balkan studies

Balkan Studies I. (2005 – 2006)

The project called „Global and Development Education: Western Balkans” lasted from September 2005 to December 2005 and was aimed at creating academic capacity for teaching Balkan Studies in Slovakia in the context of global and development education.

The supplementary project goal was to add the provided assistance and knowledge on the Western Balkans to the framework of Slovakia’s wider international responsibility. This responsibility is also related to other target regions of Slovak ODA and other parts of the world that also need our help and solidarity. The project worked with several target groups. Students from the Faculty of Arts at Comenius University in Bratislava were addressed directly with thirteen specialized seminars conducted at the Department of Political Sciences by its faculty. The project indirectly influenced several other target groups, too: universities as a whole, since the project created a basis for interdisciplinary Balkan Studies in the Faculty of Arts at Comenius University; media, official diplomacy and professional public, since the project assisted in training future journalists, foreign editors, diplomats and employees of the institutions of Slovak development assistance; and NGO employees, since the project helped prepare potential employees for such organizations. The project incorporated external experts and teachers and people with field experience, too.

This project was funded by SlovakAid.

Balkans Studies II. (2005 – 2006)

The project “Development Assistance Studies in Slovakia: University Seminars and Best Master Thesis Contest (2nd year)” lasted from December 2005 to June 2006. It was a follow-up project on the previous one, which lasted from September 2005 to December 2005.

The overall goal of the project was to increase awareness of the Slovak academic, research and professional community, especially in the regional universities outside of Bratislava, on Slovak official development assistance (ODA) in general and on the Western Balkans as its priority region in particular. The project stressed the global character and extent of Balkan problems, which are narrowly connected to the question of the global and development education in Slovakia. The project had several parts: the seminar cycle, which consisted of 11 lectures and took place at the Institute for European Studies and International Relations in the Faculty of Social and Economic Sciences, Comenius University; two seminars at universities in Banská Bystrica and Trnava; and the second year of the Best M.A. thesis contest in Slovakia on ODA and the Western Balkans. The project was instrumental in involving external experts and teachers and people with field experience.

This project was funded by the Office of the Canadian Embassy to Slovakia.