Territorio Mudéjar takes part again in the Desafío programme

Territorio Mudéjar is once again participating in the sixth edition of the Desafío programme – known as rural Erasmus -, an internship programme funded by the Diputación de Zaragoza and managed by the University of Zaragoza.

Thanks to this initiative, students and recent graduates will have work experience in rural areas of Zaragoza.

In this edition, six students from different fields of knowledge – all of them linked to heritage – will live and train in our partner towns.

Students will have the opportunity to work in the 43 partner locations and live for several months in our working environment.

Tobed, Daroca, Castejón de Valdejasa, Torrellas, Fréscano or Ricla could be one of the destinations, which will be evaluated with the selected students.

‘Rural Erasmus’ has gone international

Territorio Mudéjar collaborates with the European university project UNITA- Universitas Montium in which the universities of Zaragoza; Turin (Italy), which acts as coordinator; Pau and Savoy Montblanc in France; West Timisoara in Romania, and Beira Interior in Portugal participate.

The project aims to strengthen the skills and improve the employability of university students, connecting public and private rural organisations with students who want to put their knowledge into practice.

In Territorio Mudéjar we have counted on Giacomo Pasini, an Italian student who is finishing a master’s degree in Cultural Anthropology and Ethnology at the University of Turin and who during these weeks has accompanied our students of the Challenge Programme.

Giacomo – originally from Sartirana Lomellina, in the province of Pavia (Lombardy) – is researching the impact of the climate crisis on local communities, with a special interest in the forms of adaptation and resistance to the crisis. “I work on two themes: environmental migrations and local ecological knowledge as a resource against climate change,” he explains.

Why did you choose Territorio Mudéjar for your internship? “I was interested in approaching an association that works with cultural heritage in rural areas and learning strategies to strengthen the connection between the villages that are part of the network developed by the entity”, he answers. And then adds: “I have settled in the town of Tobed together with Eugenia, Elena and Diego, and I am working with them on the different projects they are carrying out within Territorio Mudéjar”.

With this programme, we are reinforcing our Centro de Innovación Rural project through the management of heritage and the use of heritage space as a learning space.

The first students of the Desafío 2020 Programme arrive at Territorio Mudéjar

The first students of the Desafío Programme, funded by the DPZ and managed by the University of Zaragoza, are already in Territorio Mudéjar learning and putting into practice applied cultural heritage management models. This is the third edition of an initiative that allows young university students to do work experience in towns in the province of Zaragoza and that seeks to help young people with ideas to reach – and stay – in rural areas.

“By showing students how we work with the heritage in these towns, we pave the way for them to choose how they want to focus their careers in the future, and we hope that this future is closely related to our region,” explains Victoria Trasobares, director of Territorio Mudéjar.

The team of Art History students participating in the Desafío Programme – María Foradada, María Domínguez, Elena López and Sarai Salvo – have been living since the beginning of August in the organisation’s headquarters, Tobed, where they are getting to know the work system. They are joined by Eugenia Gallego, María Irazabal and Derry Holgado, who are working from a distance.

The program’s first phase consists in an introduction to the entity and its working methods, familiarizing the students with the networking system and the partners involved: city councils, culture officials and individuals in charge of cultural and heritage dissemination programs, combining classroom learning with fieldwork. In addition, the students are being trained in the cultural heritage management project methodology by professionals in diverse disciplines such as project design and assessment, awareness of the applied management models implemented in our region, and in the fields of project dissemination management and communication.

The Challenge Programme – now in its third edition – is aligned with Territorio Mudéjar’s strategic objective of promoting curricular or training internships and professionalising profiles linked to heritage in order to boost employment in rural areas, attract professionals and develop projects that involve the conservation of our heritage and investment in our villages as a differentiating element.

What is special about Territorio Mudéjar? It is framed in the rural environment, it works in a network with 34 municipalities and with interdisciplinary professionals, it also works with an international brand such as the UNESCO World Heritage declaration of three of the monuments of its member towns and with a model that is committed to professionalism, scientific rigour, vanguard and sustainability and that makes the inhabitants of the villages an essential part of its projects.