Olena Sushkova and Alla Yarova, assistant professors of the department of journalism and philology of the FРSС of Sumy State University, took part in the work of the twenty-fourth Summer School “Language, Communication and Identity of the Danube Region”, which just ended in the city of Ulm (Germany).

In general, the school gathered participants from Germany, Serbia, Bulgaria, Spain, Moldova, Slovakia, Belgium and Ukraine. It was developed by the European Danube Academy in Ulm together with the universities of Tübingen and Neu-Ulm (Germany), Ruse (Bulgaria) and Sumy State Universities, the Danube Region Research Center.

Associate professors of the Department of Journalism and Philology of the FРSС of Sumy State University, who represented Ukraine, attended interesting lectures by foreign professors, intercultural master classes, and integration evenings.
The issues of identity in the Danube region, language and communication in the Danube region, the EU strategy for the Danube region and multi-level governance in the region were discussed. There were also discussions with experts, representatives of local authorities, politicians, mayors and experts in the field of language and communication.

Alla Yarova also gave a speech “Non-verbal communication: clothing as a text about identity”, revealing the issue of clothing as a communicative code of Ukrainian identity.

– The week was surprisingly rich and informative. The work provided a lot of material for understanding the importance of the linguistic and communicative identity of the peoples living in the Danube region. All this will form the basis of updated training courses and disciplines for future journalists, – Olena Sushkova notes.

At the end, our teachers presented a short video film “Linguistic and cultural aspects of the Ukrainian language”, created by students of various specialties at the Department of Journalism and Philology.