Category: Applied ICD

CosmoKidz Resources (USA)

Applied ICD

CosmoKidz resources, Coordinated Management of Meaning Institute for Personal and Social Evolution, USA.

 

The global problems of today and of the future will require leaders who are able to helpfully engage with others of varying backgrounds, beliefs, and perspectives. CosmoKidz is providing the building blocks for this kind of leadership. Helping to build better social worlds, one conversation at a time.

The CosmoKidzTM program consists of sets of conversational activities for adults to use with children and teens to help them develop constructive social and emotional intelligences. The CosmoKidzTM activities fit in with a new move in educational thinking: a shift from training students for cleverness and competition to helping them become fulfilled individuals and active, caring, compassionate people. The conversational activities are developed for different age groups—from children, to tweens and teens—based on something CMMi calls a cosmopolitan sensibility. It’s a different way of looking at how adults relate with children and how we would like them to relate with others. It also helps us focus on important things that most people don’t pay attention to that happens in our communicating with others.

CosmoKidz materials are now available in English, Pashto, Farsi, Norwegian, and Romanian. And there are related materials for CosmoTweenz, CosmoTeenz, and CosmoParents, as well as more general SOAR (Sense what’s around you, Open your hands to help others, Act with kindness, Respect other people) activities.

Stories from the Silk Roads (Canada)

Applied ICD

Storis from the Silk Roads, Kulea Culture Society, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, 8-11 May 2024.

Stories from the Silk Roads, Kulea Culture Society

During Asian Heritage Month, Kulea Culture Society presents Stories from the Silk Roads, a four-day event of music and film to celebrate the rich heritage of Canadians with roots in the Asian continent. The Silk Roads were a system of caravan routes crossing the Eurasian continent from the Mediterranean Sea to China. They influenced the emergence and development of trade and cultural ties between people and statehoods located along the way and beyond. The routes carried goods, ideas, people across the continent and the sea from China, India, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Iran, Syria, Turkey among others to the Mediterranean and the West. Just like on the Asian continent, different Asian communities live across Canada today. These cultures have developed their distinct identities, arts and histories through interaction and communication with each other in Canada. Stories from the Silk Roads highlight diversity and harmony through arts and culture.

Human Library Reading Garden (Denmark)

Applied ICD

Human Library Reading Garden in Copenhagen, Human Library Organization, Copenhagen, Denmark. Grand opening: 28 April 2024; then every Sunday until 13 October 2024.

Concept: “The Human Library® creates a safe space for dialogue where topics are discussed openly between our human books and their readers. All of our human books are volunteers with personal experience with their topic. The Human Library® is a place where difficult questions are expected, appreciated and answered.”

Details: “Very similar to your public library only we have real people on loan as an open book for you. Offering insights and honest conversations about their life and experience. If you arrive at the Human Library Reading Garden in the opening hours (Sundays 12-4pm) you will see a black librarian’s desk and a board with a list of topics available to readers. If the topic is listed in English, then it is available to readers in English. Consult the librarian to get an introduction and register for your library card. At this time you also agree to respect and observe our “Rules for Readers.” Now you can make your choice from what is available. The librarian is there to help guide you and once you have made your choice. The librarian will bring out the book for you and make introductions.

If you are in a group, then we recommend that you share a book. A maximum of five readers can take part in a group reading. During the season we are open on Sundays for the public. While our weekdays are reserved for visits from educational institutions and other publishing partners. Most of our topics are available in both Danish and English. A few are also available in Arabic, French, German, Italian and Spanish. You may borrow as many books as you like, but only one at a time.”

This is one human library of many; for more information about the entire movement, see here. Over the last 24 years, the Human Library has hosted events virtually and in libraries, museums, festivals, conferences, schools, universities and for the private sector, in over 85 countries.

Video Exhibition: Roma for Romania (Romania)

Applied ICD

Marica, Irina. (2 November 2023). Roma personalities in focus at Bucharest subway exhibition. Romania Insider.

The subway in Bucharest hosts this month a special video exhibition dedicated to outstanding personalities of the Roma culture. A total of 11 short videos about each personality are set to run on screens in subway stations until November 30.

The video exhibition aims to change mindsets, reduce stereotypes in Romanian society as a whole and contribute to the development of intercultural dialogue.

Some of the personalities included in the project are jazz singer Anca Parghel (1957-2008), violinist Ion Voicu (1923-1997), artist Anton Pann (1790-1854), footballer Bănel Nicoliță (born 1985), musician Barbu Lăutaru (1780-1858), singer Connect-R (born 1982), and actress Alina Șerban born 1987).

The exhibition is part of the “Roma for Romania” campaign, which the National Agency for Roma, the National Center for Roma Culture – Romano Kher and the “Pro-Europa” Roma Party Association have been running since April 2023.

WOSM/KAICIID: Dialogue for Peace

Applied ICD

The International Dialogue Centre – KAICIID and the World Organization of the Scout Movement (WOSM) have signed a new memorandum of understanding to continue the Dialogue for Peace programme.

Through the Dialogue for Peace programme, KAICIID and WOSM have increased the number of dialogue facilitators and trainers within the Scouting movement, helping Scouts acquire the skills to promote a culture of peace and create positive change in their communities. Since 2013, they have jointly trained over 1,000 people from 120 countries. The renewed partnership will seek to build on and expand the existing successes of the Dialogue for Peace initiative and other awareness activations around dialogue. The Dialogue for Peace Challenge Badge is an initiative co-designed by WOSM and KAICIID to develop competencies related to dialogue in young people to promote active listening, non-judgemental communications, and ultimately build a culture of peace.

Mojuba! Dance Collective & ICD (USA)

Applied ICD

McKeown, Nora. (14 August 2023). Mojuba! Dance Collective creates space for dancing and healing. Spectrum News.

This is not just something for me or for us, or the people who are in the company, but this can really be a move of the community to help us to have that intercultural dialogue, to help us to find ways to tell our own stories.

-Errin Weaver

“In 2019, Errin Weaver started Mojuba! Dance Collective for choreographers in Cleveland to explore the African Diaspora through movement and healing . . . The collective has been well-received by the community, prompting intercultural conversations. It also provides a space for Black choreographers to feel validated in their experiences and heal through dance.”

Interreligious Dialogue: Heschel Center at Catholic U of Lublin (Poland)

Applied ICD

The Heschel Center has begun its activities at the Catholic University of Lublin.

The Abraham J. Heschel Center for Catholic-Jewish Relations – a new scientific, educational, and cultural unit to deepen Catholic-Jewish relations internationally – has began its activities at the Catholic University of Lublin, Poland. Scientific research, publishing activities, student exchanges, as well as international symposia, conferences, debates and cultural events are the main tasks of the institution. Its mission is to build Catholic-Jewish relations on the scientific, educational, and cultural levels on an international scale. The center combines research work, commemorating the past, educating and engaging young people, as well as shaping public awareness through modern media on a global scale.

The pillars on which the Center’s activities are based can be summed up in a motto: Common Bible – Common Past – Common Future. They also relate to shared biblical roots, to the community of the history of both societies, as well as to the need to shape a future based on dialogue and openness to multiculturalism – said the Rector of the Catholic University of Lublin, Rev. Prof. Miroslaw Kalinowski.

Creative Intercultural Collaboration in the UK Modern Foreign Languages Classroom (UK)

Intercultural Dialogue Pedagogy

McAllister, A., Brandford, V., & Smith, C. (Eds.). (2023). Creative intercultural collaboration in the UK modern foreign languages classroom: The quest for social justice. Journal of Education, Innovation and Communication, 5(1).

This is a special issue of the Journal of Education, Innovation and Communication, featuring “a series of articles which outline approaches to teaching and learning Languages foregrounding collaboration, and in which creativity is fostered and culture is drawn upon.” It’s open access. In addition to the preface, linked above, the articles are:

The language of literacy: Developing student independence and confidence in the MFL classroom through a collaborative approach to literacyby Amy Cragg

Engaging with others to identify areas of learning by Nicholas Mark Page

Improving writing skills with Year 10 French students by Juliette O’Connor

Promoting self-esteem, motivation and creativity through collaborative, pluri-lingual story translations by Amy Flynn

Raising learner motivation through a cultural pen-pal scheme: a collaborative study by Dikshali Shah

Multicultural Music: Cultural Connections Over Time

Applied ICD

Williger, Jonathan. (23 May 2023). From Pomona to Heart Mountain: “La Banda Más Chingón en Wyoming.” Folklife Magazine.

“The cultural and geographic lineage of “La Banda Más Chingón en Wyoming” by No-No Boy with Mariachi Los Broncos is culturally layered and deeply American: a mariachi rendition of a folk-country song about a 1940s Japanese American swing band, composed in Wyoming by the son of a Vietnamese refugee from Nashville performed in Southern California. Brimming with ecstatic energy and righteous anger, the song draws connections between recent waves of migration from Central and South America and the long history of Asian American immigration and the discrimination both groups have experienced once they reached American soil.”

This recording is a great example of combining multiple cultural heritages through music. The article explicitly discusses the parallels between current Latin American migrants to the US, and Japanese Americans during World War II.

Open Call for DEMO (Democracy, Elections, Mentorship, Organizing)

Applied ICD

Open Call for D.E.M.O. – Democracy, Elections, Mentorship, Organizing Programme, European Alternatives, France / Germany / Italy. Deadline: 30 June 2023.

The “D.E.M.O.” programme aims at encouraging and facilitating the active engagement of a wide network of European citizens through both training & hands-on action, in the context of the upcoming 2024 European Elections. They have just launched the open call to identify and select 50 change-makers from at least 8 countries (Austria, Bulgaria, Czechia, Greece, Slovakia, Slovenia, Romania, Sweden and others) to participate in the D.E.M.O. programme. Those selected change-makers will receive the necessary tools to re-imagine democracy in their local communities and to encourage democratic participation.

The project will achieve this through a series of eight training sessions: 2 residential and 6 online, accompanied by additional informal skill-sharing sessions, peer-to-peer exchange, mentorship sessions, etc. After the training process, the participants will be encouraged to implement two activities in their local communities that engage other people, based on the skills acquired through the content of the training sessions.

Some of these activities may be participatory art creations, podcasts, videocasts, workshops, lectures, etc. In addition, the project will be presented as part of the programME of significant events around Europe in 2023-2024. “D.E.M.O.” will specifically engage people who often feel underrepresented in their locality and whose voice remains unheard when it is time for political and social decisions, such as women, people of colour, migrants, representatives of the LGBTQI+ community, etc.

The open call is for 50 change-makers with no specific age requirement; who are citizens or residents of the following countries (but not limited to): Austria, Bulgaria, Czechia, Greece, Slovakia, Slovenia, Romania, Sweden; and people who want to expand their skills in: community organizing, facilitation, political gatherings, political artistic creation, podcast production, video production.