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The conference "Literatura i Kultura Popularna" (Popular Literature and Culture) is a yearly event organized by The Laboratory of Popular Litarature & Culture and New Media (University of Wrocław). This year's edition was held in Wisła, Poland, 8th-12th June and was attended by researchers from Poland, Slovakia and Portugal.
During the conference, Agnieszka Szurek presented the RHEFINE project and handed over the invitation for the muliplier event in Warsaw in October. The presentation was focused on the rhetoric of translation - a chapter from Methods of Rhetorical Criticism - A Handbook (O1). 

During the second virtual workshop in Output 7, students took the floor. We could see the effect of their work. And the task was not easy. As a continuation of the analysis of Arnold Schwarzenegger's speech, students in international groups prepared its analysis according to the rules proposed by the instructors. 

Then we moved on to analyze two political speeches by president Duda and president Milanović, moderated by Vlatka from Croatia and Witold from Poland. Prior to the workshop they suggested dividing into groups and prepared the tasks to be performed. 

Polish teams analyzed the speech of the Croatian president and Croatians analyzed the speech of the Polish president. Thanks to this we could compare our observations of the speeches of public figures who hold the same function but about whom we have different situational knowledge and for whom we have different expectations.

Finally, Aleksandra Łukowska introduced the basics of pentadic criticism, which will be used by international teams to analyze Zelensky's speech to Russians. The next workshop, already the last one, will be held in June.

Third part of the E2 event was targeted at teachers. The event took place in the National School of Finance and Economics (NFSG) and its director, Mrs. Maya Gesheva, assisted in organizing and leading the workshop. It was attended by teachers from NFSG, the National High School "Sofia", NPMG and others. Teachers were informed about how rhetoric can be used in school teaching and which modern genres and methods can be applied. They also participated in a dialogue on the topics:

How can you prepare a convincing and attractive podcast?

How to use rhetorical techniques and techniques in debates?

Prof. Ivanka Mavrodieva presented the activities and presented the participants with the outputs: O2 Online course in rhetoric and  O5 Teaching rhetoric online - open resources.

Teachers received the textbook "Teaching Rhetoric Online: Open Resources", which is available online on the IRC website https://www.iorc.info/ and on the website https://rhetoricteacher.iorc.info/.

Podcasts are available at https://rhetoricteacher.iorc.info/podcasts/

With the new academic year, we began the second installment of output 7 involving collaboration between student groups. This time we took advantage of the fact that at the University of Warsaw in the summer semester there are classes on the art of presentation, and at the University of Zagreb there is a course on rhetorical genres.

This time we proposed 3 joint online workshops in which we look at the rhetorical analysis of political speeches together with students. Arnold Schwarzenegger's speech delivered as a response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine was chosen for the first meeting on April 29.

The next workshop will be partially student-led in May. The workshop will include speeches by Polish and Croatian politicians. The series of workshops will conclude with an analysis of the speech made by the President of Ukraine just before the start of the war.

The workshops are prepared by Ewa Modrzejewska, Aleksandra Łukowska and Elenmari Pletikos Olof.

The second part of the E2 event took place on April 16-17th. Students from Националната школа по мениджмънт participated in a workshop conducted by Professor Ivanka Mavrodieva and Georgi Petkov. Students practiced their skills as orators and tried to persuade their colleagues.

Students from the Faculty of Philosophy of the Sofia University St. Kliment Ohridski took part in the workshop, seminar and simulation games. The event was an opportunity to present the Online Course in Rhetoric (O2) and Teaching Rhetoric Online (O5) to a wider audience. Students presented their own speeches and  took part in the activities coordinated by prof. Ivanka Mavrodieva and dr Iglika Kasabova. 

The event, originally planned for June, was organized a bit earlier, with a slightly modified program.  Some points originally scheduled for this event, such as discussing "Rhetorical Think Tank" and reaching wider academic circles, were covered during the conference in Zagreb. We thought it is important to give students some face-to-face activities after the long time of isolation and online learning, and to present the outputs of out project not only during meetings on Zoom, but through live interactions.

The RHEFINE Conference took place on the 24th and 25th of February 2022 at The Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences of the Zagreb University and online. The conference’s theme was Rhetorical Research and Didactics. The conference was opened by Diana Tomić, the leader of the Croatian team of the RHEFINE project, the dean of the Faculty, Domagoj Tončinić, and the head of the Department of Phonetics, Gabrijela Kišiček.

The program's first point was a keynote by Kris Rutten titled The rhetoric of cultural literacy. After that, there were two hybrid sessions: Rhetoric in an educational context and Impact and influence of rhetoric in society. After that, participants on-site attended a roundtable on rhetorical curricula and a RHEFINE Book Club.

Keynote from Gabrijela Kišiček: Speech delivery in rhetorical scholarship: A historical overview opened the second day of the conference. Two hybrid sessions of the day: Application of rhetoric in various edu-contexts and Contemporary trends in the rhetorical classroom were separated by three on-site elective workshops: Rhetorical Listening by Ana Vlah and Diana Tomić, Collegial Dialogue for Culture of Collaboration by Sanja Kišiček, and Speech Skills by Elenmari Pletikos Olof and Jelena Vlašić Duić.

The conference hosted scholars from different European countries that seemed to have a similar goal: to evaluate and improve rhetorical research and didactics, which is in line with the RHEFINE team's goal. 

Above all, it was an opportunity to present the projects outputs to a wider audience. Most attention has been given to Rhetorical Research and Didactics, a book coordinated by the Croatian team: Diana Tomić, Elenmari Pletikos Olof and Jelena Vlašić Duić. Ewa Modrzejewska, Agnieszka Szurek and Kinga Rogowska presented the outputs led the Polish team, and during the online session the members of the Bulgarian team - Ivanka Mavrodieva and Iglika Kassabova - shared their experiences on teaching rhetoric.

More photos from the conference you can find here.

The conference in Zagreb was accompanied by other dissemination events. The round table on curricula was a good opportunity to present one of the project outputs (O4 - Applied Rhetoric, First and Second Cycle Study Program) to the wider audience: academics from other faculties and disciplines, teachers, graduates. We discussed the perspectives on close collaboration between our institutions in teaching rhetoric and applying the curricula.

The Book Club was a lively and fruitful discussion between the project participants and invited guests on books  that we use in our teaching, that inspire us most or has influenced us during the early stages of our career. It was a good occasion to arouse interest in out project outputs: Methods of Rhetorical Criticism. A Handbook (O1)  and Rhetorical Research and Didactics (O6). 

A project meeting was held on 23 February 2022 at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb, with the participation of partners from Poland and Croatia. The members of the Polish part of the consortium were represented by Agnieszka Szurek, Ewa Modrzejewska and Kinga Rogowska, and the Croatian members by Diana Tomić, Jelena Vlašić Duić and Elenmari Pletikos Olof. The RHEFINE project entered the second half of its life, so the goals of the meeting were: final agreement on drafting a document with evaluation methods in rhetorical pedagogy, review of the state and stages of completion of books and other project content, publication plan and evaluation procedures. Since, due to the pandemic, this was the first live meeting of the project team members, the meeting took place in an extremely cheerful atmosphere, a part of which you can see in the photos.

Final progam of the conference Rhetorical Research and Didactics can be found here. 

The Conference Rhetorical Research and Didactics is being organized in Zagreb. For the registration form, program and other information please see the document below.

The Steering Committee members from Poland, Bulgaria and Croatia met on Zoom to discuss plans for the upcoming months. The main issues were progress on outputs and organizing events in the unstable pandemic situation.

Our first project result has been published!
Go to Project Outputs  to read full versions of Applied Rhetoric. First and Second cycle study program (versions available: Polish and English).

A pilot version of the Online Course in Rhetoric (O2) has been presented in form of a book (in Bulgarian) and is available here. Works on an online and interactive version (and on version in English) are in progress.

Diana Tomić & the Croatian team presented RHEFINE during the project day at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb. 

Steering Committee met to set organizational matters, monitor & evaluate the outputs, to talk about challenges to face and to plan future activities. And also of course to support each other, exchange ideas and inspirations.

Ivanka Mavrodieva, the leader of the Bulgarian team, talked about RHEFINE - and especially about the Online Course in Rhetoric, our "O2" output - in the interview for the news platform Luboslovie. You can watch the whole interview [in Bulgarian] here. 

We would like to invite you to contribute a chapter to a volume Rhetorical Research and Didactics.  The project's aim is to reform the academic teaching of rhetoric, but also to create a rhetorical pedagogy network and a knowledge hub which can be applied not only at university level, but also in secondary and lifelong education.

An abstract of 300 words should be submitted to the editors by email preferably by 15 December, 2021. Abstracts should feature the working title of the proposed chapter, the author or authors responsible for it, together with the details of the corresponding author. 

Read more.

Results of RHEFINE are going to be disseminated not only in the academic world. Foundation for Developing Emotional Intellignece expressed interest in the results of RHEFINE and sent us an official letter of support.  The Foundation intends to make use of some of our outputs, especially online resources.
RHEFINE project will be presented by Professor Ivanka Mavrodieva during the  conference "Emotional Intelligence - Lenses for Learning and Development"  4-18 June 2021. This is for us an opportunity to reach the wider audience. 

One of the outputs of RHEFINE are the curricula for teaching rhetoric (O4) . The leader of this output is the University of Warsaw. The first drafts and ideas of a new teaching programme  have been clarified during the consultations with our partners. We also had some pilot activities with students. Now the almost-final version of the curriculum is being widely evaluated by students.
Meanwhile, in Bulgaria the whole hive of activity is busy with output O2 - Online Course in Rhetoric. The first draft is being presented and published for the students and all interested parts for consultations. The course will include materials prepared by students from Croatia and Poland and it's main language will be English, but the first round of consultations is targeted mainly at Bulgarian audience. 

Outputs in our project are taking shape. We want them to be of prime quality, so first drafts are put into various kinds of tests and evaluating procedures. First three chapters from the Methods of Rhetorical Criticism. A Handbook  were submitted to the critical eyes of students -after all, students are meant to be the first users and beneficiaries of this output. Three groups, each consisting of 12-17 students, were asked to read the chapters and submit their comments and reflections. The commentaries will be discussed with the chapters' authors and some improvements will probably be implemented. First versions of Online Guide into Rhetoric underwent a throughout review by Monika Chalkova, a MA student of rhetoric, and was also discussed by other students.
Other outputs are also constantly tested and discussed. Hard work, but very gratifying!

Had it not been the pandemic, we would have been sitting together in some nice place in Croatia and having coffee together... Nonetheless, during our Transnational Meeting 2 we discussed our progress on outputs, evaluating procedures and dissemination strategies. There was an extremely useful  workshop on new assessment methods. We also had some ice-breaking activities. 

On the second day there was a steering committee meeting, when we discussed issues concerning project management,finance and reporting. 

The result of the meeting was a clear roadmap for outputs, clarifying  some formal issues and very fruitful insights on assessment methods. We did also a lot towards building a supportive, well-organized team.

During the pilot workshop, the coordinator of this output, dr Ewa Modrzejewska, welcomed the international team and presented the goals of this project. Students who proposed the research topics had some time to present them and invite other students to join their research groups. 

We have formed 6 international student research groups that will be working on topics from fake news and social media rhetoric, through voice training methods to debate formats and tools. We will be seeing their research results in a couple of months!

During our first unofficial meeting on Zoom we (virtually) opened champagne bottles and started laying the foundations for our upcoming work.