CBU Spring School 2010 - Petrozavodsk - Part 2

And the first week passed also with some extra-activity: evening on the Onega lake shore, football friendly match with other Finns living in Petrozavodsk (our Russian colleagues unfortunately did not like the idea .. we were overexcited by the first warm sun of the season!), visiting the Carelian branch of the Russian Academy of Science (RAS) and discussing with the experts on the socio-economic situation of the Republic (sadly enough it is not the best possible, like all Northern Russian areas, due also to the recentralization of the Russian regional policy. The RAS employees had indeed good receipts for relaunching the economy. The only obstacle: a real political will for the Federal level)

It was also very nice to see still the city covered in innumerate in posters celebrating the 65th "Day of the Victory", the end of the Patriotic War against the Nazi-fascists. Also in the National Theater there was an exhibition of photos remembering the Finnish occupation of the city, from 1941 until 1944. Moreover, the city center was a real building site: the Autonomous Republic of Carelia was soon to celebrate its 90 anniversary. President Medvedev was to visit the city in few weeks, and everywhere the building were painted anew and streets covered with a new asphalt (making the atmosphere even hotter, while temperatures were going to reach 30C)

It was also somwhow amazing to see many monuments and public buildings which display clearly the Soviet past of the country. It something that a foreigner would not realize until one actually sees them. You would think that thay would have been erased, since it is a painful past ... yet, in my opinion it was a good thing! They do not negate it, and do celebrate it, especially considering the 2nd World War and the millions of Russian who died (unfortunately I do not have a picture of the eternal flame, covered all around by flowers, it was a moving scene). Even considering the Soviet experience, in my opinion one should not forget the utopian/idealist it moved the people back then .. how it was misused it is another matter ..

Before leaving the other people of the Carelian International Summer school, we had altogether a trip to Kivach waterfall, some 200km north from Petrozavodsk. During the bus trip we saw some more of the Carelian contryside, some field forests and lakes, and we spotted one of the famous mono-industrial cities (Kondopoga), a common feature of the Soviet planned economy system, that are now facing enormous problems of re-structuring.

The second week was then dedicated on our specific CBU curriculum: a course on Finnish and EU-Russian Russian relations, following a feminist approach through the analysis of editorial cartoons, and another course on concentrating on the EU Baltic Strategy. The courses were held by our coordinator Dmitri Lanko and Mikko Vähä-Sipilä (in the photo, Dmitri and in the slides a picture of Anni Kangas, our coordinator from last autumn). The acme of the week was anyway the conclusion of the course "Foreign Policy Analysis", which kept all of us busy every third week preparing policy papers of different Russian and European institutions, concerning Iceland joining the EU. The final effort was a role game simulating the Russian policy-making process. Everyone was representing a Russian institution or association, spacing from the Murmansk fishermen's association up to the President of the Russian Federation (office held that day by our Erik!) The three hours of meetings and negotiations were indeed messy (a "bardak" for the Russian speakers) but judging by the final ovation by most of the parties, when the President stated his final decision on the matters, we worked pretty well!

Moreover, we had once again, thesis seminar sessions, where we could get some precious outsiders' opinions: we knew already almost by heart our group's developments, and at least personally I got many good advices.

At the end of the week, the weather was awesome, already summer over 30C, and we enjoyed the sun and warmth. We had outside the dormitory our "get-away party" (as Laura baptized it, and became our official denomination!) grilling shashliks ... summing it up, it was a great experience and we had a in-depth look in what I'd say it is a realer Russia than being in the big cities, such as S.Petersburg or Moscow. But our next stop, next autumn, would be exactly the "Russian window on Europe", S.Petersburg, the topic of the next posts!

CBU Spring School 2010 - Petrozavodsk - Part 1

So, it was an early May morning, when we took a mini-bus for a time travel to our neighbors in Carelia. The trip to the Finnish border was quiet, yet the best part was still to come! But first, the Russian customs! Värtsilä is a small post, which usually serves the locals, so already my Italian and Sini's Swedish passport caused some panic .. could we pass through? The lady officer seemed more nervous than we were. After have called some colleague and clarified the issue, she returned our passports, apologizing and smiling. A completely different and more friendly attitude from the most trafficked Välimaa border: it was a good start!

Immediately when we entered the border roads become more and more challenging ... bumps and hole everywhere. But our driver was a indeed a professional on such forest roads, driving 130km/h and then suddenly breaks, apparently for no reason, pass over a certain bump and then accelerate at the same haste as before! For all of us, if not the first time in Russia, it was the first time in the "provincial" Russia, and so a continuous discover! The border area was anyway a jump 50 or 100 years in the past: old factories and wooden houses in endless forests and marshes ... we had some discussion on how beautiful the nature was, the possible reasons why the Russians do not build their "dachas" here instead of buying them beyond the border and how different could have been Finland and Finnish identity if Carelia remained part of the country.

Only reaching the road S.Petersburg-Murmansk we finally headed more comfortably towards Petrozavodsk, arriving at the dormitory when the sun was already set, after over 12h travel. The area wasn't of the most appealing at first sight: old wooden houses with stray dogs, but we got used to it very quickly and came to like it! The dormitory was nice and well furnished and from there we had 40min walking to the university, faculty of Social Science, every morning, that wasn't a problem, thanks to the coming sunny weather.

The first week of courses were more international and cooperative than expected! In cooperation with a Finnish university network it was organized the "Karelian International Summer School" which focused on the trans-regional cooperation in North Europe and North-western Russia, with some hint on the Arctic areas. We had a lot of other international students from Iceland, Norway, Estonia and the UK, and the days were divided into morning lectures and workshops in the afternoons. Tough schedule once again, but extremely inspiring!

We had also time to experience some "city-life": Finnish-Russian play in the national theater, and folk rock evening in "Porshen'" with the group Sattuma, awesome white nights :) We got to know the city at its best!

CBU Autumn school 2009 - Tampere

We knew already before starting studying in Tampere that we would have some weeks of courses altogether with our Russian colleagues. However, the fact that the first of these "schools" was to take place already in mid October did not really reach our minds. For this reasons, I do not even have any picture of those weeks, and all memories group together as they were a dream. Moreover for us, students from Tampere, there was not much of a change. Buildings were the same, almost same professors, the novelty were the twenty more Russian students in the class, which was overcrowded!

They were particularly intense weeks: many courses from the common curriculum, plus the personal ones, days really flew by. The most useful and demanding one (which will also haunt us for the whole next semester) was 'Theories and meta-theories of International Relations'. People like me had finally a firmer grip on the theoretical background of the discipline. Our coordinator asked us to possibly involve the Russian in other activities downtown, but we were ourselves freshers so we organised something in the few free-time we had: sauna evening with Politologit (Tampere's student association of political science), the most Finnish swimming in the lake Näsijärvi, with public sauna, evenings in pubs and clubs, and shopping in the center (they told us that some products are cheaper in Finland than in Russia!).

However, we were just starting to get to know each others, that the School was already over and our friends had to go back home, either by train or mini-bus. We were going to follow the same routes in the next years, trips which will be also much more documented with more pictures and impressions.

Student Life in Tampere (beside studies)

How's life in Tampere as a student, then? It can be very lively and active! One just need to look around. The city is the third biggest in Finland and you can find almost everything you need to divert sometime from studying. Not just many bars, pubs and discos, but also gyms, sport and swimming halls, libraries, parks and lakes ... but even much better, are active student associations, which luckily, in Finland are really almost an institution.

And here I'm not talking just of the Student Union, which every Finnish university has and every student has to be its member, but also faculty and hobby associations, which you can voluntarily join, following your interests, and get to know new people and activities.

The Student Union of the University of Tampere (Tamy, www.tamy.fi) is a great help especially when starting your studies: you get the first information and even some starting packet for the first year. But the famous "student card" (opiskelijakortti) entitles with public transportation and lunches discounts which are valid nationally. But other general support and advice, even legal, can be provided by the Union Office, whenever needed, since its purpose is to watch over the students interests, propose benefits and organize various events during the academic year.

Under the Student Union are the various student associations, which are organized around a specific discipline or hobby, and in my opinion, one of the most valuable side of Finnish student life! Here being active and positive yourself, you can get more easily contact with other Finnish and international students and through them know of the various opportunities in town, 'cause most of time information flows faster by individual word of mouth.

I'm myself member of ISOT, International Students Of Tampere, which represents the international and internationally minded students of Tampere and organize events to help international students to face cultural shocks and get to know Finnish culture, but also have some fun! A great happening, we are going to have is a "Tampere Rock" evening where there will be music form different Tampere's bands, mixed all night long [Tampere is somehow considered as the Finnish Rock Capital, and thus we honor such tradition :) ]. Other important function of the association, as said before, is spread information on what's happening in town, so that everyone can possibly look for and find the activity he/she wishes. English bulletins are also issued weekly by Tamy.

Anyway, my point here would be to be active and curious yourself: there are various opportunities and possibilities to continue previous hobbies or start brand-new ones, and help and advice can be found by other students and associations! Just ask them!

----------------------------------

P.S. If you want to know more why I really choose Finland to study and the CBU Master Program in particular, then you can read a my interview made last September for Osaaja-lehti. You can find the article in English at the last page of the journal available at

http://www.europass.fi/verkkolehti/

just click "Lataa PDF-lehti 2010" and then turn to the last page :) It was nice that they eventually published it in English. Hope you'll enjoy!

Curriculum and courses

Lately it seems that I won't be that able to update weekly this blog, but I'll try my best! Now I've finally settled down in Rovaniemi, where I will help researching on the Arctic Council. One week has past brainstorming on the topic, and from tomorrow we'll discuss the first findings and next steps.

-------------------------

What could I tell about CBU this time? I'll describe shortly our study plan and courses, so that, after the "boring" educational part, I'll move next time to Students' life in Tampere!

In our curriculum there are several compulsory courses which comprehend IR Theories, European and Russian Media, Introduction to Russian Studies and Russian Language. Together they form circa 20ECTS, plus the MA Thesis seminars, methodology courses and thesis itself almost 3/4 of the curriculum is covered. For the rest 20/25 or more we can choose between many courses related with IR and Russia and most of them are actually part of the CBU school we have in the participants universities. Some titles are "Politics of Putinism", "Foreign Policy Analysis", "EU-Russian relations. Interpreting Conflict" etc. (you can find more information from the CBU website).

Moreover, what I find very appealing, especially about Tampere University, is that every student can actually choose freely also many other courses from the other faculties, which may interest them. Thanks to this "freedom of study" I took more courses of Russian Language, and other colleagues took also some economics and law courses. All the successfully passed exams will be registered in the academic transcript as part of the degree.

Most of the exams are either book exams or essays, which force you to study actively the subject. Book exams make you reading the essential Books of the subjects which usually no-one would open voluntarily and the essays need to have a sound bibliography behind. This is what I mean with active studying: reading and elaborate by yourself the subject, and not just relying on what the professor said during the lessons. Some course entails also seminars or some oral presentation, where, in a lapse of several week or even some days, we have to present a research topic or essay concerning the course.

All this require a good command of both spoken and written English, but that is a mastery which will come also with the continuous exercise.

So far for the curriculum in general, next time Student's Life in Tampere :)

Thesis seminars - The long, hard way to the real social research!

Intense week. This Monday we had the last Thesis Seminar of a long series, this time together with our colleagues of Tampere University who study "Journalism and Mass Communication" and "European Russian Studies".

In the CBU Program in Tampere we started since the very beginning planning our MA Thesis topics. I will never forget the first meeting in late September, when our coordinator Anni Kangas asked: "So, have you thought what are you going to write your thesis about?". I must have stared at her for some seconds ... and thought "is she kidding? We've just come and I'm maybe starting to understand how things work here AND I've to start thinking of the Thesis??"

But that was a very good way to keep us focused! Meeting almost every week to brainstorm and familiarize with Tampere's academic standards!

I've to say that anyway that was a shock for me! Coming from Italy, where most of the exams and assignments are done orally, answering the professor, and almost no-one is initially interested in the final thesis, this was completely new. Anni was questioning us continuously and correcting almost every wrong comma. It was really demanding and sometimes really stressing ... but I've to admit that I'm really grateful for that! From my own experience, but also hearing other Finnish students, it is very hard in the humanities to find someone really devoted in teaching the academic methodology of research. And what we learned last year I believe is "pure gold"! Also if someone it is willing to continue researching!

The teaching of International Relations in Tampere University stresses particularly theories and methodology, and it took me almost the whole year to grasp the general picture and orientate my research ... I've never studied them so specifically before. In Italy, International Relations as a major is not very popular, and the more wide "Political Science" spans from the proper political science to anything else, covering economics, history and sociology. So I had to narrow down my spectrum. Even now I'm told many times to narrow and focus my topic!

We had a great help also from our current coordinator, Mikko Vähä-Sipilä, when Anni had to leave to continue her research in Helsinki. Though we had to write already a complete research plan for March, with Mikko we went through it once again, focusing on our primary data, research questions and methodology. To re-elaborate everything after the theoretical courses we had in the previous semester and concentrating on what is actually relevant for the thesis, help us in grounding better our topics. Plus the continuous seminars and presentations made us presenting our theses many times orally in English, so that I feel much more confident in discussing my research in very different situations.

The whole process is not easy. Sometimes some critique can put you down and make you wonder what are you actually doing. But they do help you in improving your work!

Almost all of us are preparing the theses with a critical/constructivist approach, except Erik, who, in the American tradition, is preparing a positivist critique of neo-realism. Knowing each other topics and interests helps us in suggesting the others new material and essays on what we are writing about, and that's really comforting!

Usually after our seminars, we have our unofficial meetings, at somebody's place or in some public sauna or pub where we relax and enjoy the evening. After a 4-hour"struggle" in a classroom, those are the perfect "after-match" :)

-------------------

Now outside the weather is pretty stormy and the first snow is already falling! Good omens for my departure! I've just got confirmed some day ago for a 2-month internship in Rovaniemi's Arctic Center, and I'll be leaving this Sunday.

All of us managed to have some internship somewhere (Sini at the Swedish Embassy, Laura and Leena at some Finnish Ministry) thanks also to some support from our department. Anyway we had to look for them ourselves. I really hoped to get to the Arctic Center, since my thesis will deal with the Arctic, and there I'll get for sure more information, discussions and possibly further inspiration!

So, the Southerner is moving further Northward!

Next time, live from Rovaniemi!

A Southerner studying the North :)

Welcome / Tervetuloa / Добро пожаловать

to the "Finnish-Russian CBU Master Program in International Relation" blog! (for your relief, from now on the "CBU-Blog"!)

To start with, a presentation of myself and the Program itself.
This is Stefano De Luca writing, Italian student in the University of Tampere. What is a Southern (or even "continental" European, as I've also been called often) doing so up North as in Finland?

The answer is quite easy: studying! After having achieved my Bachelor degree in Italy in Political Science/"Diplomatic and international studies", I was continuing there my curriculum. My interests of study were since the beginning Northern Europe and Russia, but the courses tended to be too general and more regionally focused in the Balkans or Middle East. The CBU Master Program in International Relations, was actually the most similar degree to what I want to specialize in, so I enrolled in immediately when possible. I went through the bureaucratic process of selection, was accepted and thus started my new Finnish university life in the summer 2009!

The acronym CBU stands for Cross-Border University, that is because our degree is planned and organized together with some North-Western Russian universities: specifically in our case, between the University of Tampere in Finland, the State University of Petrozavodsk, in Karelia, and the State University of Saint Petersburg in Russia. So, it is a cross-border cooperation program between Finland and Russia, and what it entails is a common "Study Program" recognized by both the countries, between three groups of students from the three universities, with a series of Autumn/Springs Schools: periods of 1-2 weeks of common courses held in one of the participant universities. Be sure, reader, that I'll describe them in future posts, but for now I can tell you that we had the 2009 Autumn School in Tampere, the 2010 Spring School in Petrozavodsk and the Autumn 2010 in Saint Petersburg (We just came back yesterday ... ).

Our majors are International Relations, Russian/European Media, and Russian/European Studies. Our focus is thus (as I was looking for), IR between Northern Europe, the European Union and Russia, Russian and other Nordic languages and their culture in the widest sense. All courses are held in English.

All together, we are around 20 students, 5 from Tampere. Small group, but effective! And pretty international too: two Finnish (Leena and Laura), a Swedish (Sini), a Finnish-American (Erik) and the "Southerner" (myself). We got along pretty well since the very beginning, also for the continuous common courses and Thesis Seminars we had together. More on the structure of the studies and our experiences in the last year coming up in the next posts.

Now, enough for a starter. Stay tuned for coming updates!

Visit cbu.fi for more information