The 3-days retreat focused on the further development of the Second Year Seminar, as the ideational extension of the First Year Seminar and Language and Thinking course, initially
launched at EHU with the assistance of the Bard network in 2014-2016. As the result of collaborative work, EHU faculty, students, alumni and administration scrutinized the concepts, contents and methodology of the Second Year Seminar: Introduction to Social Sciences.
EHU Governing Board member Prof. Michael Kennedy, Assoc. Prof. Valerii Monakhov (Smolny College and Herzen State Pedagogical University of Russia), and Anastasia Gontareva (School of Civic Education) served as external experts. They positively evaluated the process of EHU Core Curriculum development and noted that the participation of all EHU academic community – including students – is critical for the continuous outstanding results to be achieved by EHU.
The Second Year Seminar continues to develop the active writing and thinking practices in the Core Curriculum, now focusing on ‘scientific’ analysis, in addition to the philosophical and literary traditions in the humanities. The course contributes to developing competencies required to analyze modern social processes and structures.
The participants of the workshop worked in groups and individually. They were able to assess EHU’s experience at implementing the First Year Seminar in AY 2016/17, developed the contents, topics, and problematics of the Second Year Seminar. Special attention was paid to the methodology, assessments and ontology of the Second Year Seminar. Besides, the participants deliberated on the avenues and practices for deepening the role of student research and civic engagement within the Second Year Seminar.
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The workshop became possible thanks to the generous support of the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency as a part of a special academic development grant to EHU.
