CEINAV presented to the Slovenian public on 27th February 2014

On February 27th 2014, the CEINAV project was presented to the Slovenian scholar's and wider public.  Vlasta Jalušič, one of the principal investigators of Cultural Encounters in Interventions against Violence at the Peace Institute,  has spoken about the content, methods, results and project partnership. 



 
Three other Slovenian HERA projects were introduced at the event which was organised by the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and attended by the representatives of the Slovenian Ministry of Education, Science   and Sports. The audience, mostly young scholars, has shown most  interest in the  projects development and partnerships. The representatives of the Ministry of Education, Science and Sports have announced the third HERA tender.

Vlasta Jalušič 

Who you gonna call?

For our planned workshops it is very important to invite just the right practitioners. They should have a significant deal of experience and should have come across the situations we will ask about. But maybe they should not be in the job for too long either. They will have to be experienced enough so everybody lets each other talk and respects each other, but if they are too experienced younger practitioners might feel intimidated. We want them to discuss cases, so they better have a comparable background framework in order not to start discussing protocols and procedures instead. On the other hand they should not work in the same networks or even city, because that would stop them from opening up regarding actions that might be against protocol. And there are still more reasons, why we have to pick our participants very carefully. Also we need the contacts, networks and experience of our associate partners for this. Last friday the Osnabrück team met with one of our associate partners in Göttingen, discussed who to invite and developed a first draft of a case story.

Bianca Grafe

Country context papers are on track

The last weeks it became quiet in the research team because one by one went on leave. Everybody is back to the desk now and eight researchers and fellow researchers are working on eight working papers called country context and legal context papers. These two papers per country are supposed to bring everybody on the same page about migration history, laws and prevalence data in each of the countries. In order to do comparatative research, we need to know the background of each country. Did your country have an extensive colonial history? From where are the migrants that migrate to your country? Which rights do they have? And so many more questions to ask. The papers are supposed to be desk research collecting and condensing existent research, but they will be of importance for the data analysis later on. Maybe we will not have final versions of all the papers at the initial deadline, but we hope to have preliminary versions of all of them by the middle or the end of january.

Bianca Grafe

You might think you know what you're doing - Meeting on methodology

It's great to have an idea of how things will work. Sometimes, even as a pro, you can miss important details though. Since our project is quite ambitious and our data collection via workshops a crutial part of it, we thought it might be a good idea to check with some experts on methodology. We invited four renown experts to Osnabrück where they met yesterday with the principle investigator from Heidelberg and the Osnabrück team wich includes the project leader. It was a very fruitful meeting with wonderful colleagues and lots of input. The idea to have a moderator moderating the focus groups instead of the principle investigators had already been in our minds, but it became more important when we discussed the possible impact on the focus groups.

 

Also the case stories to be discussed turned out to be even more important than we already asssumed. There were very different points of view regarding how they would have to be constructed. Also we will have to develop guidelines how to construct these case stories, in order to have comparable stories in each of the countries we are researching in, taking into account, that the details will have to differ from country to country (e.g. who is regarded a minority and what is to be considered a "typical" case?).

24 workshops might sound like a lot, which it is, regarding planning, organising and the material we will get. But this divides into six workshops a country, thus two workshop per country per form of violence. This does not allow for experiments with moderator or story, so we found there is a need to pre-test these workshops in advance.

This additional step adds further to our tight time schedule, but we think it is really necessary.

Bianca Grafe

Reflections on the kickoff in Osnabrück

Great weather, no cancellations and no major problems

The kick-off meeting was a great success! Everyone came – not a single cancellation – and the researchers and practitioners had a wonderful experience getting to know their counterparts in other countries and each other. The weather was perfect – mild golden October – and the location ideal for strolling in the Botanical Garden during the breaks.

The meeting was supported by a group of 7 student assistants, most of them volunteers from the master’s program in pedagogy, who met an guided the visitors, made coffee and tea and served lunches, helped with the technology and internet connections, and generally helped to ensure smooth proceedings.

Public event: Botanical Garden, who-is-who and fingerfood

On the first day, 14 researchers from the five partners discussed guidelines for the country context papers as well as theoretical approaches, and shared thoughts about the perspectives of the work. On Monday evening, a public presentation of the project under the theme of “culture-sensitive intervention” was held, with the university vice-president for research and the dean of the faculty as welcoming speakers. Carol Hagemann-White presented the main ideas and aims of the project in German, and then each lead researcher and each representative of the associate partners spoke for five minutes, introducing themselves and their organization. Afterwards there were drinks and snacks, made possible by a contribution from the university society.  A professional photographer recorded the event.

Even more work - second day meeting

On Tuesday the 11 associate partners and the researchers discussed together how the workshops with practitioners might be implemented for each of the three areas of violence covered in the project. The discussion was moderated by Prof. Cornelia Helfferich, Freiburg, a methodologist with research experience in all three areas, who will also be consulting with the project in Germany. A draft memorandum of understanding spelling out the rights of associate partners who contribute to the work was discussed and agreed, including principles of transparency, confidentiality and respect for intellectual property rights, but also inclusion in discussions about concepts and appropriate language. After lunch, the researchers took stock of what had been done , while the visiting practitioners were offered a tour of the town by student guides. All participants whose flights did not leave until the next day met for dinner and wine in a traditional restaurant. 

The Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung was present at the evening event and reported

Bianca Grafe/Carol Hagemann-White

Full team, picture taken by Angela von Brill

 

 

Kickoff event in Osnabrück on 21.10.2013

To start the project officially and get to know each other, we will have a big event on 21st of October.

 All researchers and associate partners will be there, introduce themselves and present the project.

The event is open to the public and will start at 18.00 in Bohnenkamphaus in Osnabrück.

 German press release:

„Kultursensible Gewaltprävention“

ist das Thema der öffentlichen Auftaktveranstaltung, mit der das im September begonnenen CEINAV-Projekt sich der interessierten Öffentlichkeit vorstellt. Am Montag, den 21. Oktober, treffen sich alle Partner aus Wissenschaft und Praxis aus vier Ländern in Osnabrück, um ihre Zusammenarbeit abzustimmen. In der gemeinsam ausgerichteten Abendveranstaltung um 18h im Bohnenkamphaus am Botanischen Garten wird die Projektleiterin, Prof. i.R. Dr. Carol Hagemann-White, Ziele und Anliegen der gemeinsamen Forschung und der Kooperation mit der Praxis in einem Vortrag vorstellen:

“Interkulturelle Begegnungen und Fragen der Ethik im Gewaltschutz für Frauen und Kinder“

Danach stellen die kooperierende Forscherinnen und Forscher sowie die assoziierten Partner aus der Praxis sich selbst und ihre Organisation vor und berichten über ihre Arbeit (in Englischer Sprache). Anschließend gibt es Gelegenheit, bei einem Stehimbiss mit Umtrunk die Kooperationspartner im vertiefenden Gespräch kennenzulernen und über die Gewaltschutzarbeit in anderen Ländern mehr zu erfahren.

Das Bohnenkamp-Haus am Eingang zum Botanischen Garten, Albrechtstraße 29, ist mit dem Bus 21 zu erreichen, Haltestelle: Hochschulen Osnabrück. Parkmöglichkeiten am Universitätsparkplatz an der Barbarastraße.

CEINAV meets the „HERA family“

The HERA program “Cultural Encounters” was officially launched on Sept. 31/Oct. 1 in Dubrovnik, in a conference attended by nearly all lead researchers  from the 18 funded new projects, as well as the reviewers who had read the proposals. A selection of project leaders from the previous HERA Call told the new members what they have learned from collaboration. Carol Hagemann-White and Bianca Grafe from Osnabrück attended and presented the CEINAV project.

HERA Press release of the launching conference

Read about all 18 projects

In the new HERA brochure