EARA's fourth summer school took place in May 2008 in Torino, Italy
just before the EARA Conference in Torino. 24 Ph.D. students
from all over Europe and also the US enjoyed exciting and inspring
sessions and discussions with Rutger Engels, Wim Meeus, Donna
Spruit-Metz, Brian Barber,
Stephen Russel, Avi Assor, Marlene Moretti, and Inge
Seiffge-Krenke.
Impressions by Christian
Skaletz (Germany) and Tina Kretschmer (United Kingdom)
Czech
Republic, Denmark, England, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, Kenya,
Netherlands, Poland, Sweden, Turkey – what sounds a little bit like the
list of teams in the European Football Championship 2008 in Switzerland
and Austria were actually the countries of origin of the 12 European
participants of this year’s EARA Summer School in Italy. Together with
another 12 students from North America, Brazil, and Kenya whose
attendance was made possible for the first time by a collaboration of
the European Association for Research on Adolescence (EARA) and the
Society for Research on Adolescence (SRA) we have spend 4 great days in
Turin in May 2008. Lauree Tilton-Weaver from Oerebro University in
Sweden did a fantastic job in chairing the Summer School and organizing
the scientific program.
The schedule consisted not only of us
presenting our doctoral research to an audience outside of our
university departments, but also in talks given by senior scholars
including Avi Assor from Israel, Brian Barber, Stephen Russel, and
Donna Spruit-Metz from the United States, Rutger Engels and Wim Meeus
from the Netherlands, Marlene Moretti from Canada, and Inge
Seiffge-Krenke from Germany.
The diversity of the countries of
origin of senior scholars and student participants was mirrored in the
inspiring variety of topics we have discussed, spanning from effects of
parental control, attachment and adjustment, adolescent risk behavior,
and identity formation to adolescents’ coping with violence and war.
Silvia, Ciairano, Roberta Molinar and Fabrizia Giannotta, members of
the organisational committee of the EARA Summer School and the XIth
EARA conference, took great care of the ‘structural background’ and
organised not only our accommodation and the most essential and highly
appreciated coffee and lunch breaks but made sure that all of us got
the most out of being in this wonderful town and country. Last but not
least, Geglia Fetz was present as a representative from the Jacobs
Foundation as the organization funding the summer school.
Despite
of the rather tight schedule, we got the chance to enjoy spring in
Italy – busy streets and impressive architecture, unique museums and
lively parks, the cafes, and the restaurants of fantastic Piedmont
chefs. Being back at our desks now or busy collecting data, surely all
of us yearn back for evening spent with Vino Rosso, Aperitivo, gelato,
and the inspiring company of other adolescence researchers.
All of
us participants are grateful to Lauree for devoting a lot of time and
energy to organizing the summer school, to our wonderful Italian hosts
for warmly welcoming us, to all senior researchers for providing us
with helpful feedback and advise and for sharing their insight into
research on adolescence, and to the Jacobs Foundation for making this
experience possible. Finally, we would also like to thank each of the
students for a great time we had together. Thanks to technology, many
of us are still in contact despite of thousands of miles of
geographical distance and we really hope to meet again somewhere,
sometime …