Category: Events

CMM Institute Webinar: What if We Didn’t Have to Agree? Preserving Relationships While Communicating Across Differences

EventsCoordinated Management of Meaning Institute Webinar: What if We Didn’t Have to Agree? Preserving Relationships While Communicating Across Differences, 10 December 2025, 11 am Eastern US Time (UTC-5).(Online).

In the middle of a holiday season, many dread the seemingly inescapable arguments, hurt feelings, and tension that can arise. With this in mind, Ilene Wasserman and Arthur Jensen will share creative, relational approaches to navigating conversations with loved ones about potentially polarizing and divisive topics. Together, with webinar participants, they will explore possibilities for finding coordination even without coherence.

In communication, each moment is a chance to practice curiosity and compassion- two foundational elements for the continued co-creation of better social worlds. Now, more than ever, each of us must understand our own ability and responsibility to act mindfully into our relationships.

In preparation for the webinar, they invite you to reflect on recent conversations with friends and family members where disagreement occurred. Please consider the following: (1) Where did the conversation start? (2) What did the conversation feel like? and (3) Where did the conversation end?

International House Association: Pathways to Peace: Lessons in Reconciliation (Hybrid)

EventsGlobal Forum Series: Pathways to Peace: Lessons in Reconciliation, International House Association, 2025-26.

The newly founded International House Association is pleased to announce the new Global Forum Series. For the 2025-2026 Global Forum Series, the theme will be Pathways to Peace: Lessons in Reconciliation. The Global Forum will convene leading thinkers, scholars, and practitioners to discuss one of humanity’s most profound challenges and greatest hopes: the ability to reconcile after conflict. Through this series, the audience will hear from diplomats, historians, philanthropists, and others who witnessed and shaped these turning points in history. They will also highlight the role of International Houses around the world in the reconciliation of conflict. Join these upcoming events to connect with a global community and participate in cultural exchanges. All events will be live-streamed for global audiences.

The first event was A Conversation with President Alar Karis, President of the Republic of Estonia on Innovation and Digital Transformation, Geopolitical Challenges, and National Security on NATO’s Eastern Border, held 27 October, at the University of Chicago. Future events include:

U Bergen: Africa-Europe Research Collaborations (Norway)

EventsAfrica-Europe Research Collaborations, University of Bergen, Norway (Hybrid), 3 December 2025. Registration deadline: 20 November 2025.

This event draws inspiration from the Africa Charter for Transformative Research Collaborations, with a keynote address exploring its vision and impact. Members of the Global Partnerships Working Group within the Coimbra Group will present collaborative examples from several European universities. The University of Bergen will present its own initiatives aligned with the symposium’s theme. In addition, there will be a separate session on collaboration with Sudan. The event will conclude with a panel debate on the future of Africa-Europe research collaborations.

This symposium is organized by Global Challenges, one of three priority areas at the University of Bergen, and the Global Partnerships Working Group of the university network Coimbra Group.  The event is organised in collaboration with The Southern African – Nordic Centre (SANORD) network at University of Bergen and Western Norway University of Applied Sciences.

Taos Institute: Strategies for Opening Master Conflict Narratives (Webinar)

EventsStrategies for Opening Master Conflict Narratives, Pulsating Practices: Constructionism in Action, Taos Institute (Webinar), 5 November 2025, 1-2:30 EST.

With Sara Cobb (Director of the Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution, George Mason University, USA)

Persistent conflicts, such as wars, the rise of fascism, political and social conflicts over colonialism, marginalization, climate change, race, etc., depend on “master narratives” that keep the parties prisoner to their own logics, their descriptions of histories, and their vision of possible futures. We see master narratives at work, constructing the world, from the local to the global level, in personal conflicts where families fracture over their ideological differences, in communities divided by race, in professional settings where “merit” seems to challenge “diversity” and vice versa, in political settings where “science” is in opposition to “belief,” and of course, in violent conflicts. Indeed, the more persistent the conflict, the more power master narratives have, to maintain the conflict by sealing themselves off from re-interpretation or evolution. From this perspective, conflict transformation or even conflict evolution depends on opening master narratives to new logics/descriptions.

This webinar offers a strategy for evolving master narratives via the development of “proximate narratives.” Drawing on case examples, we will define ”proximate narratives” and explore how they can function to open new pathways for conflict transformation. Finally, we will practice the development of proximate narratives in our own master narratives and explore our experience of this process, sharing insights, for our collective learning.

Taos Institute: Crafting Peace Through Autoethnography (Webinar)

EventsDialogue with the Author: Crafting Peace Through Autoethnography, Reflexive Pedagogies for Navigating Difficult Times, Taos Institute (Webinar), 24 October 2025, 12-1:30 EDT.

With Susan Riva (Switzerland),  Sheila McNamee (USA) and Robin Cooper (USA).

Crafting Peace by Susan Riva book cover

With a foreword by Sheila McNamee and an afterword by Robin Cooper—both scholars from the Taos Institute—the book Crafting Peace Through Autoethography: Reflexive Pedagogies for Navigating Difficult Times is grounded in a social constructionist perspective and offers a reflective framework for navigating complexity in higher education.

In this work, Riva introduces the Transformational Learning Model and feature students’ Transformagram Portfolios—creative, personal expressions of their transformative learning journeys. She also shares how her online courses provide a safe and supportive virtual space for accompanying students through deeply experiential and reflective processes.

At Creighton University, her conflict resolution course uses personal conflict narratives to connect lived experience with theoretical frameworks. Students craft story mandalas and engage with autoethnography as a social science method, deepening their understanding of conflict, identity, and personal transformation.

Taos Institute: Facilitating Participant Dialogues in Research (Webinar)

EventsFacilitating Participant Dialogues in Research, Pulsating Practices: Constructionism in Action, Taos Institute, NM, USA, (Webinar), 8 October 2025, 10-11:30 EDT.

With Norma Romm (University of South Africa) and Francis Akena Adyanga (Kabale University, Uganda).

The Taos Institute invites you to join this webinar where Norma and Francis showcase how, as professional researchers, they have worked alongside research participants with the intent that fruitful constructions can be dialogically generated via the research process. The examples will indicate how research participants can participate in reconstructing ways of living together in relation to their expressed concerns.

The research setting that will constitute the prime example in this webinar was Francis and Norma’s effort to intervene in peace-building between farmers and pastoralists in the context of land disputes in Northern Uganda. Through focus group facilitation, participants came to discuss new options for their co-existence and were appreciative of how the research process contributed to this.

The webinar will also refer to another example in Northern Uganda where participants in a community were distressed by the practices of certain foreign-owned companies and mobilized resistance. As part of their dialoguing around their (relatively successful) efforts, they offered re-constructions of the notion of “development”. Finally, Francis and Norma will point to research in South Africa exploring Indigenous practices for advocating food sovereignty (as a counterpoint to globally dominant narratives around “food security”).

The webinar will invite audiences to reflect upon (and discuss) their roles as professional or lay researchers in shaping social and ecological life.

International Translation Day 2025

EventsHappy International Translation Day, a celebration  established by the United Nations in 2017, occurring on 30 September every year.

International Translation Day is an opportunity to pay tribute to the work of language professionals, which plays an important role in bringing nations together, facilitating dialogue, understanding and cooperation, contributing to development, and strengthening world peace and security. A number of organizations are planning events, as described in a prior post.

“Words travel worlds. Translators do the driving”. – Anna Rusconi

This is an appropriate occasion on which to thank all of the translators who have taken time from other responsibilities to help CID prepare translations of our publications into a remarkable 32 different languages. We could not do this without you! 

NOTE: If you want to translate one of the publications into a language in which you are fluent, please contact us before you start, to learn whether anyone else is already working on that publication in that language.

 

International Translation Day Events 2025

EventsInternational Translation Day, established by the United Nations in 2017, occurs on 30 September every year. A number of organizations are planning events.

International Translation Day

The International Federation of Translators is holding a webinar this year to celebrate, with the theme Celebrating Translation, Peace and Trust. In turbulent times, where peace often hangs in the balance and global communications and relations are infiltrated by a lack of trust, the ITD 2025 theme highlights the important role of human trust. Specifically, the role of translators, interpreters and terminologists in ensuring trustworthy communication, building dialogue and trust between parties and providing oversight to AI-generated text and machine translation.

English PEN will be holding both in person and online events in London to celebrate, with a two-part conversation exploring pressing questions for the craft, business and ethics of translation: How can literary translation thrive in the face of global turmoil? And how can literary translation thrive in the face of artificial intelligence?

UNESCO and Translation Commons are organizing a joint virtual event to celebrate the International Translation Day within the context of The International Decade of Indigenous Languages. This event will explore the evolving roles of Indigenous language professionals in the digital age, emphasizing the irreplaceable value of human expertise in ensuring accurate, culturally sensitive, and trusted translations. They will navigate the ethical considerations of AI in this field, focusing on community-led approaches to leverage technology responsibly for Indigenous language preservation and revitalization, ultimately creating a future where these languages are not only thriving but also safe.

From Recognition to Inclusion – Rethinking European Languages in Education (Germany or Online)

EventsOpen Conversation: From Recognition to Inclusion – Rethinking European Languages in Education, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Germany, 26 Sept 2025. Deadline: 11 September for on-site participation; 24 September for online participation.

Across Europe, educational systems tend to focus on hegemonial national languages—German in Germany, French in France, and so on—as legitimate means for classroom interaction. It is also these languages that are associated with European nation-states, understood as “modern languages” for educational curricula, and targeted as desirable competences in “European languages” by multilingualism policies.

However, the linguistic reality of Europe is far more diverse. Languages such as Turkish, Arabic, Russian, Kurdish, and Romani are spoken daily by large communities in Europe, and in this sense they are European languages, yet they are rarely treated as valuable cultural or educational resources.

This open conversation explores how educational systems might move beyond narrow definitions of “European languages” and “multilingualism” towards practices of genuine linguistic inclusion—where all students’ languages are made visible, valued, and meaningfully integrated into educational life.

Organisers: Heike Wiese, İrem Duman Çakır, Annika Labrenz

Immigrant Council of Ireland: Migrant Leadership Academy 2025 (Ireland)

EventsMigrant Leadership Academy, Immigrant Council of Ireland, Dublin, Ireland, 3-5 Oct 2025. Deadline: 15 Sept 2025.

The Migrant Leadership Academy brings together migrants and refugees living in Ireland who are committed to social justice, equality and want to bring about positive change in their communities. The Academy teaches the fundamentals of activism and community organising. This year’s Migrant Leadership Academy will take place from 3-5 October in Dublin, with further sessions online.

The main objective of the Migrant Leadership Academy is to identify talented migrant and refugee leaders in Ireland and to provide them with a space for connection with fellow migrant and refugee leaders.

The space serves as a platform for reflection and skills exchange to enhance their leadership potential. The secondary aim is to support migrant and refugee leaders in designing and implementing their own social justice campaigns and/or migrant integration initiatives. Lastly, the long term objective is to increase diversity in leadership in the social justice sector, by providing access to career enhancing opportunities.