Autumn School for Postgraduate Students and Early Career Researchers Venice, 30 September – 4 October 2024

In 2024, the year marking the 700th anniversary of the death of one of the world’s great explorers, Marco Polo, the University of Warwick, in collaboration with Nova University in Lisbon, University of Ljubljana, University of Arts in Belgrade, Jiao Tong University in Shanghai, Kazakh National Academy of Arts in Almaty, and Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi, is inviting postgraduate students and early career researchers to an autumn school focused on the theme of Marco Polo and the Silk Roads.

In the popular imagination, Marco Polo features as arguably the most famous Western traveller to have journeyed along the trade route between Europe and Asia known as the Silk Road. As a young merchant, he began his journey to China in 1271 and his travels lasted for 24 years. Today the Silk Road is rapidly becoming one of the key geocultural and geostrategic concepts of the twenty-first century. A narrative of connected histories, it now operates as a platform for international trade, diplomacy, infrastructure development and digital connectivity (Winter 2022). Identified by two principal routes - maritime and overland, the Silk Road stretches across the Indian Ocean and Eurasian landmass; regions that will be of paramount importance in an increasingly multi-polar world.

Building on concepts and insights from theatre and performance studies, critical heritage studies, visual arts, history, cultural studies, and international relations and geopolitics, this vacation school calls for new research and approaches on how we should situate the mobilisation of the Silk Road imaginary historically and geopolitically within international affairs, and how the Silk Road is localised, interpreted, and contested within existing national and regional cultural contexts. Through talks, workshops, and demonstrations the participants will be exposed to a variety of disciplinary approaches and ways in which they could be combined to build a new critical framework to understand the Silk Road(s) performatively as a relational and intersectional critical concept and practice. The autumn school will also explore historical and art historical dimensions of the Silk Roads and the Venetian links to them through site visits within the lagoon city. We shall also visit the 60th International Art Exhibition of the Venice Biennale, titled Stranieri Ovunque – Foreigners Everywhere.

The autumn school is part of the University of Warwick’s Marco Polo International Programme and developed as one of the EUTOPIA Connected Community Education projects. You can find out more about the EUTOPIA Connected Community project here: https://eutopia-university.eu/english-version/integrated-connected-communities/thinking-through-the-silk-road-cross-cultural-exchanges-and-mobilities 

Venue: Warwick Venice Centre at the Palazzo Giustinian Lolin, Calle Giustinian, 2893, 30124 Venezia VE, Italy. The venue is in the centre of Venice near the Academia Bridge. See: https://warwick.ac.uk/about/campus/venice/

For more information see: 
https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/scapvc/events/marco_polo_and

HOW TO APPLY

Applicants must submit the following materials (in English) by September 2, 2024:

• a CV (1 page max. Including a list of publications (if any)
• a covering letter explaining how participation in the Autumn School will benefit your research and stating financial needs (500 words max.)
• One letter of recommendation

Please send these materials to m.gluhovic@warwick.ac.uk

Applicants accepted in the program will be notified by September 4, 2024, via email. They must confirm their participation by September 6, 2024. For further information please write to m.gluhovic@warwick.ac.uk

 

BURSARIES:

The University of Warwick is offering the following bursaries:

10 bursaries covering accommodation (based on 2 persons sharing a room)

If you are not able to access funds to attend, we offer a limited amount of accommodation bursaries based on financial need and merit of the application. Please indicate in your letter if you would need a bursary, provide a rationale for your request specifying if your attendance is contingent on receiving a grant.