About the Lab

The Civic Media Lab is a collaborative space of expression on issues connected to participatory politics and participatory culture, civic initiatives, social media and activism, intercultural relations and democracy. This practice and research based interdisciplinary platform reflects our strong attachment to foster students’ civic engagement through video productions, podcasts, websites and blogs as well as research based papers.  The work undertaken in the Lab will explore civic initiatives and the civic potential of media when taken in charge and reshaped by individuals and communities. It constitutes a great opportunity for AUP students to achieve actualized citizenship, by giving them the space to shape their own political reality in a constantly evolving, globalized and connected culture.

Students are urged to express their creativity and reflections by focusing on topical issues within the six following areas of focus for the Center:

• Minorities, inequalities and ways to counter them
• Civic initiatives in the workplace and social, ethical entrepreneurship
• The study of crises in the world and the mapping of financial, political and cultural power
• The use of traditional and new media for tactical purposes
• Encountering others and building bridges between cultures
• The study of migration and exile and its impact on sense of belonging and identity. 

Involvement with the Lab enables students to develop projects they feel passionate about and dedicate themselves, from beginning to end, to the production of original, high-quality content. Focusing on particular social, political, economic or cultural situations, they will strongly engage intellectually, ethically and at times, politically, with a topic. Project themes include:

1. Building bridges
2. Migration, exile, identities
3. Civic engagement in the workplace: working for a better world
4. Tactical media
5. Gender: taking action
6. Mapping power, studying crisis: keeping an eye on the world