CEEISA Young Scholars Initiative (CYSI) is a mentoring scheme designed for self-defined ‘early career’ scholars within the International Studies profession attending the joint ISA/CEEISA conference in Rijeka, organized by CEEISA Doctoral network. Two part event, with a dedicated panel and a post-conference writing retreat, CYSI aims to foster collaboration amongst early career researchers from the region, facilitate engagement with differing theoretical and methodological perspectives and capacitate interaction with established senior scholars, who will serve as mentors. While participants can apply to both events or choose only one of them, the CYSI is envisioned to be an integrated experience.
In the first event, participants present their papers/parts of doctoral dissertation and receive feedback from selected mentors and peers through a discussion based interaction. In the second part, participants are supposed to engage with the feedback and work on their papers with mentors’ support. Purpose of such an initiative is a creation of a platform through which students from the region can produce original ideas, improve their skills and grow professional networks. Beyond a traditional conference format, CYSI thus hopes to be a uniquely focused experience in which students occupy different roles, collaboratively go through the process of knowledge production and do so with support and guidance of senior scholars in the warm and welcoming environment of Moise palace.
We welcome proposals in the following formats:
YOUNG SCHOLARS PANEL
The Young Scholars (YS) Panel will follow a distinctly different format from CEEISA's traditional panels. The YS panel is designed to provide participants with the opportunity to maximise networking and get feedback on projects from CEEISA's leading scholars.
Pre-session (14 days)
Participants share their papers (max 10k words) or doctoral dissertation research plans with their mentors and participants of their dedicated group at least 14 days before the conference.
Participants are required to read all papers of their particular panel sub-group. During Session (120 minutes)
Opening (10 minutes)
The chair opens the panel by welcoming the group, explaining the purpose of the panel and introducing both the process and each senior scholar mentor.
Presentations in dedicated groups (90 minutes)
The panel will be broken up into two groups, each with a dedicated senior scholar mentor. In each group, participants will have 2-5 minutes for their presentations in which they should shortly introduce their papers. This is followed by a discussion with participants which is guided by mentors who offer their in-detail comments at the end.
Final feedback for the whole panel and wrap-up (20 minutes)
At this stage, smaller groups are broken apart, and participants have an opportunity to talk to the whole panel, discuss their experience and offer feedback on the process.
Post-session
Participants are invited to share amongst themselves detailed comments and reflections on the papers and presentations through the creation of a YS vault as a platform for scholarly exchange, support and networking.
Applying
All interested participants are invited to submit a 250-word abstract and key words at the following link https://forms.gle/MZy3VjJod62fJkAG7. Topics are not limited to any particular field, participants will be separated into groups based on mentors’ theoretical and methodological expertise and thematically when possible. In the application, please select your interest in participating in the YS panel.
CEEISA YOUNG SCHOLARS POST-CONFERENCE WRITING RETREAT
CEEISA Writing retreat (CWR) the second element of CEEISA’s YS initiative, preceded by the dedicated conference panel. CWR stands as a post-conference writing boot camp held at Moise Palace on Cres Island. The purpose of CWR is to create an engaging and reflective environment in which YS can address the comments and feedback they have received during the CEEISA conference and do so with the support of their peers and mentors.
FORMAT
A two-day event, CWR is set up in alternating blocks of ‘Pen & Paper’ writing sessions followed by ‘Observation & Critique’ feedback sessions. Through the interplay of these two formats, YS are invited to work on their papers by incorporating the feedback they received and do so with the help of mentors, who are there to guide the process. With this, CWR aims to respond to a frequent experience of YSs who are often not well-equipped to navigate the process (re)developing a paper, capitalising on the presence and expertise of selected mentors who can offer practical tools as well as theoretical and methodological insights. Through discussions with their peers, participants are invited to test out their ideas and writing tactics to think about possible avenues of inquiry and resolution of posed issues and challenges. Mentors will be able to observe this process, listen to participant's ideas and offer help and suggestions of the ways forward.
PARTICIPANTS
CWR is a limited-attendance special workshop sponsored by CEEISA's Doctoral network. It is geared towards regional scholars near completion of their PhD projects or early in their faculty careers. Interested participants should apply for the workshop by 15 December 2023 through the link https://forms.gle/MZy3VjJod62fJkAG7. CEEISA’s board and Doctoral network leaders will evaluate these applications, identifying 20 individuals to take part in the workshop. A limited amount of funding is available for participants through CEEISA’s Travel Grant programme.
For enquiries regarding the initiative, please contact Doctoral network coordinators: Melika Mahmutović (melika.mahmutovic@fdv.uni-lj.si) and Ajda Hedžet (ajda.hedzet@fdv.uni-lj.si)