NEOLAiA

Students from several European countries discuss historical narratives together and work on research questions in international teams. Formats such as Blended Intensive Programmes (BIPs) or Spring Schools make this form of collaboration possible. They also offer teaching staff the opportunity to try out new teaching methods and develop innovative teaching formats together with international colleagues. Two Bielefeld teachers from the field of history, Dr Bettina Brandt and Dr des. Anna Horstmann, talk about their experiences with these mobility formats within the NEOLAiA university alliance. They explain what motivated them to take part, what impressions they took away from their collaboration with international students and colleagues and what impulses they were able to gain for their own teaching.

Which mobility format within NEOLAiA did you take part in and what did you do specifically?
Bettina Brandt: Between April and May 2024, I took part in a Blended Intensive Programme (BIP) on the topic "From National to Global Dynamics? De-constructing Historical Narratives in 19th and 20th Century Europe" together with colleagues from the NEOLAiA partner universities Örebro, Ostrava and Tours. After three online workshops and accompanying the students in team and self-study phases, we met at the University of Örebro from 22 to 27 April 2024 and discussed European historical narratives in modern times in depth. Before that, in autumn 2022, I was also invited individually as a guest lecturer at the School of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences at the University of Örebro in Sweden as part of the NEOLAiA alliance. There, embedded in courses taught by my colleague Izabela Dahl from Örebro, I discussed theories and methods of historical image studies with student teachers in a methods course. I am currently teaching a new BIP on the topic of "Alternative Historiographies" with colleagues - partly from the previous BIP and partly with new colleagues from the University of Suceava in Romania - as part of which we will be meeting at the University of Tours from 21 to 27 March 2026. I find the thematic development of the joint BIPs on historiography in Europe and its global dimensions inspiring. Based on previous experience, we can prepare new BIPs in a more structured way and, with new colleagues, also gain other perspectives and approaches to the topic. This creates a common framework within the Alliance in which the expertise and impulses of the partners enrich each other. 

Dr Bettina Brandt

Anna Horstmann: I took part as a teaching staff member in a Spring School at the University of Ostrava from 3 to 7 March 2025. The format was also a blended intensive programme (Erasmus+) with online sessions and an on-site week beforehand. Students from Bielefeld University, Tours, Örebro and Ostrava took part - advanced BA students, but above all Master's students. The theme was "Re-shaping States, Identities and Cultures: Dynamic History Teaching and Learning in Border Regions". Together with a colleague from Örebro, I held an online session as well as teaching on site and accompanying excursions. 


What motivated you to choose this form of mobility within NEOLAiA? 
Bettina Brandt: I find the co-teaching of a BIP and the individual guest lectureship attractive because they allow you to gain intensive teaching experience in a different academic setting in a short space of time. I gain inspiration for my own teaching by exchanging ideas with colleagues from partner universities, which is a very lively and valuable experience. I also find it exciting to see the diversity of questions, perspectives and knowledge brought together by students and teaching staff from five or six European universities as part of a BIP. This sensitises us to the differences, but also the interconnectedness of historical experiences and expands our topics, problems and methods. This also motivates the students - some are taking part in a BIP for the second time. 
Anna Horstmann: I was lucky enough to be able to draw on an existing co-operation. For me personally, it was very attractive to be able to gain international and English-language teaching experience as a relatively new postdoc. Such a short stay was easy for me to integrate into my daily work routine without having to reschedule other projects. Co-teaching was also a new format for me, which I found very enriching. 

Dr des. Anna Horstmann

What did you find particularly surprising? 
Bettina Brandt: I was surprised by how productively students from different linguistic and historical-cultural contexts worked together, developed research questions, examined sources and prepared presentations. It is a change for everyone to communicate in English in the subject; but it also makes you think about national conceptualisations and their historical influences. Conversely, mixed working groups benefit from the diverse language skills that come together so that multilingual source pools can be analysed together. It is a highlight when students are curious about different historical perspectives and reflect critically together on one-sided, nationally or Eurocentrically narrow historical narratives. 
Anna Horstmann: I was very pleased to see how quickly the students left their initial language barriers behind and started talking to each other - both during the seminars and excursions and in their limited free time. The exchange, which for many students is the most important part of their stay abroad during entire Erasmus semesters, worked very well even in this short time. I also really enjoyed the exchange with the students and especially the other teaching staff. The comparison of teaching methods was particularly surprising. And despite the different teaching styles, all students managed to get involved in the seminar - even if they weren't used to active participation from their home university. 

What did you take away from the mobility for your work as a teaching staff? 
Bettina Brandt: The week at a European host university, which makes up the "Intensive" of the Blended Intensive Programme, broke through everyday routines and reminded me of essential things: taking time to talk to students, integrating project work into teaching, trying out something that I have seen my colleagues do, and integrating international research approaches and English-language literature even more naturally into the teaching programme. This also keeps teaching attractive for me. 
Anna Horstmann: Being open to new formats and more experimental courses. I always have a lot of fun teaching, but being able to try out new things despite the routines that creep in was very enriching. I was also very impressed by the co-teaching format - I will be doing this again the semester after next with a colleague from Bielefeld University. It simply makes it possible to bring more perspectives and expertise into the course and to provide closer support for individual students. 

Online workshop on the topic of BIP organisation 
On 17 March, Bielefeld teaching staff who are interested in organising a blended intensive programme or a virtual course can take part in an online workshop. The offer is also explicitly aimed at English-speaking teaching staff.