Peter Praxmarer, lic.oec.publ. (University of Zurich, 1977) and Docteur ès sciences politiques (The Graduate Institute, Geneva, 1984), is, since 2003, Executive Director of EMICC (European Masters in Intercultural Communication), a network of ten European universities specializing in intercultural communication, at Università della Svizzera italiana (USI) Lugano, Switzerland.
For a number of years he taught international politics and relations in the United States (Temple University, University of Pennsylvania, Brown University and University of Rhode Island). He also was a consultant for UNITAR and the United Nations University on issues of social development, and has worked in the private sector (publishing, agriculture, art and antiques). During the wars in ex-Yugoslavia he participated in a fact-finding and assessment mission visiting UN peacekeeping forces in the Krajina region (Croatia), and served as Field and Training Coordinator with the OSCE Mission in Kosovo, for which he has also developed training programs in the field of democratization and good governance.
His main research focus is on epistemological issues (conceptualizations) in IC studies and the social sciences in general. His teaching is mainly on conceptualizations of “The Other”, as well as on intercultural communication in international organizations, and in particular peace communication in post-conflict and emergency contexts. He also works on academic cultures.
During the past ten years he has taught and lectured at more than two dozen universities in Europe and the US, and supervised a number of Bachelor and Master theses for students at different universities.
He also gives workshops and training courses in intercultural communication for different publics, including teachers at various levels, tourism professionals, immigration officials, paramedical personnel, healthcare professionals and managers.
NOTE: Peter Praxmarer passed away quite suddenly on November 5, 2017. He was a good friend to CID and will be sorely missed. A few concrete results of our frequent conversations follow. He wrote Key Concepts in Intercultural Dialogue #39: Otherness and the Other(s), translated it into both German and Italian, compiled a reader with study materials on intercultural communication competence, and prepared a poem, Languages of Peace. He wrote a guest post on Charlie Hebdo and intercultural dialogue, and responded at length to a guest post by Dominic Busch on refugees in Germany. During a Skype call with me, he came up with the concise definition of intercultural dialogue that was turned into CID Poster #3.
– Wendy Leeds-Hurwitz
Center for Intercultural Dialogue 