Dec 7, 2009

Schedule

In case some of you havent got the schedule, here it is :)

- 28th December

Arrivals
21.00 Ice Breaking Party in the "House of Beer"

- 29th December

09.00 Breakfast
10.00 Opening in Vilnius University
11.45 Tour of the University
13.30 Lunch
14.30 Workshops
19.00 Dinner
21.00 Party in the Roller Club

- 30th December

09.00 Breakfast
10.00 Sightseeing Tour
13.30 Lunch
14.30 Workshops
19.00 Dinner
21.00 Party

- 31st December

09.00 Breakfast
10.00 Day Trip to Trakai
13.00 Lunch in Trakai
15.00 Going back to Vilnius
16.00 Final Conclusion
21.00 New Year Celebration in the Context of National Drinks

- 1st January

11.00 Tryin' to Wake Up
13.00 Hill of Gediminas - Running Up a Flag
14.00 Lunch
15.00 City Tour
19.00 Dinner
20.00 Watching Movie
22.00 Spending Your Last Money in the Pubs of Vilnius, Doing Nothing
or Going to Sleep (Optional)

- 2nd January

Hugs, Kisses and Departures

Nov 11, 2009

Updated Work Groups

Here are the updated work groups. It means that people from the waiting list are added here right after they comfirm their participation.

POLITICAL PROPAGANDA
Valdas Dumčius
Domagoj Tomas
Timo Vuorikivi
Zvonimir Glavaš
Tadeja Zupanc
Rinse Mesker
Patricija Kunštek
Denis Njari

RELIGIOUS PROPAGATION
Bojana Pavlović
Katharina Rein
Frerik Kampman
Ieva Šulskutė
Franklin Baldwin
Sanna Hellstedt
Eva Šmid

IMAGES AND STEREOTYPES
Fabian Würtz
Mikko Saarinen
Frank Uiterwaal
Elsa Mäki-Reinikka
Sven Mörsdorf
Aleksandar Lukić
Maria Temmes
Jernej Kotar

MANIPULATION OF HISTORY-WRITING
Maja Lukanc
Dimitar Valtchev
Thomas Bruggmann
Marko Smokvina-Marijić
Lisa Baurmann
Janosch Kästel
Saša Zvonar
Koen van Zon

INDOCTRINATION
Vera Manders
Marko Fuček
Kiril Ivanov Zahariev
Dragan Nikčević
Merle Boppert
Lia Hamminga
Konstantin Golev

Nov 9, 2009

Work Groups

Hi everybody,

Firstly, we happily announce that we are willing to accept everybody who had applied!:) However, we have only 30 places booked in the hostel, and we have no finances to provide more. This is the solution we suggest: People who are on the waiting list would have to pay 110Eur, instead of a set participation fee (80Eur). This 30Eur difference would cover the expenses for hostel. We apologize for increasing the fee, but only in this way we could make it possible for everybody to attend the seminar. Please let us know asap if you are interested in this possibility by sending an email.

For everybody else, we finally publish workgroups, but please also confirm your participation, otherwise we would let people on the waiting list to take your place.

POLITICAL PROPAGANDA
Valdas Dumčius
Domagoj Tomas
Timo Vuorikivi
Zvonimir Glavaš
Tadeja Zupanc
Rinse Mesker

RELIGIOUS PROPAGATION
Bojana Pavlović
Katharina Rein
Frerik Kampman
Ieva Šulskutė
Franklin Baldwin
Sanna Hellstedt

IMAGES AND STEREOTYPES
Fabian Würtz
Mikko Saarinen
Frank Uiterwaal
Elsa Mäki-Reinikka
Sven Mörsdorf
Aleksandar Lukić

MANIPULATION OF HISTORY-WRITING
Maja Lukanc
Dimitar Valtchev
Thomas Bruggmann
Marko Smokvina-Marijić
Lisa Baurmann
Janosch Kästel

INDOCTRINATION
Vera Manders
Marko Fuček
Kiril Ivanov Zahariev
Dragan Nikčević
Merle Boppert
Lia Hamminga


There were few cases when we needed to use the third preference, but it was simply because we had too little people in the workshops of Religion and Indoctrination. We hope everybody are fine with this order. Your workshop leaders will contact you all in the following week and basically from now on we will keep in touch with you through leaders. They will provide you all information and answer your questions if you have any. Gosh we can't wait for this seminar to start!


With love,
ISHA Vilnius

Oct 31, 2009

The Final List

Dear fans of ISHA,

We are incredibly happy to know that so much people are interested in coming to Vilnius to participate in the New Year Seminar 2009. We were literaly praying to get 30 applications, considering these hard times we are now in:) And our prayer obviously brought us much richer harvest than we are capable to reap! In other words, our plan was 30 participants while we have 40 applicants. What we will do is estimate our financial capability and try to accept more than 30 participants. It highly depends on providing you accommodation. We will let you know how we are doing 1-2 weeks.

Until then we have to put some of you on a waiting list. If some folks from the main list would resign, applicants from the waiting list goes up. So please consider carefully if you definitely can and want to take part. Otherwise we ask you to give up your place to somebody who can and want to.

The way of selecting people always raise discussions. We've got applications from 15 (!) different sections. So we decided to take no more than three and no less than one person per section. We also gave preference to ISHA officials and to people who were faster to apply. However, we hope that we will be able to accept all of you.

One more note. Since we expect some changes in the final list, we haven't indicated the workshops you are in. You will be sorted as soon as we will know more about the number of people going to the Seminar. Right after that you will be contacted with your workshop leader. Ok, no more mumbling, here's the list:

FINAL LIST:

01. Aleksandar Lukić (Belgrade)
02. Bojana Pavlović (Belgrade)
03. Dimitar Valtchev (Sofia)
04. Domagoj Tomas (Osijek)
05. Dragan Nikčević (Ljubljana)
06. Elsa Mäki-Reinikka (Helsinki)
07. Fabian Wurtz (Zürich)
08. Franklin Baldwin (Leipzig)
09. Frank Uiterwaal (Nijmegen)
10. Frerik Kampman (Utrecht)
11. Ieva Šulskutė (Kaunas)
12. Janosch Kästel (Heidelberg)
13. Katharina Rein (Berlin)
14. Kiril Ivanov Zahariev (Sofia)
15. Lia Hamminga (Nijmegen)
16. Lisa Baurmann (Berlin)
17. Maja Lukanc (Ljubljana)
18. Marko Fuček (Zagreb)
19. Marko Smokvina-Marijić (Zagreb)
20. Merle Boppert (Berlin)
21. Mikko Saarinen (Turku)
22. Rinse Mesker (Nijmegen)
23. Sanna Hellstedt (Helsinki)
24. Sven Mörsdorf (Marburg)
25. Tadeja Zupanc (Ljubljana)
26. Thomas Bruggmann (Zürich)
27. Timo Vuorikivi (Helsinki)
28. Valdas Dumčius (Kaunas)
29. Vera Manders (Utrecht)
30. Zvonimir Glavaš (Osijek)

WAITING LIST:

31. Koen van Zon (Nijmegen)
32. Valtteri Koskinen (Helsinki)
33. Jernej Kotar (Ljubljana)
34. Jure Marinović (Zagreb)
35. Maria Temmes (Helsinki)
36. Larissa Vanamo (Helsinki)
37. Saša Zvonar (Ljubljana)
38. Tihana Sedlar (Osijek)
39. Patricija Kunštek (Ljubljana)
40. Eva Šmid (Ljubljana)

Oct 24, 2009

Enrollment

Application period starts on Monday 26th Oct (00:01am) and lasts till Friday 30th Oct (11:59pm). Send your applications to isha.vilnius@gmail.com . Here's the application form:

-Take Me-

Vilnius (video)

Oct 23, 2009

Workshops

POLITICAL PROPAGANDA

Though a word propaganda brings to mind images of dictatorships and wartime misinformation, it is still produced today by governments and institutions in massive amounts around the world. Ironically, propaganda appears to be thriving not only in totalitarian regimes, but also in an otherwise open society with freely flowing information. However, there is a significant distinction between two. In totalitarian societies, described by Orwell in his '1984', propaganda doesn't really try to control people's thoughts. Their behavior is controlled by force. Democratic societies are limited in using power against its own citizens, thus, people are allowed to speak out. With the help of propaganda government try to control what people say, in other words – what people think. Political experts are using science about language, audience dynamics, about how the mind works and they incorporate these into the framing of their political messages.
Wars, elections and other governmental activities were always fallowed by political propaganda. The aim of this workshop is disclosure of the ways governments want to persuade populaces of the justness of their actions as well as hide the failures, distract people from the truth and create new realities; to examine the differences of political manipulation in democratic and totalitarian societies.
Note: though manipulation of history itself by government for its political purposes is considered as political propaganda, it is, however, attached to 'History Writing' workshop and should be fully discussed there.

RELIGIOUS PROPAGATION

The term 'propaganda' first appeared in 1622 when Pope Gregory XV established the Sacred Congregation for Propagating the Faith (Congregatio de Propaganda Fide). But religious propaganda existed long before the 17th century, just like propagating the faith. The world's oldest, largest and most successful nongovernmental organizations are all religious. The roots of manipulating people's faith may lie in a way these organizations have employed the use of art. Religious propaganda, for instance, through art and music made the image of violent death seem compellingly attractive, execution became salvation. Vivid paintings and literary works like Dante's Divine Comedy worked as a tool for intensifying the fear of hell and thus the submission to the Church. Religious organizations justified their authority as God-given, as is representation of Christ, still used for the pope. Manipulation of religion quite often took a violent form. Each religion has its own way to perceive the world. These differences quite often lead to wars and religious distinctions between nations. Propaganda has long been used to demonize the enemy when religious conflicts take place, such as Crusades, Reformation, Jihad etc. All these subjects are the focus of attention of this workshop.

IMAGES AND STEREOTYPES

Tentions between neighbors, history wounds, syndrome of victim: how they changed through history and on what sociological conditions they belonged.

MANIPULATION OF HISTORY-WRITING

Collective memory has become an increasingly contested terrain. Historical revisionism and denialism (most famously - the denial of Holocaust), distortion of history, pseudohistory, mythological interpretations of the past, all these phenomena have influence on collective memory. Public and political functions of history, the politics of history-writing are fundamentals of this workshop.

INDOCTRINATION

When you control the education system, you can instill values and beliefs from a very young age. The Jesuits are famous for starting with the very young, with the chilling declaration 'Give me the child and I will give you the man'. Contemporary school textbooks in Russia raise a lot of discussions. The aim of this workshop is to evaluate how all kinds of manipulation, discussed in previous workshops, reflect in education system.


P.S. The last three workshop descriptions will be supplemented soon.

ISHA New Year Seminar

Dear Manipulators of the Past!

You probably already heard what you would be doing on the New Year. If it is still a secret for you, here comes the Enlightenment! Vilnius is organizing a New Year seminar with the topic 'Manipulation in History'. The seminar will take place from the 28th Dec 2009 till the 2nd Jan 2010. The participation fee will be 80 Eur. The hostel you are going to stay is close to the center and the University itself - no public transport needed. Schedule is upcoming in the fallowing days. Application period starts this Monday, 26th of October and lasts till Friday midnight (30th Oct). Manipulate... or be manipulated!