We are happy to announce that the Cyprus University of Technology will be participating in the Innovative Training Network POEM (Participatory Memory Practices).
EU Horizon 2020
Innovative Training Network POEM
Project Leader: Prof. Dr. Gertraud Koch, University of Hamburg
Cyprus Coordinator: Dr. Theopisti Stylianou-Lambert, Cyprus University of Technology
Local supervisors: Dr. Theopisti Stylianou-Lambert & Prof. Panayiotis Zaphiris
Duration: 2018-2022
The Horizon 2020 Innovative Training Network POEM trains future experts for the heritage sector and studies participatory memory practices and digital heritage in Europe. POEM started in April 2018 with the recruitment of early stage researchers for 13 projects. Two of the 13 projects are being led by the Cyprus University of Technology. The project receives funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie.
Participatory memory work is critical to understanding the inclusion of memories across nations and social situation (gender, wealth, education, migration) into institutional memory work and heritage building and thus to acknowledge them as a significant part of the history and contemporary life in Europe. Over four years, and through 13 different projects, we will research participatory memory work; i.e. the strategies and practices of both public memory institutions, like libraries, archives, and museums, as well as individuals and diverse groups, who take advantage of digital technologies and social media to connect publicly, share materials, and participate in a socially inclusive way to remember or celebrate our cultural legacy, such as events, persons and ideas.
The innovative training network (ITN), called POEM, addresses the qualification of experts in the heritage sector who are competent with working with the mediatized memory ecology, the changing socio-technical, organisational, legal, economic, and ethical frameworks for the use of cultural materials in digital times. POEM will see the Cyprus University of Technology work with 6 European partner organisations, including the University of Hamburg in Germany, the University of Glasgow in the UK, Uppsala University in Sweden, Aarhus University in Denmark, and heritage experts such as the Museum Europäischer Kulturen in Berlin, and Ashoka, civil society organization based in the UK. Support will also come from well-known international organizations and creative industries partners specializing in open knowledge, data and media literacy, social entrepreneurship and empowerment.
Funding comes from the European Union via Marie Sklodowska-Curie actions (MSCA), which supports high quality doctoral-level training and career development in and outside academia. As a European Training Network, the programme will train the next generation of researchers in methods necessary to make significant progress in understanding participatory memory work. The research and training will be structured around three themes to study how connectivities are built by institutions, people and groups, and by memory modalities for a socially inclusive, participatory heritage work and what facilitates or hinders collaboration.