Professor Hans Köchler to address the conference

Intercultural dialogue is the topic of the week in Aarhus. The city, the region, the university and Grundfos will announce the winners of the new Global Dialogue Prize on Thursday, and Friday one of the world’s leading philosophers, Hans Köchler, will speak about the philosphy and politics behind intercultural dialogue.

Hans Köchler is professor of philosophy at University of Innsbruck in Austria and has been working on intercultural dialogue for 35 years. His work has been very influential on the discourse about international dialogue between civilizations and in particular between Islam and the West.

“We are very pleased that Hans Köchler has agreed to come. He was one  of the first protagonists in Europe of intercultural value studies, long before you could even call it a field. Since then he has become one of the leading researchers in that field,” says associate professor Johanna Seibt, one of the main organisers of the conference.

Köchler sits on the award committee for the Global Dialogue Prize that rewards outstanding intercultural research on values contributing to global communication and cooperation. This type of research can be very difficult, and in his speech Köchler will discuss how academics can research intercultural values without getting instrumentalised by various political groups in society.

by Kirsten Sparre