The three subtopics of development cooperation, memory and migration, which link the Northern and Southern shores of the Mediterranean in a complex way will be addressed in teaching events and staff exchanges aimed at building students’ capacities as well as strengthening institutional efforts to foster cross-cultural learning and understanding through dialogue.

Building on longstanding partnerships between Freie Universität Berlin, the École de Gouvernance et d’Économie in Rabat, Cairo University and the University of Benghazi, and capitalizing on the outstanding experience of the Center for Middle Eastern and North African politics with multilateral projects, it is the aim of this project to foster an open and constructive debate on the conditions of dialogue amongst academics and students from the partner universities.

All partners share a strong commitment to sustaining and extending cultural sensitivity in academic teaching in order to foster knowledge production. Based on critical thinking, reflexive inquiry, and group work across national and institutional cultures, the project emphasises intercultural learning through exchange and exposure. The project reaches out to students and teaching staff alike and strengthens multilateral networks within the region and beyond.

The originality of this dialogue project lays in its joint conceptualisation based on shared concerns as well as in its bi- and multilateral dynamics. The project also stands out in its innovative introduction of simulation games and debating pedagogies as methodological tools to exchange perspectives and to empathetically comprehend each other’s point of view.

Duration of the project: Nov 1st, 2015 - Dec 31st, 2018

For detailed information, project outcomes and an overview all activities carried out, please have a look at our final report.