A virtual workshop organized by AiS Members.

The workshop took place online, on 18 February 2021. It was co-organised by AiS members Housamedden Darwish and Jan-Christoph Heilinger and received funding and support from AiS.

The three sessions of the workshop focused on the question of how to achieve mutual understanding between individuals and groups in cross-cultural communication, in the contexts of migration and integration, and across secular-religious divides. Its central question was: “How can language be both a medium of understanding and a source of misunderstanding, and what measures can be undertaken to facilitate communication and realise genuine understanding?” The workshop discussed the use of language in multi- and cross-cultural contexts, shaped by the different linguistic and cultural backgrounds of the communicating parties. It examined (mis-) understandings in the context of migration and integration, with the aim of identifying factors that can support genuine understanding. Special attention was paid to the role of diverging yet implicit (normative) assumptions, and to the often overly simplistic counterposition of the secular and/or religious backgrounds of ‘hosts’ and ‘migrants’, in the context of migration to Europe. 

Find the full workshop report here.