Summer School is open to students in Liepāja

From 22 to 25 August 2023, Liepāja will be the venue for the summer school “Landscapes of a resort town: history, culture and environment”. Bachelor, Master, or PhD students from different Latvian universities with a focus on history, culture and environmental studies who are keen on identity issues are welcome to apply for this school. The Summer School will provide an opportunity to learn useful competences and skills in research under the guidance of experienced humanities scholars and other experts. Participation is free of charge. Applications are open until 30 June.

Liepāja has long been known as a popular holiday destination, and got the status of a resort town in 2015. The Summer School seeks to explore what this status means for the city and its residents; how people perceive and process the transformation of their living space into a resort city; whether it is possible to talk about the culture and community of a resort city; the synergy between culture, nature, tourism, and the man-made environment. Over four days, students will have the opportunity to explore these questions in detail together with speakers from the partner organisations and experts in environmental sciences and architecture, participating in one of the three thematic clusters of the summer school: urban ecosystems, communities, and culture.

The Summer School is strongly focussed on interdisciplinarity and will give students from different study backgrounds the opportunity to develop their theoretical understanding and knowledge of current research trends and approaches. We shall practically tackle such methods as mapping, survey design, biographical and life-story approaches, visualisation and sense charting, architectural and environmental research, etc. Practical skills will be developed through a fieldwork in the urban Liepāja environment. A public discussion with city residents and local government representatives will provide insight into the local context and problematics. The architect of the Liepāja City Construction Department, Gunta Šnipke, will guide the participants through the historical and contemporary architectural landscape of the resort city during city walks. Participants will also join in a seminar on spatial activism and will work together to create a temporary and experimental architecturally performative urban intervention.

Applications for the summer school are open until 30 June 2023. To apply, please submit a motivation letter and a brief description of the student’s interests. The participant is responsible for their own transport to the summer school, while accommodation is provided by the University of Liepāja. For more information and application, please visit the website of the National Research Programme project “Ideum”.

The Summer School is organised by the Institute of Literature, Folklore and Art of the University of Latvia, the Institute of Contemporary Art, Design and Architecture of the Art Academy of Latvia, the University of Liepāja, the Latvian Academy of Culture (LAC) and the Rēzekne Academy of Technologies. The summer school programmes are designed by the expert on life stories and oral history, also a leading researcher of the Institute of Literature, Folklore and Art of the University of Latvia, Dr. philol. Ieva Garda-Rozenberga; literary scholar and critic, professor of Liepāja University Dr. philol. Zanda Gūtmane; architect, designer and researcher at the Latvian Academy of Arts, creator of several urban summer schools Mg. art. Dina Suhanova; researcher of traditional culture and cultural landscape at the Institute of Culture and Arts of the Latvian Academy of Arts Dr. art. Ieva Vītola. The Summer School is organised with the support of the National Research Programme project “Ideum: Landscapes of Identities: History, Culture and Environment” (NRP-LETONIKA-2021/2-0008).

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