[CIVIS] Hub ‘Society, Culture, Heritage’ Coordinator and Council Meeting

An entirely successful two-day meeting was held in Aix-en-Provence, France, organized by CIVIS Hub 2: Society, Culture, Heritage. The meeting was coordinated by Ms Theodora Antonopoulou, professor of Byzantine Literature at NKUA, who chairs the CIVIS Hub 2 Council with professor Dorothee Kimmich from the University of Tübingen, Germany.

The meeting was hosted by the Aix-Marseille University (Aix-Marseille Université), while NKUA was represented in person, apart from professor Antonopoulou, by

1. Ms Vassiliki Chryssanthopoulou, associate professor at the Department of Philology,
2. Ms Irini Apostolou, assistant professor at the Department of French Language and Literature,
3. Mr Dimitrios Moschos, associate professor at the Department of Theology,
4. Ms Anastasia Petropoulou, representative of the postgraduate students in the Hub Council, and
5. Mss Anna Nikopoulou and Maria Plastourgou, administrative officers.

The meeting began with a greeting from professor Jean-Marc Pons, adviser to the President of Aix-Marseille University and member of the CIVIS Steering Committee. During the first day, participants had the opportunity to not only present their several different and interesting projects but also make known the learning outcomes of the various programmes and cooperative actions between the members of CIVIS. Next came a discussion about the opportunities that will be available to the faculty of the alliance for the expansion and development of the existing educational actions and the creation of new ones in the second phase of CIVIS, which has already received an approval for the next four years. At the same time, those present in person and online presented the issues they faced in their educational actions and the ways they overcame them with the help of the Hub Council Members.

Equally successful was the second day of the meeting, which began dynamically with a constructive discussion on the evaluation of the projects. The session then moved on to the current developments of CIVIS, e.g., the BIPs Calls and the functioning of the Hubs, which in the framework of CIVIS 2.0 will be given increased weighting and will thus be crucial in decision-making processes. A final discussion followed on the intention to launch joint postgraduate programmes in the thematic areas of the Hub ‘Society, Culture, Heritage’. It is worth noting that for the second phase of CIVIS, based on the agreement of the Board of Rectors, NKUA undertook Work Package 9 (WP9) entitled Civis Educational Offer: Bachelor and Master Level.

A working meeting of the members of the coordination teams from the Universities of Athens and Tübingen marked the end of the event. Thanks to the smooth cooperation between the participants, the two-day meeting in Aix proved fruitful, and the parties involved agreed on a new appointment in the coming months.