The Centre for Oral History and Field Studies was created at the Department of History and Tourism in 2019 to develop field research in ethnography, carried out by teachers of Polotsk State University since 1995. One of the key priorities of the Centre is to increase international relations and professional interaction with research establishments and organisations both in the near and far abroad.
Under the EU funded MOST project on February 10-15 the Centre staff (V. Ovseychik, A. Korsak, V. Lobach, E. Sumko) took an internship at the Centre for Oral History at Daugavpils University (Latvia). The administration, lecturers and researchers of the Faculty of Humanities at Daugavpils University gave a hospitable welcome to their Belarusian colleagues and shared their experience in the field of pedagogical and scientific activities.
Polotsk researchers showed great interest in oral history. While visiting the Centre for Oral History at Daugavpils University headed by Professor Irena Saleniece, they talked to its employees, learnt more about principles and methods of conducting field research, saw methods and technologies for archiving and representing field materials as well as identified legal features of their introduction into the scientific circulation.
In their turn, Belarusian partners shared their own experience in field ethnography and gave two public lectures for students and teachers of the Faculty of Humanities at Daugavpils University. This was possible thanks to Dean of the Faculty Elina Vasilyeva. There were a great number of questions proving that research and ethnographic expeditions are carried out at a high professional level at Polotsk State University.
As part of the visit, PSU experts got acquainted with historical peculiarities of Daugavpils, visited the Centre for Belarusian Culture and Jewish and Ethnographic museums. As a result of the visit, the number of professional contacts has increased, the experience in researching the field of oral history has been adopted and an agreement on a joint expedition in the Belarusian-Latvian borders has been negotiated.
Vladimir Lobach, Prof. at the Department of History and Tourism