Category: Applied ICD

Culture Shots

“On Monday the 18th of July at 6.30 pm, Near90fm [Dublin, Ireland] will broadcast Culture Shots, the first show in a series of 13 programmes examining the meaning of culture, and what begins when people from different cultures meet and start communicating. Through conversations, stories, interviews and music, Culture Shots aims to promote understanding between the myriad cultures present in Irish society.

Culture Shots is the culmination of an 8 week training and production initiative which was made possible by support from the European Integration Fund. This initiative brought together 4 migrants from beyond the EU and 4 Irish nationals to work in collaboration to develop skills for understanding and creating media from an intercultural perspective. Before production of the series, participants completed requirements towards earning a FETAC Level 4 in Community Radio, and a certificate in Intercultural Media Literacy.

Gillian McInerney, a North Dublin resident and a presenter on the programme said, “By including voices from very different communities and identities, Culture Shots expresses the diversity of voices, perspectives and languages in Ireland today.”

The series debuts with a programme in which two individuals from different cultures were brought together and asked to collaboratively prepare a 3-course meal. Shannette Budhai, one of the chefs and a presenter on Culture Shots said, “Listening to our culinary experiment shows how people from different cultural traditions, when cooking in a common space, can reflect on how we define ourselves and where we come from through the foods we grew up with. By sharing our stories, along with useful cooking techniques, we were an example of how people of different cultures working in collaboration with one another leads to creativity and innovation.”

Tune in to Culture Shots on 90.3 fm or livestream at www.near.ie each week, Mondays from 6.30 to 7.

This project is co-financed by the European Commission under the European Integration Fund and is supported by the Office of the Minister for Integration and Pobal.

The Near Media Coop is a democratic, not for profit community media initiative based in Coolock, North Dublin. Part of our mission is to provide an alternative to mainstream media by offering an outlet for those underrepresented or excluded through training and access to distribution facilities.”

For further information, see original post.

Cole Foundation grants

CALL FOR PROPOSALS

Grant applications for the Cole Foundation’s upcoming round of Intercultural Conversations-Conversations Interculturelles programs are now available online. Recent grants totalling $148,140 were handed out to professional theatre companies in Montreal for their 2011-2012 and 2012-2013 seasons. The Cole Foundation created this grant program to encourage a better understanding and greater social harmony amongst the various cultural communities of Montreal through the presentation of professional French and English language theatre. Barry Cole, Cole Foundation President, believes that dialogue leads to better understanding, appreciation and greater social harmony amongst the cultural communities. With this in mind, the Cole Foundation initiated the programme Intercultural Conversations to stimulate the production of theatrical events that feature intercultural dialogue and that introduce Montrealers to other cultural heritages and social realities. Intercultural Conversations consists of production grants, commissioning grants and translation grants to both French and English theatre companies.

Montreal is a multicultural city welcoming people of all ethnic origins. The Cole Foundation wants Montrealers to have a greater awareness of the voices and stories from and about its diverse cultures and communities. Dialogue among these various cultural communities is one way of bringing them together. Theatre has the ability of fostering this intercultural dialogue through the presentation of stories of other cultures on stage and the Cole Foundation considers it vital to support plays that explore these important issues.

Grants for the next competition relate to the 2012-13 and 2013-14 theatre seasons. The deadline for the fourth competition of this meaningful award is October 7. Application forms are now available online where you will also find further information, including lists of past recipients.
Intercultural Conversations grant application forms are available for download here: www.colefoundation.ca/community/competition-forms

Information about the Intercultural Conversations program: www.colefoundation.ca/community
Information about the Cole Foundation Pediatric Oncology research grants: http://www.colefoundation.ca

European Intercultural Forum

The European Intercultural Forum e.V., a NGO based in Berlin, operating in the fields of youth participation, European Citizenship, conflict management and intercultural learning is looking for new partners in the fields of the Action 2 of the Youth in Action Programme: European Voluntary Service.

We are registered as a sending organisation under reference 2010-DE-31 on the EVS database and are looking for EVS hosting placements in various countries for motivated young volunteers from Germany (including fewer opportunities profiles).
Please contact us in case you would like to host volunteers from Berlin on short-term and/or long-term EVS projects and discuss possible partnerships.

EVS coordinator: Tiphaine Coulardeau
European Intercultural Forum e.V.
Prenzlauer Allee 176, Berlin
eif.germany@…

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European Intercultural Forum e.V.
Address | Prenzlauer Allee 176, 10409 Berlin – Germany
Mail | eif.germany@…
Website | www.european-intercultural-forum.org

Toolkit for Intercultural Dialogue

“The INGO Conference of the Council of Europe is elaborating a practical guide to conduct dialogues where they are most needed. The aim is to provide a hands-on concise, user-friendly Tool. Its approach will not be on the “high end culture”, but rather aims to help build social cohesion and the human rights based approach regarding diversity issues.

The accumulation of unresolved issues in matters of diversity and migration over the last two years have led to an intolerable level of Human Rights infringements in European countries. The Conference of INGOs has witnessed this regrettable evolution and has discussed it.

The Council of Europe NGO Forum of 23-25 March in Istanbul gave the opportunity to reactivate the intercultural dialogue theme. Over 70 NGO representatives, many from South Eastern Europe, participated. Civil society activists from Egypt and Tunisia met with INGO Conference leaders in a small but important side event of the Forum. Three Workshops looked into the new challenges of intercultural societies and a fourth team began its work on assembling the Toolkit for Conducting Intercultural Dialogue. This team consisted of a Barbados-born British, a Portuguese, a Russian, a Swedish-Italian, a Romanian and a Swiss Coordinator. The team began to work based on the Forum’s Workshop findings and the Feedback to a Questionnaire from the participants.

On 14 April the INGO Conference Standing Committee adopted the draft chapters of the Toolkit and gave the green light for the editing and writing and it continues to oversee this work. The INGO Conference Plenary meeting of 21 June unanimously approved the overall content and approach. The Dialogue Toolkit is scheduled for presentation and for initiating the test phase in mid-November.

Along with the Toolkit, the INGO Conference will develop a Dialogue Implementation Phase and is looking forward to working in partnership with interested and competent bodies.”

[Original post: Council of Europe Non-Governmental Organisations]

New UN University

“A new United Nations University to be opened in Barcelona in 2012 will strive to bridge the knowledge gap between different civilizations and develop postgraduate courses focused on cross-cultural dialogue in areas such as education, youth, media and migration. A select group of experts in cross-cultural communication from Europe, North America, North Africa, the Arab world and Asia, along with the United Nations University (UNU) staff gathered in the Spanish city June 1-3, 2011 to identify areas of research, postgraduate teaching and knowledge transfer to be undertaken by the new institution.

To be known as the International Institute on the Alliance of Civilizations (IIAOC) the new institution will be located at the Sant Pau historic site in Barcelona. It will be funded by the Spanish Government and the state government of Catalonia with the Ministry of Education guaranteeing funding of 2 million Euros a year from 2013 onwards for an initial period of four years. An international search for its first director is underway, who is expected to be appointed by the end of 2011. IIAOC will contribute to reinforcement of peace by reflecting upon a future of tolerance, dialogue and cooperation among different cultures…

“Intercultural dialogue is not easily achieved and it involves cultivating our human and ethical potential,” noted Fred Dallmayr from the University of Notre Dame in the USA. He said the ancients called it a culture of virtues which includes temperance, wisdom and justice. “In today’s culture we need to have another virtue, the openness to different ideas, different voices, different languages and the virtues of what Indians call — karuna — compassion. These are virtues we have to study, cultivate and train ourselves to practice,” he said.

Prof Ramin Jahanbegloo, political scientist from the University of Toronto, argued that what is being built is an institution which is not clash oriented but dialogue oriented. “The question is not about who are the dialogue partners, but at what point the dialogue partners start to talk and work together on issues that often cause debate,” he argued.”

For further information, see the original posting in IDN-InDepthNews/06.06.2011

Prize in Strategic Comm for Public Good

John F. Murray Prize in Strategic Communication for the Public Good
Deadline for nominations extended: August 1, 2011

The 2011 John F. Murray Prize in Strategic Communication for the Public Good will be awarded by the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at The University of Iowa to a pioneering innovator who uses communications to ennoble the human spirit. The Selection Committee seeks an individual whose work through persuasive communication has elevated the well-being of our shared human existence. Such a person will have conceived of, played a key role in, or carried out a vital public campaign aimed at increasing awareness – or spurring a behavioral change – of a fundamental issue that improves the world in which we live. Innovators may have spearheaded public causes, such as advancing health care, education, environment/sustainability, quality of life, or democratic values and governance. They may have created a successful civic project that caused dramatic, quantifiable, and necessary reforms. The results should have a clear and demonstrable impact in either the public or private sectors. To be considered for the award, the impact of the nominee’s action must be publicly documented. Candidates may have devoted substantial parts of their careers to promoting the causes and efforts advanced by the Murray Prize. Candidates may reside in the United States or elsewhere. The winner of the John F. Murray Prize in Strategic Communication for the Public Good may serve in any strategic communication profession. The Murray Prize is not necessarily given every year. In rare circumstances, the Prize may be given to a group or institution. The John F. Murray Prize will consist of an engraved crystal bowl and an honorarium of $2,500. The selection of the winner of the John F. Murray Prize in Strategic Communication for the Public Good will be made by the faculty of the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at The University of Iowa. The winner will deliver a public address at an event held in his/her honor in July 2011. The Prize is named after the late John F. Murray, an internationally known benefactor and philanthropist and strategic communication pioneer. To nominate a candidate for the Murray Prize, please send a letter, outlining in detail the nominee’s qualifications and any supporting material to sjmc-murrayprize@uiowa.edu. Only electronic nominations and materials will be accepted.

Religious Literacy Project

“Thanks to a generous donation from Bruce McEver (MTS ’11), Harvard Divinity School announces a new initiative, the Religious Literacy Project (RLP), which will enable HDS to continue our nearly four decades of leadership in religious studies and education in the Unites States.

As a successor to the Program in Religious Studies and Education, the RLP will be a virtual resource and research center housed at the Center for the Study of World Religions. Its primary aim will be to create and maintain scholarly resources in the general study of religion and in specific religious traditions via an open access website designed primarily for public-school teachers and their students.

The initial resources will be created to supplement and enhance commonly used textbooks that introduce religion at the middle and secondary levels in world history and world civilizations courses. Other resources will be developed to supplement and enhance English and world literature courses, highlighting commonly taught texts with significant religious themes or dimensions.

A third set of resources will focus on teaching sacred texts, including, but not limited to, the Bible. A fourth will be case studies of significant historical events involving religious issues, and a fifth will provide resources for educators to understand and teach about contemporary issues related to religion.

In addition to the content resources outlined above, the RLP will also generate and publicize relevant research regarding religion and education, with a special emphasis on the relationship between literacy about religion and civic and moral education in a global world.

The Religious Literacy Project will function in tandem with the Certificate in Religious Studies and Education program that is jointly sponsored by Harvard Divinity School and the Harvard Extension School. This program targets in-service teachers, who can earn the certificate by taking courses through the Extension School that offer them the content and skills required to teach about religion in constitutionally sound and educationally innovative ways in their K-12 classrooms. The certificate is available for distance learners as well as those who reside in the greater Boston area.

Construction of the website will begin immediately and will be launched in a series of stages over the next three years. Beginning in the coming academic year, HDS professor Diane Moore will head this project, in addition to teaching part-time at both HDS and Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts.”

Originally posted by Harvard Divinity School as a press release.

ICD in Fairytales, Drama, Art

Intercultural Dialogue through Fairytales, Drama and Art is a multi-partner project with 35 schools participating from all over Europe.  The participants collaborated in order to become familiar with the different cultures of each partner school’s home country through the use of fairy tales, drama and the arts…Schools involved in this project first created a PowerPoint presentation on their school which was posted on the TwinSpace. They served as a background so that students learned about each other before commencing work on the project itself.  Then, each school had to translate one national fairytale into English and then post this translated work on the TwinSpace for all partner schools to view.

Students from all schools read all of these translated stories in their English classes. Students of each institution then drew illustrations of their chosen national fairy tale in art class. Next, students from each participating school started performing one partners’ fairy tale in English. These performance are being recorded on DVD and sent to all partners to watch in English classes, and photos are being posted on the TwinSpace. Students can then watch each school’s performance recorded on DVD by each partners school.

All fairy tales from all European countries will be published in a book with students illustrations and share between partners and distribute to local community. Teachers and students were also able to communicate and further comment on all aspects of this project via the eTwinning Project Forum and on a Google Group.

For further information, see the etwinning site.

Intercultural Cities


Intercultural cities: governance and policies for diverse communities

Joint action of the Council of Europe and the European Commission

Intercultural Cities

The Intercultural cities programme emerged from the Council of Europe’s significant experience of projects that focus on issues concerned with the management of diversity. Considerable reflection has been undertaken in relation to the principles and practices of cultural diversity and intercultural dialogue.

Intercultural cities is a capacity-building and policy development field programme which has been implemented by the Council of Europe in partnership with the European Commission. It runs complementary to many other current projects and events (conferences, research, exchanges, and campaigns).  The programme’s long-term, comprehensive approach will contribute to the sustainability of the political impetus of one of the Council of Europe’s declared priorities concerning the practice of diversity in today’s world.

     

  • An intercultural city has people with different nationality, origin, language or religion / beliefs. Political leaders and most citizens regard diversity positively, as a resource.
  • The city actively combats discrimination and adapts its governance, institutions and services to the needs of a diverse population.
  • The city has a strategy and tools to deal with diversity and cultural conflict. It encourages greater mixing and interaction between diverse groups in the public spaces.

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For further information, including comparison of different cities, see the original post.