Focus on multiculturalism: Passau symposium brings scientists together!

Focus on multiculturalism: Passau symposium brings scientists together!

The University of Passau recently hosted the international symposium “Intercultural Days”, which dealt with the topic of multiculturalism and its importance for individuals. The aim of the event was to examine the opportunities and challenges of multiculturalism. Around 30 scientists from eight countries and four continents met in the Nikolakloster in Passau to exchange their findings and ideas. The organization was led by Prof. Dr. Christoph Barmeyer from the University of Passau and Prof. Dr. Luciara Nardon from Carleton University, Canada. The symposium received financial support from PICAIS, the Neuburg Discussion Group and the International Center of Economics and Business Studies (ICEBS).

The program included lectures by eleven speakers on significant topics such as multiculturalism, cultural mixing and intercultural leadership. Further focuses were on multilingualism and the integration of migrants. These lectures were supplemented by interactive discussions in working groups, which promoted collaboration and international networking among the participants. Many participants identified potential avenues for future research projects and academic partnerships.

Insight into current research

Modern societies are strongly influenced by migration, multilingualism and cultural transformation processes. Such phenomena not only influence social structures, but also values, cultural identities and economic and political systems. A key aspect is the need to increase sensitivity in humanities research and teaching with regard to the diversity of languages ​​and cultures. This is an important demand within the proposals that emerged from the symposium, especially since multilingualism and cultural transformations represent both reflections of society and resources for communication and knowledge discourses, as shown on gewi.uni-graz.at is emphasized.

Another central point of research is the promotion of interdisciplinary humanities approaches that open up new perspectives on the topics of multilingualism, migration and cultural transformations. In this process, the combination of critical thinking and practical field work is seen as essential in order to bring together scientists and actors from different areas and to ensure the transfer of scientific knowledge into teaching and society.

Historical and future perspectives

The topics discussed at the symposium are part of larger discourses that are also discussed at other conferences and publications. For example, a conference took place at the University of Hildesheim from November 30th to December 2nd, 2017, which dealt with similar topics under the title “Multilingualism, Intercultural Communication, Language Education: International Perspectives on German as a Foreign Language and Languages ​​of Origin”. The collected work was subtitled “Building Bridges” and was compiled in various institutions by scientists with a range of methodological approaches and theoretical perspectives. For example, the challenges and opportunities of language acquisition as well as the complex constellations between heritage languages ​​and languages ​​acquired in a foreign language context were discussed, as in the anthology peterlang.com is discussed.

In summary, it can be said that the symposium in Passau not only had thematic relevance, but also provided a forum for the exchange of ideas and perspectives that are of great importance in current research. Given the diverse challenges of an increasingly multicultural world, it is to be hoped that the results of this event will be taken up in future projects and research.