Our Summer 2025!
GMD Founder Viviana Premazzi: A Summer of Research, Teaching, and Global Exchange in Brisbane
This summer, Viviana Premazzi, Founder of Global Mindset Development (GMD), brought her expertise in intercultural competence and global learning to Australia as a Visiting Faculty at Queensland University of Technology (QUT) in Brisbane.
Viviana participated in the joint conference of the International Academy for Intercultural Research (IAIR) and the International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology (IACCP), a prestigious gathering of scholars and practitioners dedicated to advancing intercultural understanding.
At the conference, together with her SAS colleague, Dr Sven Tuzovic, she presented their paper: “Semester at Sea: Building Community Resilience Amidst Global Uncertainty,” as part of the symposium “Applying Theory to Practice in #StudyAbroad: Enhancing Intercultural Competence on the Semester At Sea / ISE Shipboard Study Abroad Experience.”
Beyond her research contribution, Viviana also shared her expertise through two interactive Human Resource Development workshops on cross-cultural supervision, organized by QUR Language and Learning Educator and PhD candidate Natasha Kitano. These workshops provided practical tools for fostering inclusive and effective supervision in international and multicultural contexts.
Her time at QUT reflects GMD’s mission to bridge research and practice, building resilience and intercultural competence in a rapidly changing global landscape.
Curious to see where Viviana’s journey takes her next?
Follow her updates and insights on LinkedIn and stay connected with GMD for future stories from the field!
Orrajt Migrantour Malta: New Narratives of Belonging in Gzira Square
On 25th of July 2025, GMD and its intercultural companions took part in an event held by the council of Gzira in the main city square. The intercultural Orrajt Migrantour workshop “Our stories, our streets. New narratives of belonging” was organized in the framework of the initiative “Mighn Pjazza tal Pjazza – From Square to Square”, aiming to transform public squares into vibrant hubs of cultural and artistic activity. On this occasion, Gzira square was animated with standing panels displaying images and stories of the people of Malta. It also included a space dedicated to the display of creative handmade works, crafted by a Maltese artist.
At the beginning of the cultural event, Orrajt Migrantour intercultural companions gathered with an eclectic and interested public to discuss topics like “home”, “interpersonal and intercultural relationships”, “friendships”, and about “the Mediterranean” as a crossroads and a place of connection. In particular, the public was asked reflective questions such as:
– “What is home for you?”
– “What is home for people who have emigrated?”
– “What is home for the people in Malta?”
– “Who are your friends?”
– “Who is part of your support network when you are far from home?”
– “What does the word Mediterranean inspire in you?”
These themes were then explored through a series of workshops and activities that brought together people from different walks of life. For example, when discussing the Mediterranean, one of the intercultural companions invited the audience to listen to a poem celebrating it and then to draw what the Mediterranean evoked for them. When the theme was friendship, other companions shared typical foods from their home countries as a gesture of sharing and affection, something they do with their old and new friends, and they offered them to the workshop’s participants.
The initiative, inspired by the idea of connections between locals and non-locals, continued with performances of singing and dancing by artists who were delighted to share their art with a wider audience. Initiatives like this one once again show that there is a lot of beauty we, locals or newcomers, can share with others, while exchanging creative and inspiring ideas.
Federica Pettinato, Orrajt Migrantour Malta intercultural companion