(Academic) preparation of/for students: Inclusive Cultural encounters

This paper contributes to an understanding of cultural intervention across geographical borders based on two cases from the academic setting of RUC. The first is about preparation of university students, who would be future health workers in NGOs, the private sector and governmental organizations, through a course -Global Health: promotion, practice and power (Singla & Mubanda Rasmussen, forthcoming). The second case includes international bachelor students’ experiences of encountering the self and other within and beyond the socio-academic sphere (Engstrøm & Sandermann, 2016). The common aspects of both cases include the methodological empirical approach, emphasis on the process of ‘othering’, ethnocentrism and ethno- racial representations. The first case deals with pre-departure preparation inspired by MUD (memory, understanding and doing) principles, while the second deals with the ongoing in-/ exclusion experiences in the university setting. The results underline inclusion of both sides- the subject and ‘the other’ in the encounters. In the first case, participants both from the global North and the global South are perceived as active agents and students are encouraged to consider critically their own motives and western power hegemony. While the second case documents the experiences of inclusion for some in socio-academic practice of group work, simultaneously with exclusion in an array of spheres especially regarding linguistic barriers signifying embodied privilege, stereotypes related to cultural background and phenotypes. Lastly transformations in the socio-academic spheres for more inclusive encounters are discussed, through more (co-)organization about privileges, institutional racism on the personal, group and structural level against the backdrop of reflexivity. Word count- 250