Summer Schools

The 2012 EARA/SRA Summer School will be held in Spetses, Greece, in August 2012. Click here for more information.

Background on the Summer Schools

Since 2001, the European Association for Research on Adolescence (EARA) has hosted summer schools to train doctoral researchers. With the financial backing of the Jacobs Foundation (see the website: www.jacobsfoundation.org), the schools provided important training opportunities for junior European scholars.

The summer school is now jointly sponsored by EARA and the Society for Research on Adolescence (SRA), with past schools held in Turin, Italy; Vancouver, Canada; and Örebro, Sweden. The 2011 summer school in Tucson was the fourth EARA-SRA school and the sixth sponsored by the Jacobs Foundation.

At each of the schools, seasoned research professionals gather to meet with promising young doctoral students in an intensive, but lively exchange of ideas. Senior scholars (i.e., the research professors) present their research or ideas to the junior scholars (i.e., the doctoral students) and the students work in groups at tasks the seniors have given them. These tasks have ranged from developing interventions and public policy to creating new models of adolescent development, to debating the pros and cons of a theoretical position. By the time the summer school is over, the junior scholars will have digested the contents of up to thirty publications! Junior scholars also present their ideas to the senior scholars and their peers, receiving vital feedback about the philosophical underpinnings, logic, and execution of their ideas. At each of the latest schools, there have also been sessions focusing on methodological advances and professional development.

In short, at these schools, students will:

  • Learn about different content areas of adolescent research. Senior researchers will give presentations in their own area of expertise. The senior researchers will be selected to represent diverse areas of adolescent research.
  • Receive feedback on their own research. Students will present their own dissertation research and receive feedback from the senior researchers and other students.
  • Receive advisement from senior researchers. Students will meet with senior researchers one-on-one and in groups for mentoring sessions.

The first EARA Summer School, organised by the former EARA president, Monique Bolognini, took place in July 2001 near Lake Geneva in Switzerland and was a great success. Sixteen Ph.D. students participated and among the teachers were Lawrence Steinberg, Håkan Stattin, Margaret Kerr, Jari-Erik Nurmi, Bruna Zani and Peter Noack, to name a few.

The second EARA Summer School took place in July 2003 at the Marbach castle, in Germany, during the period July 20 -26, 2003. Eightteen Ph.D. students participated (among which four from the United States) and the presenters/mentors were Jacquelynne Eccles, Rutger Engels, Alexander von Eye, Luc Goossens, Leo Hendry, Marion Kloep, and Rainer Silbereisen.

The third 2006 EARA Summer School was a three-day event just in Belek-Antalya, Turkey before the EARA Conference in Antalya. 21 students from Europe and the USA participated. Among the teachers were Jeffrey Jensen Arnett, B. Bradford Brown, Luc Goossens, Margaret Kerr, Peter Noack, HåKan Stattin, Judy Smetana, and Elisabeth J. Susman.

Since 2008, the summer schools are jointly organized by EARA and the Society for Research on Adolescence (SRA), allowing us to hold summer schools more frequently.

The fourth EARA Summer School took place May 4-6, 2008, before the EARA Conference in Torino, Italy. EARA and the Society for Research on Adolescence (SRA) co-organized this Summer School. There were 13 European participants and another 12 students from North America, Brazil, and Kenya. The seniors were Rutger Engels and Wim Meeus from the Netherlands, Inge Seiffge-Krenke from Germany, Lauree Tilton-Weaver from Sweden, Marlene Moretti from Canada, Avi Assor from Israel, and Brian Barber, Stephen Russel, and Donna Spruit-Metz from the United States.

In 2009, a summer school co-organized by SRA and EARA took place in Canada at The University of British Columbia (Point Grey campus in Vancouver), June 1st to June 6th, 2009. Some of the senior presenters were Xiaojia Ge, Reed Larson, Margaret Kerr, Shelley Hymel, and Lisa Diamond.

The 6th summer school was held in Örebro, Sweden in 2010 between June 22nd and June 26th, and was again jointly sponsored by EARA and SRA. It was funded by the Jacobs Foundation. Some of the senior researchers who participated in the Örebro summer school are Gian Vittorio Caprara, Nancy Darling, Rutger Engels, Constance Flanagan, Sandra Graham, Brett Laursen, Ann Masten, and Debra Pepler.

The 2011 EARA-SRA Summer School was held in Tucson, Arizona (U.S.A). The local organizer was Professor Stephen T. Russell, with the University of Arizona at Tucson.  The seniors involved were Marcel van Aken, Daan Brugman, Gustavo Carlo, Jennifer Connolly, Andrew Fuligni, Marcella Raffaelli, and Niobe Way. Noel Card served as the school methodologist.