Third webinar of the “9 months, 9 universities” series: “Drama activities for intercultural dialogue and inclusion”

With the powerful drive towards internationalization in Higher Education, university environments around Europe are becoming more and more multilingual and multicultural. As institutions strive to attract increasing numbers of students from beyond their own borders, the academic landscape has changed and with it, the need to ensure dialogue and strengthen policies of inclusion.

Live on the Arqus YouTube channel on 19 December 2023.

Process Drama is an approach in which facilitators and participants co-construct a story: the aim is not to create a performance for public viewing, and the activities remain within the space of the classroom. During a session, participants go in and out of different roles, stepping into other people’s shoes and viewing the world from different perspectives. Process Drama has been used in a variety of educational contexts, including those of language learning, but in this webinar, I will explore its potential for exploring the concept of intercultural dialogue and for fostering inclusion.

Speaker: Fiona Dalziel is an Associate Professor of English Language and Translation at the University of Padua, where she teaches in the BA and MA degree programmes in Modern Languages.

Her research interests include: promoting learner autonomy; translanguaging in English-medium Instruction (EMI); and the use of drama in language learning. She is a member of the editorial board of Language Learning in Higher Education, the journal of CercleS, the European Confederation of Language Centres in Higher Education. She has been the coordinator of the English drama group at the University of Padua for over 20 years.

“9 Months, 9 Universities” is the continuation of the series “Seven Months, Seven Universities”, offered during the first 3 years of the Alliance, when Arqus was formed by 7 universities. It was offered in the framework of the Action Line Multilingual and Multicultural University and focused on specific topics related to language and culture.