Vice president of the Asia Society Policy Institute and former US trade representative speaks at the seventh annual Salzburg Cutler Fellows Program

Speaking to 53 law students at the Salzburg Cutler* Fellows Program at the United States Institute of Peace last month, Wendy Cutler, vice president of the Asia Society Policy Institute and former acting deputy United States trade representative, provided insight into current challenges facing international trade negotiations. As a trade negotiator through the Reagan, Bush Sr., Clinton, Bush Jr. and Obama administrations, the former career diplomat emphasized how the role of the US in the global trade arena has changed dramatically since the inauguration of President Donald Trump.

Toward the end of her three-decade-long government service, she had helped lead negotiations for the Trans-Pacific Partnership. But following the US’ shift to an “America First” international trade policy, Cutler told participants that countries around the world have since had to learn to work together — without the US — to successfully implement such wide-ranging multilateral trade deals.

While international legal frameworks put in place since World War II have fostered the flow of ideas, goods and services around the world, those times are now behind us, she lamented. “The international rules-based trade system set up by the World Trade Organization worked for a long time,” Cutler said, “yet the idea that the United States hadn’t been benefiting from these international trade agreements is an issue that has been building up for many years.”

Cutler posited that on the domestic side, trade agreements serve as a scapegoat for economic anxiety in the United States. Though approximately 80% of job loss in the manufacturing sector can be attributed to technological innovation, she said, trade deals are nonetheless the primary target.

Cutler’s remarks, alongside those of program chair Mark Wu of Harvard University, opened the seventh annual Salzburg Cutler Fellows Program, which gathered students representing 22 countries — including Australia, China, Germany, Haiti, India, Portugal, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States, among others — in Washington, DC to discuss the future of public and private international law.

Since its founding in 2012, the Salzburg Cutler Fellows Program has carried forward Washington “super lawyer” Lloyd N. Cutler’s legacy and continues to empower rising legal professionals from around the world. Lloyd Cutler was a long-time champion and former chairman of Salzburg Global Seminar. He believed passionately in the role law plays in nation building, and in the ability of the law and legal experts to contribute solutions to the world’s most pressing challenges.

Wendy Cutler offered first-hand insight into the role of legal professionals at the Office of the US Trade Representative, as well as key advice for young lawyers as they enter into the next phase of their careers. She stressed the shifting global landscape is unknown territory for trade negotiators and lawyers in the Office of the US Trade Representative under the Trump administration, yet as career professionals, these individuals continue to be well respected, regardless of diverging domestic and international opinions on the current government’s trade policy.

Cutler’s candid reflections paved the way for another successful Salzburg Cutler Fellows Program. In addition to Cutler and Wu, the Cutler Fellows engaged with other prominent public servants and legal professionals over the two-day program, broadening their professional networks and exploring new ways to forge careers in international law — whatever the future may hold.

*Wendy Cutler bears no relation to Lloyd N. Cutler, for whom the Cutler Fellows Program is named.

The Salzburg Cutler Fellows Program is held under the auspices of the Lloyd N. Cutler Center for the Rule of Law. The annual program collaborates with 11 of the leading US law schools. This year’s program was sponsored by NYU Washington and Arnold & Porter. More information on the session is available here.

Originally published at www.salzburgglobal.org.

Wendy Cutler — Career Negotiator Analyzes the New Order in International Trade was originally published in Salzburg Global Seminar on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Participants at the program Social and Emotional Learning: Time for Action explored many aspects of SEL, from digital and cultural identities to assessment and measuring of SEL metrics.

While participants came from a variety of nations, backgrounds and disciplines, the importance of implementing SEL into curriculums and schools was reiterated time and time again.

Cornelia Janke is the director of Education in Crisis & Conflict Network (ECCN), a USAID initiative, which brings together policymakers, researchers, and practitioners working in education in crisis and conflict situations. She said of SEL, “It’s important for everyone because it’s an essential element of how humans learn to be human. It’s not something that we just do once when we’re children. We do it throughout our lives.”

For the millions of children in crisis and conflict situations, obtaining social emotional skills is of the utmost importance.

Janke said, “Especially in contexts where children have experienced very adverse or violent situations, it’s helpful to have a little toolbox that includes social skills, emotional skills, and cognitive skills all working together to help them make sense of that experience at whatever life stage, whether they’re children or youth or even adults.

“Without those tools, it’s just that much harder to be resilient, bounce back, move on and grow.”

These tools are crucial for children who are dealing with various traumas as a result of the conflict situation they are in, and helping them to process their surroundings.

“Social emotional skills are taught by and honed through trusting and stable relationships with a range of people in our lives, whether that’s in our family, whether that’s in a school setting or a work setting or a spiritual community…

“If we help children build those skill-sets in one setting, and help them learn to transfer skills into other settings, they’ll be able to continue building relationships in their community. Positive relationships with a range of people, connected in different ways, are a key ingredient for supporting resilient individuals and creating a cohesive social environment — for creating community.”

ECCN shares tools and practices, as well as knowledge, as part of its community of USAID staff and implementing partners.

On the research side, organizations such as the Inter-Agency Network for Education in Emergencies (INEE) curate the work of SEL researchers on a global scale, complemented by other initiatives such as ECCN.

Margi Bhatt is the coordinator of education policy for INEE. Bhatt said, “As a network of more than 15,000 individual members and 130 partner organizations in 190 countries, it’s really important for us to be a convener of the knowledge and evidence for Social and Emotional Learning in education in emergency contexts, so we can ensure those who need resources have access to them and duplication is avoided.

“It’s important for us to use our strength as a network to provide advocacy and impact policy, to represent voices at tables where they are generally not represented.”

Within the education policy working group of the network, members have already developed a background paper and guidance for psychosocial support and social and emotional learning , which will be disseminated by webinars and training modules.

The members are also conducting a mapping exercise of currently used frameworks and tools for academic and social and emotional learning in crisis and conflict contexts.

Additionally, the members, who are all volunteers, are also developing a unified framework for social and emotional learning in partnership with Harvard University’s EASEL Lab, and supporting , through a reference group, the Measurement and Metrics Initiative of the International Rescue Committee and New York University.

The work of INEE is important to ensure that “research gaps” are filled. Curating the already existing research prevents duplication, but there are still areas to be explored when it comes to research of SEL in crisis and conflict contexts.

Bhatt said of the journey to filling these gaps, “It’s a big, big task. But we are up for it.”

“I think one of the things that we really need to focus on is a way to harness all of the activity that’s happening in Social and Emotional Learning research and figure out a way to house all of this activity to make sure those who need it can and do access it.

“I think the INEE learning agenda will contribute to better understanding the gaps in research, regionally, in education in emergencies (including SEL) and facilitate the connection of researchers and practitioners.

“We connect and represent a wide range of stakeholders, and the resources produced by INEE are global and open resources, so we are well positioned to facilitate the curation and dissemination of SEL knowledge and resources for the education
in emergencies sector.”

The conversation will be continued in the next program in the multi-year series Education for Tomorrow’s World in December 2019.

Education and Workforce Opportunities for Refugees and Migrants will bring together experts, policymakers and practitioners from a wide range of organizations, sectors, and countries to develop policy and financing solutions that can create better education outcomes and life chances for both refugees and displaced people and their host communities.

The program Social and Emotional Learning: Time for Action is part of Salzburg Global’s long-running multi-year series Education for Tomorrow’s World. The program is held in partnership with ETS, Microsoft, Porticus, Qatar Foundation International and USAID’s Education in Crisis and Conflict Network.

Originally published at www.salzburgglobal.org.

Social and Emotional Learning in Crises and Conflicts was originally published in Salzburg Global Seminar on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Helen Keller once said: “Ideas without action are worthless.”

In December 2018, Salzburg Global Fellows from 31 countries convened at Schloss Leopoldskron for Social and Emotional Learning: A Global Synthesis.

The general goal of that program was to explore regional and national initiatives, bringing together practitioners, educators, researchers and policymakers from across the world to discuss concepts and practices in SEL.

However, participants including Louka Parry, director of academy for Education Changemakers in Australia, planted the seeds for a new global organization. This “global alliance” in SEL is yet to be named but was established by a working group at the December program.

Parry, as well as several other Fellows from that initial working group, returned to Salzburg in March 2019 for the program Social and Emotional Learning: Time for Action and to take this new initiative further.

Parry said, “Salzburg has, I think, the privilege of bringing together all these fantastic innovators, researchers, policymakers, and practitioners. So what could that look like specifically for SEL at scale?

“That really is, I think, the promise of a global alliance… [It is] an alliance of people that basically helps to curate a community that is working in this particular space.

“It helps to promote really flourishing thriving states of not just children and youth but also adult learners as well all over the world, ensuring that access is as equitable as possible between all the different nation states that are trying to do this work.”

Speaking during the March program, Parry said, “We’re here working on the same project. I began by briefing [the new Fellows] on all the work we’ve achieved to date and the progress we’ve made. The working group has stayed really active. We’ve had monthly video conferences, for example.”

The alliance has received funding from partner organizations. Funding from Qatar Foundation International meant that Parry, along with two other members of the original working group, were able to travel to Washington DC.

“We spent two days in the office literally building out a 37-page document; a preliminary position paper on what this global alliance could do and how it could contribute to the ecosystem,” said Parry, of this trip.

During the working group presentations at the end of Social and Emotional Learning: Time for Action, Parry had reconvened with Fellows to explore this alliance further, setting out a tangible action plan for funding, implementation of a digital platform and even hosting a global congress.

Parry said, “Our current thinking is on 1 January 2020, it transitions from interim arrangements with Salzburg as a secretariat, which is the current arrangement, to a standalone organization which is doing this work.” The working group is due to reconvene at Schloss Leopoldskron on March 29 to 30.

Parry said, “It’s just coming together to try to move forward even further. “After that, it’s actually about going pretty hard after grants, pitching to funders, to philanthropists and foundations to see if we can find opportunities there.”

Ayla Bonfiglio, co-founder and deputy director at the Conflict and Education Learning Laboratory (CELL) Foundation, presented the alliance’s principle goals during the workshop presentation at the most recent program. These are:

“1. To promote understanding of SEL-LS [Social and Emotional Learning and Life Skills] and an awareness of its role in helping learners to thrive in school, work and life.

2. To connect and coordinate international, regional, national and local… SEL stakeholders, initiatives and resources.

3. To empower local and national decision-makers and practitioners with scalable frameworks for implementation and action.”

Salzburg Global Seminar looks forward to supporting the still-to-be-named alliance to grow in the months ahead.

The program Social and Emotional Learning: Time for Action is part of Salzburg Global’s long-running multi-year series Education for Tomorrow’s World. The program is held in partnership with ETS, Microsoft, Porticus, Qatar Foundation International and USAID’s Education in Crisis and Conflict Network.

Originally published at www.salzburgglobal.org.

A Global Alliance for Social Emotional Learning was originally published in Salzburg Global Seminar on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

After backing a Salzburg Statement on Innovations in Dementia Care and Dementia-Friendly Communities, four Salzburg Global Fellows will collaborate again as a result of a million-dollar research partnership.

A grant of over $6,000,000 funded by the Economic and Social Research Council and the National Institute for Health Research will enable several institutions to explore new forms of dementia support.

Salzburg Global Fellows Dr. Mary Pat Sullivan of Nipissing University, Dr. Sebastian Crutch of University College London, Stéphanie LeClair of Alzheimer Society Sudbury-Manitoulin North Bay & Districts and Dr. Paul Camic of Canterbury Christchurch University, will be brought together once again through the work.

All four attended the Salzburg Global Seminar program, Changing Minds: Innovations in Dementia Care and Dementia-Friendly Communities, in December 2017. The program was held in partnership with the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice, and the Mayo Clinic.

In a joint statement, the Fellows said, “Nipissing University, University College London, Canterbury Christchurch University and the Alzheimer Society Sudbury-Manitoulin North Bay & Districts valued an opportunity to work together to explore the provision of dementia support, particularly for people with rare forms of dementia, in diverse geographical, social, and cultural contexts.

“Our networking during the [program] confirmed our shared commitment to continue to promote dementia-friendly communities and learn from one another.”

The research will focus on effective support for those living with rare forms of dementia, with a focus on what support looks like in different contexts, illustrated by the work of LeClair in rural Canadian communities.

Living with rare forms of dementia is challenging enough, let alone living in areas which may not have the support groups to help.

The Fellows said, “We anticipate our partnership will raise awareness to the varied experiences of living with dementia and develop support solutions for people with dementia, including digital ones, that will connect people with rare dementia no matter where they live.”

The group’s experience at Salzburg Global allowed them to learn from others through panels, workshops, and discussions.

They said, “Our participation at Salzburg Global Seminar provided us with an opportunity to explore opportunities to build resilience in countries, cities, neighborhoods, and families to improve the quality of life for people with dementia.

“We valued [Salzburg Global’s] interactive discussions to more thoroughly understand the experience of dementia in different contexts and learning of the innovative initiatives around the globe that are supporting people and their families.”

The program, Changing Minds: Innovations in Dementia Care and Dementia-Friendly Communities, was held as part of Salzburg Global Seminar multi-year series Health and Health Care Innovation in the 21st Century. This program was held in partnership with The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy & Clinical Practice and The Mayo Clinic.

Originally published at www.salzburgglobal.org.

Salzburg Global Seminar Collaboration Leads to Dementia Research Funding was originally published in Salzburg Global Seminar on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

With just 1500 students, who should care that a small private university in Budapest has been forced to relocate? Liviu Matei posed this question to his audience as he spoke at the Salzburg Global Seminar evening event Uncivil Society: Europe’s New Normal? on March 21.

The answer, of course, is anyone who cares about a liberal, “civil” Europe, where freedom of speech, freedom of academia and the rule of law are all upheld, should care about the fate of the Central European University (CEU).

Across Europe, a new “uncivil society” is forming, warned event moderator, Christoph Prantner, senior editor for Austrian daily Der Standard. This “uncivil society” is defined by what it stands against, not for; it is anti-immigrant, anti-liberalism, anti-rationalism, anti-elitism, anti-experts, anti-EU, unwilling to compromise. This uncivility can be seen in crises across Europe, including in the Brexit referendum in the UK, the gilets jaunes protests in France, the disrespect of the judiciary in Poland, the imprisonment of academics and journalists in Turkey, and the rise of populism in Italy, Greece and Hungary.

Founded by Hungarian-American investor and philanthropist George Soros in 1991 as a university dedicated to examining the contemporary challenges of “open societies” and democratization, the CEU is just one of many institutions that have suffered under the right-wing populist government of Viktor Orbán.

Once identified as a liberal and hailed as a force for good in his country, prime minister Orbán has since changed the constitution, reconfigured the constitutional court, strangled the free press, cracked down on non-governmental organizations, stifled political opposition and stoked anti-immigrant and anti-Semitic sentiment in his country and beyond. Seeing himself as not only the leader of Hungary but a leader of Europe and a defender of Christianity against the wave of Muslim refugees and immigrants, Orbán has turned eastwards, away from the traditional western power center of the European Union, courting Russia and garnering support from other EU countries, such as Poland, in the process.

Provost of the CEU, Matei is a Salzburg Global Fellow, having engaged in Salzburg Global’s Universities Project, a multi-year program in the late 1990s and early 2000s with the aim to promote the higher education reform processes primarily of universities in Central and Eastern Europe. Speaking at the evening event, hosted for Salzburg Global by the Erste Foundation at the Erste Group’s new campus in Vienna, Matei detailed the recent travails of what was one of Central Eastern Europe’s leading universities and spoke passionately about the important role higher education plays in democratic societies.

Faced with legal and financial uncertainty after the Orbán government refused to sign an agreement to allow it to continue to operate in the country, the CEU has now chosen to relocate to Austria — a move that was both loudly applauded in the room on the top floor of the Erste Campus and widely welcomed in Vienna. Matei highlighted especially the warm welcome his small, relatively young, private university had received from the large, historic, public University of Vienna. A special welcome reception is to be hosted by the university in a show of solidarity with the CEU. This international support has been crucial to the survival of the CEU, which Matei admits is “too small, too isolated to survive alone.”

Speaking in one of his characteristic analogies, like a young immigrant who leaves his country to seek a better future abroad, sending money home and promising to one day return, Matei admits it is unlikely the CEU will return to Budapest. “We knew that when we leave, there will be no way back.”

“Many of my colleagues believe we have a responsibility to Budapest,” he said and ideally, Matei would like to see the university “keep something there” in the country, but the continuing governmental hostility makes that highly uncertain.

Unlike Orbán, Matei does not see higher education as a luxury, but to be highly valued. While the percentage of a population attending university can be debated, Matei said that it should still be a priority to encourage university attendance, and that those universities should offer a wide range of subjects. Matei lamented the decline in the humanities in Hungary and how academic subjects such as gender studies have been decreed illegitimate, while political science is facing attempts to confine its study to one public (government-controlled) university.

Higher education has a vital role to play in democratic, liberal societies and in countering “political depression.” Despite being accused of educating CEU students in a “global conspiracy,” Matei does not believe universities should be activists, fomenting unrest or leading protests, but instead they should “crystalize resistance” by encouraging free expression, academic curiosity and thoughtful debate. To counter the threat of illiberalism, universities should produce ever-more scholarship on populism and uncivil societies, researching and revealing its increasing, negative impact and educating the next generation in how to stem and recover from it.

Suppression of academics may not seem as severe as that of the judiciary or the press, but Matei argues that treatment of academics is indicative of growing illiberalism, pointing to the treatment of academics in Turkey, where thousands have been fired, refused permission to leave the country or even thrown in jail.

While clearly disheartened by the current situation, Matei is not without hope for the future. Born and educated in Romania under Nicolae Ceausescu, whose regime he thought would never end, he is able to imagine a more positive future for Hungary and Europe.

“This will not last forever,” he stated defiantly.

The evening event “Uncivil Society: Europe’s New Normal?” was held on March 21 on the occasion of Salzburg Global Seminar’s March Board Meeting. The event was hosted by the Erste Group and Erste Foundation, in partnership with Der Standard.

Originally published at www.salzburgglobal.org.

Uncivil Society: Europe’s New Normal? was originally published in Salzburg Global Seminar on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

In 2014, Chunnoon Song-e Song arrived at Schloss Leopoldskron looking for answers. She was one of 50 rising talents invited to attend the inaugural program of the Salzburg Global Forum for Young Cultural Innovators. At the time, she was in charge of cultural and international relations at the National Museum of Korea. Now, almost five years later, she is working for the UNESCO Office for Afghanistan as associate program manager of the National Program for Culture and Creative Economy. A lot has changed.

“When I joined Salzburg Global Seminar (in 2014), it was really an eye-opener for me because it was when I was starting to think whether culture is an essential thing in your life,” said Song, speaking at Salzburg Global’s latest program, What Future for Cultural Heritage? Perceptions, Problematics, and Potential.

Responding to this dilemma was difficult. “But I wanted to find an answer,” said Song. “I wanted to help a project, or I wanted to be a person who deals with an important thing. I wanted to find the enthusiastic point of my work…”

In her role, she was coordinating the Virtual Collection of Asian Masterpieces, an Asia-Europe Museum Network project encouraging cooperation between museums in both continents. She said, “Sitting [at a] desk in Seoul, surrounded by beautiful objects, it was [an] amusing experience, but at the same time it was very painful because I couldn’t find the answer to this question: does cultural heritage actually matter to people?

In Salzburg, she realized there were other practitioners like her asking similar questions and trying to find answers in “the most innovative way.” Song looked within herself and considered whether her interest lay, reminding herself of her love for cultural heritage and cultural projects.

The Asia-Europe Museum Network project involved around 150 museums. The essence of the project was to gather the digital information of these museum’s masterpieces. Song said, “At first I would just continue with the work, but then after coming back from Salzburg Global Seminar, I started thinking, can’t we make use of this in a better way to show that culture actually matters? Then I started thinking that maybe we should include the museums that people actually cannot visit.”

Recognizing many of the participating museums were based in “relatively safer environments,” Song thought, “What’s the point of showing the objects that people can actually see?” She developed an interest in museums based in Iraq, Syria, and Afghanistan.

The National Museum of Afghanistan was the first institution Song got into contact with about inventorying and documenting the digital data of the museum’s objects. UNESCO Afghanistan, Song, and the National Museum of Korea collaborated and launched a project in 2015.

Song then asked herself another question: does cultural heritage matter in a country which is experiencing conflict? She accepted a job offer from UNESCO and went to work with people in Afghanistan. Three and a half years later, Song says she has an answer. “Culture actually matters to people — really matters to people… Often some donors, who are not residing in Afghanistan, they would ask, do you really think that culture matters in Afghanistan when children die [from] starving and etc.? I tell them you should have an interview with the Afghan people. They feel depressed without culture.

“They feel they do not get the opportunity to show their pride if they are deprived of culture. I have been working in the most unfortunate places — even in Afghanistan — which is the refugee camps and internally displaced people camps and discovered how much joy that cultural projects can bring to these people and how much of a hope that it actually brings to people. It’s something that’s not tangible. It’s something that you cannot actually see or measure. It’s often neglected by the international society which doesn’t really know the situation, but if you actually go on the field, you immediately see the change.”

To highlight to donors how significant cultural projects are, Song and her colleagues recently organized a participatory theater project to bring host communities and internally displaced people closer together. Song said, “There were interventions by U.N. agencies and in other international agencies to tackle the issue of lack of food and lack of water and lack of education. But there really hasn’t been any attempts to tackle the issue of lack of cultural connection or cultural communication.”

Children received professional acting classes for three months. They performed plays highlighting the narratives of their parents. Song said, “They are the stories of why they had to move to this province, this area, and why they had to leave their own hometown… the reaction that we got from the host community was really immense. The host community [said], ‘We wouldn’t have imagined the difficulties that they had to go through to come and live with us…’ They would feel that these internally displaced people are human beings who they can communicate with now…

“It’s not just bread and water that they need because they are human beings and if they want to live the future, and if they want to build the future for the country and not having people to leave the country and flee the country all the time, what really matters is the cultural project.”

Since working for the UNESCO Office for Afghanistan, Song has been based in Kabul, Bamiyan, and in Seoul. She is mainly in charge of safeguarding intangible cultural heritage and enhancing the diversity of cultural expressions in conflict areas. One project Song is responsible for is the Bamiyan Cultural Centre, which is due to open in May 2020. It will be based near the boundaries of the World Heritage property of the Cultural Landscapes and Archaeological Remains of the Bamiyan Valley, a site which made headlines following the destruction of the standing Buddhas in 2001.

Song says the community is ready to move on from this incident. She said “We started supporting their festivals, and we started supporting the expression of their cultural diversity and the diversity of their cultural practices… after five years of this implementation, we now have at least one festival every month. It’s really fun to watch that. It’s really enjoyable to watch it because you see that it was triggered by UNESCO, but then it was the role of the community to prolong with that…”

What Future for Cultural Heritage? Perceptions, Problematics, and Potential is the latest program in Salzburg Global’s Culture, Arts and Society series. The program is being held in partnership with the Edward T. Cone Foundation, the Austrian Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research, Fulbright Greece, and the Korea Foundation. For more information on the program, please click here.

Originally published at www.salzburgglobal.org.

New Answers on the Importance of Culture was originally published in Salzburg Global Seminar on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

“Here’s the internet. It has the potential to be democratic and emancipatory. It has the potential to be all the things people are claiming it already is. It is not.”

Anasuya Sengupta is co-founder and co-director of Whose Knowledge?, a global campaign which aims to center the knowledge of marginalized communities on the internet. She formerly held the position of the chief grant-making officer at the Wikimedia Foundation.

While 75% of the world’s online population is from the global South, much of the content online stems from Europe and North America. Whose Knowledge? believes there is a “hidden crisis of ‘unknowing’” which is responsible for crisis of violence and injustice in the world.

Reflecting on her work, Sengupta said, “What we try and do is to work with communities who consider themselves marginalized in different ways to create with them, to curate with them, to map with them, and to bring online their different forms of knowledge, whether that is textual… visual, oral or experiential and embodied in some ways.”

Sengupta attended the Salzburg Global Seminar program, What Future for Cultural Heritage? Perceptions, Problematics, and Potential, which took place from March 16 to March 21 at Schloss Leopoldskron, in Salzburg.

She considers “culture” and “knowledge” as interchangeable terms and believes the culture of marginalized communities is often sidelined from the internet under the hierarchical structure of what constitutes “knowledge.”

Sengupta said, “As a political anthropologist by training and as a community organizer by practice, I think of culture very much as knowledge. There are different ways of knowing and we express those ways of knowing in different forms that are different forms of cultural artifact.

“I think centering it very much in ways of knowing, allows us to talk about the fact that there are multiple ways of knowing, and we have constructed through history a hierarchy around those ways of knowing.” During her stay in Salzburg, Sengupta worked alongside various practitioners from the cultural heritage sector and representatives of cultural ministries and heritage associations.

What can these people do to help to assist with the decolonization of the internet? Sengupta said, “Decolonizing the internet for us is to recognize the challenges that are in the real world, see that they are reified and amplified in the virtual world.”

“We need to look at the way we understand knowledge and culture. All of these incredible people in the room [at the program] and what they’re doing, we would love to see them thinking very much about this continuum between the work they do in the physical world and how to more freely and openly share that knowledge online, so that the rest of the world can also understand and know together.”

However, Sengupta recognizes not all knowledge is destined to be online. She said, “Many indigenous communities have sacred knowledge, but the choice of sharing should be borne by the communities, not by those of us who might be seen as gate-keepers.”

One of Whose Knowledge?’s initiatives is the #VisibleWikiWomen campaign, which aims to increase the visibility of women online. Sengupta said, “Of all the biographies on Wikipedia, only about 20 percent of them are of women in any given language.

“What we’ve been trying to do to support those who are bringing the bios of women online is to say there’s a further invisiblization literally through image. A fraction of those that exist of women’s bios have images.

“The invisibility is both real and, in this case, symbolic. What we’ve been trying to do is to get people from across the world to upload the images of the notable women, important and influential women in their communities.”

Sengupta is inspired by stories, and the work of Whose Knowledge? will ensure that more stories will be unearthed and shared online for all to see. Discussing what inspires her to do the work she does, she said, “Recognizing that human life, human history, her story, and our stories are such rich, plural multiple, forms of knowledge that we have, I think, only just begun even to get a slight taste of in the 21st century.

“That is the promise of the 21st century. That if we could get beyond all the ridiculousness of war, violence, conflict, and ego, so at the broadest macro level and at the most minute, intimate level, we could begin to see each other much more fully and through that, in some ways, find an extraordinary balance.”

What Future for Cultural Heritage? Perceptions, Problematics, and Potential is the latest program in Salzburg Global’s Culture, Arts and Society series. The program is being held in partnership with the Edward T. Cone Foundation and the Austrian Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research. For more information on the program, please click here.

Originally published at www.salzburgglobal.org.

Responding to the Hidden Crisis of “Unknowing” was originally published in Salzburg Global Seminar on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

In the fall of 2009, participants convened at Schloss Leopoldskron, Salzburg, for the program Connecting to the World’s Collections: Making the Case for the Conservation and Preservation of our Cultural Heritage.

At this program, the Salzburg Declaration on the Conservation and Preservation of Cultural Heritage was drafted, calling on governments, non-governmental organizations and the cultural heritage sector at large to commit to safeguarding cultural heritage for the future.

Now 10 years on, a participant at that program, George Abungu, is co-chair of the program What Future for Cultural Heritage? Perceptions, Problematics, and Potential.

Abungu is CEO of Okello Abungu Heritage Consultants and was formerly director-general of the National Museums of Kenya. He said, “We did a lot with World Heritage sites, but I also work in the area of intangible heritage. So I’ve been able to assist a number of countries to prepare the nomination files for the nomination for ICH [Intangible Cultural Heritage], the 2003 convention, as well as the 1972 convention.”

Speaking of his experience moderating panels as co-chair, he said, “The panelists have got very deep backgrounds in heritage matters and the fact that they can be questioned, they can interrogate and question the subject and stick to what they’re supposed to do within a very limited time, but still be able to produce what is required, for me is quite commendable.”

The program is being held from March 16 to March 21 at Schloss Leopoldskron, Salzburg, as part of the multi-year series Culture, Arts and Society.

By the end of the program, participants will be asked to consider jointly drafting a Salzburg Statement on the problematics and potential of cultural heritage in the 21st Century, building and expanding on the 2009 Declaration.

Reflecting on cultural heritage 10 years since he last attended the program at Salzburg Global, Abungu said, “Yes I think there have been improvements. “We’ve had an international meeting in Nairobi dealing with climate change which was attended by President Macron from France in Nairobi. It is something that we were talking about 10 years ago, and now it’s materializing, and people are addressing that.”

He went on to say, “I think now today we are developing even more risk management planning in advance.”

However, there appear to be challenges within cultural heritage that were less prevalent back then. Abungu said, “Heritage that in those days could not be touched, things that we thought were very special that nobody would ever take, no human being could touch, have actually become targets for terrorism and making political statements.

“So when you talk about Aleppo and all these places, heritage is now intentionally being destroyed as a political statement. Now 10 years ago I don’t think that was something.

“Things do seem to be changing very fast. Maybe we should try to also focus more on how do we deal with situations where because of the exposure, because of the attention, because of the resources that we are putting in, that we are now making heritage to become a target.”

Progress has been made in terms of the promotion of African heritage through the establishment of the Museum of Black Civilisations in Dakar, Senegal, in December 2018, for which Abungu curated an exhibit. The museum is a realization of Senegal’s first president, Léopold Sédar Senghor’s, vision for a space to showcase “the achievements of the past of the continent to really showcase how Africans contributed to world civilization.”

Abungu said, “When I was called to do that, I felt very privileged and, as an archaeologist and a heritage person, I felt privileged. “For me, it actually showcases the beginning of humanity. So one of the greatest things that Africa has contributed to the world is the emergence of humanity. That is why this particular museum for me is important. It’s not only confined to the cradle element, but it goes up to the present — what we are today.

“We are having a dialogue of civilizations from when the first human emerged from Africa up to the present. So for me, it is important because it actually sets the ground for the discussion about humanity and human life and how we have developed up to the present.”

What does Abungu expect from the five-day program? He said, “I am hoping that we can question more, and in questioning more we can be able to start looking for answers that will answer those questions that we are asking.

“That is really to be able to question more, to interrogate more, to try to question even the obvious because, for me now, I realize that it’s not obvious… to question the concepts like cultural heritage and what it means, and what it means to who, and who defines what cultural heritage is.”

What Future for Cultural Heritage? Perceptions, Problematics, and Potential is the latest program in Salzburg Global’s Culture, Arts and Society series. The program is being held in partnership with the Edward T. Cone Foundation and the Austrian Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research. For more information on the program, please click here.

Originally published at www.salzburgglobal.org.

Reflecting on Cultural Heritage and Looking for New Answers was originally published in Salzburg Global Seminar on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

The world was watching in April 2014 when over 200 schoolgirls from Chibok, Nigeria, were snatched from their school by Islamist militant group Boko Haram.

While some have still not returned (an estimated 112 girls are still missing) others were set free or escaped. “They’ve been severely traumatized after not only escaping from a terrorist organization but being held captive for over three years,” said Reginald Braggs, assistant vice president at the American University of Nigeria (AUN), speaking at the Salzburg Global Seminar program, Social and Emotional Learning: Time for Action.

Braggs is responsible for leading the New Foundation School (NFS) at AUN, an initiative designed to be a pre-college preparatory program for “Chibok girls,” with full scholarships on offer. Currently, 122 of these young women are enrolled in the school. The program assists the girls in moving forward with their lives following their kidnapping, teaching them a variety of skills.

Braggs said, “Their goal is this academic success, which was taken from them when the terrorist organization kidnapped them. And so now they’re striving toward that. We want to place them in a safe environment where they can feel they can achieve that goal but also put them on a pathway to actually achieving that goal.”

He recognizes the uniqueness of this sort of program, adding, “Taking into account so many other things that come to bear with this particular group of students, that is not really something that’s a normal type of academic environment.”

Of the nature of the program itself, Braggs said, “The program entails taking these girls who’ve been held captive or escaped from a terrorist organization and help them to develop their academic skills as well as their social emotional skills. “Even more importantly with that, is helping them to deal with the spirituality to help them to cope with some of the things that they’re dealing with, with the trauma.”

These traumas are common to all the women studying at NFS which, as Braggs describes, can lead to “hyper-emotional” behavior. He said, “They’ve been in captivity together so they’re dealing with a lot of things that could happen to them… being in captivity. So when those bad things happen to them, they really rallied around each other. They supported each other.” Braggs described an anecdote in which, following the death of one of the student’s father, it triggered an outpouring of grief from all students, in a way that, “everybody in the room, it’s as if their father had died.”

He said, “They’re upset because of this type of hyper-emotional connection that they all have because they’ve been together.” The focus on social and emotional learning in the program is “helping them to manage their emotions.”

Braggs said, “If they can manage their emotions better they can help the situation. And it’s also a matter of trying to help them to understand how to have empathy. Amongst themselves, they do. But what about people that are outside this circle? How can they help those people that have not been kidnapped?”

How can SEL help oppressed societies in general? Braggs thinks it is about “helping [oppressed societies] to have better behaviors to try to get them to the next level which they need to go to.”

He said, “When you’re oppressed, you really are trying just to satisfy some of your basic needs. Whether it’s shelter, whether it’s just food, it’s survival, you know? But if you’re able to manage those things, get those needs met, now you’re looking at another level.”

The program Social and Emotional Learning: Time for Action is part of Salzburg Global’s long-running multi-year series Education for Tomorrow’s World. The program is held in partnership with ETS, Microsoft, Porticus, Qatar Foundation International and USAID’s Education in Crisis and Conflict Network.

Originally published at www.salzburgglobal.org.

Using SEL to Help the Healing Process was originally published in Salzburg Global Seminar on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

After three days of productive talks at the Salzburg Global Seminar program, Social and Emotional Learning: Time for Action, participants have had the opportunity to exchange knowledge and learn about different countries’ approaches to social and emotional learning (SEL), and they have now begun to discuss next steps.

During the five-day program at Schloss Leopoldskron, participants have engaged in panel discussions, knowledge exchanges, and even a film screening to explore SEL in both research and practice contexts, as well as from global and local perspectives.

Participants range from academics and researchers to policymakers and educators, providing a breadth of knowledge and experience in varying forms and contexts of SEL.

One of the participants embracing the varying formats of the program and the multitude of conversation opportunities is Monika Kochowicz, who collaborates with the Norwegian Red Cross and the No Hate Speech campaign as a workshop facilitator and educator, specializing in conflict resolution and non-violent communication.

This affinity towards non-formal learning methodology began through her own studies. She said, “For my thesis, I was looking into Polish migrant youth experiences of intercultural learning and different learning settings. “Then since, I [have] felt so very passionate about non-formal education, and I thought this is a great way of creating safe spaces for people to learn and reflect.”

Kochowicz took this passion and began her work with the Norwegian Red Cross, where she became a workshop facilitator. To her, the role has strong SEL roots.

She said, “I would say that the components that would align with SEL would be to give [the students she works with] tools, learning how to communicate and how to voice their needs and emotions.”

Through her experience with the No Hate Speech campaign, as well as through the Norwegian Red Cross, Kochowicz often works with young refugees.

Kochowicz said, “I also work with human rights education and mainly concentrating on online hate speech. This is again facilitating conversations and group processes with youth between 15 and 25 years old.

“It’s migrant youth… and I feel it’s immensely important for them to just create those safe spaces for them to get to talk about their experience to just give them the feeling that they can be heard and seen.” On Monday afternoon, participants attended the Knowledge Café, where they spent around 25 minutes at each table discussion, exploring SEL concepts led by a facilitator at each station.

“I really like that format because you get to travel,” said Kochowicz. “It was mapping what different people work with.” “There’s been a few different approaches to applying SEL, different perspectives. Some of which is in conflict areas. People [are] going into those places of trauma and working with people whose needs really have to be taken into consideration before doing any work… And it sounded like their needs are being taken into account.”

On Wednesday, participants will gather into working groups to further explore the concepts and ideas discussed throughout the week and make action plans. Kochowicz stated, “I feel like I’ve been learning so much already.”

Looking ahead to these working groups, she added, “I would want to gain more input on how can we work with both the youth practitioners and teachers and youth workers.” Reflecting on her own experiences that she would be able to bring to the table, Kochowicz said, “I would like to concentrate on all the simplicity of action, which is teaching people how to communicate how to talk about their needs and emotions.” The conversation continues.

The program Social and Emotional Learning: Time for Action is part of Salzburg Global’s long-running multi-year series Education for Tomorrow’s World. The program is held in partnership with ETS, Microsoft, Porticus, Qatar Foundation International and USAID’s Education in Crisis and Conflict Network.

Originally published at www.salzburgglobal.org.

Mapping Out SEL and Facilitating Conversations at Salzburg Global Seminar was originally published in Salzburg Global Seminar on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.