Intercultural Studies: Culture in Humanitarian Emergencies

The course looks at challenges and possibilities arising from the encounters of people from different cultures as a result of humanitarian crises such as wars, natural hazards, and pandemics. These intercultural encounters include those between the majority population at home and newly arrived people seeking refuge and/or asylum, as well as those between humanitarian workers deployed abroad at crisis epicenters to assist people in distress and cooperate with other fellow humanitarians from different cultures. We look at the concept of ?interculturality? which implies dialogue, connection, cooperation, and contact between people of different cultures, and how it works in humanitarian emergencies. We work with the following questions: How and when do humanitarian emergencies facilitate or hinder interculturality, and how can interculturality in turn shape the trajectory of humanitarian crises?