Alternative Dispute Resolution – International Business Negotiation

Self enrolment
This course introduces students to the skills, constraints, and dynamics of the negotiation process in the context of international business transactions. Through readings and highly interactive exercises, students will learn the fundamental skills of systematic and thorough negotiation preparation, the ongoing management of a negotiation process, and the identification and achievement of optimal agreements. Legal and ethical constraints of negotiation will also be considered as students in intentionally diverse teams participate in negotiations typically encountered in the formation of a business. Course content is drawn from the fields of law, psychology, business, and communication. 
 
After completing this course, students can choose to enroll in the Advanced International Business Negotiation course offered through Hamline University School of Law. This course is offered via distance learning and will include law and business students from the U.S (who completed the International Business Negotiation course at Hamline). Students who complete both International Business Negotiation (through CEU) and Advanced International Business Negotiation (through Hamline Law School) will be awarded a Certificate in International Business Negotiation through the Dispute Resolution Institute at Hamline University School of Law. Please visit their website for details and registration information:  http://www.hamline.edu/law/dri/cibn/. 

Alternative Dispute Resolution – Mediation Theory and Skills

Self enrolment
This intensive one-week course facilitates the exchange of ideas and cooperative projects among mediation scholars, practitioners, trainers, and students in the East and West. In addition to offering an introduction to mediation, the program provides a teaching and training template for mediation training for scholars and practitioners from around the world to adapt for use in their home countries.
 
Through lecture, discussion, demonstration and role-plays, students will be introduced to mediation theory and skills and examine the impact of culture and context on the consensus-building approach adopted.  The interactive presentation of the material is designed to showcase teaching and training models to those course participants who want to develop programs in their own countries. Participants should come prepared for a highly engaging learning experience. Applicants who have the means and ability to teach and train in transition countries will be given preference for acceptance.
 
Case examples will focus on both civil and criminal mediation models and scenarios from both the United States and Central and Eastern Europe, including efforts to promote dialogue in times of crisis involving high-conflict situations and inter-ethnic tensions.
 
Mediation is a newly emerging field in both the west and the east. Legislation mandating the use of mediation has outpaced the development of both theory and practice, and this course is designed in part to fill that gap, cultivating scholars, teachers, trainers, and practitioners in this developing and important arena.

Cities and Science: Urban History and the History of Science in the Study of Early Modern and Modern Europe

Self enrolment
This course explores new approaches in the history of science and urban history by inviting renowned scholars from both fields as well as graduate students to take part in an ongoing conversation about scientific knowledge and urban space. The study of the circulation and communication of knowledge in the public sphere has received increasing attention in recent years, bringing new approaches and developments to the study of history. These included attempts to connect the history of science and urban history through trying to locate the place and role of scientific institutions in the broader urban context and the spaces of science in the city.
 
Historians of science, especially since the publication of the thematic volume “Science and the City” [Osiris 18 (2003)], have been attempting to write “urban histories of science” of early modern and modern Europe by engaging with various urban aspects of the production and dissemination of science in the public sphere. This “urban turn” in the history of science has been instrumental in providing a useful spatial and cultural framework for the study of the production and transfer of scientific knowledge. In parallel, though largely without engaging with this new scholarship, urban historians have had their own discussion of how science can influence the evolution of the city and and what the study of scientific culture can reveal about the city.
 
Instead of simply furthering the agenda and approaches of the “urban history of science,” this course will bring together historians of science and urban historians, including renowned scholars from prestigious universities working on the Early Modern and Modern periods, as well as graduate students of the humanities and social sciences with an interest in either or both fields that could benefit from the shared expertise. Through lectures and seminars, students will have the opportunity to locate and consider the urban spaces of knowledge in Europe and beyond in the early modern and modern period; the reception of scientific and technological development and innovation by the urban public; and discover scientific sites in Budapest during walking tours. Engaging in this  discussion will be a new step in creating a new space for discussion of historical studies, not only for historians of science and urban historians, but for practitioners of other fields, such as environmental studies, gender studies, literature, science and technology studies, sociology, cultural or social anthropology. Applying approaches of knowledge transfer and network analysis to the study of the city, and incorporating the new research in the history of science, this interdisciplinary summer course will bring together senior and junior scholars of urban history and the history of science in order to exchange ideas in developing new research agendas with an aim to expand the “urban variable” in the history of science and to designate a space for the sciences in urban history from the early modern period to the early 20th century.

Constitution-building in Africa

Self enrolment
History has seen several waves of constitution-building in the 20th century with an unparalleled boom starting in the 1990s after the fall of the Berlin wall. And while experts recently announced the end of this boom in new constitutions after the Cold War, the world is witnessing another wave of constitution-building, this time predominately in Africa. This burst of activity has given rise to a range of new ideas about the nature and purpose of constitutions and constitution-making, constitutional solutions to contemporary problems, and the proper role of international actors.
The two-week research course intends to tackle complex societal, political and legal problems in constitution-building from an interdisciplinary perspective, informed by field experience. We seek to combine different disciplines (mostly comparative law and political science) and perspectives (comparative governmental systems; electoral systems; decentralization; human rights; comparative constitutional law; good governance; etc) to offer new insights on a classic subject of the highest academic and practical relevance.
 
The course will address the subject from four different angles, all of them related to specific challenges in Africa. The first one highlights constitutionalism in Africa in general, the different roles and meanings of a constitution, the merits and risks of constitutional borrowing, and the role of external / international influence in constitution building. The second angle accounts for the fact that new constitutions often follow conflict, loaded with the expectation to herald a new era of peace and democracy, leaving behind authoritarianism, despotism or political upheaval. The third angle of, the course addresses how constitutional designs respond to competing claims, be they religious, ethnic, linguistic, and how they accommodate different stakeholders, how they tame the executive, introducing instruments of checks and balances and how constitutions aspire to prevent stalemates and promote gender equality. Finally taking in to account the fact that the management of constitutional change and maintenance of constitutional stability are ongoing problems, the course will explore the issue of constitutional implementation, review and redemption as part of the constitutional building process.
 
The course is designed to be a forum for exchange and mutual learning for young scholars and practitioners from the civil sector, from public administration, from regional and international institutions.

Geospatial Technologies and Remote Sensing for Monitoring SDGs

Self enrolment
With the recent adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the call by UN Secretary General for a “revolution” in the use of data for sustainable development, geospatial technologies have tremendous potential to effectively and efficiently monitor SDG progress. In the fifteen years since the adoption of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the amount of data available, as well as data collection and processing methods have changed substantially.
 
Geospatial technologies and remote sensing offer a crucial location element to the monitoring of SDGs and their corresponding targets and indicators. The unprecedented “power of where” allows for unbiased observation and analysis across borders, administrative boundaries, and nations.
Yet there is still a gap between the technology world and the world of environmental decision- and policy-makers. Despite the tremendous potential geospatial technologies offer, there are still traditional fears among practitioners that prevent their uptake. Furthermore, these technologies are constantly changing and improving, making it even more difficult for practitioners to track the updates  about the potential use and application of technologies, such as geographic information systems (GIS) and remote sensing.
This course is part of a series of “Bridging ICTs and the Environment” workshops that aim to address that gap: providing in-service education and professional training for environmental decision-makers and practitioners, who are in a position to greatly benefit from this data revolution to better shape management strategies and to make more informed, data-driven decisions.
The workshop provides a timely opportunity to get updated on the latest advances in geospatial technologies and remote sensing, and their application to the monitoring of SDGs. These technologies can be applied to many of the 17 SDGs: sustainable water management and sanitation; improving resilience and sustainability of cities and urban settlements; conservation of the world’s oceans; sustainable management of forests, biodiversity, and terrestrial ecosystems; and more.
Workshop Tracks
This workshop has two tracks:
1) geospatial technologies (July 4-8) and
2) remote sensing (July 4-9).

Applicants are required to select one track, which will determine the practical sessions they will attend and the final project focus area.

 
The course will begin with a 2-day plenary session for all participants, setting the stage and highlighting the importance of this “data revolution”, and its relevance and significance to the monitoring of SDGs. Once participants separate into their selected tracks, they will combine examples from the plenary session, acquired practical knowledge, and their past experience to complete a course project addressing at least one of the SDG targets or indicators. Each participant will present their outcomes on the last day of the course (Day 5 for the geospatial track, Day 6 for the remote sensing track), which will be graded by selected faculty.

Application Information
For further information on the course and application procedures, please visit: http://isepei.org/geospatial-2016. Limited financial support is available for applicants from developing countries.

Green Industry: Pathways Towards Inclusive and Sustainable Industrial Development

Self enrolment
The course provides an opportunity to reflect on technical and policy level measures that improve industry’s environmental performance. Its overall objective is to raise participants’ awareness of solutions that help turn the “green industry” concept into practice and bolster its sustainability. Besides outcomes, there will also be an emphasis on green industry as a transition process that ‘bends the curve’ of conventional development towards green industry objectives over time. Course faculty has been selected based on the balance of academic excellence and practical experience.
 
Course objectives:
 
  1. Reflect on the necessary parameters of governance systems (strategies, policies, laws and regulations) for green industrial development, including cleaner and resource efficient production. Achieving low carbon and efficient material use paths for industrial development is a key aspect.
  2. Outline practical feasibility of technical requirements and policy measures for promoting green industry.
  3. Discuss how enterprises can successfully tackle key challenges that prevent them from commercializing green industry-related products and services.
  4. Delineate the essential institutional platforms for promoting “green industry”. Apart from promoting cleaner and resource efficient production, such institutions should offer counsel on the development and deployment of economically viable, socially appropriate and environmentally sustainable green technologies.
  5. Enable participants to construct and make use of green industry strategies that help meet specific future environmental goals and targets. 
Course design
 
This course takes an interdisciplinary approach starting with a distance learning component which will comprise a number of readings and their moderated, online, discussion in an asynchronous format. Participants will also identify a green economy case from their jurisdiction or organization, and based on that develop a brief case study in a common format. The distance learning component with about 100 participants will help ensure the development of a common terminology and grounding in green industry, resource efficiency and related concepts. Participation in the online discussions, performance in an online test and the relevance and quality of their case study, including their proficiency of written and spoken English, will serve as a basis for selecting a subset of ca. 25 participants for the face-to-face component of the course.  
 
The two-week residential component of the course will make use of a dynamic mix of lecture-based and active-learning, participatory methods, customized to meet the needs of an advanced interdisciplinary program. The delivery of the program will be supported by information tools such as a database of key literature and case studies, a discussion forum and a shared virtual workspace. Participants will focus on understanding and applying environmental and environment-related management methods and tools in support of green industry goals and objectives. Seminars and group discussions will use case studies, peer reviews and exercises to develop skills and effectiveness in designing and implementing policies, strategies and projects related to sustainable industrial development.

In the Labyrinth of National Identity: Russia and Europe

Self enrolment
The course provides an opportunity to reflect on the recent political upheavals in Russia and in Ukraine. The aim of this course is, however, to explore national identity and nationalism in Europe and Russia disentangled from the news and to reveal hidden historically embedded patterns. The course will be built on texts and data of recent research materials with interdisciplinary, comparative and empirical approaches. Its overall objective is to raise participants’ awareness of the synergy resulting from these various approaches. Course faculty will include well-known international experts and CEU faculty.
 
The target audience includes MA students interested in the interdisciplinary aspects of nationalism and national identity as well as PhD students working on problems of national identity in Central and Eastern Europe in the context of the transformation crisis. We also encourage applications from students of leading Russian universities willing to take part in the century-old dialogue between Russia and Europe on the nature of national identity.
 
Participants will be expected to arrive with a basic understanding of global and national framework conditions for the transformation crisis in the countries of Eastern and Central Europe. They will also be expected to be familiar with core concepts of theories of nationalism, historical conditions of the area and principles of research methods through advanced studies, reading, research and/or practice. High level of fluency in written and spoken English will be a requirement for participation.

Innovations in Disaster Risk Reduction

Self enrolment
The Innovations in Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) workshop will highlight recent advances in information and communication technologies (ICTs) and how they are empowering both decision-makers and citizens to play a proactive role in managing disaster risks and providing more effective disaster response. The workshop will build upon experience and expertise in ICTs and DRR by both UNDP and a diverse network of organizations, who have come together over the past two years to train environmental professionals in the field. Combining regional UNDP experience, ICT industry expertise, and accumulated first-hand knowledge by this global community of practice, the workshop will offer both theoretical and practical skills in disaster risk reduction, monitoring, and recovery.
 
Best practice case studies will be highlighted, through which technologies have been proven to be highly effective tools in disaster management. The transformative digital opportunities provided by the workshop will allow its participants to integrate know-how in a decision-making process, facilitate response and establish multi-stakeholder partnership for regional and global cooperation.
 
Program themes will include ICTs for DRR, innovations in climate risk management (CRM) and disaster preparedness and response, smart cities, and integration of relevant innovative solutions into sectoral and municipal development. A range of technologies will be presented including remote sensing, Geographic Information Systems (GIS), big data, citizen science, mobile technologies, data portals, and more.
 
 
Target Group
The workshop is targeted at representatives of regional and country offices of UN agencies, National Focal Points of international conventions, relevant government agencies (e.g. Ministries of Emergency Situations, Environment, Communications), academia, researchers and civil society.

Innovative Financing for Education: Arguments, Options and Implications

Self enrolment
Traditionally, there have been four sources of funding for education. Governments have used taxation to pay for public education, the private sector has mostly relied on tuition fees that are charged to the student and his/her parent/guardian, religious organizations have contributed financial, human and infrastructure resources, and in many developing countries aid flows have funded a significant proportion of educational expenditures. The proportion of each has tended to vary across countries yet the most important source of funding for education, in most countries, is and continues to be the state, by relying on various forms of taxation. Private schooling has expanded rapidly in numerous countries in the last two decades and tuition fees, charged to students/parents, has gained importance as a source of financing for education. Aid flows have remained a relatively small, though not unimportant, source of funding.
 
Over the last few decades, mostly as a result of direct or indirect effects of the Washington Consensus and World Bank/IMF positions on how economic governance should be structured, governments, especially across the developing world, have instituted structural adjustment programs focusing on privatization, liberalization, decentralization and ‘right-sizing’ of the government. This has, in general, resulted in reduced public commitments to education, lower fund availability from the state, and an increased role of the private sector in education. In many countries the state has, effectively, pulled back from taking responsibility of ensuring access to quality education for all.
 
This has created a problematic dynamic. On the one hand there is the realization of the need to educate all children, and national and international commitments push in that direction. On the other hand traditional sources of funding, such as state funding raised through taxes and international aid, are either decreasing or not increasing rapidly enough to address the financial need and challenge. Tuition fees, as well as unregulated informal payments, have become more significant as a source of funding but, in the main, only work for children/parents who can afford to pay for an education. Additionally, given the need to educate all children at a certain level of quality, tuition fees do not present a policy solution to the fiscal problem of education financing, which leaves out the bottom 40-50 percent of the population of most developing countries and ushers in problematic governance and social justice implications. These complexities do not mean there should be no pressure on governments to increase funding for education, clearly that has to continue, but in addition other and non-traditional sources of funding are desperately needed.
 
The summer school on Innovative Financing for Education will introduce participants to the complex political economy of financing for education. With the funding gap for achieving global targets for education estimated at $26 billion per year, the dynamic between commitment to education for all and reduced financial space from traditional sources needs to be appreciated before moving to any discussion of financing issues specifically. After a detailed look at the traditional sources of funding and the dynamics determining their current limits and future prospects, the course will move to introducing broad ideas for possible and non-traditional sources of finance for education.
 
It will then examine in detail some specific instruments and approaches that have been or are being developed and how they have been, or can be, deployed, including those that ESP has been at the forefront of supporting and developing; Diaspora Bonds for Education, Education Venture Fund, Equity-focused Impact Investing, and Debt Swaps for Education.  
At the end of the course the participants will have a much deeper appreciation of the political economy in which education finance issues are embedded, the current dynamics regarding traditional sources of finance, current and under-development possibilities from non-traditional sources and future directions in which this work can develop.
 
The early part of the course, on political economy and traditional sources, will rely on published sources and case studies from countries ESP works in while the latter part of the course, on specific non-traditional instruments, will be built on the work that ESP has been doing and/or funding in the area.
 
The summer school remains a unique opportunity to bring world-class thinkers, advanced graduate students and development professionals in education financing together with state-of-the-art instruments for a five-day course, which is unprecedented in the field of education and development.

Matter, Mind and Consciousness

Self enrolment
This will be a course on philosophy of mind, focusing on three topics that have been the subject of a good deal of attention in the last five to ten years, and which are currently at the vanguard of research: Phenomenal Intentionality, Panpsychism, and Substance Dualism. There is a good deal of cutting-edge research being pursued on all three of these topics today. The course will introduce participants to this new work, and pursue many of the questions and controversies surrounding it. Of the seven faculty members, four are centrally concerned withPhenomenal Intentionality – two with the intentionality of perception and two with the intentionality of thought; two are centrally concerned with Panpsychism; and one is centrally concerned with Substance Dualism. Each of the faculty members will give two or three lectures on his or her area of expertise. Participants will thus be exposed to these three topics of current interest in significant detail.
 
The course will feature three sessions each by the seven faculty members, including lecture and extensive discussion. Participants will be invited to offer a 10-15 minute presentation.

Performing Romani Identities: Strategy and Critique

Self enrolment

The Summer School will focus on the nexus between Romani studies and performance, with special attention paid to questions of visual culture and representation. The disquiet around increasing violence against and marginalization of Roma across Europe lends this course a special urgency. The course will focus particularly on the enduring hierarchies, exclusions and stereotypes that Romani communities and individual citizens face in everyday life and in multiple sites and structures of the nation-state. It will explore artistic practice—particularly in the area of performance—with any eye toward openings for disruption and contestation, and will analyze the Romani histories across Europe and globally through the prism of post-colonial critique and the possibilities of decolonization.

The summer school will bring together academics and students with artists, activists and community stakeholders in a partnership that focuses on knowledge production and best practice. The school will be led by eminent Roma and non-Roma, and will feature outstanding Romani scholars and policymakers amongst its faculty.

We are especially interested in recruiting young scholars of Romani background, (Ph.D. students, postdoctoral fellows, junior faculty) with a proven relevant research and teaching record, in the field of performance studies, history, sociology, political science or related humanities and social science disciplines. While the course is primarily aimed at encouraging young academics and those who are thinking of taking up an academic career to integrate Romani Studies and socio-cultural dimensions of performance practice and policy issues in their future research and teaching, it will also be of help to performance and other arts practitioners, policymakers and public servants, and others who deal with Romani communities in policy-making institutions.

Policy Evaluation for Civil Servants and NGO executives

Self enrolment

The course covers several facets and methods of public policy, with an introduction to quantitative evaluation of policy interventions. First, the interest of the students is meant to be raised with a few examples, then we place public policy in a wider web of endeavours and disciplines, and links to related fields (e.g. law, economics, sociology, political science) are shown. Then the four key elements of the policy context are discussed: institutions, actors, ideas and instruments of policy. Next, the concept of policy cycle along with limitations and alternatives is introduced. During the next lessons steps of the policy cycle process (agenda setting / policy formulation / decision / implementation / evaluation) are discussed in detail. Case studies and examples taken from the experience of different countries and addressing different public policy issues are presented to help participants relate to the approaches presented. Alternative models of policy formation are also discussed. The second half of the course is devoted to an introduction to quantitative evaluation methods. After the fundamentals and main principles of evaluations are demonstrated, the importance of random experiments is stressed. Evaluation methods using observational data (matching methods, difference-in-differences, instrumental variables, regression discontinuity) as well as the assessment of distributional and equilibrium effects of policy interventions are also demonstrated.

Screened Memories: Historical Narratives and Contemporary Visual Culture

Self enrolment
Our understanding of the past, experience of the present, and visions of the future are shaped by the imagery transmitted by the multiple screens, which reflect and project, making reality a mediated concept and challenging the binary opposition between reality and its image. New mediatized world, marked by extreme visual excess and subtraction, requires new analytical tools and categories. These new competences are central for (re)framing the contested experience of history. The epistemological status of visual imagery in the construction and transformation of historical narratives is in the focus of the summer school.
 
The program includes cross-disciplinary courses and workshops with academics and filmmakers placing films, TV broadcasts, and multi-media art in global context. We will approach visual material as historical sources and ‘non-transparent’ objects, embedded in the intellectual and cultural contexts of their production and interpretation.
 
The school program invites advanced graduate students, researchers, young faculty, audio-visual archivists, filmmakers and visual artists to explore the functions of visual testimony and to open up new directions for research, teaching, and art.

Strategic Human Rights Litigation

Self enrolment
Human rights litigation is one of the methods by which civil society organizations can bring about social change. This course for human rights professionals will develop the skills and knowledge needed to successfully bring cases to the regional human rights systems and the UN Treaty bodies, and to use those cases to achieve practical change. Participants will be invited to provide information on concrete cases that they are involved in which will be discussed during the course.
 
The course encourages participants to approach human rights litigation strategically, viewing litigating a human rights case as one step in the process of achieving social change. It includes modules that examine the steps involved in strategic litigation, such as case selection, client care, and forum choice. It also uses case studies to explore how to build a strong evidential record in support of the case, how to develop campaigning and advocacy to raise awareness of the issues involved, and how to implement a successful judgment.
 
A faculty of human rights practitioners from the Open Society Justice Initiative will be joined by visiting experts, creating a wide body of expertise. Workshops will focus on key skills such as advocacy in support of ligation, legal drafting, communications and media, and dealing with the ethical problems that arise in human rights cases. Modules in specific subject areas will allow participants to examine key issues in their field, including discrimination, economic and social rights, violations in the context of migration, rights upon arrest, and torture and ill-treatment in detention.

The Political Psychology of Populism

Self enrolment
Political psychology is the study of political behaviour of individuals and groups in the context of what we know about human psychological characteristics. It is a discipline at the intersection of political science and psychology and includes research on various topics, such as the formation and change of political attitudes and ideologies and how these relate to political behaviour (e.g. voting or political participation more broadly), the formation of group identities and intergroup conflict, including nationalism and extremism, ethnic identities, gender roles and many other essential and problematic areas of our social and political existence. All of these topics concern the attitudes, ideas and belief systems – ideologies – that people hold and which thus structure political behaviour.
 
The substantive focus of this specific course is a political issue that has pressing importance in our days, all across Europe and the Americas: populism. Our first aim is to introduce students to a quickly developing field of research, that of studying how a preference for populist and anti-politics discourses can be understood at a psychological level, mostly, but not exclusively, through the use of surveys and experiments. Second, we wish to help developing students' research skills by providing room for hands-on activities where participants engage with designing and carrying on research on such topics using the methods taught in the course. Third, we also intend to continue growing the political psychology and populism research communities in CEE, giving participants a chance to interact with top-level scholars in these areas, from Europe and America. The course features seminars on methods and substantive topics on populism, round table discussions on publishing and grant writing, practical research design and implementation workshops, students' own project presentations, and a day with lecture and workshop specifically on policy implications, to help students who are looking for ways to see their research have a direct impact on politics and decision-making.

The Precautionary Principle: Governance of Innovation and Innovations in Governance

Self enrolment
The purpose of this course is to explore challenges and possible ways forward for the effective and appropriate application of the precautionary principle in sustainability governance. It will bring together a solid and diverse group of scholars and practitioners with expertise on the precautionary principle, risk assessment and management, environment and health research, science and technology studies, the governance of innovation, environmental governance, and long term transitions to sustainability. The course is designed as a strategic knowledge and experience sharing course at the intersection between a research-oriented course and a professional development course, dedicated to collaborative exploration and learning. It will provide intensive research training, but also allow for policy discussions in a variety of sector and contexts and, through a knowledge co-creation approach, help to identify and find solutions to course-related issues in the participants’ research, policy or business application fields.
 
This course is the second edition of the highly successful 2015 SUN course on the same topic. The faculty is composed of renowned and high profile scholars and practitioners with broad experience in interdisciplinary research and integrative policy-making. The team includes the Executive Director of the European Environment Agency, the former Senior Advisor of EEA and 'Late Lessons' project leader, the Chair of the Scientific Committee of EEA, as well as professors from renowned Universities and Business Schools. Participants will come from a variety of backgrounds (including researchers as well as practitioners from public bodies, NGOs and business). The Course will give them a unique opportunity to (i) increase their theoretical and practical expertise on issues surrounding the precautionary principle; to (ii) train in inter- and transdisciplinary research and integrative policy praxis; and (iii) build a strong network with other participants and faculty. 

Topics in Violent Online Political Extremism

Guest access requires passwordSelf enrolment

The VOX-Pol Network of Excellence is a European Union Framework Programme 7 (FP7) funded academic research network focused on researching the prevalence, contours, functions, and impacts of violent online political extremism and responses.

This week-long VOX-Pol summer course is designed to provide PhD students, post-doctoral researchers, advanced MA students, civil society, policymakers and advocates, industry representatives, security professionals, journalists, and others with an introduction to the role of the internet in contemporary violent political extremism(s), including the ethics and practices of monitoring violent extremist content;  impacts on freedom of expression and privacy online; and how to research and contribute to ensuing policy debates.

The course will be run with a mix-method teaching style and includes lectures, discussion, small group work, policy lab and hands-on practicum, as well as a field trip to the Open Society Archives. Sessions will be led by experts from across fields, including research, policy making, internet industries, and civil society.

Topics to be covered may include, but are not limited to:

  • State security and online privacy in the wake of recent attacks
  • The internet and radicalization and recruitment into violent political extremist and terrorist groups
  • Balancing security, privacy, and freedom of expression online in responding to violent political extremism and terrorism
  • The content and functioning of violent political extremist online forums
  • Ethical issues surrounding monitoring of violent political extremist content online
  • The role of video in violent political extremism online
  • Women/gender, violent political extremism, and online media
  • Role of internet and social media companies in responding to violent political extremism online, including take-down requests, blocking, surveillance and filtering of extremist content
  • Case studies of particular violent political extremist group’s use of digital media, including Jihadis, right wing extremists and others
  • Case studies of violent political extremism on specific social media platforms (e.g. Facebook, Flickr, Twitter, YouTube, etc.)
  • Online initiatives to counter violent extremism
  • Critical responses to research on, reporting of, and governmental responses to the conjunction of violent political extremism and the Internet
  • Research methods for studying violent online political extremism

Application process and prerequisites

Applicants will have an interest in the field of violent online political extremism and be able to demonstrate how the course will benefit their work and / or research. Applicants should submit a 1-2 page statement of interest that addresses the relevancy of this course to their research, work or field of inquiry; a writing sample that addresses specific issues related to violent extremism online (research paper, policy brief, published  article, case study summary, etc); a CV; and demonstration of sufficient English language proficiency.

In order to maximize the output and opportunities for participants the course will have a maximum of 25 students. Selected students will be asked to give a brief presentation of their work during the course.

There is no tuition fee for the course and scholarships towards travel costs and / or accommodation in the CEU residency halls are available to a limited number of select participants through the support of VOX-Pol.

Understanding Communication and Understanding Minds: The Role of Metarepresentation

Self enrolment
It has long been recognized that the human capacity for metarepresentation is at the basis for our proclivity to cooperate and communicate. However, the relationship of metarepresentation and communication has recently taken center stage in some of the discussions at the heart of cognitive science, philosophy, anthropology and linguistics. Research in areas as diverse as language evolution, theory of mind and reasoning has been profoundly influenced by a new look at the role metarepresentations play in communicative interaction. This summer school brings together some of the key figures in these debates from a variety of disciplines in order to illuminate this relationship further and offer students and researchers a forum to discuss ideas at the cutting edge of this field.
 
The main aim of the course is 1) to initiate reconsideration of the concept of ‘metarepresentation’ in light of recent anthropological, cognitive science, psychological and philosophical research, and consequently 2) to stimulate discussions of potential functional explanations for the everyday availability of metarepresentational capacities.
 
The course will be taught by internationally renowned experts in the field while stressing highly interactive forms of teaching. The course is planned to start with introductory lectures to initiate reconsideration of terms and build common ground between the researchers from different disciplines. After this phase, modules will be held in a seminar format, with faculty members leading the seminar, and responses/commentaries delivered by students. Additionally, there will be opportunities for students to give poster presentations.
 
The summer course is aimed at providing a state-of-the-art scientific and research-oriented training for post-doctoral young researchers and highly promising pre-doctoral and MA students from European and overseas universities and research institutes on the role of communication in the emergence of metarepresentational capacities. 

Using Logic Models to Evaluate Social Programs: Before, During, and After Program Operations

Self enrolment

Logic models have emerged as a major tool for improving public and private social programs at every stage of their operations, from initial program planning to implementation and management and through evaluation. As a result, worldwide, they are used increasingly by all levels of government, nongovernmental organizations, funding agencies, and researchers. The ability to develop and assess logic models is now a much sought-after skill for social welfare professionals. Lectures will be led by Professor Douglas J. Besharov of the University of Maryland together with a team of internationally renowned experts in the field of program evaluation and performance measurement.

What Makes Us Human? Philosophical and Religious Perspectives in China and the West

Self enrolment
Explicitly or implicitly, the question of what makes us human has been a central and ongoing preoccupation among thinkers from antiquity to the present, and in intellectual traditions vastly removed from one another in time and space. That the question seems to be a fixture in the human imagination speaks not only to our need for self-understanding in the context of a broader world, but also to its relevance to issues of practical concern: how one conceptualizes the human has deep normative implications, grounding different moral systems, hierarchies of values, configurations of power and patterns of social interaction. That it has been answered in such diverse ways highlights the great stakes involved in this ongoing conversation. 
 
This course examines the complex and varied trajectory of how thinkers, in China and Europe, have sought to make sense of their humanness. Bringing together specialists in the philosophical and religious traditions of both civilizations, it focuses particularly on the early history of thinking about the human as approached through a diverse range of sources, from ethical and cosmological writings to medical treatises and case studies, to religious and literary texts (such as ancient tragedy). The goal of the course is to explore linkages among the various realms of thought and experience represented by these diverse genres: thus, how emergent conceptions of the cosmos, the spiritual world, and the workings of nature might have shaped the understanding of the human, and conversely, how thinking about what makes humans distinct (for instance, certain cognitive, ethical, creative, spiritual capacities) confronts the place of humans in the world at large. The latter part of the course will focus on later developments in medieval Christian theology and in Renaissance humanism. We will conclude with reflections on the contemporary relevance of the human as a category, and on what examination of past ways of thinking about the human bears upon issues of pressing concern in the present.