Activities
2024
Intercultural days with the Université de Bourgogne
Under the direction of Professor Alex Frame and Professor David Bousquet, who run the Master's programme in Intercultural Management at the Université de Bourgogne (Dijon, France), 14 students from 9 countries (China, Taiwan, Indonesia, Russia, Japan, Ghana, Nigeria, Turkey, Ecuador) came to the University of Passau for three days of Intercultural Days organised by the Chair of Intercultural Communication. The Intercultural Days focussed on the communication and discussion of the special approach of the Chair, constructive interculturality, the encounter between students from the Universities of Passau and Burgundy and the presentation and discussion of student theses in an interactive poster session. The Open Space method was used to deepen the approach of constructive intercultural management in mixed-cultural working groups. Further highlights were the well-founded and humorous lecture by the well-known Munich interculturalist Robert Gibson, who headed intercultural competence development at Siemens for almost two decades, as well as an evening reception hosted by CEO Dr. Fritz Audebert on the terrace of ICUnet AG, the largest and best-known intercultural service provider. Presentations by Alex Frame on culture and artificial intelligence, by Henriett Primecz on expatriates in Dubai and by David Bousquet and Martina Maletzky de Garcia on the integration of migrants with IncluKit rounded off the event. In addition to the substantive discussions, there were many opportunities for personal exchange, as intercultural relationships are not only cognitive, but also emotional. The program can be found here.
Research presentation and exchange at TBS Education
At the invitation of Professor Alain Klarsfeld, Professor Christoph Barmeyer was at Toulouse Business School (TBS) from 26 to 28 March 2024. The aim of the visit was to discuss research and publications with colleagues such as Professor Akram Al Ariss, Cordula Barzantny, Selik Bayraktar, Aurélien Feix and doctoral students in the fields of interculturality and migration. On 27 March, Professor Barmeyer gave a presentation at the research centre ("Qualitative research in intercultural management. A constructive approach of binational organisations and migrant entrepreneurs") about conceptual, epidemiological, methodological and content-related aspects of constructive intercultural management.
Visiting professor at the Université de Lorraine
At the invitation of Professor Yves Moulin, Vice Director of the IAE Nancy (Institut d'Administration des Entreprises), Professor Christoph Barmeyer was at the Université de Lorraine in Nancy and Metz from March 5 to 15, 2024. Prof. Barmeyer taught various Master's courses on constructive and intercultural management in English and French, exchanged ideas with students and colleagues and attended joint theater events at the interface of culture and organization, which were co-organized by students. At the CEREFIGE research center (Centre Européen de Recherche en Économie Financière et en Gestion des Entreprises), he had the opportunity to present his research on constructive interculturality in organizations and discuss it with French colleagues.
35 years of cooperation between Québec and Bavaria
On the occasion of the 35th anniversary of the cooperation between Québec and Bavaria, Professor Christoph Barmeyer was invited by the Québec government to participate in the "Forum Bavaria-Québec" in Munich on 21 February 2024 and had the opportunity to present his diverse research and teaching projects on Québec to a broad audience from politics, business and academia in conversation with Dr Benedikt Miklós, Attaché for Politics, Public Affairs and Cooperation. The projects included the transfer of the European co-operative model from Europe to Québec, the creative cities of Munich and Montréal and the creativity of migrant entrepreneurship in Québec and Bavaria. They were reflected in international events in Passau and Montréal as well as in publications in German, English and French. Professor Barmeyer's academic activities on Québec were supported as a student at the University of Passau by a scholarship from the Bavarian Minister President and as a doctoral student at the University of Saarland by the "Prix d'Excellence of the Government of Québec". Current research projects were funded by the Bavarian Research Alliance and the MRIF (Fonds d'initiatives locales).
Bavaria is one of Québec's closest partners worldwide. The two regions work closely together in the fields of science, technology, business, politics, education and culture and are a prime example of intercultural, synergetic cooperation. During the event at the Prinz-Carl-Palais, the most important joint projects in the fields of digital innovation, research cooperation and cultural exchange were presented from the 800 projects that have been implemented since the partnership was established.
The Minister of International Relations and Francophonie of Quebec, Martine Biron, and the Bavarian Minister of State for European Affairs and International Relations, Eric Beißwenger, also signed a new Memorandum of Understanding on cooperation during the event.
© Photos: Bayer. Staatskanzlei/Marc Müller
Defense of Tobias Schumacher's doctoral thesis at the ESCP Berlin
On February 16, 2024, Professor Christoph Barmeyer took part in the defense of Tobias Schumacher's dissertation at ESCP Berlin as a second reviewer at the invitation of his first supervisor, Professor Marion Festing. The starting point for the dissertation "Developing Cultural Intelligence. An Experiential Learning Perspective on Serious Game-Centered Education," was to design and test new and innovative didactic forms for teaching intercultural competence, such as intercultural simulation games. A relevant approach of this dissertation is the acquisition and promotion of cultural intelligence through serious games based on experiential learning. Through its conceptual approach, its variety of methods and its original implementation, the work makes an important contribution to research into intercultural competence development and contributes to the mutual transfer of knowledge between theory and practice.
Teaching stay at the Aix-Marseille Université
From 22 to 26 January 2024, Dr. Sina Großkopf spent five days at the French University of Aix-Marseille, on the Aix-en-Provence campus, to teach various Bachelor's and Master's courses on "Intercultural Communication, Migration and Organizational Resources" and "Challenges and Opportunities in Intercultural Communication". This cooperation is under the direction of Dr. Catherine Teissier, who made this teaching stay possible and, together with Professor Barmeyer, coordinates the double master's program between Passau and Aix-en-Provence for many years. In addition, Dr. Großkopf was in contact with other lecturers at the university during this week. As part of the Erasmus+ mobility program for lecturers, she was able to strengthen cooperation with the partner university in Aix-en-Provence and experience teaching content and methods in a different cultural context. Special thanks goes to the International Office in Passau and Aix for coordinating and successfully facilitating this mobility experience.
Intercultural Entrepreneurship - a joint virtual course between Jerusalem and Passau
Together with Dr. Tali Hadasa Blank (Head of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Management Department, Hadassah Academic College, Jerusalem) and Dr. Olga Goncharova (Chair of International Management, Kyiv National Economic University and DAAD-Lecturer, Chair of Organization, Technology Management and Entrepreneurship, University of Passau), Prof. Dr. Christoph Barmeyer organized a joint virtual course between the Hadassah Academic College/Hadassah Innovation Center and the University of Passau. The course was designed to provide an exceptional opportunity to analyze and experience the challenges and benefits of entrepreneurship on an international level. The participants from Passau and Jerusalem worked on a case study based on a real innovative entrepreneurial project, illustrating the challenges faced by entrepreneurs and the innovative solutions they found. Coming from different cultural backgrounds and disciplines, the students worked together in virtual teams and produced a video movie about the startups: Petcube, one of the most successful Ukrainian High-Tech startups, allowing pet-owners being at work to observe, play and feed their favorites left at home alone, through the special devices connected with Internet. Sinsila center is located in the heart of East Jerusalem, on the terraces of the Central Library. It is dedicated to educate, inspire, create with, and empower, local communities. https://muslala.org/en/sinsila/) and Muslala, which is a nonprofit organization established in 2009 by artists, residents, and community activists. Muslala (https://muslala.org/en/) promotes the transformation of Jerusalem into an open and creative society in which every person is enabled to express and fulfill himself or herself.
This highly interactive course not only introduced the students to the theories and concepts of interculturality and entrepreneurship, but also gave them the opportunity to experience working in an intercultural team and gain valuable international and virtual collaboration experience.
Lecture and workshop on qualitative case study research
Professor Eric Milliot from the University of Nantes stayed at the Chair of Intercultural Communication from 13 to 18 January 2024 with his doctoral student Qin Gao. The aim of the visit was to engage in academic dialogue with doctoral and Master's students on the topic of qualitative research and case studies. Professor Milliot gave a lecture and led a workshop on "Paradigmatic Alignment for Case Study Research in Social Sciences". This focused on the process of implementing case study methods using a conceptual framework that describes the basic paradigmatic features of different methods to underpin the overall coherence of case study-based research. PhD student Qin Gao presented the initial theoretical and methodological elements of her doctoral thesis on adaptation and innovation of a Chinese organisation in France from the perspective of cross-cultural management. In addition, the doctoral and Master's students had the opportunity during the three days to exchange views bilaterally on specific methodological issues relating to their research and to receive appropriate support. A return visit by the Passau students to the University of Nantes is planned in order to continue the fruitful dialogue. The photos provide an insight into the days spent together.
The research cooperation with the Université Nantes and this research stay were kindly supported financially by the Bavarian-French University Centre, Bayerisch-Französisches Hochschulzentrum (BayFrance).