[img_inline align=”right” src=”http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/Budapest_Basilica.jpg” caption=”St. Stephen’s Basilica in Budapest, located just down the street from the Central European University. Photo credit: Imre Szeman”]”How does one study culture today when it seems to move well beyond the nation? What does it mean that culture is increasingly assessed in relation to economics – as a way of revitalizing cities or of attracting knowledge workers in the information economy?” asks McMaster associate professor of English and cultural studies, Imre Szeman. “The study of culture is still organized around the idea that the natural 'space' of culture is the nation.”

On July 3, in Budapest, Hungary more than 400 international graduate students and junior faculty from 67 countries gathered at the Central European University (CEU) to open the 2006 Summer University (SUN) program. Of those students, 25 attended the CEU program specifically to study under Szeman, McMaster's former director the Institute on Globalization and the Human Condition, and explore those very questions.

The aim of the Szeman's course, 'Culture as Resource: Culture and Democracy in the World System', was to survey the impact that globalization has had on culture. McMaster's Faculty of Humanities, the Office of the Provost, and the Office of Vice-President Research jointly funded the international graduate course, which looked at the actual impacts of phenomena associated with globalization on cultural forms and practices. It also considered the challenges that globalization poses for the study of culture (i.e. the sense of the world as single place, more intensive and extensive forms of communication, at far higher speeds than in the past, etc.).

Szeman's 'Culture as Resource' course, which ran from July 17 to 29, consisted of highly intensive graduate lectures(48 hrs of class time over two weeks) on subjects of significant current concern. Szeman's team of seven teachers represented a wide range of disciplines (literary studies, film studies, communications, Latin American studies, cultural studies, and sociology) and scholarly traditions from nations such as Canada, US, UK, Japan, Hungary, Brazil, and Columbia.

CEU courses are taught by faculty drawn together from around the world to this highly competitive program: professors propose courses to the university, which are peer reviewed by global experts, and international students apply for admission to their preferred course. Szeman's curriculum attracted 130 applicants from around the world, which was reduced down to a final group of 25. These keen graduate students and junior faculty came to Budapest from Poland, Turkey, Hungary, Bulgaria, Croatia, Serbia and Montenegro, Ukraine, South Africa, Romania, Peru, Mongolia, Jordan, Indonesia, Armenia, Slovenia, the UK, Italy and Canada.

“I see this course as an on-going part of the process of having McMaster reach out in a genuine way to students around the world. In the process, our students, too, get an exceptional experience. I can think of few other opportunities that would allow graduate students to meet their fellows from around the world while working on topics of mutual interest,” says Szeman. “I would like to repeat the course in future years and involve more McMaster students. It offers a real chance for students not just to talk globalization, but to experience it through an on-going exchange of ideas.”

In addition to classroom time, students attended screenings of recent Hungarian films, visited two student-curated exhibitions (one on record collecting, the other on the development of psychoanalysis), and toured a museum devoted to the history of the uses of state terror in Hungary.

Two McMaster doctoral students, Max Haiven and Tim Kaposy, as well as McMaster alumna Jackie Kennelly (currently finishing her PhD in Education at the University of British Columbia) were among the 25 students engaged in the course topics.

Haiven describes the SUN program as an extremely interesting and stimulating experience. He enjoyed being part of an educational quest “where a variety of students and teachers from around the world were able to puzzle through the challenges that the present moment poses to our diverse research agendas.”

“I am very glad I had the opportunity to participate in the course which broadened my understanding of the processes of globalization, provoked new research directions, spawned exciting collaborations, and provided the space for exploring new ways of thinking about pressing issues,” continues Haiven.

When it was first established more than a decade ago, the principal aim of the SUN program was to give senior graduate students and junior faculty from 'transition countries' in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union the opportunity to expand and enhance their knowledge and academic skill-sets by undertaking 'state-of-the-art', advanced courses of study. The program has now been expanded to take in students and junior faculty from developing and developed countries as well. Students from developing and transition countries are given financial assistance and tuition waivers for the course.

“From my vantage-point, it has been an intellectually exhilarating experience to put together and run this summer course, and a humbling one as well,” says Szeman. “The opportunity to spend time with students and colleagues from around the world focusing on issues of common concern opens one's eyes to just how much there is to still learn.”