UNESCO Chairs Conference: Greater Sustainability and Youth Participation at Universities
International Conference at Leuphana University with 70 Participants Provides New Impulses
2024-10-17 Drumming and sustainability are terms that most people would hardly associate with one another. However, for Ananda Abreed, they are inherently linked. The Professor in Theater has initiated drumming courses for young women and girls in Rwanda. "Through drumming, singing, and dancing, they learned to express their desires and needs," explains Abreed. The aim of these courses was to connect the participants with politicians, thus enabling them to influence the future of Rwanda and the transformation of society. What makes this project even more remarkable is that drumming in Rwanda has traditionally been reserved for men. Professor Abreed, who teaches at the University of Lincoln (UK), presented the approach and outcomes of her project to 70 participants at the international UNESCO Chairs Conference held at Leuphana University in Lüneburg.
For Professor Dr Daniel Fischer, moments like these are particularly enriching and supportive in his work, as he reflected at the end of the three-day conference. Fischer, who is a Professor of Education for Sustainable Development and Didactics at Leuphana, has, since February 2024, also been holding the UNESCO Chair in Higher Education for Sustainable Development at Leuphana. In this capacity, he invited colleagues from Germany and around the world to the annual conference. Its theme: The Perspective of UNESCO Chairs on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Leuphana’s UNESCO Chair is the only one in Germany that focuses on sustainability in higher education – there are 17 Chairs in total across the country, and more than 1,000 globally. UNESCO Chairs are committed to contributing to UNESCO’s objectives through international collaboration, intercultural dialogue, and interdisciplinary teaching and research. Central to this is the achievement of the SDGs, which are halfway to their 2030 target, providing an opportunity at the conference to take stock of their progress.
For the first time, young academics from the German UNESCO Chairs were also present at the conference. These young delegates looked ahead into the future, urging senior researchers to involve them more actively in current research rather than merely studying them. After all, it is their future at stake, as the students emphasised. "We want to make a difference," stressed Linda von Heydebreck, a student at Leuphana. Her fellow student, Unurjavkhlan Tuvshinbayar, presented ideas developed by the young delegates on how students and UNESCO Chairs can collaborate more effectively at universities. This is already being implemented at Leuphana’s Chair. In the coming weeks, a student representative will be appointed to the UNESCO Chair, Fischer explained, adding: "This individual will advise our Chair and bring our work closer to the student body." His colleague, Deepika Joon, elaborated: "A student UNESCO Chair is a completely new approach within the German UNESCO network, and it is being followed with great interest by other colleagues."
During the conference, attendees also engaged with current research on sustainable development and explored new perspectives to contribute to sustainability in the most comprehensive way possible. The exchange with participants from other countries and disciplines, in particular, sparked new ideas, said Daniel Fischer. Florian Kübler, representing the German UNESCO Commission, emphasised that networking, sharing ideas, and reflecting on processes are most effective when done in person.
In her presentation, Ananda Abreed showcased tangible results from her project. She explained how the young women in Rwanda had transformed through the drumming initiative, which she has also implemented in other countries using various artistic forms of expression. These countries include Kazakhstan, the Republic of Congo, Lebanon, Indonesia, Japan, Nepal, Palestine, and Turkiye. The participants of her projects not only bring their newly acquired skills into the political sphere but also into their homes, Abreed elaborated: "It also has a profound impact on their parents and other family members, enabling a shift in perspective," added the professor and artist. Thus, the work reaches far into the future of these countries.