The Thor Heyerdahl International Day 2023

The goals of the conference are:

• To act and put the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals on the agenda
• To contribute with lectures on international matters 
• To learn from one another and inspire to action
  
  

The conference will be a streaming event which is accessible on several national and international digital platforms.

The conference focuses on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (se picture).

Session Title (11.00 - 11.30): Welcome

Biography:

Master of Ceremonies.

Hermanson is the Director of the International Student & Scholar Services (ISSS), and runs the Norway Hub initiatives at Augsburg University. She brings over 25 years of experience in teaching, project management and conference planning in education. In her work, Hermanson designs meaningful global experiences that increase cultural competence and understanding.

Session Title (11.30 - 12.00): So That All May Flourish: Higher Education and the Immigrant Experience

Biography:

President of Augsburg University, USA.

Paul Pribbenow, the 10th president of Augsburg University in Minneapolis. He is recognised as one of the country’s most engaging commentators and teachers on ethics, philanthropy, and American public life. Pribbenow holds a bachelor’s degree (1978) from Luther College (Iowa) and a master’s degree (1979) and doctorate (1993) in social ethics from the University of Chicago. He received the Distinguished Service Award at Luther College in 2008.

Session Title (12.00 - 12.20): The Impact of Global Climatic Change on Rural Societies: Migration vs Transformation

Biography:

Professor of Economic and Political Geography, University of Genoa, Italy.

Mauro Spotorno is Full Professor of Economic and Political Geography at the Department of Political and International Sciences (DISPI) of the University of Genoa. His main research field concerns the migratory phenomena and the territorial changes, mainly in the Mediterranean area, in the perspective of the Global Climatic Change. He participated in the European Union project “Mediterranean changing relationships: global change, networks and border openings” as coordinator of the work package “Uneven impact of climate change on migration flows, tourism, rural development and socio-economic stability in the Mediterranean countries”. He is the author of more than one hundred publications appearing in Italian and scientific magazines and some monographs.

Session Title (12.20 - 12.40): Climate, Crisis and Population Movements

Biography:

Assistant Professor of Ethnology, University of Genoa, Italy.

Americanist anthropologist, Assistant Professor of Ethnology at the University of Genoa since 1973. Then Associate Professor from 1989. Since 2005, a full Professor of Ethnology at the Faculty of Foreign Languages at the University of Genoa and later at the Faculty of Political Sciences. Professor in two Doctorates (Turin and Genoa), national and international reviewer, author of more than 100 publications, is specialized in Americanist anthropology, especially in the areas of Brazil and the Caribbean. Translator from Brazilian and French to Italian, consultant for Museums and Institutions, coordinator of many research projects, from 2006 to 2012 she was President of the Associazione Nazionale Universitaria degli Antropologi Culturali (ANUAC) and from 2012 to 2014 she was the creator and Scientific Director of the international ethnoanthropological journal ANUAC. Coordinator of book collections, she is currently President of Jacarandá, an Interdisciplinary Association of Italian Brasilianists.

Session Title (12.40 - 13.00): The Human Impacts of Mass Migration: Lessons from Study Abroad

Biography:

Assistant Provost for Global Education and Experience, Augsburg University, Minneapolis, MN, USA.

Mulvihill brings 30 years of experience in global and experiential education. He holds a bachelor’s degree in history (1992) from St. Olaf College (Minnesota) and a master’s degree in international development from the University of Minnesota (1998). His graduate studies focused on microenterprise and post-communist stabilization in Eastern Europe, where he has lived and worked.

Session Title (13.00 - 13.25): Personal Experiences of Migrants in Light of Climate Change and Sustainability

Biography:

Researcher, Speaker and Project Leader / PhD in Professional Ethics, Vest Agder Museum IKS, Vest Agder, Norway.

Dr Kathrin Pabst is a German ethnologist, researcher, author, and speaker who holds a Ph.D. in professional ethics and has broad experience in both practical and theoretical sides of challenging sensitive or taboo-related subjects. She is currently on leave from her position as Head of the Scientific Department at the Vest-Agder Museum in Kristiansand, Norway, to lead “Identity on the Line,” a large-scale cooperation project, co-funded by the EU, which aims to explore seven historical migration processes and their long-term consequences for the migrants and their descendants.

Session Title (14.15 - 14.35): European Interregional Cooperation on Migration in a Long-Term Perspective

Biography:

Senior Administrative and Policy Officer, CPMR-Conference of Peripheral Maritime Regions.

Claire Street is Senior Administrative and Policy Officer at the Conference of Peripheral Maritime Regions of Europe (CPMR). Since 2015, she has been coordinating the CPMR Task Force on Migration Management, in which voluntary member Regions work together to examine the added value and needs of regional authorities in both the internal dimension (reception and integration) and external dimension (partnerships with third countries) of EU migration policies.

Session Title (14.35 - 14.55): Green Infowars. Public Opinion, Propaganda and Climate Change

Biography:

Senior Assistant Professor of the University of Genoa, PhD in Political Philosophy, Senior Lecturer in Political Thought and Public Opinion.

He has been teaching a wide variety of courses in the areas of history and social and political sciences, such as Sociology, Political Rhetoric, History of Public Opinion and History of Political Thought. Despite the obvious differences as to the approach, he has always tried to involve students as much as possible within the current boundaries of the educational system. He has been supervising many BA and MA dissertations in Political Philosophy, History of Public Opinion and History of Political Thought, devoted to a great number of authors and themes.