The Roma in Europe - Policy Strategy: a course for policy experts with training in film documentation

In this sub-course students will confront a wide range of training models and taught modules. Approaches from a number of fields will be brought together: public policy and sociology; demography; evaluation in theory and practice; the law and discrimination; The European Union Roma Strategy; and the challenge of schooling. Senior staff will provide training in their own field. An important part of the training will be multi- and interdisciplinary seminars in which participants will be confronted with the diverse perspectives of their senior trainers and will be encouraged to think across these divisions. One special section of the course will deal with an assessment of the National Strategies proposed by EU states for integrating Romany populations.

The training will aim to provide all the participants with the intellectual tools to take a critical look both at current practice and, through an examination of academic research, to consider what might replace current often rather poor or even bad practice.

Course format

• An important part of the training will be multi- and interdisciplinary seminars in which participants will be confronted with the diverse perspectives of their senior trainers and will be encouraged to think across these divisions.
• Prior to the main summer school (June 25-29), the course would offer a one-week hands-on training in the use of cameras in documenting social research. This is not filmmaking training but a hands-on opportunity for students to acquire essential transferrable skills in using a camera and basic laptop facilities to document, edit, and publish digital material about policy, research, or campaign work. Klara Trencsenyi will teach this section and Michael Stewart will provide three seminars on Roma in Film.
• The course will hold an electronic classroom/seminar prior to the summer school to introduce members of staff and to kick-start preparatory work among the selected students.
• The course will offer a special event – Romany Studies, Francophone Approaches with simultaneous translation from French to English thus enabling leading figures in the field (Jean-Luc  Poueyto and Patrick Williams), who have never been able to participate in these summer courses before to present their work. 
• A unique feature of the summer school will be a two-day field trip (June 12-14) and assessment exercise to two Romany communities near Miskolc in Hungary. This will provide students not only with a ‘hands-on’ experience in ‘rapid survey work’ but also the opportunity to reflect on the use of such methods in teaching and a key ‘network building’ event.

Participants will receive full funding (travel, accommodation, and living costs) covered by the Council of Europe and the European Commission.