Middelburg 2011

The first annual PALA Student Summer School, took place from the 15th to the 19th August 2011 at the Roosevelt Academy in Middelburg, the Netherlands. The themes for this event were Narrative, Stylistics and Emotion, and guest lecturers included Professor Paul Simpson (Queen's University, Belfast), Professor Michael Toolan (University of Birmingham) and Emeritus Professor Peter Verdonk (University of Amsterdam). The event was organised by the Chair of PALA, Dr. Michael Burke (Roosevelt Academy). Nineteen students signed up for the PALA summer school. Many had travelled far, from countries such as Japan, Malaysia and Ukraine, and some had travelled less far, from neighbouring European countries such as Germany, France, Poland, Spain and Sweden. At the end of the week a student satisfaction questionnaire was handed out. The response was overwhelmingly positive. An indication of this is that when asked at the end of the questionnaire whether they would come again to the student summer school in 2012 (when there will be a new theme with new instructors) sixteen answered ‘yes’, three answered ‘don’t know’ and none answered ‘no’. From a financial point of view, the event made a small loss, which was covered by external means. The event will run again in Middelburg in 2012 with some minor changes based on experience and student feedback.

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