The Budapest Workshop on 25-27 September, 2015. Summary
In the partnership of Loránd Eötvös University (Budapest), the University of Iceland (Reykajvík), Volda Unversity College (Norway) and the Reykjavík Academy (Iceland), the first event of the project Working out the curriculum of a joint MA programme ’Microhistory’, financed by Tempus Public Foundation, took place in Hungary between 25 and 27 September 2015. The first, introductory session was held on 25 September, 2015 in Piliscsaba, the main session on 26 September, 2015 at the Faculty of Arts of Eötvös University in Budapest, and the closing session on 27 September, 2015, in Nagymaros.
As the main result of the workshop, following several rounds of discussion, it was agreed that the participants of the project would form a network that can serve as a lasting basis for cooperation aimed at the establishment of a joint international MA in Microhistory. Also, it has emerged that of all the participant institutions (including those represented by non-Hungarian-Norwegian-Icelandic colleagues), it is the University of Iceland which is clearly determined to embark on an accreditation process to establish an MA degree in Microhistory, other institutions were yet unwilling to commit themselves to such a degree, with the notable exception of the Higher School of Economics, Moscow. As for Eötvös University, Budapest, the preferred form of participation was on a lower level: that of teaching a module of approximately 15-60 credits in an international MA accredited elsewhere, the University College of Volda made similar declarations, and the University of Oldenburg, Germany upheld itself the right to determine the level of its participation in the closer future when the outlines of this cooperation take better shape. Other institutions also declared that their future participation is also not impossible – however they could not be more precise than that.
It was also resolved that the further events of the project, the Volda workshop should take place on 23-24 April or might be moved to the next week. As the dates of the final event of the project, the Reyjakvík conference, 27-30 June was suggested. It was discussed, that colleagues working in the participating institutions will hold ’trial’ or ’pilote’ courses in the academic year of 2015-2016 in their respective universities, various courses that touch upon microhistory and that can later on serve as building stones for a joint international MA in Microhistory. Based on the lessons of these courses as well as of other courses in Microhistory taught earlier, the second workshop of the project (to be held in Volda next spring) should discuss and hopefully come to an agreement as for the detailed curriculum of such an MA programme: what courses should make this programme and what the content of these courses should be. We have finally agreed that the best students of these ’pilot’ or ’trial’ courses in Microhistory and their teachers will come together in Reyjkavík in the early summer of 2016 for a conference to present their own research that is either of microhistorical character or about microhistory itself.
