By Julien Longhi, Professor of Discourse Analysis and Digital Humanities at CY Cergy Paris University
From 14 to 16 May, members of the ARENAS project gathered in Dusseldorf for their 2nd annual meeting. One year after the kick-off meeting in Cergy, and having carried out a great deal of research and action over the last few months, this meeting was an opportunity to evaluate all the work carried out, to discuss certain advances on current and sensitive subjects, and to work together on the next deadlines, or on inspiring aspects to increase the consortium’s creativity.
As at every ARENAS event, the alchemy was perfect, and the combination of different energies enabled everyone to make further progress in their involvement in the project. It should be noted that several new people, recruited since the start of the project, had joined the initial members, creating an intergenerational dynamic conducive to exchanges. The alternation of somewhat structured moments (such as the general meeting and the open seminar) and working or ideation sessions provided a context that was favourable to the synthesis and structuring of ideas and methods, and also to the development of new ideas and their implementation with very concrete targets, such as young people, journalists or politicians.
And of course, this annual meeting is also an opportunity to strengthen ties and create relationships that are beneficial in the long term, to continue this work in harmony: morning runs or gastronomic discoveries of German specialities, convivial moments over a coffee or a giant pizza, all these friendly and enthusiastic memories accompanied the members of the consortium to their 8 other respective countries!
Research presented at the meeting will be shared over the coming months on our website. We invite you to follow our social media channels and subscribe to our ezine, to keep up to date with the latest news from ARENAS.
