The Inaugural Conference of the Cyprus Center for Intercultural Studies

January 15, 2013

3:15 pm – 6:00 pm

UNESCO AMPHITHEATER, University of Nicosia

Conference Invitation, Agenda and Photos

Note: Access the speakers’ presentations by clicking on ‘Presentation’ next to each speaker’s name.  

Conference Details

“Intercultural Dialogue and Cultural Diplomacy in Practice” was the Inaugural Conference of the Cyprus Center for Intercultural Studies. The conference investigated cultural diplomacy as a key supplemental or alternative tool for doing politics. Discussion topics included: the function of cultural diplomacy in today’s political climate, the practical implementation of cultural diplomacy, opportunities and challenges in intercultural communication, and the role of the arts in redefining cultural and political difference. The overall aim of the conference was to look at the political nature of culture and consider to what extent culturally based politics in particular can be beneficial in bringing together divided communities.

The conference was co-organized with the Friedrich Ebert Foundation and co-sponsored by the Cyprus Academic Forum and the UNESCO Chair on Cultural Diversity and Intercultural Dialogue for a Culture of Peace. Communication sponsor was Phileleftheros.

SPEAKERS AND MODERATOR

LORD MARK MALLOCH-BROWN (Presentation)

Lord Mark Malloch-Brown is now with FTI Consulting, a leading global advisory firm. Formerly, he was Minister of State in the Foreign Office, covering Africa and Asia, and was a member of Gordon Brown’s cabinet.  He had previously served as Deputy Secretary-General and Chief of Staff of the UN under Kofi Annan.  For six years he was Administrator of the UNDP, leading the UN’s development efforts around the world.  Other positions have included Vice-Chairman of George Soros’s Investment Funds, as well as his Open Society Institute, Vice-President at the World Bank and the lead international partner in a political consulting firm.  He also has served as Vice-Chairman of the World Economic Forum. He is chair of the Royal Africa Society and on a number of non-profit and advisory boards, including the International Crisis Group, the Open Society Foundation, and the Centre for Global Development in Washington.  He is a member of the House of Lords and was knighted in 2007. He is the author of “The Unfinished Global Revolution.”

ERATO KOZAKOU−MARCOULLIS (Presentation)

Dr. Erato Kozakou−Marcoullis assumed office as Cyprus’s Minister of Foreign Affairs in August 2011. She had previously served as Minister of Communications and Works. She served as Minister of Foreign Affairs in the government of the late President Tassos Papadopoulos and signed the Treaty of Lisbon in 2007. During 2003−2007, she served as Director of the Cyprus Question and the EU−Turkey Affairs Division at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. She was also accredited as Ambassador to Lebanon and Jordan from 2005 to 2007. From 1998 to 2003, she served as Ambassador to the United States of America and Brazil, and was High Commissioner to Canada, Guyana, and Jamaica. She was Ambassador to Sweden with concurrent accreditation to Finland, Norway, Denmark, Iceland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania from 1996 to 1998. Beginning 1980 until 1988, she worked at the Permanent Mission of Cyprus to the United Nations, from 1988 to 1993 she served in the Cyprus Question Division and was Director of the Permanent Secretary’s Office from 1993 to 1996. Dr. Erato Kozakou-Marcoullis holds degrees in Law, Public Law, as well as Sociology and Political Science.

MELISSE LEWINE-BOSKOVICH (Presentation)

American-born singer, actress, and peace worker, Melisse Lewine-Boskovich pursued a stage career and taught acting and voice production for twenty years before the birth of her daughter, Alexandra, which served as a turning point in her life. In 1996, she founded the Middle East chapter of the global initiative Play for Peace. In 1998, she became director of Peace Child Israel, a veteran organization that utilizes theater and the arts to promote dialogue and peace-education between Arab and Jewish teens. She is also founder of the Arab-Jewish music ensemble Adamai. She has produced and composed lyrics for their animated music clip “Too Absurd,” which has won numerous festival awards. She directed “Jerusalem Stories,” a series of non-fiction Palestinian and Israeli monologues adapted for the stage. She has co-directed four plays with Palestinian playwright Mohammad Thaher and has most recently adapted and directed two bilingual productions entitled “Pocahontas, John & Us” and “Our Jets and Sharks.” Melisse Lewine-Boskovich was commissioned by the humanitarian organization War Child Holland to write a manual on theatre and the arts as tools toward conflict resolution.

EROL KAYMAK (Presentation) 

Erol Kaymak is Associate Professor of International Relations at the Eastern Mediterranean University in Famagusta, Cyprus.  Dr. Kaymak has experience both as an academic and practitioner in peace building in Cyprus.  Over the past decade Dr. Kaymak has participated in projects that integrate practical, yet innovative solutions to an array of social and political problems.  Noteworthy are the CIVICUS (civil society index) and Democratic Audit projects that entail policy advocacy.  In addition he has made contributions to the Participatory Polling methodology and have served as an expert consultant on a series of polling projects, including public opinion surveys for the UN (UNFICYP), the Centre for European Studies (CEPS), and most recently for the “Cyprus 2015” project.  Significantly, this data has featured in relevant reports of the UN Secretary General to the Security Council.  He has been serving as an adviser to the Turkish Cypriot leader in the current round of Cyprus settlement talks and is a member of the Greek-Turkish Forum.

NICOS ANASTASIOU (Presentation)

Nicos Anastasiou, an Economics teacher by profession, has been involved in bi-communal citizen peace-building work in Cyprus on a voluntary basis for the last 20 years. His work included bringing together, in the buffer zone, people from the two communities who, before the 1974 war, lived in mixed villages. He has contributed to the creation of a range of bi-communal groups involving educators, deaf people, dancers, musicians, and theatre enthusiasts. He has worked extensively with young Greek-Cypriots and Turkish-Cypriots in an effort to create genuine friendships between them despite the generalized negative stereotypes that one community has of the other. He is currently the Greek-Cypriot principal coordinator of the Cyprus Friendship Programme, an all-volunteer project that ‘pairs’ together teens from the two communities in Cyprus, and subsequently brings together their families and friends. The programme is now in its fifth year of operation and its motto “In a country divided…people united” is a living experience for both the teens and their families. Bi-communal presentations by the coordinators and the teens of the programme are made all over Cyprus in schools, spreading the message that peaceful coexistence is possible in our divided island.

KYRIAKOS PIERIDIS (Moderator) 

Kyriakos Pieridis holds a degree in Political Science and International Relations. He is a professional journalist since 1990, employed for 17 years in the Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation on the radio and television (1990 – 2004, 2010 – present respectively). He has extensive experience in the field of European Affairs as a political and diplomatic editor on TV, the radio, and newspapers. He is responsible for special reports on behalf of Cypriot Media during EU Summits and other important EU gatherings. He contributed as project manager to various EU policies campaigns (2004 – present) such as the Future of Europe, EU Asylum Policy, EU Immigration Policy, Employment Policy, and Social Inclusion. He is also the producer, editor, and presenter of a series of TV programs on EU affairs on CyBC TV. He is actively involved in the civil society movement as President of the Association for the Modernization of Cyprus Society (OPEK). He is the author of a book titled “Η Ευρώπη σε μεταμόρφωση, Κύπρος – Ευρωπαϊκή Ένωση”  (“Europe in Metamorphosis, Cyprus-EU”), which was published in 2001 by Livanis.