discussion – Third Culture Dialoguing – Unesco RILA
At the UNESCO RILA Spring School: The Arts of Integrating, which took place in May 2023, Scotland-based curator Dr Deirdre MacKenna and psychologist Dr Laura Cariola hosted an online panel discussion, introducing their approaches to working with culturally plural mindsets.
Through relational and interdisciplinary frameworks, these researchers have initiated a new collaboration to explore what it means to be ‘Third Culture’, and are working to activate consideration of and give voice to people who don’t define their sense of identity through a single nation-state.
For growing numbers of people, describing “where I belong” or “where I’m from” is a challenge which cannot be described simply by indicating a single location/community; their sense of constituency is formed from instances, durational periods, journeys and multiple places (both territorial and online) as well as a process of continuous resistance of the assumptions inherent within concepts of monocultural society.
This panel discussion provided a space to engage in an open, reflective interdisciplinary dialogue with a focus on the world from the perspective of Third Culture experiences, such as liminal places, belonging, and identity in-transition.
For more information about the UNESCO RILA Spring School, please visit www.gla.ac.uk/research/az/unesco…ents/springschool/
For the full show notes, including biographies of the speakers, please visit bit.ly/thesoundsofintegration
Dr Deirdre MacKenna is a programmer of contemporary visual art practising in Scotland and Italy, developing and leading initiatives and processes which activate knowledge and create connections for people through transdisciplinary dialogues. Her research investigates social and environmental change and new methods and models of culture production. Deirdre is Founding Director of Cultural Documents, a non-profit which investigates and reifies place, language and identity.
Dr Laura Cariola is an applied psychologist at the University of Edinburgh. Her research focusses on the lived experiences of third culture kids and their mobile families. In partnership with the Forces Children Scotland and the Council of International Schools, her recent UKRI project focussed on how third culture kids use digital technology to keep in touch with her peers during global mobility. She is also the organiser of the ‘Child Migration and Mental Health’ course as part of the MSc Mental Health in Children and Young People: Psychological Approaches (Online Learning) at the University of Edinburgh.
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For the recording please listen here.
