Intercultural Workshop at BIGSSS

In October 2009, members of the Bremen International Graduate School of Social Sciences (BIGSSS) met for an intercultural workshop. The 2-day-workshop was lead by artist Bärbel Rothhaar from Berlin. Participants found it a great opportunity to become more aware of the cultural implications of working and living together.

The workshop had been organized by Mr Cetin Celik, one of BIGSSS Ph.D. fellows. "The number of international fellows at our institute is increasing and the social environment in the institute is becoming more and more cosmopolitan. In the workshop, we wanted to turn this cosmopolitan atmosphere into a skill; fellows and members of staff had a chance to communicate with a different kind of 'language' by using artistic means in a playful atmosphere. This way, we can enrich our everyday life by increasing our intercultural competence."

The workshop was not aiming at giving strict guidelines regarding the differences between cultures. Instead we played with stereotypes as well as perceptions and increased our general awareness of closeness and distance between different backgrounds - cultural and regional but also regarding gender, age and social milieu.

BIGSSS is looking forward to having another intercultural workshop next year since intercultural competence is a highly desirable capital in the increasingly globalised academia.

The emphasis of Bärbel Rothhaar's artistic work is the 'Principle of Dialogue', which includes her work with living beehives as well as interdisciplinary performances with artists of other media.

(Jasmin Hennemann, Luicy Pedroza Espinoza, Stefanie Wiechers (f.l.t.r.))