EHESS @ Paris # Fall 2011

 Ivana NIKOLOVSKA

I`ve almost never been satisfied as a tourist: running the cities, the places and the monuments, usually in less than a week, where there is not enough time and chance to live the life, experience the traditions of the country you visit. Also, my wish to upgrade my educational background by studying abroad, made clear my decision to look for a program which offers studies abroad.

TEMA was convenient chance. The offered universities, which are among the most prestigious in Europe, placed in one of the most beautiful cities as Paris, Prague, Budapest and Catania, increased my enthusiasm to apply to this program. I was accepted by the TEMA Consortium and my mobility track includes three universities at three different cities, starting with Paris, as a student at École des hautes études en sciences sociales.

paris je t'aime

So imagine yourself, one whole year in Paris, one of the most beautiful cities in the world where I am studying at one of the most prestigious universities in the Social Sciences. Having the chance to experience the French culture: the French types of cheese and vine, the most delicious cookies macaroon: the French patisserie, croissant and café… a book in your hands and place yourself in the jardin du Luxembourg or just wish to see Paris from top of Eiffel Tower. Enjoy the view of Montmartre in front of the Sacré-Cœur; Notre Dame and the story of Quasimodo; Versailles… Walking on the streets where the most important historical events happened in 1789, the French revolution; the Quartier Latin; the Louvre and all the precious statues and monuments there and the mode à Paris… et violà: you are there, living it, experiencing it as much as you want and you can!

Le jardin du Luxembourg

Of course, not everything is perfect! The period of adaptation of the new system, new life style, new administration and new institutions it’s not so easy. But the one thing that always remains is the experience you gain by dealing all of it, of course with the help of the TEMA coordinators. It is a life chance to become a responsible, grown up, academic person. The possibility of changing universities and cities makes you able to develop different points of view. This Master helps in creating or (better said) measuring different academic experiences.

Being a master student at École des hautes études en Sciences Sociales

French educational system is one of the most exigent but qualitative educational systems. The EHESS is part of the Grand Establissement: it is an administrative French category for the most prestigious high educational institutions.

The university itself hosted dozens of the best scientific researchers in the social sciences in historical, anthropological, geographical and social domains. The TEMA Program in Paris is focused on Territories, Spaces and Society. The system of EHESS gives you the liberty of making your own choice of subjects no matter which discipline, but related to your research subject. The professors give not only theoretical, but also practical examinations and case studies, covered by useful bibliography what provokes the critical thinking. All of the students have one tutor, which follows the work of the student and helps her/his research by narrowing the subject and pointing out the useful books. Actually, it’s a system, pretty different than the one I was used to work in Macedonia, where I came from, but surely useful and successful.

So, in general, it’s a pleasure to be part of TEMA Master Program. My academic experience has just started: my life has been changed, of course in a better terms and I am looking forward to the new experiences, follow my mobility TEMA track.

EHESS @ Paris # l'automne 2011

Mustafa SERKAN YARALI

Chers Candidats du Master TEMA,

C’était un jour de Mai 2010. Après avoir passé une journée très intensive à la fac, j’ai appris, en prenant un café au bord de la Bosphore, que j’étais dans la liste du premier programme de Master Tema. C’était un véritable point tournant dans ma vie ! J’aurais étudié d’éminentes universités de leurs pays d’origine. L’EHESS était une de mes écoles de rêve. C’était l’école par la quelle Fernand Braudel, Claude Lévi-Strauss,  Françoise Héritier, Michel Foucault, François Furet, Milan Kundera étaient passés. En outre, J’ai fait une bonne recherche sur les autres universités qui prennent part au programme de Master TEMA, ce qui m’a bien motivé à envoyer ma candidature.

Le Master TEMA est un programme dédié entièrement aux études interdisciplinaires, qui vous permet de maitriser en plusieurs domaines. Le caractère bilingue et international du programme facilite l’accès à plusieurs sources et vous apporte une merveilleuse expérience à l’échelle européenne. La bilingualité (français et anglais) est un atout pour pouvoir mobiliser parmi les universités du consortium que vous avez choisies. Si vous pensez que vous allez étudier en français uniquement à l’EHESS, vous vous trompez ! Un bon nombre des professeurs non français  maitrisent très bien le français et nous avons passé une très bonne semaine intensive à Budapest avec la participation d’autres professeurs qui viennent des universités du consortium afin de nous donner des séminaires d’initiation.

Rien n’est mieux que la diversité des étudiants ; de l’Amérique latine à l’Asie centrale ! C’était peut-être une sorte de multiculturalisme au sens du Charles Taylor ; parler plusieurs langues et ainsi en passant de l’une à l’autre sans s’en apercevoir ! De surcroît, il y a des occasions de l’apprentissage des langues tchèques, italiennes, hongroises et françaises.

Ah oui ! J’ai oublié de me présenter. Je m’appelle Mustafa Serkan Yarali, diplômé de l’Université Galatasaray à Istanbul et actuellement je suis à l’EHESS. Je poursuivrai mes études à Prague pour le troisième semestre et ensuite je reviendrai à l’EHESS pour finir mon mémoire. Enfin, je vous conseille vraiment que vous déposiez votre candidature au plus tôt ! En espérant qu’on soit des compagnons d’études. Avec mes salutations amicales !

Research topics of the first year TEMA students

The MA thesis is the peak and main aim of the TEMA Master. The interdisciplinary academic palette of the lectures offers a broad range of probable research projects. For the first sight maybe too broad and difficult to choose one aspect from them. Then again it’s absolutely not all the same that on what topic are You going to work in the next two years! For the sake of adequate future TEMA research topics we post here the list of the thesis’ titles of the first year students. Subjects from a whale of associate disciplines: nationalism studies, cultural heritage, sociology, art history, urban studies, etc. It could be interesting and helpful - especially for the new applicants.

Voilà!

• An example of official nationalism? A critical analysis of Benedict Anderson's theory of Hungarian nationalism
• Clash of civilisation as a pretext toward intolerance
• Construction of Territorial Identity through the Art of Literature in the long 19^th Century
• Dynamiques de sous-développement dans l’est et le sud-est de la Turquie, liées à la question kurde
• EU strategies for the social inclusion of the Roma community
• Identité nationale et régionale
• L’analyse comparative du symbolisme entre le coq gaulois et le dragon chinois
• Les femmes musulmanes en Sicile aujourd’hui
• Les transmigrants d'Amérique Latine en Europe et
  l´instrumentalisation de la nostalgie: les biens symboliques de ceux qui partent et retournent
• Linking politics, housing, communities and environment. The experience of Eco-quartiers in France
• Nation Building and Nationalism: Recent European Academic Discussion Applied on African Horn as Case Study
• Nationalism and National Myths as Thematical Source of Art Nouveau Movements in the Habsburg Monarchy
• Problèmes d’identité, conflit de civilisation et formation d’une nouvelle identité urbaine dans les pays de l’URSS et de l’Asie Centrale
• Protection and preservation of heritage of Art Nouveau in Europe
• Regional Identity and Conflicts in Transnistria since Late Communism
• Settlements and resettlements of ethnic minorities in Lahore City (1857-2000)
• Territoire, lien ou frontière: identités, conflits ethniques, enjeux et recompositions territoriales
• The Case Investigation of and the Theoretical Studies on the Value Determination of Regional Cultures-Research on the model of Underwater Cultural Heritage Protection and Development
• The memory of the Sacred

Università degli Studi di Catania # Fall 2011

Anamaria REMETE

HOW IS IT TO BE A TEMA STUDENT
AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CATANIA?

The Universita degli studi di Catania has its headquarters in a former Benedictine monastery that locals say it's the seconds largest in Europe located in the old city center, near the St. Agatha Dome and all of what a city-center is all about. Although Sicilian is obviously preferred Italian in Sicily, taking some Italian classes provided by the university will come in handy (not in the local fish market though where a large smile saves the day). I'm afraid the bureaucratic plague hasn't spared Italy, but rest assured that in all that exhausting paperwork you will have a brave local – with the name of a saint – who will help you in a wide range of issues.

"Mafia, pizza, mandolino...it's all they know", said a Sicilian friend when talking about outsiders' perception of Italy and especially Sicily. Why not admit it? For as much as we like to see ourselves as "open" even we are susceptible to stereotypes. But perhaps the important thing is to always leave room for interrogation and overcoming them in the end.

Our experience and the way in which we perceive things in Catania may be viewed in several stages. At first, complete enchantment that is so typical when having contact with a new place: baroque architecture, hearing that funny Sicilian on the streets, food, the warm climate... But before you know it that initial indulgence may fade away; the Mezzogiorno "piano, piano" pace may not be so much in tune with the Central, Northern, Eastern European's (Argentinean/Chinese/Kazakh’s, etc.) speed. And then, the "cycle" changes once again: with a healthy sense of humour you can make fun of those social habits and, who knows, they might even change you in the process...

We have overlapping lives in the sense that we interact in Italian and we follow Italian social norms, but we also live in Argentina, China or in the Czech Republic in a way; they're a part of us and in some special way all these different lifestyles come together in a small group of six students in Catania. The groups' common language is not exactly Esperanto, but it's close enough; when one language doesn't work we "invent" a new one. It seems chaotic from the outside, but, in some strange and twisted way, it actually works!

Let's take a look on two lectures:

DIMENSION URBAINE, ENVIRONEMENT ET PAYSAGE DANS LE PROCESSUS D'INTEGRATION EUROPEENNE

Melania Nucifora

Professor Nucifora's class explores the theoretical, political, economic and social framework in which the vast concept of "landscape" has been developed through history, the main approaches such as the cultural versus the environmental one, the rational versus the mechanical approach to nature and the main challenges that come alongside them.

SEMINAIRE DE RECHERCHE

Paolo Militello

The methodology seminar has provided TEMA students with the necessary basic research tools in the absence of which a paper cannot be called a proper research. The seminar focused on proposing a standard model for structuring a research proposal, tips on planning the stages of the project and basic reference and side notes usage rules.