Students from the Faculty of History of the University of Bucharest were given the opportunity to undertake summer specialization training with the Institute for Advanced Studies in Levant Culture and Civilization. A total of 17 students from among first and second-year undergraduate cohorts, enrolled in both full-time and distance learning programmes specializing in History and the History of Art, engaged in extracurricular activities coordinated by a representative of the Institute for Advanced Studies in Levant Culture and Civilization, Associate Professor Florica Mihuț, together with a representative from the Faculty of History of the University of Bucharest, Lecturer Alexandra Țârlea.
The first day of the students’ practice featured an online meeting with the General Director of the Institute for Advanced Studies in Levant Culture and Civilization, Luiza Niță, and the Director of the Direction for the History of Culture and Civilization, Dr Cătălin Ștefan Popa, who presented the Institute’s mission, the opportunities inherent in vocational training at institutes of advanced study in general and the Institute’s openness to sustained dialogue between different generations of researchers.
The opportunity to participate in several projects of the Institute for Advanced Studies in Levant Culture and Civilization was crystallized in specific assignments for the ongoing Cultural History of the Balkans and The Jews in Romanian Culture projects, as well as participation in a lecture given by Dr Ebeid Bishara of the Ca’ Foscari University of Venice in an online format on July 16th 2020 on the topic of religious dialogue as reflected in Mediaeval Christian Arab texts on Islam.
Since the very first months following its creation, the Institute for Advanced Studies in Levant Culture and Civilization has continuously facilitated meaningful interaction between young researchers and established specialists both in Romania and abroad. The practical training stages organized in partnership with the Faculty of History of the University of Bucharest are part of a broader series of educational projects undertaken by the Institute, such as The Annual School of Byzantine and Post-Byzantine Studies (2018, 2019, organised in partnership with the University of Bucharest, the “Ovidius” University of Constanța, the National University of Political Studies and Public Administration and the Constanța National Museum of Archaeology), or The Summer School of Ancient Greek (2019, organised in partnership with the Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literature at the University of Bucharest and the National History Museum in Bucharest). Beyond the educational projects mentioned above, the Institute for Advanced Studies in Levant Culture and Civilization is also organizing The Annual Interdisciplinary School of Oriental, Classical and Egyptology Studies.
