B-SHAPES Summer School for Educators
Time: 21st – 24th August 2025
Location: Zgorzelec, Poland / Görlitz, Germany
Costs: Free of charge
Application open until 6th May 2025
Project language: English

What effects do borders have on individuals and societies? How can photography capture the stories told by landscapes?

B-SHAPES: Landscape as Heritage is an educational project that explores different methods of teaching about borders in everyday landscapes. We invite teachers, educators, and other professionals working with teenagers to participate in interdisciplinary activities centred on three key aspects:

Photography – This section of the summer school includes workshops with a professional photographer and an online lecture by a visual studies expert. The focus will be on the composition of landscape pictures and the influence framing can have on the photo’s interpretation. You will learn to convey and recognise emotions, stories, and intent in images. This part of the summer school is based on free educational materials on image interpretation, which you can use in your classroom.
Participants do not need any previous experience in photography, nor are they required to bring any professional gear – a phone with a camera will suffice.

Border-Landscape studies – By attending lectures given by experts in border studies, you will learn what a border is and what it could be. The notion of a border as an administrative divider will be questioned here; we will discuss how borders influence societies and heritage. This section also includes border walks – a method of discovering the landscape and significant landmarks from historical and individual points of view. During a workshop, we will brainstorm how this method can be applied in classrooms. This part of the summer school will include free educational material on borders and landscapes, which you can later use in your classroom.

Oral history – This section is a theoretical introduction to oral history as a method of learning about your immediate environment. You will discover how to investigate and preserve the history of your landscape and heritage through the personal stories of those around you. This foundation will enable you to incorporate oral history interviews into your teaching, either as primary sources or creative inspiration.

This summer school is an educational project organized by ENRS as a component of the European Union’s Horizon Europe Research and Innovation Action project “B-SHAPES: Borders Shaping Perceptions of European Societies”, coordinated by the Centre of Border Region Studies at the University of Southern Denmark (SDU).