Regional and European cooperation, storytelling in literature and in science, and marine research were at the heart of the BaltArctic Research Cruise events, that took place in Kiel. On June 6 scientists gave guided tours of r/v Oceanograf, a novelist led creative writing workshop, and the SEA-EU and Kiel institution representatives discussed further cooperation plans.
‘Today’s event attracted not only students, but also the citizens of Kiel, the port authorities and people working at the City of Kiel administration. This is something that is at the heart of the SEA-EU Alliance, not only to have an European Campus, but also to interact with the region. Besides working at the Kiel University, we are also citizens of Kiel, and that’s true for the other SEA-EU partners as well’ says the Vice President for Internationalisation and Early Career Researchers at CAU Professor Ralph Schneider.
R/v Oceanograf was visited by the Head of Foreign Affairs at City of Kiel Wolfgang Schmidt and the Assistant to CEO of Kiel Port Andre Bender. The events on board of r/v Oceanograf also gathered some media attention. Watch the video prepared by the Sat1 Regional station here.
From 10 am until 4 pm the BaltArctic research team gave tours, first to the CAU Staff and students, and then to the general public. The marine scientists showed all of the equipment and spaces that they use for research and the ship’s crew presented the heart of the ship – the bridge.
‘My friend, who used to study at the University of Gdańsk, brought me here. For me this was a great opportunity to see what kind of technology and operations are going on inside,’ said economics students at University of Kiel Maan Yazgi,’ I was really impressed by the amount of technology and precision that is required for taking samples. I thought that you need to just drop something into the water and take it out. Turns out it’s much more complicated than that.’
The last group interested in seeing the University of Gdańsk’s ship were the marine scientists from CAU and other the local academic institution GEOMAR. After an in-depth tour of the ship, they listened to the presentation about the 2022 SEA-EU cruise to Cadiz given by research team leader Professor Agata Weydmann-Zwolicka.
What connects all the great stories?
Meanwhile, at the Kiel University campus Zygmunt Miłoszewski was teaching students and scientists about the universal story telling techniques and formats. The Polish novelist was welcomed by interdisciplinary Master School of Marine Sciences (iMSMS) coordinator Franziska Werner, PhD.
During the workshop Zygmunt Miłoszewski explained the story structure that has been at the core of every well-known story, legend or myth. This structure was described most famously by Joseph Cambell in a book called ‘The Hero with a Thousand Faces’. During the workshop the attendees and the novelist discussed many contemporary books or movies that use this format like the Harry Potter series, Lord of the Rings Trilogy or the Star Wars saga.
‘I didn’t really know what the workshop was going to be about. I was hoping to find out about storytelling in case I want to write stories. So far I really like it, because it is really fun and refers to a lot of pop culture that I know.‘ said Tony Cabus, PhD, a postdoc at the University of Kiel, whose research areas are: International Law and Climate Change.
‘I just wanted to learn some insights on how to communicate and how to tell a story. I think it is really important, especially in science to know how to reach people and communicate what we are doing. Even though the workshop is not really on science, it still gives a lot of tools on how to communicate well‘ said David Menzel, student of geophysics at GEOMAR.
New members of the research team
The stop in Kiel allowed scientists from other SEA-EU universities to board the r/v Oceanograf and join the research team. One of them is Professor Enrico Zambianci from University of Naples Parthenope, who is going to deploy drifters that will flow with the sea current and gather data. ‘These devices provide you with the information, which cannot be provided by anything else. Thanks to them, you can even visualize the path of the water.’ said the Italian scientist. ‘I feel a little anxious, because I want everything to go as planned. But I’m also really excited, because I expect a lot of surprises. The ocean always surprises us’
The next stop of the r/v Oceanograf is Bergen, along the way to this picturesque Norwegian city University of Gdańsk’s ship will sail with r/v Oceania.
