Clotilde attends European and International Human Rights Standards in Disaster Settings Course
Hi everyone, my name is Clotilde, and I am an -almost- second-year EUROSUD student. With this blog I would like to share my recent experience at Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna, in Pisa, Italy. There, I had the great opportunity to attend a five days intensive advanced training course about European and International Human Rights Standards in Disaster Settings, within the Jean Monnet Module.
Spending a week at the Scuola was for me a great chance from many perspectives. Indeed, the Scuola is internationally well known and distinguished for its high ranking and education of excellence provided to its “allievi” (students). Among the courses provided, the Scuola also offers intensive advanced training courses, open to postgraduate and PhD students, and practitioners. In fact, during this very intense week I had the pleasure to interact and grow in an inspiring and motivating environment, in which knowledge, passion and curiosity are palpable and constant during lectures, debates and other activities, also outside the classrooms. I am so grateful to have had the great chance to meet brilliant colleagues, lecturers and practitioners that, by providing a very insightful and enriching perspective on the topics treated, also helped me enlarge my network, knowing more possibilities of carrier and, most importantly, got me to know this fundamental topic and its multiple shades and shapes.
As previously mentioned, the course I followed is named European and International Human Rights Standards in Disaster Settings. In general, the course aimed to provide a legal perspective on disaster management activities and, consequently, the fundamental role of human rights in the prevention and response to natural and technological disasters. More specifically, the five days were organised to give, for each macro topic, a deep and complete overview of the issue.
After a first-day introduction, we were guided into a deep understanding process of the International, Disaster and Human Rights Laws. Indeed, this represents a fundamental basis to further discuss and develop more specific focuses on the topic, such as the actors involved in humanitarian assistance and disaster management. Furthermore, the protection issues related to the impact that natural and technological disasters bring were also treated with specific regard to children and migrants, the most vulnerable and fragile categories of the society.
Moreover, an interesting and relevant focus was dedicated to how climate change has recently been affecting the world and society, highlighting the increase of disasters during the last decade, indicative of a radical change that should quickly and efficiently happen in the next years.
Happy and satisfied with the experience I had, I now feel more confident and complete in the knowledge of such important topics. During this intense and enriching week, the Scuola gave us the incredible chance to be directly in touch with the representatives and researchers in the field of disaster setting and human rights; this helped me to understand how human rights protection and disasters are connected and how they are simultaneously becoming urgent and challenging. The need to intervene and grant dignity, freedom and life to all human beings is now, more than ever, a priority.
Erika attends a short course from the CIVIS Alliance
MUSEO-POLIS: A Summer School on Museum, Democracy and Citizenship in Southern Europe
by Erika Delgado Rubio
As an EUROSUD student, I recently had the opportunity of participating in a short course from the CIVIS alliance, a prestigious network of ten European universities that aim to promote higher education and research. On this occasion, I joined MUSEO-POLIS: A Summer School on Museum, Democracy and Citizenship in Southern Europe, which took place in Marseille, France.
Under the coordination of Aix-Marseille Université and within the premises of the MUCEM – Musée des civilisations de l'Europe et de la Méditerranée –, I became part of a diverse environment, as the course considered students with different backgrounds and nationalities, as well as many specialized professionals like anthropologists, curators and historians. For three days, I listened to and debated on discussions about migration, religion and democracy in relationship with museums as representative institutions of historical and contemporary events. The course enriched my knowledge of democratic development in Southern Europe and the current re-foundation of democratic citizenship. It was dynamic and entertaining not only because of the lectures received but also because of the organization of guided tours to temporary exhibitions of the Mucem, like “Abd el-Kader”, a display of the life of an Algerian religious and military leader that fought against French colonial occupation, and “Pharaons Superstars”, a cultural approach towards Egypt and its presence in the Mediterranean.
Additionally, the course included a visit to two other relevant places: La Vieille Charité Museum and the Mucem Conservation and Resources Center. The first exhibited “Objets migrateurs, trésors sous influence”, where I could compare ancient and modern precious objects that characterized a migrant’s journey and that distinguish societies today; while on the other hand, the second allowed us to understand the museum process of acquisition of objects and how they conserve and classify them for future exhibitions. As a matter of fact, I examined this last place in the company of two senior curators, being able to ask questions and dialogue directly with them regarding their valuable work.
From a museum perspective, the recognition of national treasures contributes to the notion of identity and assists in the task of writing history for increasing representation and maintaining democracy construction. Thus, it is important to acknowledge these institutions for the progress of the own nation.