In today’s ever-globalized world, increased international human mobility creates new opportunities and risks. As intercultural contact spreads, value systems, communication practices, and identities of individuals and groups are challenged within the private and public spheres. Different communities come together to inhabit the same space making demands also on mono-cultural understandings of national belonging. National economies in turn grow more and more dependent on others, partaking complexly within the global economic system.

Since ancient times, Cyprus has been no stranger to the merging of civilizations and the resultant benefits and perils of interculturalism. Acknowledging the urgency to critically consider various aspects of the multicultural climate of Cyprus and the world, the University of Nicosia’s Cyprus Center for Intercultural Studies aspires to promote the interdisciplinary exchange of ideas on a range of issues related to interculturalism.

Acting as a platform for dialogue among fields as varied as politics, law, history, business, education, economics, sociology, media, the sciences, and the arts, the Center organizes annual conferences, workshops, and public lectures to address diversity and equity on the island and abroad. Moreover, by examining the factors of race, ethnicity, class, gender, religion, language, and nationhood in cross-cultural interactions, the Center strives to increase knowledge of globalization and the intricacies involved in communication across cultures.

The Center’s objectives are manifold:

  1. to enhance respect of cultural difference and understanding of intercultural connections,
  2. to attend to human rights issues with a commitment to social change,
  3. to promote critical thinking about cultural diversity,
  4. to explore cultural conflict and conflict resolution, and
  5. to foster multicultural education.

The Cyprus Center of Intercultural Studies collaborates closely with the UNESCO Chair on Cultural Diversity and Intercultural Dialogue for a Culture of Peace as well as the Diplomatic Academy.