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Venice International University Graduate Seminars and PhD Academy 2022

Duke University is a member of the Venice International University (VIU) – a consortium of 20 universities from all over the world with a campus in Venice, Italy.

Duke graduate students can apply to VIU International Ph.D. Academies and Graduate Seminars throughout the year.

Duke students admitted to Ph.D. Academies and Graduate Seminars will pay no participation fees and will receive a grant from VIU to cover the costs of international travel and accommodation on the VIU campus in Venice.

The State of the Art of Area Studies
Program Dates: June 13-17, 2022

Application deadline: February 28, 2022

As a field, Area Studies would seem to possess an unusual number of advantages in the contemporary academy: it is inherently inter- or trans-disciplinary, it offers students cultural capital and linguistic skills which are valuable in the marketplace as well as in the university, and its enclaves serve as repositories of expert knowledge which are of value to state and commercial actors. Scholars working in the field are also often skilled communicators, well used to explaining their parts of the world to general publics as well as to expert audiences.

As generations of graduate students discover, however, Area Studies also seems to be perpetually riven by two tensions: firstly, that it seeks to critique power, whilst feeding off and aiding the institutions it critiques; and, secondly, that the broader academy sees Area Studies as an un-disciplinary field, in which scholars often lose the rigor and coherence of their disciplinary background.

Suitable for: PhD students, post-docs, and young researchers working in Area Studies, broadly construed.

Science Communication Today: Challenges and Opportunities in the SDGs Era

Program Dates: September 12-16, 2022


Application deadline: May 12, 2022

Science communication is a key topic, as it also emerged during the COVID pandemic: it can engage different publics (e.g. citizens and decision makers) in science, sharing knowledge and understanding, and empowering them to face today society challenges related to sustainable development and the SDGs. However, Science Communication is a challenge itself, due to the existing gap between science and the wider public, as well as between science and communicators. In order to fill these gaps critical topics in science communication, such as science communication in the digitalization era, different media challenges and opportunities, the relation between scientists and professional communicators, quality and effectiveness in science communication need to be analysed.

Suitable for: Master students, PhD students and young researchers studying or interested in Science Communication from different fields, e.g. sociology, neuroscience, education science, media and communication studies, economics, humanities, as well as science and technology researchers who are keen to get involved in science communication research.

Digital Citizenship: Exploring the Opportunities and Challenges of a Digitalized Society

Virtual Sessions: August 29 – November 21, 2022
On Campus: November 28 – December 3, 2022

Applications deadline: June 15, 2022

The focus of this program will be on the subject of Digital Citizenship. It will challenge you to explore in an interdisciplinary way with your peers the questions of how we become digital citizens and how we manage, protect, and nurture our new digital society. More specifically, the program will aim to identify the worldwide challenges that digital citizenship might entail and how to tackle these challenges, be it social, economic, environmental, or otherwise.

Suitable for: Master and early PhD students in all disciplines from all VIU member institutions, with an interest in the subject of Digital Citizenship.

 

Contact For further information about VIU graduate activities, please check the  DUCIGS website (at Duke) or the VIU website.  You can also contact the Director of DUCIGS,  Dr. Giovanni Zanalda (giovanni.zanalda@duke.edu), if you would like to know more about these opportunities.