The Summer School in Communicating Politics. Media, Communication, Activism from the French Revolution to the present is held in Padua, Italy; it aims to create an international  learning environment which will allow participants to be actively involved in workshops and seminars and to experience innovative methods of collaborative learning under the supervision of renowned academics and experts from Universities and Research Centres in Italy, Switzerland and France.

The programme will give historical insight into the relationship between media and politics, examining the period from the French Revolution to the present, as well as different geographical areas. Participants will be introduced to various methodologies and approaches to the mediatisation of politics (and its implications), and to the transformation of political activism in relation to old and new media. The purpose of the Summer School is to examine how the study of these interrelationships can increase knowledge in Media History and Political History.

While the three promoting centres share a strong historical orientation with a focus on Cultural History and Cultural Studies, we welcome applications from other disciplines, including Art History, Sociology, Media Studies, and Political Science. The course challenges participants to commit themselves to a critical research approach, combining different fields of study, chronologies and geographical spaces, and fostering open dialogue among experts from a variety of scientific and academic backgrounds.

This call for applications seeks original contributions to topics including, but not limited to, the following:

- mediatisation of politics and democratization processes; 
- intermediality issues (all kinds of media will be taken into account : photography, cinema, audiovisual media, Internet, social networks…);
- redefinition of political actors and their actions (i.e. State and non-state institutional actors; individuals; local and global networks).

Summer School Organization of classes and Accreditation

The Summer School consists of a six day course (36 hours); it is taught in English (and possibly in French) in two modules. The first part includes overview lectures, both theoretical and methodological. In the second part invited speakers will present a selection of case studies and the most recent research results in the field. The program will include field trips to sites of particular interest (for example the Pre-cinema Museum, Collection Zotti Minici). Successful applicants will be expected to actively participate in the seminars, discussions and laboratories, based on their own experience. Based on regular attendance of the course, students will be awarded 2 (two) ECTS credits.