Intensive course on Diversity Management

Location: Vytautas Maguns University, Lithuania
Period: July 5-16, 2007
Deadline for application: 11 May, 2007
ECTS: 6

The Summer School on Diversity Management will take place in Kaunas (Lithuania) in July. The aims of the Summer School are the following:

In order to develop the above mentioned topics an intensive Summer School on Diversity Management is organised in Kaunas (Lithuania). The training is organized in working groups based on simulations and role-play.

The approach is multidisciplinary and assure the analysis of the subject from different points of view. The topic chosen highly contribute to respond to new need and challenges emerging with European integration and enlargement to new countries.

The course is attended by 35 post graduated students coming from Italy, Hungary, Slovenia, Austria and Lithuania. The teaching staff is composed by a prominent professors of different nationalities and experiences. The main results will be the exchange of views and the gain of new perspective and knowledge among the participants.

Political Theory and Ideologies - cultural diversity and ethnic identity formation, theories, diversity and conflicts, the ideologies, etc.

History - the changing nation, state formation and nation-building in Europe, European experience of 19th and 20 th century, European integration: is there a need for European "identity" formation, etc.

Comparative Government - multi-national Federations, the revival of ethno-regionalisms against the nation-state, minority protection through territorial autonomy, state re-construction and reconciliation in the Balkans, multi-level Governance of the EU, cross-border cooperation and transnational regionalism in the process of European integration, etc.

Legal Instruments - European level: EU, Council of Europe, OSCE, national level: minority protection instruments in comparative constitutional law, etc.

New Minoritys - the integration of third country citizens in the member states of the European Union, the exclusion and discrimination of new minorities in education, housing, the labour market, the integration of muslim communities, etc.

International Relations - the shift from inter-state wars to intra-state wars with participation of different ethnic groups, international administrations, the EU external relations: democracy, human rights and minority protection.

The Economics of Cultural Diversity - the economic costs of ethnic conflicts, the economic costs/gains of discrimination respectively integration; managing diversity in multinational companies, multicultural education as a contribution to human capital investment - conflict management and ethnic crisis.

The main outputs of the project will be:

The project will encourage proficient and multinational teaching of specialist topics which might otherwise not be taught at all and will give to students and professors the possibility to work together in multinational groups and so benefit from special learning and teaching conditions not available in a single institution, and to gain new perspectives on the topic being studied. Moreover the project will permit to professors involved in the IP to exchange ideas and experiences on teaching methods in an international classroom environment and on the creation of a new curriculum on diversity management.

Students from the following universities can apply: