Program

Students in the Summer Academy have the option to choose between six courses focusing on intercultural aspects of the respective topic.

All courses will have complementary workshop sessions with theoretical and practical content offered by academic staff and trainers which are experts with large experience in international environments. To ensure a close contact between trainer and students participants will be divided into small groups.
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Each course listed in the course catalog will last for one week – you may only choose one course a week. Next to the theoretical and practical input, each course will have a pre-reading assignment, which will need to be accomplished before the course starts.

Courses

Overview

The classes are organized in three tracks. Each course listed in the course catalog and the complementary workshop sessions will last for one week – you may only choose one course a week and only courses of the same track. If you would like to participate for just one week you may choose a class in week one. ………...…

Please be aware of the entry requirements:

• Track 1: Certificate of access to higher education

• Track 2 and 3: Student with at least one year of study experience or young professional (some intercultural expertise would be an advantage)

In any case of doubt, please contact the person in charge of admissions:
contact (at) summeracademy-karlsruhe.org

Track 1: “Intercultural Communication”

• Intercultural Communication (Prof. Dr. Louise Bielzer)
  This course can be understood as an introduction to the theories of intercultural communication, combined with exercises. The main aspects will be drawn from anthropological and sociological approaches, as well as from cultural psychology. The participants will be given a detailed overview of the current themes and issues in the relevant disciplines. The practices that will accompany the theoretical aspects are designed according to the newest standards in regard to intercultural learning and will include universal as well as culture-specific exercises.

• Intercultural Conflict Management (Dr. Andrea Cnyrim)
  In intercultural encounters, people are always prone to intercultural misunderstandings. Sometimes, it’s just their level of foreign language proficiency that makes them fail in comprehending the message of their interlocutors. But very often, it’s the difference in the cultural encoding and decoding of the activities which makes them stumble and fall into the trap of misinterpreting an activity in its worst possible reading. The consequence is an emotional escalation and the risk of a conversational breakdown. The present course introduces basic techniques of identifying the barriers in our self-determination. The first step is to understand our personal attitude in a conflict situation and to be aware of our patterns to behave. This  approach helps us to develop tolerance in face of ambiguity and it shows some principle tools of mediation and how it is organized systematically.

Track 2: “Intercultural Teamwork”

• Multicultural Teamwork (Prof. Nikola Hale)
  This course deals with new ways of looking at teamworking across cultures and with group members from diverse backgrounds in international and cross-cultural teams. Participants will be introduced to the impact of cultural diversity on the development and performance of multicultural teams for l international projects and distributed marketing operations. They will have insights in corporate and cross-corporate environments, and understand shared, distributed, and intercultural team concepts. Special attention will be paid to the aspects of leadership, communication, decision-making and problem-solving. In exercises, the participants will apply selected collaboration tools and procedures for defined business purposes.

• Intercultural Project Management (Prof. Dr. Lutz Becker)
  Project management is one of the most efficient ways for developing innovative pathways in organizations. Now, although the tools for result-directed project management are easy to find, the globalized world poses new challenges which create the need for good communicative skills combined with a high degree of intercultural sensitivity of the people involved. As there is an enormous variety of understandings concerning terms like hierarchy, deliverables, commitment, motivation, and so on, the preparation and the carrying out of projects should carefully be planned and monitored. This course introduces basic tools of project management both in terms of process building and in the management of intercultural relationships.

Track 3: “Intercultural Competence”

• Acquisition of Intercultural Competence (Prof. Dr. Francisco Javier Montiel)
  Intercultural Competence belongs to the most important key competencies and skills of our times. In the worldwide environment of border-crossing communication and easy-to-handle network facilities and social media, it has even become a momentum of everyday life, which accompanies big part of our daily activities. The characteristics of intercultural competence are not totally cleared, though. Whether it is described as a sum of the social, emotional, or cognitive qualities of a person, or whether it is defined as something inherent to action, it is still something very personal that is acquired throughout a life’s biographical paths. The present course introduces into the term and its complexity, the practical parts will lead you through experiential scenarios, where you will discover your own competencies and experience intercultural encounters of different kinds.

• Intercultural Trainings (design and facilitation) (Prof. Nikola Hale)
  The development of intercultural trainings has had an extremely strong input from both academic scholars and industrial practitioners in the last two decades. The range of trainings, be it general or culture-specific, be it focused on psychological aspects of the individual or on working together in teams, is overwhelming. It is still difficult, however, to decide which standards have to be accomplished to ensure an excellent training quality, even more, as there are already new challenges: Virtual team building in international working environments is, for example, a non-trivial issue in organizations. The present course offers insights in the range of trainings that are at hand and, especially, the criteria that have to be considered when choosing an appropriate training design. Its practical parts will show the participants some of the most effective facilitating instruments and tools, in order to make you getting familiar to different training methods and experiences.

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