Capacity to Develop Lasting Cooperation with the Third Country

This research project has high capacity to develop lasting cooperation with Canada. Via his reintegration at the Center for German Studies, Dr. Markin will obtain an opportunity for joining, coordinating and advancing research efforts that scholars from the University of Alberta and elsewhere in Canada undertake. The doctoral supervisor of Dr. Markin, Prof. Shields is of international reputation. This enables developing cooperative relations that can take form of co-authored articles, research collaboration, co-edited books, and on-line initiatives. Prof. Shields works on the interface between English and French social and cultural theory, whereas Dr. Markin explores connections between English, French and German theory. This creates an opportunity for a fruitful cooperation in the future that will concentrate on the research of relations between space and culture. Since the University of Alberta is the home campus of the Space and Culture Journal, it is to be expected that Dr. Markin will be publishing a significant part of his articles in this journal. Additionally, Prof. Shields is a member of the editorial board of the Theory, Culture and Society Journal. Though the journal is highly reputed internationally, it is yet to have an Israeli scholar as part of either its editorial board or its associate editors team. Upon his reintegration in Israel, Dr. Markin may seek to assume some of the editorial duties of either of these journals.

Additionally, given the extensive academic contacts of Prof. Shields with Brazilian academics - he has spent his sabbatical in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil, in 2007-08 -, it is a possibility that Dr. Markin will develop tri-lateral academic networks between Israel, Canada and Brazil with a research focus on art biennials, especially since there is a long-established Sao Paolo Biennale that can be an important point of comparison in the eventual theoretical sample of these events. As a collaborator of Dr. Odile Cisneros from the Department of Modern Languages and Cultural Studies of the University of Alberta on topics of Latin-American, and especially Brazilian, avant-garde and literature, Dr. Markin can maintain and build on his contacts accumulated during his doctoral program. In view that Russia has launched Moscow biennale in 2005, there is great interest in collaboration with Dr. Markin on the part of Dr. Elena Siemens from the Department of Modern Languages and Cultural Studies who specializes in post-Soviet contemporary culture, urban studies and critical theory. As a member of Dr. Markin's expanded examination committee, Dr. Siemens is well acquainted with his work and is greatly inclined to take part in research projects that address the relations between art biennials and urban space.

Art biennials being network-oriented institutions, there is a growing participation of cultural, urban and regional studies periodicals in the series of lectures and conferences that accompany these biennial events. The simultaneous growth in the numbers of high-quality peer-reviewed on-line journals, such as Fast Capitalism of whose editorial board Prof. Shields is a part, allows relations of co-operation to extend globally. A case in point is Prof. Charles Barbour from the Department of Sociology whose scholarly interests range from social theory to Italian philosophy. He is recently appointed as a professor of philosophy at the University of Sydney, Australia. His involvement in Dr. Markin's work on his dissertation has laid a strong foundation for their future collaboration on subjects of theory and aesthetics.