Activities

From November 14 to 16, 2025, the annual weekend seminar for scholarship holders of the Bavarian Academic Center for Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe (BAYHOST) and the Bavarian-Czech Academic Agency (BTHA) took place in Passau. The Chair of Intercultural Communication also participated in this seminar, which in 2025 focused on the theme of “Career Start in an Intercultural Context”.

To kick off the event on Friday evening, PD Dr. Martina Maletzky de García provided an in-depth insight into the overarching topic of intercultural management in organizations. The lecture provided a comprehensive framework for the content of the weekend and clearly illustrated the reality of today's working world.

On Saturday morning, a workshop on intercultural leadership was held by research associates Tuzienka Chenet-Ugarte and Elisabeth Huber. Participants were given an overview of key leadership concepts, their cultural characteristics, and how to deal with them in an interculturally sensitive manner. Examples from the researchers' own work and ongoing projects illustrated the theoretical approaches and offered practical points of reference. The workshop concluded with an interactive exercise in which the scholarship holders reflected on their own cultural backgrounds and applied them to leadership issues.

We would like to thank our colleagues at BAYHOST for the successful organization and the opportunity to participate. The seminar offered valuable insights into different cultural perspectives and enriched our team in many ways.

On November 17, 2025, Professor Barmeyer was a member of the jury for Lynn Chahine's doctoral thesis defense on the topic of “Careers in Transition: A Multi-Study Examination of Highly Skilled Migrants' Experiences.” The other members of the jury were Akram Al Ariss and Sophie d'Armagnac (supervisors of the doctoral thesis, TBS Education), Hélène Langinier (EM Strasbourg Business School), and Marc Valax (University of Côte d'Azur), who also chaired the jury. In her dissertation, candidate Lynn Chahine examines the professional careers of highly skilled migrants in the context of post-migration. The research question at the heart of her work is: What processes, challenges, opportunities, and meaning-making practices do highly skilled people go through? She combines individual meaning-making processes with structural conditions—an integrative approach that goes beyond purely economic or political analyses of migration. Particularly noteworthy is the theoretical and empirical triangulation of three independent but interrelated studies: a systematic literature review, a qualitative study based on interviews with IT professionals in France, and a qualitative study among migrant entrepreneurs in Europe and the United States. The doctoral thesis makes a valuable contribution to career and migration research: it develops a multidimensional model of labor market integration and formulates a cyclical career model that goes beyond linear concepts.

As part of his sabbatical, Professor Barmeyer spent time in Japan from 21 October to 11 November 2025. At the invitation of Professor Rolf Schlunze, he taught various courses on the topic of “Constructive Interculturality” to Japanese and international students at Ritsumeikan University in Osaka. On October 29, 2025, he also gave a lecture at the colloquium “Learning from the hybrid manager” organized by the ManGeo Research group, entitled “Three Types of Boundary Spanning Managers in Multinational Companies.” In addition, he had the opportunity to exchange ideas with colleagues and students, especially master's and doctoral students, about their research work and to give them methodological, conceptual, and content-related advice. During his stay, he also gave lectures at universities at Kyoto University Business School and Tokyo Aoyama Gakuin University on the topic of intercultural case studies. In Osaka, he met with German Consul General Melanie Saxinger, who studied European Studies in Passau. In the city of Odate, he spoke with Japan's youngest mayor, Kensuke Ishida, about urban development. He was also fortunate enough to be able to take part in traditional Japanese ceremonies at a Buddhist centre led by the Buddhist priest, Hideaki Kuwana. Professor Barmeyer experienced omotenashi (おもてなし), a special form of hospitality that is deeply rooted in Japanese culture. Overall, the stay offered many insights into Japanese culture and provided intercultural inspiration for research and teaching.

As part of the research project on the integration of migrants through financial institutions, Prof. Dr. Christoph Barmeyer and Elisabeth Huber visited Montreal, Quebec, Canada, from September 19 to October 2, 2025. The aim was to present the results of the previous year's field research and validate them on site, together with project partner Tobi Rodrigue from the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM). The focus was on two presentations at the Caisses Desjardins: The first at theComplexe Desjardins in Montréal with the interview participants, the second at the Société Historique Alphonse Desjardins in Lévis with strategic departments of the bank. Alphonse Desjardins (1854–1920) was inspired by the experiences of German cooperatives. In 1900, he founded the first credit union in Lévis. It is a nice allusion to history that 125 years later, in 2025, two German researchers, Professor Barmeyer and Elisabeth Huber, are interested in Desjardins, as the host, Claude Genest, Senior Advisor for Historical Heritage and Corporate Identity, put it. Both events offered a special opportunity to critically discuss the research results and secure support for the second phase of the research project, which includes the perspective of migrant bank members.

In addition to these presentations, the researchers strengthened existing contacts and established new collaborations. One highlight was the event organized by the Centre d'Études en Entrepreneuriat International et Interculturel, “À la découverte culturelle: explorer des avenues de collaborations pour les petites et moyennes entreprises québécoises”, at which Professor Barmeyer and Professor Kerstin Kuyken (UQAM) spoke about culture and its implications for entrepreneurship. The day was also marked by intensive exchanges with representatives from academia, including Professor Léo-Paul Dana (Dalhousie University), and the entrepreneurial community. Elisabeth Huber and Rosanna Schropp (doctoral student, ESG, UQAM) presented a poster on German culture and entrepreneurship.

Other items on the agenda included a visit toRevue Management International at HEC Montréal, made possible by Professor Franck Barès, Editor-in-Chief, and an exchange with renowned Professor Ann Langley (HEC Montréal). Elisabeth Huber also gave a lecture on “Culture and Management – a constructive intercultural perspective” in a master's course at UQAM with Tobi Rodrigue, providing students with new insights into current intercultural management research.

Overall, the visit, which was financially supported by the Bavarian Research Alliance and the Chaire de coopération Desjardins-Guy Bernier(ESG, UQAM), provided valuable impetus for the project, enabled practical insights, strengthened intercultural exchange, and laid the foundation for future cooperation.

From July 21 to 23, 2025, Professor Christoph Barmeyer and Elisabeth Huber, together with Professor Luciara Nardon and Sasha Valgardsson from Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada, organized an extraordinary symposium at the University of Passau. The conference, titled “Opportunities and challenges of multiculturalism at the individual level. Implications for future research, education, and practice” focused on the topic of multicultural individuals. The event brought together leading researchers, doctoral candidates, and master’s students with backgrounds in over 10 countries to examine, discuss, and further develop this highly topical issue.

Across cultural boundaries, the opportunities and challenges that multicultural individuals bring with them were examined together in a lively interdisciplinary exchange and from different perspectives. Contributions addressed topics such as polyculturalism, cultural identity formation, multilingualism, global migration, and the role of multicultural individuals as bridge builders and drivers of innovation in an increasingly interconnected world. The diverse program ranged from exciting short lectures and interactive working groups to informal encounters at the “Intercultural Café,” walks, and joint dinners in a historic setting—Passau provided the ideal setting for this.

A retrospective video of the event is available.

Many thanks to all participants for their inspiring contributions, intensive discussions, and newly established connections. The discussions and ideas will have an impact far beyond this symposium!

We would also like to thank the Passau International Centre for Advanced Interdisciplinary Studies (PICAIS), the Neuburger Gesprächskreis, and the International Centre for Economics and Business Studies (ICEBS) at the University of Passau for their generous financial support of the event.

On June 17, 2025, the doctoral colloquium of the Chair of Intercultural Communication took place in a very special format – outdoors, relaxed, yet scientifically inspired.

In bright sunshine, the group of doctoral students and team members first took the opportunity to discover the campus from a historical perspective. University archivist Mario Puhane took the participants on an exciting campus tour, providing fascinating insights into the history of the University of Passau. With a mixture of well-founded facts and exciting anecdotes, he brought the development of the university to life, from its historical origins to the modern university – a change of perspective that was not only informative but also inspiring.

Afterwards, the colloquium moved to the Innwiese, where the substantive work continued in a creative atmosphere during a joint picnic. The doctoral students presented their dissertation projects in compact pitch form, which led to stimulating discussions, valuable feedback, and new impetus for their research work. The informal setting created a special space for open conversations, new ideas, and mutual motivation.

It was a successful afternoon that showed once again that science thrives on exchange—and sometimes it flourishes best in the open air.

Professor Dr. Luciara Nardon (Carleton University Ottawa) spent several days at the University of Passau as part of the international visiting scholar program of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, giving a lecture and conducting two workshops.

Luciara Nardon is Professor of International Business at the Sprott School of Business and Co-Director of the Centre for Research on Inclusion at Work (CRIW) at Carleton University. She is the author or co-author of several academic articles and books, including Making sense of immigrant work integration (Palgrave, 2022), Working in a Multicultural World (University of Toronto Press, 2017), Managing in the Global Economy (Sharpe, 2006) and Management Across Cultures (Cambridge, 2010, 2013, 2016).

In the lecture “Making sense of immigrant integration” on July 17, 2025, the work integration of immigrants was highlighted as a process of awareness raising involving multiple actors (immigrants, organizations, communities and governments) and multiple levels (individual, interactive, organizational and institutional). She conducted two workshops as part of the doctoral colloquium of the Chair of Intercultural Communication on July 24, 2025: In an interactive presentation, titled “Facilitating Reflection and Sensemaking in Interviews”, she introduced interview tools designed to facilitate reflection and sensemaking. These tools support participants in articulating their implicit knowledge and feelings. These tools included clean language interviewing and arts-based methods supported by artificial intelligence, such as imaginative metaphor elicitation. The presentation also discussed how these approaches can be used in intercultural interviews. The “Extending the Researcher's Mindset” paper development workshop enabled participants to experience various research and interviewing tools in the context of their own research through a reflective process.

Overall, Professor Nardon gave students and doctoral candidates stimulating insights into her research. Her stay is connected to a joint international colloquium "Opportunities and challenges of multiculturalism at the individual level. “Implications for future research, education, and practice”, which she held with Professor Barmeyer at the University of Passau from July 21-24, 2025.

On July 07, 2025, Mr Christian Schläger (Project Manager for Value Transmission and Education at the Hans Lindner Foundation in Arnstorf) gave a specialist lecture on the recontextualisation of the foundation's activities in Kampala, Uganda, as part of the lecture ‘Introduction to Intercultural Communication’ by PD Dr Martina Maletzky de García.

Mr Schläger impressively illustrated how the foundation's own funding approaches must be adapted to the cultural, social and economic conditions in Uganda in order to achieve a sustainable impact on the ground. The focus was particularly on the challenges and strategies of context-sensitive project implementation.

A special feature of the event was the active involvement of the students: in group work phases, they discussed what adjustments are necessary when implementing foundation projects in an intercultural environment. The resulting discussions promoted a lively and practical exchange between theory and application.

We would like to thank Mr Schläger for his insightful contribution and the stimulating collaboration with the students.

For the 9th time, Professor Christoph Barmeyer, together with Professors Sylvie Chevrier (Université Gustave Eiffel, Paris-Est) and Mette Zølner (Aarhus University, Aarhus), organized a track as part of the EURAM conference (European Academy of Management). This time, the conference took place from June 22 to 25, 2025 at the University of Florence, Italy.

The track entitled "Management and cultures: qualitative organizational research" was dedicated to researching cultures in organizations using qualitative methods. Based on the assumption that management practices are culture-specific and require adaptation to local cultural contexts, the aim is to examine emerging management practices while taking cultural differences into account. Topics included interpretative approaches to understanding social cultures, the integration of refugees into the German context, characteristics and abilities of bicultural people, third culture individuals as global managers and constructive aspects of paternalistic leadership. Philosophical or methodological questions were also addressed in the presentations, such as the topic of a positive ontology for understanding the careers of qualified immigrants or the self-reflection and methodological challenges and possibilities of field research in organizations. The Chair of Intercultural Communication was also actively represented by Dr. Martina Maletzky de Garcia, Tuzienka Chenet Ugarte, Elisabeth Huber and the external doctoral candidate Birgit Gabriel. We would like to thank all participants for their interesting and valuable contributions and the constructive and inspiring discussions!

For several years, this section has been exploring the complex role of cultures in organizations using qualitative methods and has contributed to the development of a research community on intercultural issues. Next year (16.-19.6.2026) EURAM will take place in Kristiansand, Norway. We look forward to continuing the intercultural dialog and cooperation!

On May 20, 2025, the 3rd Québec-Bavaria Forum took place at the University of Passau, this year supported financially by the Society for Canadian Studies, GLS Bank and the Association internationale des Études Québécoises as well as the University of Passau's event pool. This event, organized by the Chair of Intercultural Communication, is a format that creates a platform for encounters between various representatives from academia, business and society from both Québec and Bavaria. This brings different status groups together to discuss, reflect on and think about a central topic. This year, the theme of the event was “Sustainability and social responsibility - intercultural perspectives” - a highly relevant topic in today's world.

The event proved to be a great success: the exchange between different disciplines and cultures opened up new perspectives, food for thought and concrete approaches to cooperation. Many participants not only gained new knowledge, but also questioned their own convictions and reflected on existing thought models. In addition to various connections between individual topics, areas of tension and paradoxes that often remain beneath the surface in the debate on sustainability also became apparent. At the same time, the forum conveyed an encouraging message: there are many ways to take action and shape change.In a time of multiple crises, it became clear that resignation is not an option - on the contrary. As the entrepreneur Maria Julia Guimaraes aptly put it: “A world of crisis is a world of opportunities.” With these words, she summed up the constructive approach of the event well and sent a signal of hope to all those present.

We would like to thank GKS, GLS Bank, AIEQ and the event pool for their generous financial support, which contributed significantly to the success of the 3rd Québec-Bavaria Forum and enabled such an inspiring and cross-border exchange in this format.

You can find a detailed report on the event here.

20 students from the University of Passau and UQAM (Université du Québec à Montréal) are taking part in a joint course on intercultural entrepreneurship in the summer semester 2025. The course, led by Professor Barmeyer (Chair of Intercultural Communication) and Tobi Rodrigue (ESG, Université du Québec à Montréal), enables students to work on their own start-up projects in intercultural (virtual) teams.

An integral part of the advanced seminar was a week together in Bavaria from 20 to 24 May 2025, which offered a varied program: The week together began with a get-to-know-you workshop, a visit to the campus and lunch together in the beautiful Passau canteen. This was followed on Tuesday, May 20 by participation in the public 3rd Québec-Bavaria Forum Day on May 20 at the University of Passau, which brought together academics, students, entrepreneurs and stakeholders from public institutions from Québec and Germany to address the topics of “Sustainability and Social Responsibility - Intercultural Perspectives”. Under the guidance of Tobi Rodrigue (UQAM) and Dr. Maria Diekmann (PATEC Transfer und Gründungsförderung Universität Passau), the students also had the opportunity to work with start-ups and take part in a binational ideas workshop. The inspiring environment of Wernstein, where the workshop took place after a bike tour, was a perfect setting. The students also received inspiration for their own start-up projects, which they then presented brilliantly on the university's Entrepreneurship Day on May 22 in short pitches to an audience of students, academics and representatives from the business and entrepreneurial community. As in the previous two years, the event, which combined inventiveness, cooperation, interculturality and start-up ideas, was a great success

The Québec Week was sponsored by the Society for Canadian Studies, GLS Bank and the Association internationale des Études Québécoises.

As part of an alternative seminar format, students from the department join forces with geography students to explore the fundamentals and influences of social inequality. Seminar leaders PD Dr. Martina Maletzky de García and Prof. Dr. Jörg Scheffer bring two seminar groups together at specific points to stimulate interdisciplinary exchange on the topic. Using alternative, application-oriented teaching methods geared toward transformative teaching, students are encouraged to gain a deeper understanding of the phenomenon and are also shown alternative courses of action they can take to help minimize social inequality. In an initial joint session, the students philosophized about the topic in depth and explored its basic premises. In addition, they were placed in the position of urban development actors in a role-playing game to gain an understanding of aspects of social inequality from a spatial perspective.

From 12 to 15 May 2025, Professor Dr. Jaime Bonache spent several days at the University of Passau as part of an Erasmus exchange and gave various lectures and workshops. Professor Dr. Jaime Bonache teaches at the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M) in the field of International Human Resource Management and heads the Master's degree course in International Human Resource Management. His research focuses on global mobility and expatriation, international remuneration systems and the theory of science, in particular the epistemological foundations of management research. As part of the doctoral colloquium of the Chair of Intercultural Communication, Professor Bonache gave an inspiring interactive workshop on May 13, 2025 on “An inductive approach to the principles of paradigms” on the importance of research paradigms and their characteristics and differences. Professor Bonache also gave a lecture on May 14, 2025 on “Notable abilities and red flags in the selection of Expatriates”, which dealt with the specifics of global mobility. Overall, Professor Bonache provided the students and doctoral candidates with stimulating insights into his interesting research and created the basis for a stimulating scientific dialog. His stay is linked to a joint publication project on scientific paradigms with Professor Barmeyer and a long-standing partnership between the two universities. Our students are invited to spend an Erasmus semester in Madrid.

As part of the Erasmus exchange, Dr. Emmanuelle Sauvage, IAE (University School of Business) / Université de Bordeaux, spent several days at the University of Passau and gave various lectures. Dr. Emmanuelle Sauvage is Maître de Conférences (Associate Professor) for International and Intercultural Management, heads the Master's program IBM “International Business Management” and is a member of the research center IRGO (Institut de Recherche en Gestion des Organisations). In the lecture on May 5, 2025 entitled “Born into Babel: Do Early Cross-Cultural Lives Shape Us?” she dealt with the question if people born in intercultural contexts or who have been confronted early on with a family cultural plurality have specific skills. As part of the doctoral colloquium of the Chair of Intercultural Communication, Dr. Sauvage gave a lecture on May 6 on the particular anthropological approach to culture of Philippe D'Iribarne (Gestion & Société) and its place within the landscape of paradigms. She also presented the methodological dimension of her research: “The characteristics, major challenges, and limitations of conducting interviews in an international context.”On May 7, she gave a talk on “Interactions and interrelations in multicultural environments: what does understanding you really mean?” In sum, Dr. Sauvage gave inspiring insights into her research to students and doctoral candidates. Her stay is linked to a joint publication project with Professor Barmeyer and a long-standing partnership between the two universities. Students are invited to spend an Erasmus semester in Bordeaux.

The aim of the intercultural generation café, which took place for the first time on March 13, 2025 at the House of Generations of the city of Passau, is to facilitate an intercultural exchange across generations. Around 20 people of different ages and from a wide range of countries of origin met to make plans for the activities and topics that an intercultural generation café should address.

The generation café is an initiative of the Welcome Centre (Eva Manetzgruber), the International Support Services (Barbara Bauersachs) and the Chair of Intercultural Communication (Dr. Martina Maletzky de García) with the aim of bringing international students and scientists together with citizens of Passau and promoting exchange.

The ‘Generationencafé’ will take place twice a month. On one Sunday a month there will be an intercultural breakfast, and on one Thursday a month there will be an evening get-together to discuss pre-arranged topics.

PD Dr. Martina Maletzky de García from the Chair of Intercultural Communication supports the project with regard to intercultural issues. Interested?

Further information is available here:

International Support Services
Barbara Bauersachs
E-Mail: allyoucando@uni-passau.de
Tel.: +49 851 509-1176

At the invitation of Prof. Dr. Christoph Barmeyer and with the help of Erasmus funding, a group of students from Jerusalem Multidisciplinary College spent a week at the University of Passau to study intercultural entrepreneurship in theory and practice.

The visit was part of a joint Bachelor's course offered by the Chair of Intercultural Communication (Professor Christoph Barmeyer) and the Chair of Business Administration with a focus on Organisation, Technology Management and Entrepreneurship (Prof. Dr. Carolin Häussler) under the direction of Dr. Tali Blank, Dr. Olga Goncharova and Prof. Dr. Christoph Barmeyer. Students were introduced to the theories and concepts of interculturality, entrepreneurship and dilemma theory and were asked to develop a case study on an innovative entrepreneurial project based on empirical data, using their entrepreneurial and creative skills to analyse complex problems and develop innovative solutions. The course offered students the opportunity to work in bicultural groups on case studies of interesting entrepreneurial projects and to experience and solve the challenges of virtual and intercultural collaboration.

The week's programme also included a tour of the campus, the city of Passau and the INN.Kubator. Dr. Irit Kornblit, who is the business development manager of the Blender, Jerusalem Multidisciplinary College Innovation center, exchanged experience and knowledge with Dr. Maria Diekmann on Passau University entrepreneurial activities.

Dr. Gavriel David Pinto from the Azrieli College of Engineering, who also took part in the week with his students, gave a lecture entitled ‘Educating tomorrow's engineers’ on the importance of economic elements for the success of start-ups.

In addition to the professional exchange and the presentation of the final projects, the stay offered the opportunity for networking and intercultural understanding.

We would like to thank everyone involved, including the International Office, for their great commitment, which made this intercultural week of events possible.

On January 17, 2025, a lecture by PD Dr. Martina Maletzky de García and Theresa Hoffmann took place as part of the practical instructor's day entitled ‘Intercultural Management in Focus’. The two speakers introduced the audience, practitioners and students from the health sector to the basics of intercultural management and explained under which conditions cultural diversity can lead to synergies in the daily work of people in the health sector.

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