Autumn School for Postgraduate Students and Early Career Researchers

Venice, 30 September – 4 October 2024

 

In 2024, the year marking the 700^th anniversary of the death of one of the world’s great explorers, Marco Polo, the University of Warwick, in collaboration with Nova University in Lisbon, University of Ljubljana, University of Arts in Belgrade, Jiao Tong University in Shanghai, Kazakh National Academy of Arts in Almaty, and Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi, invited postgraduate students and early career researchers to an autumn school focused on the theme of Marco Polo and the Silk Roads.

In the popular imagination, Marco Polo features as arguably the most famous Western traveller to have journeyed along the trade route between Europe and Asia known as the Silk Road. As a young merchant, he began his journey to China in 1271 and his travels lasted for 24 years. Today the Silk Road is rapidly becoming one of the key geocultural and geostrategic concepts of the twenty-first century. A narrative of connected histories, it now operates as a platform for international trade, diplomacy, infrastructure development and digital connectivity (Winter 2022). Identified by two principal routes - maritime and overland, the Silk Road stretches across the Indian Ocean and Eurasian landmass; regions that will be of paramount importance in an increasingly multi-polar world.

Building on concepts and insights from theatre and performance studies, critical heritage studies, visual arts, history, cultural studies, and international relations and geopolitics, this vacation school called for new research and approaches on how we should situate the mobilisation of the Silk Road imaginary historically and geopolitically within international affairs, and how the Silk Road is localised, interpreted, and contested within existing national and regional cultural contexts. Through talks, workshops, and demonstrations the participants were exposed to a variety of disciplinary approaches and ways in which they could be combined to build a new critical framework to understand the Silk Road(s) performatively as a relational and intersectional critical concept and practice. The autumn school also explored historical and art historical dimensions of the Silk Roads and the Venetian links to them through site visits within the lagoon city.

The autumn school is part of the University of Warwick’s Marco Polo International Programme and developed as one of the EUTOPIA Connected Community Education projects. You can find out more about the EUTOPIA Connected Community project here: https://eutopia-university.eu/english-version/integrated-connected-communities/thinking-through-the-silk-road-cross-cultural-exchanges-and-mobilities

Autumn School Faculty and Guests

Dr Maria Cardeira da Silva, Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology Faculdade de Ciências Sociais e Humanas (NOVA - FCSH), Universidade Nova de Lisboa https://www.fcsh.unl.pt/faculdade/docentes/smamc/

Professor Alexandra Curvelo, The Department of History of Art (NOVA-FCSH), Director of the Art History Institute (IHA), Universidade Nova de Lisboa, https://www.fcsh.unl.pt/en/college/teachers/acurvelo_en/

Professor Bishnupriya Dutt, School of Aesthetics, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), Delhi, India, https://www.jnu.ac.in/Faculty/pdutt/

Professor Milija Gluhovic, Theatre and Performance Studies, University of Warwick, https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/scapvc/theatre/staff/dr_milija_gluhovic

Professor Silvija Jestrovic, Theatre and Performance Studies, University of Warwick, https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/scapvc/theatre/staff/silvija_jestrovic/

Professor Kabyl Khalykov, Temirbek Zhurgenov Kazakh National Academy of Arts, Almaty, Kazakhstan, https://kaznai.kz/en/48853-2/

Dr Natalija Majsova, Associate Professor, The Department of Cultural Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Ljubljana, https://www.fdv.uni-lj.si/en/news-and-information/contacts/teachers/info/natalija-majsova/

Dr Luca Molà, Associate Professor, Department of History, University of Warwick, https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/history/people/staff_index/lmola/

Professor Aljoša Pužar, Department of Cultural Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Ljubljana, https://www.fdv.uni-lj.si/en/news-and-information/contacts/teachers/info/aljosa-puzar/

Professor Jelena Todorovic, Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Arts in Belgrade, Serbia, https://royalfamily.org/jelena-todorovic/