Hospitality in European Film Erasmus Project

Project Title

Hospitality in European Film

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for higher education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2017

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Integration of refugees; EU Citizenship, EU awareness and Democracy; Inclusion – equity

Project Summary

Context & Background: The current displacement and arrival of refugees and the ensuing encounters with the migrant, the refugee or the foreigner has situated hospitality at the center of the critical debate. It is no accident that Europe is currently receiving the highest number of refugees since WWII. Far from being considered as a barometer of civilization hospitality has frequently become a mark of weakness against the need to secure stable national narratives that most often correlate with border security. In exploring the interface between philosophy, cultural studies, linguistics and music, the project has looked at the dangers of creating exclusive societies that may seek social, linguistic and cultural homogeneity as a safeguard against change.

Consortium
In this particular context this project has created a consortium of 7 universities, USAL, UVA, Open University, Graz, Maynooth, Nottingham Trent and Uppsala, all of them with a long and solid research and teaching trajectory with a special interest in matters of migration. The partnership has accomplished these objectives:
1- has promoted tolerance, inclusion and diversity in European societies. Exposing university students to hospitable or inhospitable encounters in a corpus of films has promoted critical thinking.
2- has brought together scholarly research and innovative teaching. The analysis of films has shown how scholarly research and teaching bear on issues of pressing public concern. Films have presented difference in a direct way, for they have shed light on the physicality of bodies, their transitions and movements though different places, borders and boundaries.
3- has strengthened intercultural competences among students at the university level. Students have looked beyond the fixity of stereotype and probed into the causes of migration through personal stories.

Participants: number and profile:
The target group has been university students at the 7 universities pertaining to the partnership who are interested in multiculturalism and global studies. There have been specific workshops taught at all the participating institutions. The target number is 1700 students. A larger audience (4800) has been reached through the intellectual products and multiplying events the project proposes.

Project Results:
1. Syllabus: 21 films have been analysed according to different theoretical axes, thus bringing research on contemporary matters to the classroom, and introducing new teaching techniques and materials. The syllabus has been incorporated in courses taught at the different universities.
2. MOOC: A MOOC on Hospitality and Film has been launched through Miriadax. The MOOC addresses the historical roots of hospitality as well as its manifestations in contemporary film.
3. Short Documentary: A documentary on Hospitality and Music has been filmed in Great Britain, the Netherlands and Spain. It has become the most popular formative medium to boost the students’ intercultural competence.

Additionally, and among others, the project has carried out three dissemination activities:
1- Hospitality and Film: Radio Program: (Open University, Madrid). The program is available through the Open University webpage
2- Hospitality and Music: A Concert: (USAL). Music and art have proved to be the perfect media to explore hybridity and collaboration between and among different cultures.
3- Hospitality and Film: Film Series (USAL). Salamanca has collaborated with Van Dyck Cinemas to organize 2 film series. The series have provided a platform to pursue a different conversation about migration in an open forum. It has also provided an opportunity to talk about the project and its intellectual products.

Results and impact:
The project has strengthened the partnership by creating a platform that has shared information, scholarship, and transfers of competences and didactic tools. It has introduced innovative teaching not only in terms of the methods but also in terms of the material discussed and analysed in class. The project has thus exemplified the crucible between teaching and researching and the need to keep inderdisciplinarity in classroom discussions. Finally, the project has promoted and reinforced multicultural skills in the students by reinforcing critical thinking.
Long term benefits: The project has had strong impact potential in the current conversation about migration, the arrival of refugees, nationalist and exclusionary narratives and European identity. It has questioned different policies, value judgements, stereotypes, as well as social, cultural and religious scapegoating, but also the narrative and the language associated to migration. The project has introduced positive changes that have started in the classroom and have rippled out into society.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 227325 Eur

Project Coordinator

UNIVERSIDAD DE SALAMANCA & Country: ES

Project Partners

• UPPSALA UNIVERSITET
• UNIVERSITAET GRAZ
• NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF IRELAND MAYNOOTH
• THE NOTTINGHAM TRENT UNIVERSITY
• UNIVERSIDAD NACIONAL DE EDUCACION A DISTANCIA
• UNIVERSIDAD DE VALLADOLID