First amazing researcher visit to Armenia from University of Bath, UK within the framework of project Horizon 2020

Starting from 29 of April till 29 May “Educational and Cultural Bridges” NGO hosted the first researcher from University of Bath, Sophie Whiting within the project “DisTerrMem”. Sophie Whiting is also the official coordinator of the project.

Disputed Territories and Memory (DisTerrMem) is a three-year EU-funded Horizon 2020 project in which an international team of researchers from six organisations will collaborate to explore the management of competing memories of disputed territories across borders. Working across three key regions (Europe, South Asia and the South Caucasus), the project will explore the roles of civil society groups, cultural practitioners, nation states and regional organisations in managing such memories, and will culminate in the development of a new and innovative model for understanding the successful management of competing memories in non-conflictual ways in the context of peace-building.

During the one month visit to Armenia, Sophie Whiting and leaders from “Educational and Cultural Bridges” NGO not only productively worked on the topic of the project and content but also discovered the historical past of Armenia and draw parallel comparing the historical past of the UK and Armenia. The whole month was full of visits to historical and cultural places, discovering the past of Armenian nation, disputed territories and how the memory and history affected present way of living of Armenian people, who are spread all over the world and have one of the biggest diaspora as a result of Genocide.

Together the leaders have visited the Genocide Museum and history, met with the representatives from National Academy of Sciences (Armenia), another academic partner of the project from Armenia.
The last week of May was Europe/EU day in Yerevan and Sophie Whiting had possibility to visit some events and discover Armenia-EU relations development and prospective.

The whole month went very quickly but at the same time interesting and full of different events and visits. The productive project is continued and this time leaders of “Educational and Cultural Bridges” Arpine Kostanyan and Nelli Gishyan will visit University of Bath in June to do their one month’s research.

The project is led by the University of Bath (UK), in collaboration with five partner NGOs and universities: University of Warsaw (Poland), Borderland Foundation (Poland), National Academy of Sciences (Armenia), Education & Cultural Bridges (Armenia) and Forman Christian College (Pakistan).

From the first visit of Sophie Whiting there is no doubt that the whole project and coming 3 years will be very productive and fruitful creating bridges of cooperation between countries and organizations.