Lauder Intercultural Ventures
Lauder Intercultural Ventures (LIVS)
The Lauder Intercultural Ventures (LIVs) provide an opportunity to road test earlier lessons on intercultural leadership in the context of a week-long off-site immersion and related pre-departure academic work. Each LIV, led by a faculty member, focuses on a theme relevant to the site’s historical, social, political, economic, and/or cultural context. LIVs are scheduled during Winter and Spring break, and each student will enroll in two LIV’s throughout their two years at Lauder. A LIV combines academic and experiential learning activities, and thus has contextual knowledge objectives (such as learning about environmental issues, consumption habits, religious studies, etc.) as well as field-based exercises and leadership development opportunities.
SPRING 2022 LIVs
India
Architecture as Material Culture
India
ARCHITECTURE AS MATERIAL CULTURE
This LIV explored India’s monuments and architecture as material culture – what might have been involved in building them and maintaining them over time, and how their significance has changed for patrons and spectators over the generations. What were the architectural precedents for some of the monuments visited? What kinds of materials were used, and how were buildings on this scale financed? Why did so many Islamic buildings in medieval India incorporate elements of Hindu design and objects from older Hindu buildings? How should we interpret instances of iconoclasm when we encounter it? And, how should we respond to claims of iconoclasm when it might not have occurred in historical fact? While the geographic focus of the LIV was the region around Delhi and its neighboring states of Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, the historic focus spanned the 12th century to current times. During the LIV, students visited heritage landmarks of architectural significance and comprehended their political and cultural significance in their own time.
In a parallel set of readings and questions raised throughout the duration of this LIV trip, the immersion also explored how different constituencies in contemporary India maintain, celebrate, or reject particular aspects of its monumental heritage. The group explored which social groups might typically be invested in preserving and celebrating particular monuments, and which others might be invested in challenging that celebration. For instance, why have monuments from several centuries ago become flashpoints for debates about India’s present? The LIV also examined the role of institutions like the governmental organization, the Archaeological Survey of India, and private organizations, both salaried and volunteer, like the Aga Khan Foundation and the Indian National Trust for Architecture and Cultural Heritage (INTACH).
Israel
Consumption, Innovation, and Diversity on the World Stage
Israel
CONSUMPTION, INNOVATION, AND DIVERSITY ON THE WORLD STAGE
This LIV explored how diverse people and organizations in Israel contribute to the global economy, develop ties to world markets, and cultivate local identities built upon understandings of history and links to the landscape. The program focused on consumption styles, local markets, and innovations as they relate to the country’s food sector. During the venture, students visited markets, restaurants, research centers, and businesses and meet experts in many fields. Talks and activities covered innovations in agriculture and bioengineering; the evolution of cuisines through the integration of local, regional, and global food cultures; the impact of religion on dietary practices; the role of food in shaping “gastronationalism” and forms of “culinary diplomacy;” and the significance of food as an arena for competition, collaboration, and exchange between Israel and other countries. Students emerged with a greater awareness of Israel’s diverse Jewish and non-Jewish communities. Participants learned, too, about non-citizen inhabitants, including recent refugees from Eritrea and Sudan, and guest workers from countries like Thailand, many of whom work in food-service positions in restaurants and cafés, or on farms.
The study of food and foodways illuminate modern and contemporary migrations and trade networks. Participants saw, for example, how Jews with connections to Iraq and India popularized amba, a mango chutney sometimes served with falafel, while others brought the hot sauce called zhug out of Yemen; or how migrants from central Europe brought the pastry known as hamantaschen (associated with the holiday of Purim), but over time swapped fillings made from poppy seeds or dried apricots for newer ingredients ¬like chocolate, made from beans imported from West African countries like Ghana. Students also became aware of how tensions regarding Israeli-Palestinian and broader Israeli-Arab affairs have involved debates over foods like hummus, and how concerns about “McDonaldization” tie the rise of industrial fast food to globalization and various forms of soft power.
Poland and Hungary
In or Out of Europe?
Poland & Hungary
IN OR OUT OF EUROPE?
Borders have shifted frequently in European history, with massive repercussions. Today, the European Union’s eastern boundary separates the mostly prosperous and secure nations of Central Europe from those perched precariously outside looking in. Yet, Poland and Hungary, two of the most successful economies in the region, have elected and re-elected populist governments that question the very nature of the European Union (EU) integration project, from which both have benefited greatly. Meanwhile, Moscow asserts its own “zone of privileged interests” in neighboring countries, such as Belarus and Ukraine, creating a dramatic tug of war between Russia and the West that some liken to a new cold war. This LIV explored the nature of the European project and its boundaries in their geopolitical, economic, religious, cultural, architectural, and historical dimensions.
The trip started in Warsaw, the capital of Poland, a regional power and arguably the most successful economy to emerge from communist rule in 1989. The group studied with executive MBA students at University of Warsaw, learned the geopolitics of Belarus, Ukraine, and Russia with leading Polish experts, and visited the Eastern gateway city of Lublin to explore the extensive Ukrainian immigration to Poland which included hearing a church perspective on Europe from the Catholic University. En route to Budapest, the group made brief stops in Poland’s beautiful second city of Krakow, the magnificent Orava Castle in Slovakia that has guarded trade routes between Poland and Hungary since the 13th century, and the ancient Slovak/Hungarian/German mining city of Banska Bystrica. In Budapest, a self-professed “illiberal” democracy, the group explored Hungary’s highly divided society by soliciting both pro- and anti-government perspectives on the meaning of Europe and by visiting controversial cultural monuments over which these perspectives frequently clash. The LIV also explored the meaning of European economic integration, business practices, and media conditions in a semi-authoritarian system.
Senegal
Muslim Civil Society and Peace Making
Senegal
MUSLIM CIVIL SOCIETY AND PEACE MAKING
Senegal is one of the rare Muslim-majority countries where Sufism (mystical Islam) remains dominant. It is also the sole West African nation to have enjoyed continued civilian rule and peaceful transfer of power since acquiring independence in 1960. This LIV explored how Sufi Muslim civil society has contributed to establishing peace and social cohesion in post-colonial Senegal. The group focused primarily, but not exclusively, on exploring the role and influence of the Cadre Unitaire, a civil society organization founded recently by Muslim intellectuals to promote peace and political stability in Senegal. The Cadre has emerged as an effective peace maker as its role in ending the violent political protests that shook Senegal’s cities last March demonstrates. During the LIV, students met with the founders of the Cadre Unitaire to learn about their motivations in founding this organization, their goals and strategies, with special attention to the Cadre’s intervention during the March disturbances. Students also met with other civil society stakeholders, particularly those engaged in peace building. In addition to engaging civil society organizations in Dakar, students met the leadership of Senegal’s two largest Sufi orders, the Muridiyya and the Tijaniyya, in their holy cities of Tuubaa and Tivavouane.
Past LIVs
Botswana
Closing Health Gaps through Partnerships?
Botswana
CLOSING HEALTH GAPS THROUGH PARTNERSHIPS?
A decade ago, Botswana, located in Southern Africa, was at the epicenter of the global HIV crisis and faced a prevalence rate of over 25% among people 15-49 years old. Despite resource constraints and a high demand for health services, Botswana drastically improved HIV health outcomes and in the process developed its health systems following international standards. This LIV explored health care in Botswana as a case study in understanding global health. The LIV examined the relationship of Botswanan health care to social, cultural, economic, political, and spacial (rural-urban) factors, as well as the roles of the state, private sector, non-governmental organizations, and universities in health care. It investigated relational dynamics and sustainable international partnerships. Drawing on the networks of the Botswana-University of Pennsylvania Partnership, the group met with Ministry of Health officials, engaged in intercultural communication, and discussed health policy with graduate students from the University of Botswana in the capital Gaborone.
Cuba
A Society and an Economy in Transition
Cuba
A SOCIETY AND AN ECONOMY IN TRANSITION
This LIV was designed to understand, analyze and reflect on the realities of contemporary Cuban society and economy. Students learned about the forces that gave rise to the revolution of 1959; the role of Cuba in international relations; and, the changes of ‘the Revolution” since the so called “Special Period” in the 90s until the current administration of President Miguel Diaz- Canal. During the LIV, students met with scholars and Cuban foreign policy leaders to discuss Cuban-US relations and the current process of economic reform. Students also met with local entrepreneurs and business owners to discuss the private sector in Cuba and the challenges of doing business. Lastly, students interacted with artists and attended short performances to reflect on the social impact of Cuban arts education. The group visited different neighborhoods in Havana to compare and contrast diverse communities and cultures, as well as rural areas to learn about Cuba’s geography, history, social and economic conditions, and the impact of tobacco and tourism industries in the area.
Click here to read about a Lauder student’s experiences in Cuba during an LIV.
I had been to Cuba numerous times before returning with Cultural Ventures. Nonetheless, experiencing this complex and crazy country along with Lauder students, alumni, and professors and interacting with such an interesting array of Cubans was an unparalleled opportunity. All Lauder alumni should try a Ventures program!
-Nancy Kail, Class of ’89
Denmark and Estonia
Entrepreneurial Economies of the Baltic Backwaters
Denmark and Estonia
ENTREPRENEURIAL ECONOMIES OF THE BALTIC BACKWATERS
This LIV explored the questions: Why does Denmark rank as one of the world’s best environments for doing business? Why is Estonia a startup paradise? Students experienced entrepreneurship in action by comparing and contrasting economies of business across two of the most vibrant countries in the European Union. Students learned how Denmark has established itself as one of the world’s leading entrepreneurial economies, including a focus on cultures of commerce, the ebb and flow of high capital investments, the rapid adoption of cutting-edge technology, and a growing professional workforce. Compare how Estonia’s advanced entrepreneurship policies, especially its progressive e-residency program, have enabled digital nomads, freelancers, and entrepreneurs from all over the world to get access to resources around company formation, banking, payment processing, and taxation. Discussions will also debate to what extent each country’s topographical features and geographical location have made certain kinds of business environments possible. For example, can Denmark’s advanced industrial peninsula and vast archipelago of 443 islands be productively compared to the striking biodiversity of Estonia on the eastern shores of the Baltic Sea? What about the nature of politics and policies that have affected cultures in both countries? Through a series of firsthand experiences, including company tours, exchanges with local academics, and interactions with businesses at various stages, this LIV is all about entrepreneurship in action.
Listen to a Lauder student’s experience on this LIV by clicking the image below:
Israel
Water Issues and Innovation
Israel
WATER ISSUES AND INNOVATION
This LIV focused primarily on how Israeli society has managed its water resources, providing students with insights into the unique challenges posed by Israel’s natural and geopolitical location, and the successes that Israel has enjoyed in meeting those challenges. Students explored water in Israel in all its political, historical, communal, agricultural, technological, entrepreneurial, and business dimensions. Students learned how geopolitical and cultural factors pushed Israel toward innovative solutions in water recycling and conservation, clean technology, drip irrigation, public policy, investment, and resource management. This LIV included visits to both Western Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, where participants learned from a historical and political viewpoint about the factors that led Israel to innovation in water technologies. Historical and cultural sites included the Old City of Western Jerusalem, Ben Gurion Tomb, and Nazareth. Students also visited the National Water Carrier, a desalination plant, to meet researchers and investors in new technologies.
Click here to read about student perspectives after visiting an international school in Tel Aviv.
Mongolia
Social impact from a changing environment
Mongolia
SOCIAL IMPACT FROM A CHANGING ENVIRONMENT
Mongolia is home to one of today’s few remaining populations of pastoral nomads, a legacy reflected in the vast open landscape and the nation’s music, art, oral traditions, and poetry. This LIV explored how this nomadic lifestyle is changing and adapting as more Mongolians move to cities, massive new mines bring new wealth and strong protests, and global climate change puts pressure on traditional practices. Activities included a tour of a local non-profit that builds infrastructure resources for ger district residents; a tour of Erdenet, a socialist mine; a countryside excursion to meet herding families, including young Mongolian cultural figures; and, a meeting with an advisor to the president of Mongolia on “controversies of development”, from a governmental perspective.
“Participating in the Mongolia LIV was a wonderful opportunity to explore a new culture and to stay connected with the Lauder community after graduation.”
-Frank DeSimone, Class of ’15
Myanmar
Buddhism in Asia’s Final Frontier
Myanmar
BUDDHISM IN ASIA’S FINAL FRONTIER
In March 2012, Myanmar finally opened up to the world after 50 years of isolation under a military dictatorship (1962-2012), which was a major regression from the short-lived 14 years of independence from the British in 1948. Regarded as “Asia’s final frontier” for economic and business development, Myanmar retains its old-world charm with temples and pagodas dotting its verdant landscape. Relative to its population, Myanmar has a high proportion of monks, a handful of whom have garnered a following due to their involvement in politics and economics, such as the Saffron Revolution in 2007, and the controversial 969 Movement that opposes expansion of Islam. On this LIV, students visited the cities of Yangoon and Mandalay to see well-known Buddhist sites and observe everyday Buddhist practices like chanting and merit-making at the Shwedagon Pagoda, Kuthadaw Pagoda, and Sagaing Hills, the country’s monastic center. Students compared Buddhist practices with the popular local practices of nat (or spirit) worship, and weizza (or wizards). These religious practices were contrasted with an authentic 24-hour vipassana meditation retreat. Students also met with various country experts, including professors at Yangoon University and directors of the Myanmar Center for Responsible Business.
Tahiti
Tahiti and Its Arts: From Traditional to Contemporary
Tahiti
TAHITI AND ITS ARTS: FROM TRADITIONAL TO CONTEMPORARY
In this LIV, students travelled to Tahiti to think critically about how its artistic and cultural work functioned in the era before and after European contact and into the present. Traditional Tahitian art forms, from carvings to tattoos to dance, participated in complex ritual, social, and other contexts, conveying concepts that represented and connected these people to belief systems across Polynesia. European explorers arriving in the 18th and 19th centuries often described Tahiti as a paradise, as a place of beauty and bounty, while at the same time appraising its culture as “primitive” and its images as “idols,” turning its art into curiosities diverting to bourgeois audiences back home. Tahiti was also, for some nineteenth-century French travelers like Paul Gauguin, a place of escape from a world transformed by the industrial revolution. For many tourists today, Tahiti is an exotic destination, its arts repackaged for entertainment, purchase, and decoration in exclusive resorts. In this trip, students encountered these and other ways that Tahiti’s art has functioned in and beyond its islands. How is Tahiti’s artistic past understood and represented in its museum and preserved for the present? What has been the impact of outsiders, from Captain Cook to James Michener, on how its arts are understood? How is it used, for example, in the travel industry and other sectors to perpetuate exoticizing narratives? To explore these and other questions, students met with curators, dealers, students, and artists, to develop a more layered and nuanced understanding of the competing roles of art in contemporary Tahiti.
Former Yugoslavia
Rebuilding Lives and Livelihoods in Bosnia and Serbia
Former Yugoslavia
REBUILDING LIVES AND LIVELIHOODS IN BOSNIA AND SERBIA
This LIV explored the culture, history and politics of two societies confronting several complex challenges: (1) the turbulent transition from a planned economy to liberal capitalism, which all the countries of Eastern Europe experienced during the 1990s, and (2) the most violent conflict the European continent had witnessed since the end of World War II. Students met with refugees and survivors of wartime atrocities, many of whom still struggle with the trauma they sustained during the 1990s wars. Students also engaged with leaders of non-governmental organizations and local activists to learn more about the challenges facing a region that was at war at a time when other post-socialist states experienced large-scale growth. Students heard from business owners and executives trying to sustain and expand their businesses in an economically stagnant region where the wounds of the violent conflicts of the 1990s have never fully healed. The group learned about what it was like to work under socialism before 1989, under international sanctions during the 1990s wars and today, when the privatization of formerly state-owned enterprises has largely reached completion. Government representatives and academics from Bosnia and Serbia detailed the difficulties that both states encounter as they try to prevent the “brain drain” of talented young people to the more prosperous states of Northwestern Europe.
LIV Application
Students will be asked to apply for a LIV that focuses on a theme of greatest interest to them. The Institute aims to meet student interest, but cannot guarantee first choices. Students will submit an application for participation in which they provide first, second, and third LIV choices and submit an application essay. Criteria for LIV assignments are: the quality of the academic rationale and the availability of slots. Once a LIV has been assigned, students will sign an agreement that commits them to participating in all the planned activities related to the LIV and to follow the policies. After signing the agreement, students cannot change their LIV.
