CFA: Summer school “Freedom of Speech Beyond Borders”
The European Network Remembrance and Solidarity invites students and young professionals to participate in the free summer school. “Freedom of Speech Beyond Borders” is an interdisciplinary educational project that aims to introduce young people to the history of the struggle against censorship during the Cold War and to facilitate critical reflection on current cases where freedom of expression is being violated and access to reliable sources of information is being limited.
25–26 August 2025 – Online seminars
1–10 September 2025 – Study visits to Bremen or Prague followed by Maisons-Laffitte, near Paris
Application Deadline: 6 May 2025
Application form available on our webpage https://enrs.eu/freedom-of-speech
Freedom of Speech Beyond Borders
The project offers participants the opportunity to study the history of Cold War underground publishing during field trips to the archives that preserve its legacy. Before the trips, participants will take part in online seminars that provide a historical background and prepare them for the research tasks. Assignments during the study visits in archives include researching selected archival material, analysing historical documents and preparing interviews with former dissidents involved in publishing activities as well as current human rights activists.
Programm
The programme consists of an online seminar session (25–26 August 2025), followed by a nine-day study visit to selected European archives and memory sites (1–10 September 2025).
In this year’s edition, two parallel study visits will take place: in the archive of the Research Centre for East European Studies at the University of Bremen (Germany), and in Prague (Czech Republic), in the archives of the Libri Prohibiti Library and the Václav Havel Library. Following research in these two cities, the participants will meet in Maisons-Laffitte, near Paris, at the House of the Literary Institute – a key site of Polish exile publishing. After exploring the local archive, the group will come together to process their learning experiences through hands-on artistic practice. They will take part in a zine-making workshop and, with the support of artist mentors, engage in techniques such as: creative journaling, photography, drawing and collage. To conclude the project, students will create a samizdat-inspired collective journal, that will reflect the participants’ research, insights and personal experiences.
Why Join?
Participants of the Freedom of Speech Beyond Borders will have the opportunity to:
– Learn how to navigate and utilise archival resources;
– Conduct interviews with history witnesses;
– Take part in workshops on creative journaling and zine-making;
– Discover the low-tech methods of samizdat production and how their distribution was carried out;
– Collaborate within an interdisciplinary team to produce a DIY publication.
Kontakt
magda.mazurek@enrs.eu
Freedom of Speech Beyond Borders, in: H-Soz-Kult, 29.04.2025, https://www.hsozkult.de/event/id/event-154684.