ukrainian scholars, 2022-2023

As some have stated, Russia’s war in Ukraine is (supposedly) not so much about borders as it is about identity. We interpret this affirmation, which clearly is based on a rather narrow understanding of the concept of the ‘border,’ as an attempt, not to downplay the violent aggression on Ukrainian territory, but rather to highlight the particular role questions of identity play in this war, which is fought out also in the cultural sphere – in the realms of language, media, history, as well as cultural productions and sites, ranging from language policies, semiotic warfare and the censoring of media content, to the very material shelling of cultural sites.
Given the particular role of cultural productions in this war, and furthermore anticipating a rich cultural production emerging from the trauma of this war and the flight and displacement of millions of Ukrainians, we aim at shedding light onto the cultural construction of Ukrainian borders through an intertwined analysis of discursive, narrative, and mediatic negotiations of Ukrainian-European and Ukrainian-North American identities. Analyzing and interpreting constructions of national identities without falling into the trap of nationalism requires intertwined perspectives also across borders.
With this aim, we bring together shared expertise from literary and cultural studies, media studies, and linguistics in the fields of transnational American Studies as well as European Studies, and specifically Ukrainian Studies under the roof of Border Studies. The UniGR-Center for Border Studies and its local branch at Saarland University with its strong focus on cultural and linguistic border studies and its long history of collaboration with colleagues at Petro Mohyla Black Sea National University, offers a fertile ground for our Ukrainian partners and the development of our joint research.

Work Packages:

  • WP I: Crossing Borders: Ukrainian Diasporic Literature
  • WP II: Cultural Border Policies in Ukrainian and Polish Literature
  • WP III: Cultural Construction of Ukrainian Borders in Populist Discourses
  • WP IV: Literary Representations of Displaced Ukrainian and North American Children.

Studybridge Ukraine-Saar

funded by DAAD

Teaching project, DAAD funding line Ukraine digital: Ensuring academic success in times of crisis, 2022

With this project Saarland university aims to support the partner universities in Ukraine in their ongoing teaching as well to develop common courses/modules/study offers and offer double degrees. The cooperation covers several departments from 4 faculties (Humanities, Natural Sciences, Social Sciences) and includes online teaching, trainings, study and research stays. The objectives are not only to support the current online teaching but also to develop new courses and to work on topics relevant for the period after the war, i.e. in the sector of entrepreneurship, in the field of European, International but also Criminal and Economic Law. Students and researchers will be prepared after their return to work on the (re)building of universities’ structures and teaching programmes continuing the cooperation with Saarland university and other EU partners.

Digitalisation of the most important foreign language degree programs
The Faculty of Philosophy at Saarland University is planning a project with its long-standing cooperation partners at Petro Mohyla Black Sea National University. The project focuses on the Bachelor’s and Master’s degree programs in German, English, and Spanish languages that are among the most important languages of communication and trade both within Europe and globally. To cope with the workload, we formed three project groups: German Studies, English/American Studies and Romance Studies. In each group, a chair of the SU cooperates with a colleague who has remained in Ukraine as well as other Ukrainian students, doctoral candidates and teachers who have remained in Ukraine or fled to Europe.

Measures NamLitCult is involved in:

  • Measure 1: Digital infrastructure for virtual teaching and research
  • Measure 2: Visit and supervision of Ukrainian researchers
  • Measure 12: Student mobility in winter semester
  • Measure 14: Concept development of degree programmes BA/MA in modern philologies
  • Measure 15: Course design for BA/MA in modern philologies
  • Measure 16: Creation of structures for ensuring the sustainability

Global Classroom Ukraine-Saarland

in collaboration with DAI Saarland

NEW PROJECT!

We are very proud and grateful that our project "Global Classroom Ukraine-Saarland" has been granted and we're looking forward to a series of exciting events in collaboration with the German-American Institute DAI Saarland, taking place in the fall and winter of 2022.

Thank you very much to the U.S. Embassy in Germany for providing us with the necessary funds to realize this project!

Borderland Stories @ MUDAM, Riverine Borders

May 20, 2022, 9 am - 6 pm CET

live on site @ MUDAM Luxembourg and on-line
 

"Borderland Stories" meets "Riverine Borders"

Students from the Greater Region (Master in Border Studies and Master in American Studies at Saarland U) and from Ukraine (dept. of philology, Petro Mohyla Black Sea National University, Mykolayiv) present their joint projects which they created within the framework of the EVZ project "Borderland Stories."

The project website and all student projects can be found at borderland.online.

Borderland Stories

EVZ "MEET UP!" project 2021

Click here to learn more about our joint EVZ project "Borderland Stories" (2021) and go to the website to check out our fabulous student projects!

Borderland Stories is funded by the grant program “MEET UP! Youth for Partnership” by the Remembrance, Responsibility and Future (EVZ) Foundation and the Federal Foreign Office.

War in Ukraine

War in Ukraine

We are appalled by the events in Ukraine and we are following the news in disbelief and shock. Our hearts are with our colleagues, students, and friends in Ukraine.

A warm welcome to all our Ukrainian friends, colleagues, and students who are currently at Saarland University and at our partner universities in the Greater Region. Saarland University | NamLitCult will make sure you not only find shelter but also a welcoming home. We are very honored to have you here with us!

STOP THE WAR *** STAND WITH UKRAINE *** STAND WITH MYKOLAYIV

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