Attempting to overcome stereotypes about the Romani people and comparing European music festivals as public spaces affording encounters with diversities – these are the subjects of JU projects awarded by the Humanities in the European Research Area network. The winning projects are led by Dr hab. Anna Piotrowska and Dr Karolina Golemo.
HERA is an international consortium focused on providing funding for research in humanities. Its contest Public Spaces: Culture and Integration in Europe, co-organised by the Polish National Science Centre, was open to researchers from 24 countries. To become eligible to participate, they were required to form consortiums made up of at least 4 teams from 4 different countries. Aside from strictly academic institutions, the contest is also directed to museums, non-government organisations, and representatives of the media.
The aim of the projects is to understand the relationship between public spaces and culture and issues such as European integration, migration, globalisation, digitalisation etc. According to the National Science Centre, 203 international applications were processed in this edition of the contest. A total amount of 18 million euro was granted to 20 projects, including 4 from Poland – 2 from the Jagiellonian University and 2 from the University of Warsaw.
Dr hab. Anna Piotrowska from the JU Institute of Musicology will lead the Polish team working on the project Minorities beyond stereotypes: Cultural exchanges and the Romani contribution to European public spaces. The study will be conducted jointly with researchers from Seville, Helsinki, and Liverpool. Their assumption is that this ethnic group interacted with other communities within the framework of public spaces, the definitions of which have changed over the centuries.
‘The Polish team will focus on the Romani contribution to European musical culture, with particular emphasis on their place in urban public spaces, both historically and contemporarily. We will concentrate on multi-national empires such as Austria-Hungary and Russia, we will also study the Romani influences on flamenco in Spain. We will analyse musicological, sociological, and ethnographic aspects of the issue’, project description reads.
Dr Karolina Golemo from the JU Institute of Intercultural Studies is the second winner of the contest from the Jagiellonian University for her project European music festivals, public spaces and cultural diversity. Along with their partners from Denmark, the Netherlands, Ireland, and Great Britain, her team will study the subject of cultural diversity within the context of music festivals with respect to the perspectives of various actors: organisers, maintenance, artists, audience, and local community.
‘Methods of data collection include participant observation, surveys, research interviews, and visual-sonic methodologies. A strong array of knowledge exchange events and partnerships with key partners in each national environment ensures effective knowledge utilisation beyond academic outputs. Anticipated outcomes include its contribution to local, national and European understandings of the representation of cultural differences, and the development of innovative strategies and approaches festival organisers can use to promote cultural diversity and social inclusion in the festival context’, reads the application form.
