We invite teachers from Romania to participate in the series of workshops. The seminars will be held at the Piteşti Prison Memorial, Str. Negru Vodă, nr. 30, Piteşti, on 9–12 October 2024. Admission is free, but reservation is required.
The workshops are part of ‘Sound in the Silence’ project - an intercultural and international remembrance project for secondary school students, organised by the ENRS since 2011. During the project, students work with artists from different artistic fields at historically challenging locations. The programme offers young people a chance to find new ways of looking at the history of Europe, its nations, states, and regions, to develop their own perception of reality and the tools for expressing it.
Programme
Over the course of four days teachers will have the opportunity to take part in three blocks of workshops.
9 October (Wednesday) – EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES
The first block will focus on presenting educational materials created by ENRS and will be led by Joanna Orłoś, head of the Project’s Department in the ENRS.
During the workshop teachers will learn about the free educational resources available on the Hi-Story Lessons educational platform, including infographics, lesson plans and animations. Participants will consider how to use the resources in their teaching work. Teachers will also learn about other practical examples of the use of visual language in educational projects as a useful method for tackling challenging historical topics and processing them in a way that suits students' individual sensibilities. The main focus of the historical topic will be the Second World War. Among others, Joanna Orłoś will present the educational kit about disinformation and memory conflicts. She will focus on tools that can be used to determine the authenticity of news and how to crack down on fake news.
10 October (Thursday) – RESTORATIVE DIALOGUE AND CONFLICT RESOLUTION
The second part of the workshops will be led by Barbara Walshe, an Expert in the Project’s Department in ENRS.
This interactive workshop will be a reflective and experiential space for educators to reflect on how we all manage conflict in our lives and in our work environment.
A presentation on conflict styles and a range of methodologies that can be helpful in addressing all kinds of issues will be presented for discussion. These will include the basic principles of mediation, restorative justice, and restorative dialogue. A restorative circle methodology will used to address a range of issues with either students, family, or colleagues. There will be plenty of time for discussion, questions, and the sharing of experiences and some fun.
11–12 October (Friday, Saturday) – METHODOLOGY OF EXPLORING THE PAST. TRANSGENERATIONAL TRAUMA, POST-TRAUMATIC AMNESIA (PTA), POSTMEMORY
The last part of workshops will be led by Ioana Hasu-Georgiev, and divided into two parts:
1. TRAUMA AND THE RECENT PAST
The 20th century is marked by traumatic events like the World Wars, Holocaust, Communism, and various genocides. This workshop explores postmemory and transgenerational trauma—psychological and physiological suffering passed on to future generations. Instead of recounting events and casualties, the focus is on understanding and integrating these inherited traumas. Drawing on interdisciplinary research from history, psychology, and memory studies, the workshop examines post-traumatic amnesia and postmemory, using case studies from European archives and personal survivor accounts. Trainer Ioana Hașu-Georgiev will also share her family's experience with transgenerational trauma, as the granddaughter of an executed anticommunist fighter.
2. FRIENDLY METHODOLOGY OF EXPLORING THE RECENT PAST
The workshop introduces interactive methods for teaching Communism, tailored for high school teachers. Tested at the Fagaras Research Institute, this approach encourages a fresh look at old documents through ethnographic research of Romania's secret police archives. Educators are challenged to view each document as an artifact with a hidden story. Special focus is given to recovering the overlooked perspectives of women marginalized alongside persecuted men. The workshop also guides participants in becoming oral history researchers, using family photographs to create independent school archives and explore underrepresented voices.
Biographies of the workshop’s leaders
JOANNA ORŁOŚ holds a master degree in English Philology from University of Warsaw. She completed postgraduate courses at Warsaw School of Economics and The Maria Grzegorzewska University of Warsaw in the area of psychology and managerial competencies. English and Czech translator into Polish, member of the Polish Literary Translators’ Association. She has worked for the ENRS for 10 years now, first as the project coordinator, then as the head of the team. In her current work she supervises education and exhibition projects.
BARBARA WALSHE is from Ireland and is a trained restorative facilitator and practitioner. She has had a varied career working in the fields of research, advocacy, training, community development, peace building and restorative work at local, national, and international level.
Her current work in Restorative Justice stems from a growing need amongst human beings, communities, organisations, and institutions to address harm and the restoration of fractured relationships. Her experience has shown her that conflict, despite been seen as fearsome and negative by some can often be a source of innovation and positive change.
To date she has worked with community groups, institutions, prisoners, former combatants, individuals, victims of sexual abuse and trauma, members of Christian churches and many more. She holds a Masters in Conflict Resolution and Reconciliation (Trinity College Dublin, Belfast based) and a Masters in Community Development (NUI, Galway).
IOANA HASU-GEORGIEV is a Romanian researcher of the recent past, focusing on less explored aspects of the Communist dictatorship, such as the role of women in the anticommunist movement, transgenerational trauma, and the postmemory of traumatic past events. She created an interractive workshop on Communism for children and young students called The Country of our Grandparents that was presented in schools and summer camps in the past ten years. In 2022, Ioana was part of the team that set up the first Museum of Communism for Children in Romania, at the Pitesti Prison Memorial. Her latest research endeavor resulted in a documentary theatre play portraying women who fought against communism in Romania. Besides the theater play Share Location: Rezistenta Fagaras, the project included workshops for students and teachers, but also a series of public debates discussing the legacy of communism in the contemporary society.
Ioana has many years of professional experience as a radio journalist in national media and offices of foreign media in Romania.
Rules for participation:
• Workshops will be held in English.
• Workshops are free of charge.
• Travel expenses will be reimbursed on the basis of a bus or train ticket which the teacher undertakes to submit to the organiser for verification at the end of the project. In the case of a straight line distance between the place of residence and the place where the workshop is held, the maximum reimbursement is as follows:
10–99 km: up to €20 both ways
100–499 km: up to €90 both ways
500–1999 km: up to €200 both ways.
Please note that travel expenses cannot be reimbursed if you use your own means of transport, including your own car.
• Lunch and refreshments will be provided for participants.
• The organiser does not provide accommodation and will not reimburse any accommodation costs.
• During the workshops we will take photographs and make a documentary film about the Sound in the Silence project. In accordance with your participation in the workshops, we would like to ask for your permission to share your visual image.
• PLEASE NOTE: The number of participants is limited. Priority will be given to those who register for all days of the workshop.
To apply, please fill in the form HERE.
***
What is the Sound in the Silence project?
Sound in the Silence is an interdisciplinary remembrance project aimed at encouraging high school students from around Europe to actively reflect on the difficult aspects of the 20th-century history with the use of artistic means.
Each edition takes place in a carefully selected location. While the pupils learn about the site's past and work on the final performance, their teachers take part in workshops on interdisciplinary ways of teaching history so as to exchange experiences with peers from different countries.
Read more about the Sound in the Silence 2024 edition