The Nordic Summer University Summer Session 2020 will not be able to take place as a large physical meeting, but will instead happen in distant and dispersed formats of encounter, sharing and connection. This will take the form of small local or online gatherings, which produce traces that can be shared with a wider community. The aim is to enable new forms of sharing and find new possibilities to be a community.

Trace = event + documentation

Each trace will take the form of an event (in-person or online) that consists of a collective activity or multiple short contributions, documented by participants in a suitable way. Please see the calls for participation of the nine study circles that make up the Nordic Summer University to see how you can apply.

What is a Trace?

A Trace project includes basically anything that contributes to NSU’s aim of supporting academic and artistic research. It could be for example a virtual conference, a webinar lecture, a podcast session, a workshop, an interview, a virtual performance, a journal article, an anthology, a film shoot, a reading of a play, a local gathering, a joint themed dinner or any kind of experiment.

Since it might not be able to completely realize some Traces within the time frame of a single week, there will be some flexibility as regards occasion and duration of the projects. However, it is a requirement that some kind of activity occurs and can be reported by the end of the summer session. It is therefore urgent to gather as many Traces as possible during the regular Summer Session week (26th of July until 2nd of August 2020).

General criteria of a Trace

• sharable and open to all during the Summer Session time-frame,
• submit an “Invitation” with a picture and a short description of the trace is shared with the general audience before the Summer Session starts (200-500 words),
• related to the circle’s theme (to be decided by coordinators),
• fits to NSU’s overall goals, aims and vision,
• the main language is English or a Scandinavian or Baltic language,
• the producer/maker of the Trace is a members of NSU (i.e. pays the membership fee – 10 or 25 euro) and that he or she participates in the democratic forums of the NSU (for example by becoming a delegate during the General Assembly),
• traces can be produced by a single individual or group of participants,
• the producer provide a brief report of the Trace (download the form at the bottom of this page).

Grants

It is advisable that each circle produces at least 6 Traces, corresponding to the number of meeting days during a regular SS. Coordinators are also welcome to produce Traces. Each Trace can be granted up to 7000 DKK. In case coordinators would like to grant more than 6 projects, there is possibility of splitting grant money between several projects. There is no upper limit to how many Traces a circle is allowed to produce, but the sum of money allocated among circles will remain equal no matter if a circle produces 6 or 60 Traces. If a circle does not commit to use all the grant money available (by the 31st of May deadline), the remaining grants will be redistributed to other circles.

Arrkom is responsible to audit the applications based on the lists coordinators compose once the application deadline has passed. The sum of money allocated to each Trace should be in proportion to the size and nature of the project in question. Similar to the regular lists of scholarship and grant receivers, the lists of accepted Traces projects should consist of a ranking and include some proposals on a waiting list.

See the Trace manual for general criteria and detailed instructions on how to apply for and report a Trace. The manual can with advantage be distributed to the participants and attached to the calls.

Traces projects are accomplished in these steps:

1. Participants send in applications to circle coordinators (Deadline 31st of May).
2. Coordinators make a list of accepted Traces projects, inform Arrkom if more projects are on waiting list, and send the list+waiting list to Arrkom (deadline 10th of June). Arrkom should approve the list by the 15th of June the latest, by informing both circle coordinators and the project applicants.
3. Projects on the waiting list will be accepted on a rolling basis to fill out possible empty slots. Arrkom will handle this and inform coordinators and project applicants.
4. Participants and contributors of traces become member of NSU (see: https://payment.nsuweb.org/)
5. All project hand in information to Arrkom by filling out the form (see below) by June 31st at the very latest. This information will be used to promote the trace and call for participants in the (virtual/local) events.
6. The Traces projects should aim to be realized during the regular Summer Session week (26th of July until 2nd of August).
7. Once the Trace project is finished, participants submit in the honorarium form along with the final report to their coordinator. (Deadline: 31st of August 2020)
8. Coordinators upload the forms to the google drive of their circle.

Note that the Trace grant is disbursed in the form of a honorarium after the project has been carried out. Template for the honorarium form can be found at the bottom of this page.

Reporting

For everyone:

• Send in final report to your coordinator

For those receiving honorarium

• Send in honorarium form to your coordinators

For coordinators:

• upload the forms to the folder on the google drive.

Downloads

Booklet on Traces PDF / DOCX

Trace Form DOC

Honorarium form PDF / DOCX

Final report: DOCX