Pre-Congress Development Workshops
Here you will find further details of the Pre-Congress Development Workshops being run at this year’s SIETAR Global Congress. Please note that these workshops do not form part of the main Congress programme and are subject to additional participation fees:
For full day workshops, the cost per participant is €220 (concessions €160).
For half day workshops, the cost per participant is €110 (concessions €80).
NOTE: Concessions are available for full-time students with valid ID, Young SIETAR members and those who have received reduced fee status for the main Congress (ID/evidence must be shown).
To register and pay online, please follow the link at the end of each title.
Track A: Knowledge and Understanding
A3
Presenter: Jana Holla
Title: Occidentalism Inside Out: Mutual Perceptions of the Arab "East" and the "West"
Wednesday, 22 October, 9.30-1 (half day)
Workshop Description
Mutual perceptions play a determinant role in relationships. Unsurprisingly, the difficult relationship between the Arab "East" and the "West" is characterised by many tenacious essentialist and reductionist misrepresentations. This workshop aims to build your capacity to overcome the stereotypes and connect constructively with the Arab “other” by addressing:
- How we (mis)perceive each “other”: we will deconstruct the stereotypes that shape each group’s skewed perceptions, revealing the Arab lens to Westerners.
- The ‘others’ complex reality: we will explore how the “other” conceptualises and experiences reality, hopefully glimpsing the Arab world from “within” – on its own terms.
Jana Holla, training consultant based in Cairo, Egypt, and Ph.D. candidate at the Institute of Ethnology of Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic. She moved to Cairo 4 years ago to work on her research focusing on contemporary Egyptian perceptions of the "West". The research combines an interdisciplinary approach with a broader focus on the perception of the "Other" as well as "East-West" dialogue processes. In addition to her academic interests, Jana has been actively exploring the intercultural communication field, mainly expatriation issues and related training. She works with AFS Egypt managing the support of hosted students as well as helping AFS volunteers in developing their intercultural and training skills. Jana is currently in the process of launching a freelance career in intercultural training and consultancy, focusing on expatriation training and cross-cultural competency.
Track B: Tools and Activities
B2
Presenter: Leila Buck
Title: Creating, Exploring and Challenging Global Narratives: Storytelling as a Tool for Crosscultural Engagement
Wednesday, 22 October, 2.30-6.30 (half day)
Workshop Description
What happens when narratives collide and how do we address those collisions? How can individuals and cultures preserve their unique stories in an increasingly globalized world? In this interactive, experiential workshop, we will examine the purpose, use and adaptation of stories as tools for creating, sharing and challenging personal and cultural values in intercultural work. Exercises will be adapted to the specific interests of the group and based in the work of Augusto Boal (which presents and reshapes personal and communal stories to create dialogue about and solutions to social, economic and political conflicts). By sharing simple stories and identifying cultural narratives, participants will explore how the stories we hear, witness, and choose to pass on shape our definitions of self, other and the intersections between them.
Leila Buck is an Arab-American actress, writer and teaching artist who has conducted workshops on storytelling, creating new work, and drama for cross-cultural engagement at conferences, universities, schools and cultural centers in the U.S., Europe and China, including performances and workshops at the SIETAR-Europa 2005 and SIETAR-USA 2007 conferences. For the past ten years she has performed her award-winning one-woman shows ISite and In The Crossing across the country and around the world. Leila's acting credits include film, voice and theater work in New York, Williamstown and Los Angeles and storytelling at the NY Museum of Natural History and the Children’s Museum of Manhattan. She is currently New York Theatre Workshop's teaching artist at the Khalil Gibran International Academy in Brooklyn, teaches dramatic storytelling with Al Bustan Seeds of Culture and has guest lectured on the use of oral narrative at Temple University and the New School. She holds a Master’s in Drama for Education about the Arab World from NYU, is conversationally fluent in French, Spanish and Arabic and has lived, worked and traveled in more than 17 countries in Europe and the Arab World.
B3
Presenters: Todd Conklin and Richard Harris
Title: Succeeding with Multicultural Groups: Practical Ideas that WORK
Wednesday, 22 October, 9.30-6
Workshop Description
Working with multicultural groups requires flexibility and variety, and this workshop will introduce to participants a number of fast, practical, effective, and cheap approaches they can use immediately. Among these will be:
- Appreciative Inquiry, a technique for using positive experiences to create common goals and shared commitment.
- Transformational Language, which shows how the words we use to describe a situation affect our thinking about how to act.
- Conflict Styles, an instrument that reveals the different ways people deal with conflict — and how to benefit from these differences.
- A number of five-minute 'aha' exercises that illustrate cultural difference in a fun, productive way.
Participants will have the opportunity to experience these exercises, discuss them, and apply them to their own situations. A complete set of handouts will allow full participation without time spent in note-taking!
Dr Todd Conklin is a senior advisor for human performance improvement at Los Alamos National Laboratory. He is interested in organizational culture, especially the culture that seems to arise around workplace power and communication in multicultural settings. Todd lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and works extensively in his home state with community groups, schools, clubs, and non-profit groups with special social impact.
Dr Richard Harris, born in London, U.K., is a tenured professor at Chukyo University, Japan, where he has lived for twenty-eight years. He teaches intercultural communication in Japanese at graduate and undergraduate levels, and travels extensively, out of personal and professional curiosity. Richard has published several papers on the cultural impact of different spaces, and is the author of Paradise: A Cultural Guide, a study of cross-cultural concepts of the ideal.
B4
Presenter: Joseph Shaules
Title: The Deep Culture Approach to Intercultural Training and Education
Wednesday, 22 October, 9.30-6
Workshop Description
This workshop will introduce the Deep Culture approach to intercultural training and education. Participants will: 1) learn about deep culture theory and its implications for intercultural learning, 2) be introduced to the PICO profiling instrument, 3) receive an assessment of their intercultural learning style, 4) learn to use the Deep Culture Learning Model, a conceptual tool that allows trainers to better understand cultural adaptation, 5) learn about the Deep Culture Values Survey Instrument, an online educational tool, 6) receive a materials packet containing readings and learning tools, and 7) explore how this approach can be applied in their professional context.
Joseph Shaules (PhD) is the director of the Japan Intercultural Institute, an associate professor at the Rikkyo University Graduate School of Intercultural Communication, Japan, and a consultant/trainer for Intercultures, Germany. He has published extensively and is the author of Deep Culture – Hidden Challenges to Global Living (Multilingual Matters, 2007), numerous articles, as well as language and intercultural education textbooks. He was for six years co-presenter of the NHK television program Crossroads Café. He teaches courses in intercultural education at the International Center at Keio University. He does intercultural training in Japan and is currently working with the International House of Japan to develop seminars in leadership skills for intercultural professionals. He holds a PhD from the University of Southampton, where he carried out research on intercultural adaptation. He created the PICO (Personal Intercultural Change Orientation) profiling instrument, developed under the auspices of the Japan Intercultural Institute. He has lived and worked abroad (Mexico, Japan, France) for more than 20 years and is proficient in English, Japanese, French and Spanish. Currently, he lives in Tokyo and Paris.
Track C: Practitioner Development
C3
Presenters: David Walsh and Noel Kreicker
Title: Strategies for Developing an Intercultural Business or Consultancy
Wednesday, 22 October, 9.30-6
Workshop Description
This workshop will provide information essential to positioning and growing a business in the UK, Europe, as well as in the USA. Rarely is there a source or place for Interculturalists to learn first-hand about the strategies, practicalities and realities of entrepreneurship in our field. Helping others succeed will expand the visibility and value of our profession. The topics covered include
- Converting Intercultural Work into Business Language that Sells
- How to be Taken Seriously & Establish Credibility
- Financial Facts: Can I Make a Living?
- Sales and Marketing Techniques Across Cultures
- The Art and Science of Proposals and Pricing
- Ways to Work Smarter; Cost-Savings Suggestions
- Insights into Successes and Failures
- Creating a Network of Others who are on a Similar Mission
David Walsh is the Director of Training of Open Minds, Ireland, a company dedicated to helping individuals and organizations to proactively benefit from the creative potential of each of their staff, clients, and other stakeholders. David has wide ranging expertise and competencies in the area of diversity management. He has conducted research on the issue of policing and interculturalism in the Irish context and has worked/lectured in both Ireland and Europe on diversity issues. He is a Licenced practioner of Neuro Lingustic Programming and is trained in the use of Appreciative Enquiry as a research methodology in managing differences. David holds an M Phil in Ethnic and Racial Studies from Trinity College, Dublin and has third level qualifications in both law and management.
Noel Kreicker is President and Founder of IOR Global Services, Chicago, IL, Detroit, MI, and London, England. Noel supports IOR’s Strategic Management Team, provides intercultural expertise to external organizations, generates new business opportunities, and engages in projects which expand the company’s global visibility. She is a Board member of AIPT, Association for International Practical Training, is a writer and editor for HRCI, Human Resources Certification Institute for the GPHR, Global Professional in Human Resources exam, acts as Technology Advisor for SIETAR USA, serves on the Midwest Advisory Board for IIE, Institute for International Education, and recently completed a three-year term on the SHRM Global Advisory Panel. Noel is a graduate in fine arts from the University of Washington in Seattle. She is currently co-authoring a book on global diversity and talent management.
