Meet the #WEASA2021 participants

In just one week, 50 representatives coming from 13 countries of the Eastern Partnership, the Western Balkans, and Poland will be joining us at the 2021 edition of the Warsaw Euro-Atlantic Summer Academy (WEASA).   

The WEASA 2021 participants have been chosen by our external evaluators, taking into account the following criteria of the applicants: 

• professional achievements; 
• public policy involvement; 
• leadership and professional efficiency; 
• clarity and innovation in reasoning and writing; 
• reasons to benefit from WEASA experience; 
• English language requirements. 

The profiles of WEASA 2021 participants vary from working in public administration, civil society, journalism, academia, or the private sector; some are political advisors, representatives of local or international organizations, volunteers, civic activists. 

Due to pandemic restrictions this year’s summer academy will be fully online, but that does not mean the programme will be any less intense or fruitful for our participants. We have worked hard to bring together amazing speakers from various spheres to make the summer academy unforgettable experience for our participants. During WEASA we will touch upon the following topics: Building democratic resilience, Russian disinformation and not only, 5G and geopolitics, Algorithms and social movements, Digital security, Cryptocurrencies, Investigative journalism: methods and case studies.  

Due to pandemic restrictions this year’s summer academy will be fully online, but that does not mean the programme will be any less intense or fruitful for our participants. We have worked hard to bring together amazing speakers from various spheres to make the summer academy unforgettable experience for our participants. During WEASA we will touch upon the following topics: Building democratic resilience, Russian disinformation and not only, 5G and geopolitics, Algorithms and social movements, Digital security, Cryptocurrencies, Investigative journalism: methods and case studies.  

Experts running sessions include: Brian Whitmore, Aiganysh Aidarbekova, Nad’a Kovalcikova, Nina Jankowicz, Daniel Bagge, Becky Kazansky, Łukasz Król, Ruurd Oosterwoud, Brenna Smith and Anna Babinec.  

As an added bonus, this year will feature a special training by Bellingcat. This is an exceptional opportunity for the participants to act like a sponge and take the best and most from the professionals of the open-source investigation practices. 

We have also invited the organizers of the “Bad News” game to share their experience and give valuable professional advice and hints to WEASA participants. 

The final draft agenda for WEASA 2021 can be found here. 

Apart from the content, we have also taken care of the effective networking between the participants: who said that online workshops can be an obstacle? We will get to know each other informally during the breaks of the sessions and visit each other in Gather Town! 

It is going to be a super fun academy! 

Looking forward to starting #WEASA2021. 

Good luck to all of us.