Doing Diversity in Higher Education in the Aurora European Universities Alliance. Aurora Brown Bag Lecture Series
Ringvorlesung | mittwochs, 12:00–13:30 Uhr | Online-Veranstaltung
Culture, diversity, and identity are all highly contested concepts and generate tension. Especially the notions of culture and identity have been reviewed critically for their potential to evoke essentialism and for their use in rhetorics and practices of segregation and discrimination. Diversity, however, is associated with an appreciation of difference and social inclusion. Universities have committed to this concept of diversity, not only in academic debate but also on the level of mission statements, administration and recruitment. Diversity has become a key aspect in the self-image and social commitment of universities.
We therefore propose to address the concept of diversity in higher education and its multi-faceted effects on university life in the lecture series “Doing Diversity in Higher Education”. Our starting point is the understanding that society is shaped by a dynamic interplay of categories like gender, race, and ethnicity, class, age, and (dis)abilities. These categories influence access to economic, social and legal resources and they affect a sense of membership and belonging as well as experiences of social in- and exclusion.
With inequalities on the rise in the age of globalization, the university strives to be/become/remain a diverse, open, and egalitarian institution while battling a variety of internal inequalities and differences (intellectual capacities and their relation to class background, merit-based access and equality, neo-colonial conditions of knowledge production). The university’s elite past and present and the ideal of appreciating difference constitute a predicament which needs to be tackled on various levels.
We therefore invite colleagues and students from different disciplines, status groups and geopolitical locations of the Aurora European Universities Alliance to share their insights and approaches on diversity in a lecture series. What is the general societal framework for understanding and promoting diversity in the respective countries? How do we fulfil our commitment to diversity in enrolment and teaching, how are diversity policies reflected in recruitment of staff and faculty? How is diversity reflected in social entrepreneurship? What is the student experience of diversity in different countries and types of universities? In short: How do we do diversity in higher education?
Programm:
06.10.2021 Anna Buchheim, Silke Meyer & Dirk Rupnow (LFUI)
Introduction: University and Diversity
13.10.2021 Barbara Buchenau (Universität Duisburg-Essen)
Diversity and Well-Being in German and North American Academia
20.10.2021 SE Jean Asselborn (Minister für auswärtige und europäische Angelegenheit von Luxemburg),Tilmann Märk (LFU Innsbruck), Armand Hausmann (Honorarkonsul von Luxemburg in Österreich), Sabine Saint-Rose (Aurora European Universities Alliance), Silke Meyer & Dirk Rupnow (LFU Innsbruck)
Podiumsdiskussion „Perspektiven für Europa!“, Aula der LFU / Innrain 52 / 1. Stock
27.10.2021 Vera Brandner & Bernadette Müller Kmet (LFU Innsbruck)
„Chill die Basis“: Empowerment of non-traditional students - project findings
03.11.2021 Barbara Biglia (Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Tarragona)
The need for a feminist intersectional approach to tackle Sexual and gender-related violence within HE institutions
10.11.2021 Francesca Scamardella & Flora Di Donato (University of Naples Federico II)
Protecting Vulnerable People Rights as a Challenge to Higher Education: Clinical Legal Education as a Path
Toward Social Inclusion
17.11.2021 Rina Alluri (LFU Innsbruck)
Moving towards new territory: Perspectives on diversity and inclusion
24.11.2021 Marieke Slootman (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam)
Diversity & Inclusion in the Netherlands. Inclusive Education in online and offline classrooms
01.12.2021 Mayannah N. Dahlheim (Universität Duisburg-Essen)
The Stories We Tell (Ourselves) - Diversity and Equity in Higher Education
15.12.2021 Maura Striano & Anna Lisa Amodeo (University of Naples Federico II)
Valuing Differences to Promote Well-Being and Inclusion: The experience of the “Anti-Discrimination and Culture of Differences” Section at the University of Naples Federico II
12.01.2022 Alexandra Weiss & Sabine Engel (LFU Innsbruck)
Doing Diversity at the University of Innsbruck - From Theory to Practice
19.01.2022 Pavlína Flajšarová & Jiří Flajšar (Palacký University Olomouc)
Diversity, Identity and Success in Higher Education: British and American Perspectives
26.01.2022 Brynja E. Halldórsdóttir Gudjonsson & Karen Rut Gísladóttir (University of Iceland)
Leading Equity Initiatives in Icelandic Higher Education: A view from the University of Iceland
Konzept und Organisation:
Silke Meyer, Institut für Geschichtswissenschaften und Europäische Ethnologie / Universität Innsbruck
Dirk Rupnow, Institut für Zeitgeschichte / Universität Innsbruck
gemeinsam mit
Aurora pilot domain
"Culture: Diversity & Identity“ and by the research area "Cultural Encounters - Cultural Conflicts“
Kontakt:
Carl Konz
Institut für Zeitgeschichte
Universität Innsbruck
Innrain 52d, 6020 Innsbruck
carl.konz@student.uibk.ac.at
Bild: © Universitätsnetzwerk Aurora, Universität Innsbruck