Summer Traineeships 2009

Science on Holidays
 
 
 
‘Ciência Viva’ at CES 2009 – July 20th to 24th

Urban environments: risks and uses of the nature of city

Rita Serra, Alexandre Tavares, Laura Centemeri, Eduardo Basto and António Coutinho (Department of Botany, UC)

Number of Students: 5 (includes 2 Spanish students)

During this traineeship we will travel through forest trapped in cities, in order to get to know their stories, the risks they face and to ponder upon their fates. The trainees will conduct a research on three forested spaces in the city of Coimbra, with field trips in partnership with the Department of Botany, University of Coimbra, interviews to natural and social scientists, decision makers and citizens. After two days of research they will have to decide the future of the three spaces in a role play in which they will represent the different standpoints (citizens, environmentalists, activists, planners, public decision makers).

 
Sight unseen: nanotechnologies in and out of the laboratory

Ângela Marques Filipe, João Arriscado Nunes, Marisa Matias, António Carvalho, Daniel Neves, Verónica Ambrósio, Luís Pereira de Almeida (CNC, UC) and João Nuno Moreira (CNC, UC).

Number of Students: 4 (includes 2 Spanish students)

This traineeship focuses on recreating the course of a nanotechnology from the moment it is developed in a laboratory, passing through its implications and social research, up till the moment of political decision. The traineeship includes a day with nanotechnology researchers of the Centre for Neurosciences and Cellular Biology (CNC). The remaining days will engage in discussion and debate groups, acquiring innovative methodologies of sociological research on these themes and the reproduction of a political deliberation concerning nanotechnologies. The trainees may, thus, get to know some of the important issues that are faced by an emergent technology, as well as become acquainted with the new forms of approachment between researchers from diverse areas and social actors and non-academics.

 
POEMACT: Practices and theories of creative writing

Graça Capinha, Rita Grácio, Jorge Fragoso, Cristina Nery and Teresa Fonseca

Number of Students: 5 (includes 2 Spanish students)

This traineeship aims to expose students to the practice of creative writing as starting point towards a reflection on its social and political implications. Poiesis is taken in its etymological sense, that is to say, creating in and with language. Besides the writing exercises and its discussion, the trainees , will be included in a field work team that will conduct participative observation in a Coimbra Secondary School; they gather data from the Internet that will comprise a corpus of the Observatory of Electronic Poetry; they will experience editorial work whilst joining an Editorial Board meeting of the Journal Oficina de Poesia [Poetry Workshop]; finally, they will present their poetic work with the members of Oficina de Poesia in a poetry reading. The traineeship will include a focus group session.