Field Training School and Research Seminar
URBAN RESEARCH: THEORY AND METHODS
Over the years, the School’s international attendees have included postgraduate and postdoctoral scholars, and professionals from Austria, Australia, Bangladesh, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hawaii, India, Ireland, Italy, Luxemburg, Norway, Poland, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Turkey, Ukraine, UK, USA.
Read below some attendees’ comments on their experience
I want to express sincere gratitude to the International Urban Symposium - IUS for a wonderful field training week. Alongside over a dozen international scholars, I spent a week in Montecatini Terme researching, listening to lectures from different academics across the world, and learning from a truly diverse group of academics. The experience was incredible, and I have nothing but kind words and good feelings to express. The colleagues I met were inspiring, engaging, and incredibly intelligent, many of whom I will remain in touch with and hope to make projects with and learn from. Thank you, Dr Giuliana B. Prato and Dr Italo Pardo for creating such an engaging environment. Some exciting developments came from the symposium that I will post about on a later date. Miles Jordan
I recently had the incredible opportunity to attend the International Urban Symposium's Ethnographic Research Training and Seminar in Montecatini, Italy. Through fruitful and engaging conversation with peers and speakers, we learned of the value and intricacies of ethnographic field work and its importance and relevance for researching urban spaces. I am incredibly grateful to have met such wonderful scholars and look forward to collaborations in the future! Monserrat Ramirez Ruvalcaba
I had the privilege of attending the International Urban Symposium-IUS Field Training School (21–27 July) at Montecatini Terme, Italy, this year, and what an enriching experience it was! As a doctoral researcher working on health in the urban context, it was truly special to meet brilliant peers from across the world. I will forever cherish how our classroom discussions spilled over into late-night walks and conversations at local bars – moments that made the exchange full of camaraderie. A PhD can be a lonely journey, but for a week, I felt deeply understood and encouraged to voice my research musings, and I am grateful for the thoughtful ideas, experiences, and suggestions shared by the cohort. Thank you to Profs Giuliana B. Prato & Italo Pardo and all the other faculty involved for a wonderfully organised field training school and for engaging us in a meaningful dialogue – it was an incredible learning experience! Sanjana Santosh
Thank you for the opportunity to participate in IUS Field School 2025. I highly appreciate this opportunity and will take the lessons learnt with me to my academic path. Sonetta Humala
Thank you so much for the sessions and field excursions that you had organised as a part of the training school. It was a great learning experience for me, both in terms of interactions with the instructors as well as the cohort of participants. Debapriya Ganguly
I just wanted to express my gratitude for allowing me to be a part of the wonderful summer school, where I learnt so much, met such lovely people, and received so many excellent and inspiring ideas for future work. I hope to remain in touch with everything I learnt there and everyone I met there. Tannishtha Bhattacharjee
THANK YOU to the whole teaching staff of the International urban Symposium-IUS coordinated by Giuliana B. Prato and Italo Pardo and to all the participants of those 8 intense and rich days spent together last week in Montecatini Terme (Italy) with: Input sessions by the teaching staff on ethnographic methods applied in diverse contexts; Presentations and discussions of our 16 research projects as well as the short fieldwork exercises realized in Montecatini; Numerous informal exchanges and encounters beyond the sessions in such an international diversity; But also a certain amount of good Italian ice-cream approved by our Italian colleagues :); Discovering new fertile “soil” for potential further collaborations or friendships. Conny Hansel
Thank you so much for organising such an inspiring and fruitful training school. It has been a great opportunity for me to get my hands on ethnographic fieldwork, which I am feeling more confident using for my future research. I learned so much and got inspired during the sessions with so many ideas and questions in my mind. All the sessions and talks intrigued my curiosity even more, and thank you all for that. The venue hotel was very well located, staff was kind and always helpful, rooms were quite spacious and comfortable. Last but not least, thank you for being so diverse with your participant selection process. This was probably one of the best groups I have met in a summer school. Interacting with people from different cultural and academic background was another plus with this summer school. Çiğdem Erdal
I wanted to drop a note to thank you for such an engaging, comprehensive, and meticulously-planned research seminar. I will forever be grateful for giving me the chance to experience Montecatini-Terme! I had a wonderful experience in the seminar, and loved meeting everybody and learning from them. Prateek Paul
Thank you again for this interesting and perspective opening summer training school. Ianka Vinski
Thank you Prof. Pardo and Prof. Prato. I want to express my profound gratitude for the opportunity to learn from you and other esteemed speakers at the symposium. The range of aspects covered in ethnography was particularly helpful and has greatly enriched my understanding of the subject. Your facilitation of the symposium was truly inspiring. I take away a lot more from you than merely learning how to carry out ethnography. Ati Shrilekha
Thank you for organising the summer field school so well. Ipsita Pradhan
Thank you very much for the opportunity to take part in the school and symposium this year. I gained so much from the whole experience and made some great connections along the way. I also hope that we can stay in touch, and I really enjoyed some of the conversations we had over the course of the week. Kirsty Stuart Jepsen
Thank you again for this Field Training School at the end of July, it was wonderful to meet all the lecturers and participants, and to learn more and exchange about urban anthropology and urban ethnography. Merlin Gillard
Thank you very much for organizing the school in Montecatini. It has been a stimulating experience with many insightful exchanges. I am happy to have made many new contacts. Steffen Hornemann
Thank you for organizing this summer field school: it was an educational and intellectually stimulating experience! Leone Michelini
Thank you for letting me participate in your school and get to know such a wonderful group of scholars. I am looking forward to keeping in touch. Andrés Salcedo Fidalgo
Thank you for a great and rich training school. I really appreciated the discussions and the presentations. It was great meeting you all and I hope we will be in touch. Christina Sakali