History textbooks are very important sources of the stories of who we are, where we came from, who are our neighbors, friends, enemies. They bring a rather simplified vision of the past and often adopt historical narratives which incorporate stereotypes about us and the Other. Unfavorable outcomes of public promotion of negative mutual stereotypes through history education have been recognized by both academics and education policy stakeholders, and a number of research initiatives on history textbooks have been conducted. The proposed project will bring a novel approach to analysis of the creation of stereotypes about the Other in history textbooks. This will be achieved by applying critical discourse analysis and using theories on social stereotyping that have been developed in the field of social science – both approaches definitely suitable for the history textbook research, but so far neglected by the academic community. Research on mutual stereotypes produced about the Other in history textbooks published in Slovakia and Hungary since 1918 until today - the countries whose contemporary political relationship has been dubbed the worst bilateral relationship between any two EU members - will serve as a case-study in the proposed project. The main outcome of the project will be a monograph published in English, an article published in Slovak and Hungarian languages and a series of public lectures targeting both the academic community as well as the education policy makers.

Modifying the vocal repertoire using an external auditory model is a prerequisite for speech production. But how full-fledged vocal learning evolved in humans, uniquely among primates, is still unclear. Integrating recent evidence from ethology and genetics, I hypothesize that selection for tameness, alloparental behavior and cooperativity in concert were the key driving processes for the emergence of human vocal learning and speech. I propose that dogs constitute an ideal model to test this hypothesis as they underwent a strong selection for tameness and cooperativity with, and often alloparented by humans; at the same time, their vocal behavior markedly changed compared to their closest relatives, the wolves. Dogs have control over their vocalizations, suggesting the presence of some primordial forms of vocal learning abilities. Combining bioacoustics, ethology, genetics, and brain imaging, K9VocLearn thus sets out to reveal the mechanisms underlying the emergence of vocal learning capacities in dogs. Specifically, I test how genetic similarity with wolves, particular gene variations of breeds, extreme domestication-syndrome phenotype, and individual cooperativity affect abilities and neural processes involved in vocal learning. WP1 utilizes citizen science, bioacoustics and machine learning approaches to develop a comprehensive catalogue of dogs’ vocal repertoire. WP2 seeks evidence of vocal usage and vocal production learning, including vocal imitative abilities in dogs, while also testing neural and vocal control mechanisms involved. WP3 tests dogs’ vocal coordination abilities in con- and heterospecific interactions both on the behavioral and the neural level. In early intervention experiments, WP4 longitudinally examines vocal ontogeny and the role of the acoustic environment in vocal flexibility. Breaking ground on capturing the emergence of vocal learning in a cooperative domestic species, K9VocLearn will provide new insights into human language evolution.