PLENARY SPEAKERS

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Jos Blykers ‘Human resource management and cultural differences’ 

Jos Blykers has spent over 30 years in IBM in different client-facing and management positions. Since 2006 he has been working in Human Resources, first as a change management consultant and later as an HR Transition Manager in Congo Brazzaville, transferring groups of people from other companies into IBM. Since 2011, he has been employed as an HR consultant in Mergers and Acquisitions, accompanying the acquired employees during the transition period. He has a Europe-wide role but is based in Belgium. Jos holds a Master of Arts from the Catholic University of Leuven (Belgium) and a postgraduate award in Business Administration and Social Legislation. Jos conducts business in Dutch, French, English and German, and is learning Greek (B1).

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Jeremy Solomons ‘Dialogue without words’

Jeremy Solomons is a coach, consultant and trainer in Global Leadership and Intercultural Communication. Born in Manchester, educated at Oxford and now based in Austin, Texas, Jeremy works with many different organizations around the world, helping their current and future leaders to connect and communicate with themselves and others in an effective and sustainable way. He has been closely associated with SIETAR for nearly 30 years, helping to found both SIETAR Italia and SIETAR USA where he was elected president in 2004. For Young SIETAR, he has co-designed and -facilitated many customized learning sessions at different conferences and special Train-the-Trainer workshops without charge, most recently near Barcelona in September 2017. He has also designed mentoring programs and been a mentor for Young SIETAR.

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Nichola D. Gutgold ‘Gender and women world leaders’

Nichola D. Gutgold is a Professor of Communication Arts and Sciences at Penn State. She is author of more than ten books that examine the rhetoric of women in non-traditional fields. She is the recipient of the 2018-2019 Penn State Alumni Association Teaching Fellow Award. Currently she is at work on a book about women world leaders and a documentary about women who have run for the US presidency.

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SECTIONAL SPEAKERS

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Dr Katerina Pouliasi ‘Mind the gap: Recognize 'own' culture in your spontaneous behavior'

Dr Katerina Pouliasi obtained her PhD on how culture(s) inform emotions, behaviour and cognition (University of Utrecht). In a study spanning more than 18 years, she compares demands imposed by northern and southern E.U. countries. Her findings have been published in scientific Cross-cultural journals and presented in international and European conferences. She provides training, tailored surveys and consultancy in cross-cultural management for international companies, expats (e.g., mixed marriages), businessmen, international students and any individuals interested in the 21st century (as the OECD presents it) skill of intercultural competence οr global competence or cultural intelligence.

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Ridha Mejri ‘Working successfully with Arabs’

Ridha Mejri grew up in a bilingual and bicultural environment namely Arabic and French. He holds a master´s degree in Applied Linguistics from the Heidelberg University and is currently a lecturer of Business Communication and Intercultural Management at the Worms University of Applied Sciences, Germany. He also lectures at the Heidelberg University of Applied Sciences. He offers seminars and workshops to senior executives who would like to improve their intercultural skills and management competence as well as educational institutions that have benefited from his tailor-made seminars and workshops. He speaks Arabic, English, French, German and Italian.

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Dr Denis Hyams Ssekasi & Adelina Stefan ‘Rethinking the effects of intercultural communication of Diasporas’

Dr Denis Hyams-Ssekasi is a Lecturer in Business Management and Research Coordinator at the University of Bolton, United Kingdom. He has developed and delivered training on Cross-cultural Management in Europe and Overseas.  His research interests include the transitional experiences of international students in higher education, as well as intercultural communication and social impacts.

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Adelina Stefan is a passionate entrepreneurial spirit, committed to helping people improving their performance, driving creativity, innovation and business results. She is a licensed Intercultural Facilitator and Research Analyst, specialized in the areas of Intercultural Communication and Human Resource Management. Her purpose is to improve Individual and Diverse Team Performance through Training and Development, using different models of cultures, combined with negation tools and strategies that will ensure the business sustainability. Born and raised in Romania, studying and working in Greece and U.K., and currently living in Switzerland prompted Mrs. Stefan’s study of discourse, communication and management across different cultures. 

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Marina Dzhashi ‘How international sporting events break stereotypes and bring people from all over the world together?’

Marina Dzhashi is a cross-cultural consultant and the author of the radio program “International Business Ethics”. At different stages of her life Marina lived, studied and worked in such countries as the US, the UK, India and Japan. She consults businesses, speaks at international events, conducts master-classes on how to bridge cultural gaps in business. She’s now working on a creation of a course in cross-cultural communication for one of the leading communications schools in Moscow.

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David Elvis Leeming ‘Developing a global graduate programme for Higher Education students in a continually changing world’

David Elvis Leeming holds four degrees and is working hard to complete a Doctorate in Intercultural Leadership. He is a qualified Master Coach, BPS accredited, and a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. He is accredited in Belbin Team Roles and the Richard Lewis cultural model. He also holds qualifications in delivering the MBTI, 16PF, amongst others.  He has lived and worked in Japan, Greece, USA, and Australia. Currently he is the Recruitment and Resources Manager in the School of Language and Global Studies at UCLan. As well as managing staff, he facilitates sessions in Intercultural Communication, Employability, and Optimum Leadership.

 

Dr Michael Goldrick & Ms Nierong Liu ‘Facilitating academic socialisation of Chinese students into Higher Education in Ireland’

Dr Michael Goldrick is a Programme Director and Lecturer in the area of Learning and Teaching. He is also the Academic Director of RPL (Recognition of Prior Learning) in National College of Ireland. Michael’s background is in psychology, learning theory and inclusive education. Michael is also the Programme Director for NCI’s International Transition Programme.

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Ms Nierong Liu (Jane) is the Academic Partnership Manager at National College of Ireland (NCI), with a Masters in Science in Educational Management from Trinity College Dublin. Growing up in Western China before moving to Ireland, Jane has been working for years in the educational sector in both countries, in various management and administrative roles on a number of educational projects of curriculum design, learning development, blended learning, Erasmus Mundus Action 3, and other international cooperation. At NCI, Jane is responsible for the academic interface of the academic partnership programmes and the faculty exchange plan in relation to partnerships.

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Michael G. Mwangi ‘Reverse culture shock and communication dilemma on children who immigrate back to Africa from western countries’

Michael G. Mwangi graduated with a Master of Divinity (Intercultural Studies) from International Leadership University (Nairobi, Kenya) in 2011. He is a PhD candidate in Peace and Conflict Studies at Masinde Muliro University (Kakamega, Kenya) researching on the role of Islam in National Cohesion and Integration in Kenya. Michael is also a Doctor of Ministry candidate at Asbury Theological Seminary (Kentucky, United States). His key areas of research interest are: Inter-religious dialogue; culture and society; religion in governance and politics; cross cultural missions; social cohesion and integration.

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Dr Maged Zakher ‘Transcultural texts for cross-cultural studies: Sacred texts in research interviews’

Dr Maged Zakher is a Lecturer in Cross-cultural Management at the University of Northampton. He obtained a Master’s degree in Intercultural Communication from the University of Bedfordshire and a PhD in Social Sciences Research Methodology with a thesis titled ‘The Use of Sacred Texts as Tools to Enhance Social Research Interviews’. He has taught intercultural competence and communication in business, and he also wrote on ‘Post-Revolution Egyptians’ Perception of Selected Human Rights’ as part of his studies in International Relations. Maged is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and he is involved in cultural training, English/Arabic translation and blogging.

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Aleksandra Bujalska ‘Art soundscape as the medium of cultural identity: The sonic methods of Roma communication with others'

Aleksandra Bujalska graduated from the University of Wroclaw, where she studied Classical Philology and Mediterranean Culture – Arabic specialisation. She also attended additional courses in film directing and Jewish culture. She dedicated her Master’s thesis to images of the Roma (Dom community) in Arabic proverbs. Currently, she is a PhD candidate investigating themes connected to Roma identity. At present, during her internship in ERIAC, she is expanding her knowledge about Roma culture and becoming acquainted with the world of contemporary art and the past cultural heritage of this community.

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Evanthia Kavroulaki ‘Service encounters in Greek Facebook’

Evanthia Kavroulaki is a young researcher and a student in the MA programme “Linguistics: Theory and Applications” in the University of Athens. Her academic interests include intercultural pragmatics, social media discourse and linguistic politeness. Since her graduation from the department of English language in 2015, she has been teaching English as a foreign language. She is also a member of TESOL Greece.

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Roger Marshall 'Digital Myanmar: Left behind but catching up with the 21st century’

Roger Marshall a three-time Fulbright Senior Scholar, was in Myanmar from December 2017 through March 2018, during which he taught courses on Multimedia Computing and the Societal Aspects of Computing.  He recently retired from Plymouth State University where he was Professor and Chair of Computer Science. Over a 38-year teaching career, he has given lectures in four continents, authored many research articles and obtained several software patents.  He holds a bachelor’s degree from the Indian Institute of Technology in Madras, an MS from Dalhousie University in Canada and a PhD from the University of Nebraska - Lincoln, USA.

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Jessica R. Boll PhD 'Selling Spain: ‘Cultural considerations in Spanish tourism’

Jessica R. Boll PhD is an Associate Professor of Modern Languages & Literatures at Carroll University in Waukesha, Wisconsin, USA. Her research centers upon early modern Spanish-Ottoman relations, contemporary Christian-Muslim relations in Spain, shared spaces and contested perceptions of place. Her investigations combine literary studies, geography, history, Mediterranean Studies and Ottoman Studies. She has recently published articles related to the depiction of Istanbul in early modern Spanish texts, Cervantine captivity in early modern Spanish texts, the controversies surrounding the Mosque-Cathedral (Mezquita) of Córdoba and the legacy of al-Andalus in contemporary Spain.

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Reema Islam ‘Food cultures and tradition: A comparative study between Bangladesh and Greece’

Reema Islam after working in the development sector of Bangladesh for about 8 years, with communities near forests and wetlands and eco-tourism, moved to Greece in 2016 to study Heritage Management, under the University of Kent (UK) and Athens University of Economics and Business (AUEB). After promoting the archaeological heritage of Bangladesh for several years through her writing, Reema was ready to take her passion more seriously. Her dissertation on the heritage of carob in Crete is now one of the shortlisted candidates being considered for inclusion in the UNESCO Intangible Heritage list by the Greek Ministry of Culture and Sports.

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Dr Irene Sotiropoulou ‘Many languages in one economy or many economies in one language’

Dr Irene Sotiropoulou is a researcher based in Greece and her specialty is heterodox economics, particularly theories about money & finance, non-monetary economics and parallel currencies. Her research has a strong component of feminist economics and solidarity economics, including trade unionism and social economy. She is particularly interested in non-capitalist economic structures, both of historical & contemporary societies, in grassroots economics, small production modes, ecological economics, and economics of the commons. She has been a Fellow of the GEM-IWG/GEM-Europe and World Social Science Fellowship programs.  Her PhD dissertation, papers and other academic material are available at: https://independent.academia.edu/IreneSotiropoulou

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Alexandros-Nektarios J. Vassiliou-Damvergis 'The contribution of the Euboeans to the introduction of the alphabet in Ancient Greece. Intercultural communication in antiquity and implications for intercultural relations today’

Alexandros-Nektarios J. Vassiliou-Damvergis holds a PhD from the Department of History and Archaeology at the University of Crete and is a graduate of the Department of Philosophy and Social Studies and the Classical Department of Philology at the University of Crete. His doctoral dissertation on ‘The geopolitical organization of ancient Euboea (1050–27 BC)’ was supervised by Professor Athanasios Kalpaxis. He has worked as a professor at the Police Academy of Rethymno and has participated in the excavations of the Swiss Archaeological School in Eretria and in many scientific conferences.

 

Aggelos I. Tsagrakis ‘References in prehistoric scriptures of Aegean related to foreigners and commercial contacts’

Aggelos I. Tsagrakis holds a PhD from the Department of Prehistoric Archaeology of the Faculty of Letters of the University of Crete. Some examples of his academic work are the follow: Books: Comparative examination of administrative and economic - tax data of archives from the mycenaen palaces, Kardamitsas Editions, Athens, 2011.

Agriculture and livestock farming in Prehistoric Aegean, Kardamitsas Editions, Athens, 2013.

Religion in Prehistoric Aegean, Kardamitsas Editions, Athens, 2015.

Articles: “Records of vases and pottery in the archive of Knossos”, Proceedings of the IA International Cretological Conference, Crete, 2011. "Furniture, precious items and materials recorded in the Linear B archives", SMEA 54, 2012, pp.323-341."The wa-na-ka - (F)άνακς - ἄναξ", PASIPHAE, X, 2016, pp.201 - 216. “Records of armament in the archives of the mycenaean palaces”, Archeology and Arts, November 2016.

Posters: “Records of cereals in prehistoric scripts of Aegean”, 4th Symposium of Greek Gastronomy: Cereals, Known, Forgotten and Lost, Chania, 29 and 30 July 2017.

 

PROCEEDINGS & PUBLICATION OPPORTUNITY

All accepted abstracts/papers will be included in the official Conference Proceedings.

Please submit your full paper electronically via email attachment to Dr Eirini Daskalaki at the below email address: culturesconfechania@gmail.com

Deadline for full paper submission, 22 March 2019.

Authors of selected conference papers will have the opportunity to publish their work in one

of the following journals: Journal of Intercultural Communication https://immi.se/intercultural/ and

Communication Research http://journals.sagepub.com/home/crx