CHIBOW early stage researcher finishes his second “secondment” in Leipzig, Germany

Oskars Gruziņš member of the European Union’s Marie Curie Initial Training Network, “Children born of war – past, present and future project,” from the University of Latvia, has returned from his secondment at the Department of Medical Psychology and Medical Sociology of the University of Leipzig.

The Marie Curie project entails that the early stage researchers stay at host organizations to learn from their experience on the topic of Children Born of War. As Oskars is working on a study of the children born of Third Reich and Soviet soldiers in Latvia, Oskars spent his time at the University of Leipzig learning about medical and psychological studies related to his topic.

Oskars spent his time learning about studies on trauma, transgenerational transferal of trauma and identity formation. While in Leipzig, Oskars work was supervised by Dr Heide Glaesmer, who is the vice head of the Department of Medical Psychology and Medical Sociology and has dedicated much of her work to the study of children born of war in post-war Germany. Dr Glaesmer assisted Oskars by discussing the texts he studied and helping him understand how they may apply to his study of children born of war in Latvia. Additionally, during his stay, Oskars presented a poster detailing his study to other researchers at the Department of Medical Psychology and Medical Sociology.

The “Children born of war – past, present and future project” is a Horizon 2020 plan which is composed of 15 early stage researchers, 11 organizations, 12 partner organizations, with an aim at “understanding the challenges of CBOW in volatile societies [that] will inform the normative debates and, ultimately, policies on the reintegration of CBOW into post-conflict societies.” To learn more about the project and Oskars work, please follow this link www.CHIBOW.org