Subscribe Feed (RSS)Patti Digh Workshop and Speaker Event
March 29th, 2009 by Cate | 1 Comment | Filed in Community Events, SIETAR-NC EventJoin us next Sunday, April 5 for for a workshop and public lecture with renowned intercultural trainer, author, and SIETAR-USA keynote speaker Patti Digh!
Thanks to the Robertson Scholars Collaboration Fund for making these events possible.
Event #1: Workshop –
New Experiential Tools for Exploring Diversity and Intercultural Issues 
- Date/Time: Sunday, April 5 from 1:00-2:30p.m.
- Location: John Hope Franklin Center (Duke University), Room 240
- Map & directions
Light refreshments from the Mediterranean Deli will be provided for workshop participants.
***This event is free but space is limited. Please RSVP by Friday, April 3 to: info “at” sietarnc “dot” org
Workshop Description:
We learn best by first having a “hot” experience that knocks us off balance, then making meaning of it second. And yet we often teach in exactly the opposite order, providing models and meaning, then asking if those fit the experiences we have had. This highly interactive workshop will approach training from the learner’s perspective, will embrace surprise at the “edges” where learning really occurs, and will explore ways to achieve diversity and intercultural learning through experiential processes. We will:
• Utilize unique experiential training tools to explore concepts like dominant culture
• Move from intellectual learning to embodied learning
• Explore how to teach core intercultural and diversity concepts through experiential and nontraditional processes
Bring both hemispheres of your brain and wear comfortable clothing.
Event # 2: Public Talk –
Hip-Hop, Manga, Facebook, Twitter, Second Life, and Myth: intercultural tools for a new century
- Date/Time: Sunday, April 5 from 3:00-4:00p.m.
- Location: John Hope Franklin Center (Duke University), Room 240
- Map & directions
Please RSVP by Friday, April 3 to: info “at” sietarnc “dot” org
Dessert reception from the Mediterranean Deli will follow.
Description:
Patti Digh worries that the field of intercultural communication is largely irrelevant to the challenges of the 21st century. She asks: Are we using old tools and models to grapple with intercultural realities vastly changed because of the new “mongrel, global Me,” increased cultural “sampling,” the leveling effect of technology, and the transparency of social media? In fact, are these challenges revolutionizing our very concepts of culture? And are we keeping up?
What are the radically new tools we need to deal with these challenges? Patti believes they include Hip-Hop, Manga, Facebook, Twitter, Second Life, and myth, all rooted in one local simplicity: STORY. As Jerome Bruner has said, human beings are hard-wired for story. We know that. But the ways in which we are transmitting and learning from story are changing rapidly. And many of us are not keeping up. Some of us even disparage these new forms of learning, communicating, and building relationship across cultures.
This address will delve into the primacy of story, how central it is to intercultural learning and practice, and how new forms of story and new technologies can be important tools for interculturalists.
About Patti Digh
Patti Digh is a storyteller, author and facilitator. Digh’s first book, Global Literacies: Lessons on Business Leadership and National Cultures (Simon & Schuster, 2000), was named a Fortune magazine “best business book” for the year 2000. Her second book was The Global Diversity Desk Reference (Wiley, 2003), and her most recent book is the widely acclaimed Life is a Verb: 37 Days to Wake Up, Be Mindful, and Live Intentionally (Globe Pequot Press, 2008). Life is a Verb is focused on the power of story and is one of five finalists for the prestigious “Books for a Better Life” award,” to be awarded in February 2009. She and David Robinson are co-founders of The Circle Project, an innovative consulting firm focused on providing experiential learning experiences to help communities and organizations navigate differences.
