Academic Writing for Graduates from SE Europe

Mission Statement

Stabilizing the Balkan through academic writing?

“What is it that English and the Kosovo conflict have in common?” “Are we supposed to teach NATO English to soldiers stabilizing the region?” These kinds of thoughts crossed the minds of some students at the department of English and American Studies at TU Chemnitz as Prof. Schmied surprised them with the offer of joining a summer school at the Balkan for their Project Management Seminar. In collaboration with his colleagues from the region, Prof. Schmied developed a project that explores how the master module “Academic Writing” can improve the regional development and the collaboration between universities and cultures alike. The project “Academic Writing for Graduates from SE Europe” was funded by the DAAD with money provided by the Federal Foreign Office from the “Stabilitätspakt Südosteuropa”.

As an important part of the one year project, young lecturers from Albania, Montenegro and Macedonia took the chance to come to Chemnitz for the first time. In addition, eight Chemnitz students were able to discuss their experience in academic writing theory and practice with four of their colleagues from each of the other countries during a summer school in Ohrid (Macedonia). At Lake Ohrid, the different working styles of both lecturers and students were as interesting as the cultural highlights of this unfortunately unfamiliar part of Europe. The Chemnitz students would like to share their experiences and for this reason they prepared presentations and short films. Additionally, the casual atmosphere at the Club der Kulturen should contribute to the open project discussion.

We furthermore hope that the new foreign minister will recognize the enormous amount of work the English students from Chemnitz have contributed to the stability of the Balkan region and that he is going to extend the special DAAD program. Thereby lecturers from the new university of Pristina in Kosovo would be able to visit Chemnitz for the first time and PhD students from Chemnitz could discuss their writing projects with partners from Kosovo during the next summer school. A detailed report will be published in TU Spektrum.

All colleagues and student of Chemnitz University of Technology are cordially invited to attend a cultural event organized by students at Club der Kulturen on January, 21^st from 20:00 till 22:00. Registration not necessary. For further information contact Prof. Schmied.

We are happy that the project continues in 2014.