In the last week of October 2019 MIDA organised its first training event after the hiring of our 15 ESR’s.
The program in Utrecht was set up with a number of goals in mind.
First goal
The first was to welcome and inform the ESRs and to introduce them to the members of the MIDA-team; to provide them with additional information about the goal of the whole. MIDA project and the training program throughout the coming years; to inform them about ethical issues around the project and issues of data-management and data storage; and to provide technical information and practicalities with regard to the MIDA-logistics.
Second goal
The second goal was to bring together the ESRs and to initiate the building of an academic community. One of the most important aims of MIDA is to continuously develop and enhance the internal consistency of the entire project. There are five research WPs based on five conceptual and thematic foci. In each of the five WPs, there are three ESRs working at their individual projects and following their individual research-specific training. At the same time the ESRs of each WP are supposed to work together as much as possible and to constantly reflect on, elaborate and sophisticate the overall theme of the work package.
Third goal
The third goal of the Utrecht program was to convey knowledge. Since the event in Utrecht was organized parallel with the Autumn School of the Netherlands Interuniversity institute for the Study of Islam (NISIS), and since the theme of the Autumn School was digital humanities, the program was scheduled in such a way that a considerable number of the keynotes could be attended by the ESRs.
ESR's portraits taken during the Opening Conference in Utrecht
Additional activities
MIDA plans to provide an integrated program of dissemination and communication of the proceedings and outcomes of the project. PS- Media in Berlin, one of the partner organisations, has started to record MIDA activities from the launch of MIDA in Grenada in March 2019 onward and continued during the Utrecht meeting with the making of two short clips, one in which the ESRs are presented, and one where the MIDA program is briefly presented by prof. dr. Pascal Buresi, MIDA project manager, and prof. dr. Thijl Sunier, coordinator of WP 8. These clips were published on YouTube.
Download files from the Opening Conference in Utrecht