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DERN Seminars - Dialogues across Disciplines SERIES

As part of its 'Dialogues across Disciplines' series, DERN holds regular seminars which aim to promote cross-disciplinary learning within NUIG. Please see below for seminars held throughout 2007, 2008 and 2009.

Previous Seminars

An Information seminar 'Pathways and Opportunities in Development Work'
Friday March 20th 2009
Organised by DERN in association with NUIG Career Development Centre

This information and networking seminar brought together a cross section of NUIG graduates and several development, humanitarian and volunteering agencies working primarily in developing countries. The event aimed to provide specific information to graduates on the different pathways and opportunities available to persue a career in development work. Representatives from some 10 agencies delivered short presentations which covered the following headings.

Deciding on a career in Development: what is development work
The role of a Development Worker
Career options in Development work: ie an internship/specialized consultancy
Different Job specifications
Competencies, Skills and qualifications needed for different jobs
Recruitment procedures
Academic training (MA courses)
Professional skills training
Types of Development and Aid Agencies: Who’s who. Agencies and NGOs

To listen to the speakers and read their presentations please download the documents below.

Dr. Su-ming Khoo, DERN, NUIG.

Audio Presentation - (8 MB MP3)

John Hannon, Careers Development Centre, NUIG

Audio Presentation (7 MB MP3)

Dr. Lorraine McIllrath, Community Knowledge Initiative, NUIG

Audio Presentation (10 MB MP3)

Frank Flood, Irish Aid

Ross Duffy, Medicines sans Frontiers (Doctors without Borders)

Maura Lennon, GOAL

Mark Finnegan, RPS Engineering.

Audio Presentation (30 MB MP3)

Aine Costigan, Kimmage Development Centre

Sarah Clancy, Amnesty International Ireland

Audio Presentation (20 MB MP3)

Document of Presentation (140 KB ppt)

Annette Duffy, Development Worker representing VSI

Aileen Cleary, Development Worker

Audio Presentation (15 MB MP3)

Mary McKeown, Development Consultant

Audio Presentation (28 MB MP3)

Dee Vaughan, Humanitarian Health Worker

Hans Zomer, DOCHAS

Audio Presentation (26 MB MP3)

Audience participation: Questions and Answers

Audio Presentation (63 MB MP3)

A Public Lecture and Discussion on 'Equality in a Time of Crisis'
Thursday March 12th 2009
Organised by DERN

Former chief executive officer of the Equality Authority Mr Niall Crowley delivered a public talk to an audience that filled the Siobhan McKenna lecture theatre in NUI Galway, March 12th last. Speaking about the deepening of the equality crisis in Ireland Mr Crowley described how the statutory infrastructure developed over 20 years to promote equality has been dismantled in a matter of months. He cited the experience of the Combat Poverty Agency whose duties have been subsumed into the Department of Social and Family Affairs – the Equality Authority and the Irish Human Rights Commission both left unviable by drastic budget cuts and the National Consultative Committee on Racism and Interculturalism – abolished. He called for a strategic response to the economic crisis that is based on the values of equality, diversity and non-discrimination, for a response that defends marginalized groups, monitors the watchdogs and holds bodies like the Equality Authority to account. Mr Crowley was joined by Deputy Michael D. Higgins, Donncha O’ Connell NUIG School of Law, Dr Vinodh Jaichand from the Irish Centre for Human Rights and a panel of civil society groups, including shOUT!, the Galway Traveller Movement, the Galway Refugee Support Group, the Community Platform, and Action for Equality. The event linked local and national issues and debates on inequality with the broad challenges of development and inclusion in a time of global economic crisis. It was attended by a vibrant cross-section of the public brought attention to the way in which the Government is sidelining equality issues and the protection of people’s human rights. For shOUT! a Galway based group, this has serious implications as they see the cuts adding to young lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people’s experience of discrimination. Hannagh McGinley from the Galway Traveller Movement said that Travellers still continue to face high levels of discrimination and that such marginalized groups very much need well resourced agencies such as the Equality Authority. To listen to the presentations and discussions and to read some of the speeches please download the MP3 and word documents below.

Mr Niall Crowley former CEO of the Equality Authority

Audio Presentation - (43 MB MP3)
Document of Presentation - (56 KB Word)

Deputy Michael D. Higgins

Audio Presentation - (18 MB MP3)

Donncha O' Connell, lecturer NUIG School of Law

Audio Presentation - (MB MP3)
Document of Presentation (36 KB Word)

Anne Costello, the Community Platform

Audio Presentation - (13 MB MP3)
Document of Presentation (28 KB Word)

Audience participation: Questions and Answers

Audio Presentation (uncut) (100 MB MP3)

Promoting North - South Dialogue
DERN post doctoral fellow Dr Felipe Revollo delivered three seminars in December 2008 to:

The University of La Gran Colombia, Bogota, Colombia
The Catholic University of Bolivia, La Paz, Bolivia
The University Franz Tamayo, La Paz, Bolivia

Seminar on the Role of Civil Society and Academia in Promoting a More Active Citizenship at Third Level in Central America in Response to the Challenge of Globalisation
Dr Revollo presented his paper on “The Historical Evolution of Development Education and the Importance of Interdependencies in the Promotion of Active Citizenship at Third Level in Central America”.
Abstract: “ As the developed and the developing world become more interconnected, the importance of mutual understanding and respect between diverse societies and perspectives grows. Development education is also part of this process – building bridges between people in an increasingly complex world”. Michael Kitt TD, Minister of State for Overseas Development Department of Foreign Affairs, Ireland. This presentation intends to contribute to the theory and knowledge at third level institutions in Central America of the importance of understanding the concept “development education” (or ’adjectival education’: civic-, peace-, human rights-, environmental and sustainable education) and its historical evolution as a current academic trend in the region for improving North-South relations and encouraging people towards action for a more just and equal society. Although human society is currently experiencing intense socioeconomic transformations and a growing cultural homogenization due to globalization, it is necessary to remember that education should help people from academia to understand ’critically’ and be aware of these changes, challenges and ’interdependencies’ in the world in a more holistic and interdisciplinary way by promoting active citizenship, community empowerment, democracy, peace and human rights at the same time. Unfortunately in the past, and especially in the Latin American context, education has very often been used as a powerful instrument of manipulation, social division, and negation and “has neither always nor everywhere been used to free people from the bonds of ignorance. It has also served, and continues to serve, to buttress the powers that be, to generate exclusion and violence, and sometimes, as we are bound to recognize, to fan the flames of conflict” (Koïchiro Matsuura, Director - General of the UNESCO).

Dr Revollo also delivered a presentation to a Seminar entitled: “Universidades y Educación Global en el Siglo XXI”
Abstract: Interrogante: Cuál es el rol de las universidades en la sociedad del conocimiento y en su reflexión no sólo sobre las transformaciones sociales de la modernidad, sino también en la generación de espacios centrales de diálogo y discusión donde una serie de proyectos democráticos podrian ser articulados?
Objetivo: El objetivo central de esta presentación o seminario es la de compartir e intercambiar algunas experiencias académicas de diversas universidades europeas (especialmente en el contexto de Alemania e Irlanda) que actualmente están integrando con gran fuerza el concepto de “educacion global” en su currícula por recomendación de organizaciones como la UNESCO, y bajo el financiamiento de sus propias agencias de desarrollo internacional (GTZ, Irish Aid, etc.), con el fin de promover ciudadanía activa, gobernalidad y una mayor cultura democrática.
Integrar “educación global” o “adjetivada” (educación para los derechos humanos, educación para la paz, educación y género, educación multicultural, educación medio ambiental, educación y sostenibilidad, educación Norte/Sur, etc.) en instituciones del Tercer Nivel significa promover el estudio, entendimiento y generación de conciencia cívica en diversos temas de desarrollo (ejemplo: pobreza estructural, equidad, salud, violencia, fundamentalismo, etc.) e “interdependencias” en el mundo moderno.

Considerando que el planeta se ha transformado en un lugar mucho más pequeño e interconectado donde vivir, es importante para las universidades preparar a sus graduados como ciudadanos globales fomentando el desarrollo de una visión más abierta a la realidad y promoviendo sus competencias sociales en términos de actitud, lenguaje, habilidades, conocimiento y capacidades analíticas a través de la currícula, actividades estudiantiles y una gran variedad de experiencias internacionales. View Dr. Revollo's power point presentation. Spanish version only available.

Celebrating the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Date: December 6th 2008
Organised in partnership with: The Irish Centre for Human Rights, NUIG Global Women’s Studies Programme, NUIG Huston School of Film & Digital Media, Amnesty International and Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF).

Whilst we celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, for many around the world, human rights remain a dream. The rights to freedom from violence, access to health care, affordable food, safe shelter, liveable wages – and even the right to speak out against policies which deny these basic needs – are under threat. DERN called attention to some of these issues when it screened ’ Invisibles’ an award winning series of 5 short films that give voice to the victims and survivors of some of the most neglected health and human rights crises in the world. It also held a round table discussion on some of the themes in the films and from the UDHR. Copies of Invisibles are available by contacting MSF.

Speaker: Dr Norani Othman, Sisters in Islam
Date: October 29th 2008
Organised in Conjunction with NUIG Global Women's Studies Programme

Since 1995, Dr. Othman has been associate Professor and Senior Fellow at the Institute of Malaysian and International Studies. A graduate of the University Malaya in Sociology and Anthropology, she obtained her MPhil through the University of Hull and also pursued postgraduate studies at Wolfson College, University of Oxford. From 1977 to 1997, she was a lecturer in the Department of Anthropology and Sociology at the Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (National University of Malaysia).

Dr Othman is the editor of two books: Shari’a Law and the Modern Nation-State: A Malaysian Symposium (Berhad, 1994) and Gender, Culture and Religion: Equal before God, Unequal before Man co-edited with Cecilia Ng (Persatuan Sains Social Malaysia, 1995). Her most recent publications include Capturing Globalization co-edited with James H Mittelman, (Routledge, 2001), an edited collection in the Malay language entitled Malaysia Menangani Globalisasi: Peserta atau Mangsa?, [Malaysia confronting Globalization: As an Actor or Victim?] (Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Press, 2000); Grounding Human Rights Arguments in Non-Western Culture: Shari’a and the Citizenship Rights of Women in a Modern Islamic Nation-State in The East Asian Challenge for Human Rights edited by Joanne R Bauer and Daniel A Bell (Cambridge University Press, 1999); Malaysia, Islam Society and Politics, editor with V Hooker, ISAS, 2003 ). Dr Othman is a founding member of Sisters in Islam Forum Malaysia, an internationally known and highly regarded Muslim women’s non-governmental organization. In addition to being on the board of SIS, Dr. Othman is a Vice-President of the Malaysian Association of Social Science.

Topic: The Historical Evolution of Development Education
Speaker: Dr Felipe Revollo
Date: October 16th 2008

Dr Felipe Revollo was a DERN Post-Doctoral Research Fellow throughout 2008. The seminar presented an analysis of the term 'Development Education' based on different institutional priorities and generational tendencies which focus on a sometimes fragmented understanding of the word 'development.' Dr Revollo introduced the Gestalt Theory as methodological reference that points to the fact that social phenomena, systems or 'wholes' are much more that the simple sum of their parts or the super specialized study of one or two of their components. In this regard the apparently 'invisible' relations or 'interdependencies' between a series of constitutive elements of a conceptual system or global structure will be critically examined to promote a more holistic and comprehensive vision of Development Education. View Dr Revollo's presentation.

Topic: Critical Development Education - Conversations, Controversies, Explorations
Speaker: Dr Su-ming Khoo & Dr Vanessa Andreotti
Date: September 30th 2008

Dr Su-ming Khoo is DERN project Leader and a Lecturer in the Department of Political Science and Sociology at NUI Galway.
Dr Vanessa Andreotti is a DERN Post-Doctoral Research Fellow and Senior Lecturer in the School of Maori, Social and Cultural Studies in Education at the University of Canterbury, New Zealand.

Topic: Global and Development Education in the Formal Education Sector
Speaker: Cindy Munn
Date: September 26th 2008
Organised in Conjunction with the Galway One World Centre

Cindy Munn is Schools Programme Manager with the Global Education Centre in New Zealand. This Centre focuses on delivering quality services around Global Education to the formal and informal education sectors. Coming from a Community Development and teaching background she has taught in various schools in New Zealand. She has been involved in coordinating community centres in Wellington. View Cindy Munn's presentation.

Topic: 'Catching the Knowledge Wave'
Speaker: Jane Gilbert
Date: September 23rd 2008
Organised in Conjunction with the Centre for Excellence in Learning and Teaching

Jane Gilbert is a Chief Researcher at the New Zealand Council for Educational Research. Prior to this she was a Senior Lecturer in the School of Education at Victoria University of Wellington. Research interests include implications of the Knowledge Society for contemporary public education, gender issues in education and literacy issues in education. View Jane Gilbert's presentation.

Date: Thursday 29th May 2008, 1.00 pm
Topic: The Global Engineer
Speaker: Ian Neal, Programme Officer, Engineers Against Poverty

Mr Ian Neal of Engineers Against Poverty held a seminar exaxmining the incorporation of global issues into engineering education. He introduced and discuss the resource 'The Global Engineer,' developed by Engineers Against Poverty and the Institute of Education at the University of London. View Power Point Presentation View Video Recording of Seminar

Date: Thursday 6th March 2008
Topic: Global Moralities and Grassroots Struggles: AIDS, Gender and Culture in Southern Africa
Speaker: Professor Ida Susser

Ida Susser is Professor of Anthropology at the City University of New York, and Professor of Clinical Sociomedical Sciences, Mailman School of Public Health, Colombia University. She is also the President of the American Ethnological Society.

Her research focuses on the changing patterns of inequality and poverty, social movements, gender and HIV & AIDS. This lecture will draw upon ethnographic research (among urban, rural and indigenous populations) concerning mobilization, women's strategies and the prevention, care and treatment of HIV & AIDS in southern Africa.

Date: Thursday 29th Nov 2007
Topic: Tackling Blindness in Bangladesh
Speaker: Mr Brendan Dineen, Cochrane Fellow, Health Research Board

Globally, there are an estimated 40 million persons who are blind while another 130 million are visually impaired. Approximately 80% of those with visual problems live in developing, low-income countries. Recent population-based studies have indicated that the vast majority of blindness globally is due to causes that are avoidable and/or treatable. Principal among these blinding eye conditions is cataract, which is thought to be responsible for as much as half of the world’s blindness. This situation persists despite effective, inexpensive sight-restoring treatment having been in existence for decades.

Brendan Dineen spoke the research he undertook through the International Centre for Eye Health (ICEH), London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. ICEH is a World Health Organization Collaborating Centre for the Prevention of Blindness. He also discussed health policy issues and strategies for implementing community-oriented eye health programmes towards tackling blindness both within Bangladesh and globally.

View Brendan Dineen's Presentation.

Date: Friday 26th Oct 2007
Topic: "Initiating and implementing a research partnership in Zambia" By Dr Mary Manandhar, Dept of Health Promotion, NUI Galway

During this seminar, Dr Manandhar described:

Early discussions with the Zambian Ministry of Health and potential partners

How we gained ethical approval, agreed methodologies and selected field sites

How the Memorandum of Understanding was negotiated and used.

She also highlighted challenges encountered, together with the research team's (successful and not so successful) attempts to deal with them, and what lessons they are learning from the research partnership experience.

Dr. Mary Manandhar is an anthropologist specialising in the social determinants of health. She has extensive experience of operational research, programme implementation and technical support in the biomedical health and nutrition sector in Asia, Africa and Eastern Europe. Currently on secondment from the Health Service Executive's Public Health Department in the North West, she works with Dr. Diarmuid O'Donovan as a Senior Researcher on the safe motherhood research partnership described here.

Date:2nd May 2007
Topic: "Reflections and Mobilisations: Development as Global Responsibilty" by Professor Ananta Kumar Giri

Ananta Kumar Giri is an Associate Professor in the Madras Institute of Development Studies, India. His recent research on global responsibility has taken him in both ethnographic and philosophical directions, pleading for a greater interpenetration between philosophy and anthropology.

Date: Tuesday, 24th April, 2007
Topic: Research: Funding opportunities and research needs in development

This seminar involved a discussion on funding instruments such as the Irish Aid - HEA Programme of Strategic Cooperation and the European Framework, FP7. An update was given on NUI Galway's research proposal to Irish Aid and the HEA. Peter Fitzmaurice from the Irish Centre for Human Rights presented on his experiences in applying for European Funding. The Galway One World Centre also provided some insights into their research needs.

Date: 29th March 2007
Topic: Options in Development: a Roundtable Discussion

This seminar included presentations from a number of speakers: Mary McKeown, an Independant consultant who has done a lot of consultancy work for Irish Aid and the Department for International Development (DFID) in the UK spoke about her experiences of working overseas and the pros and cons of consultancy work.

Eoin Wrenn, from Trocaire, spoke about how his career path to development started with working in AIB, and progressed to volunteering with local organisations in India and Uganda, before completing an MA in Development Studies. Eoin has worked in Trocaire both as a co-financing officer and programme officer.

Carol Healy, from DERN, spoke about her interest and work in development policy and development education. She discussed her career path and volunteering experience in different areas of development, the development studies courses she took as an undergraduate and while completing her MSc in Development Studies, as well as highlighting internship and job opportunities in various development agencies.

Avril Carr, a third year Arts Student in NUI Galway, talked about her volunteering experiences in Mozambique and South Africa with SERVE.

John Hannon from the careers office gave a presentation on CVs and application forms specific to Development organisations.

Date: 22nd February 2007
Topic: Jaipur Foot - A Prosthetic for Developing Countries
The story of an artificial foot designed in India specific to the needs of the native people.
Presented by Gerald Glynn, PhD student

The Jaipur Foot is the result of the efforts of Dr. Sethi and Ram Chandra, a doctor and
sculptor respectively. The artificial foot provides stability on uneven ground and robustness
for rough terrain. At less than 1 percent of the cost of western designs it provides an ideal
alternative for the developing world, where 80% of the world's amputees live. At the February DERN seminar, Gerald discussed his research in this important area.

Date: 25th January 2007
Topic: The Green Revolution: Organic Growing as National Policy in Cuba
Presented by Dr. Micheline Sheehy Skeffington

Dr Sheehy Skeffington has spent time in Cuba voluteering on organic growing projects and lately on a tour of horticulturalists and farmers in Havana and Santa Clara provinces. At the DERN seminar in January she discussed the variety of farms, and gardens as well as sustainable methods of growing food for the nation. This was a very timely topic to address in this age of potentially limited chemical and petroleum resources.

Development Education & Research Network
National University of Ireland, Galway, University Road, Galway, Ireland.
Phone: +353 (0)91 49 3490 E-mail: clionadh.okeeffe

nuigalway.ie
This page was last updated Friday, June 05, 2009