Moise Palace at the Island of CRES

I had high expectations of CAS SEE as an incoming Fellow, but I never imagined the ongoing extent of support, community, and vibrant intellectual culture the Center has provided to me and my peers during this difficult year. The CAS SEE and its postdoctoral program are a crucial infrastructure for developing a progressive and thriving research culture in Southeastern Europe, and I hope it will continue to grow in the coming years.

I have had a wonderful working and research stay in CAS SEE and a wonderful intellectual and artistic life in Rijeka. I felt extremely welcomed and encouraged to do my research by Prof. Bojanic and I was lucky to locate plenty of border artists in the region to work with on empirical qualitative research. The administrative support was outstanding too. We have had a series of international conferences (Sarajevo, Zagreb, Trieste) and the privilege to perform and attend the Western Balkans Summit in Trieste. I was active and involved in many literary events in the town of Rijeka and in Zagreb, I gained knowledge and valuable interdisciplinary experience, I developed a diversified professional and academic network and I was honored to be invited as a guest at the City Library of Rijeka. Overall, it was a very enriching academic experience because it involved many different stakeholders and academic institutions, e.g. the Institute for social theory and philosophy of Zagreb and the University of Sarajevo. I was pretty independent and autonomous in my research, I have had the facility of using a working room equipped with a PC, printers, and a small library at our disposal, besides the University library at our disposal. I was also invited to present my research with the local border artists from Rijeka and Istria and exchange views and opinions with intellectuals such as Giacomo Scotti and Robert Kaplan. Moreover, Rijeka is an amazing city, a city of culture, history, sea, delicious seafood, music, theater, various events, libraries, and bookshops, and Opatija and Kvarner bay are around the corner. If I had the chance I would re-do it again!

Rijeka offered an amazing space to work. CAS SEE opened a lot of possibilities for networking, although the events were sometimes quite abstract and many times academic. I enjoyed my fellowship with CAS SEE a lot, made new collaborations, and would be thrilled to work again in the future with the collaborators who were included in the organization.

The entire CAS Fellowship experience could not be more positive. The month I have spent in Cres ranks among the best academic experiences I had in my life. I can only thank all of you from the University of Rijeka, specially Sanja, Petar, Lucija, and Marko-Luka for all the support during these months. I would also like to comment on the quality of the other fellows’ projects, which has fostered a very prolific environment of intellectual exchange.

I took part in the Foodwave 2021 seminar hosted in the splendid setting of Moise Palace,
island of Cres. The motivation of the speakers and the multidisciplinary approach allowed us
to focus on those sectors of the food system that now more than ever require our
commitment: the elimination of gender inequalities and a public procurement oriented
towards sustainability.

I had the chance to be a Fellow of the CAS SEE twice during the last few years and it was a great experience. Its lively intellectual community is very committed in tackling urgent political issues and in fostering a dialogue between theorists and activists (and people who are both). These are just two among the things that I have enjoyed the most. And the research center at Moise Palace is such a rare beauty!

Our Eating City Campus in the Moise Palace was a great success and this was in no small part due to the team that you made available to support us before and during the event.
I have received tremendous feedback from delegates who appreciated the quality of meeting rooms, the availability of IT and the excellent accommodation which the Place offered.
The island of Cres itself proved to be a wonderful destination – the food and culture, biodiversity and the welcome we received from everyone will live long in the memory.
I hope we will be able to repeat the event next year and I would certainly recommend the Moise Palace to any conference organiser.

Chasing Albanian presence at the level of symbolic and spatial terms, being at the core of my research in Western Europe, bring some new thoughts on the migration patterns. The specific of Rijeka in terms of migration and the dynamic ambient of the city, allowed to bring new insights into my current projects. Amazing infrastructure provided at the CAS SEE made my training mobility not just intense scientifically but also smooth.

This was a wonderful opportunity to connect with new and old colleagues and develop my research. Thank you, CAS team, for everything!

Some years ago, I was a post-doc Fellow at the CAS SEE in Rijeka. CAS SEE is a scientifically emerging centre where I had the opportunity to interact with brilliant colleagues from different research fields. Indeed, interdisciplinarity is a strength of the CAS SEE. At CAS SEE, I found a philosophically inspiring, productive and friendly environment to boost my professional and scientific growth.

Interdisciplinarity has always been at the core of the research activities of the Center for Advanced Studies in Rijeka. The intensive workshop held in the Moise palace, on the island of Cres, was a testing ground for such an approach. Vibrant debates, diverse sections, food for thought characterized that week as an intriguing time of intellectual exchange.

My experience as a fellow at CAS SEE was unfortunately hampered by the pandemic. Although everything took place online, I felt part of a group of scholars and researchers despite the distance. The international and welcoming environment allowed me to carry out a research experience totally different from the Italian one. Inclusiveness and participation are two of the fundamental key feature of the CAS SEE, together with the high quality of the research and of the topics covered. Hence, I hope to have the opportunity to come back in person!

I find that CAS SEE Fellowship is a unique, thoughtful, and well-tailored offer to support early to mid-career researchers needing to delve in-depth into their project for a semester. The blend of exposure to high-quality conversations and seminars outside one’s field of studies, the residential intensive retreat/ project surgery on the island of Cres, and the proximity amongst fellows created a very conducive atmosphere for growth and exchange. I also very much valued the otherwise low pressure of this scheme to engage in public-facing or output-driven activities for the duration of the fellowship (outside one’s own main research process). This represents a welcome difference from many similar programs on offer.

The ambiance of this island [Cres] in November gave us enough free (mental) space to enjoy while working and thinking through about some ideas while reading or contemplating by the see.
This place, both the island and the Moise Palace are almost destined for giving birth to big ideas and significant talks and agreements.

While we were looking for an adequate practice room in the town of Cres, we contacted the University of Rijeka. With their instant response came such an inspiring place for our project – a historical jewel of our old town, the newly renovated Moise Palace. It was more than we could hope for! We got a place that is pleasant, clean and well looked after and in which we have everything we need. We are really grateful to the University of Rijeka for their encouragement and support.

My stay at the CAS SEE in Rijeka included me into a small, but vibrant generation of fellows. Focusing on discussion, debate, and critical thinking provided my research with contrasts, re-evaluations and nuances. Amongst others, this is why I consider the CAS SEE fellowship as one of the cornerstones of critical academic thought in Southeast Europe, which in this sense, produces not only an environment for future research, but also conveys a message of excellence, cooperation and social involvement.