Education
Ghorashi begon met lesgeven in 1999, toen ze een PhD-kandidaat was. Lesgeven is een essentieel onderdeel van wat ze doet als wetenschapper, het opdoen van inspiratie door haar interacties met studenten. Sinds het begin van haar onderwijscarrière heeft Ghorashi studenten uitgenodigd om samen met haar cursussen te creëren. Elk vak bestaat uit hoorcolleges die door de docent worden gegeven, samen met presentaties van studenten die vaak worden gedaan als onderdeel van groepsopdrachten. De studenten verbinden de thema's die tijdens de cursus aan bod komen aan een maatschappelijke casus die hen interesseert. Door hun eigen perspectieven toe te voegen en door de mogelijkheid te krijgen om deze perspectieven met andere studenten en docenten te bespreken, worden studenten co-creators van de vakken die ze volgen.
Ghorashi began teaching in 1999, when she was a PhD student. Teaching is an essential part of what she does as an academic, gaining inspiration through her interactions with students. Since the start of her teaching career, Ghorashi has invited students to co-create coursework alongside her. Each course consists of lectures given by the teachers accompanied by student presentations done as part of group assignments. The students connect the themes covered throughout the course to a societal case that interests them. By adding their own perspectives and by being given the opportunity to discuss these perspectives with other students and the teachers, students become co-creators.
Democracy is not only about the voice of the majority, but also about space for minority groups. But the position of and space for minorities can sometimes lead to major social tensions.
In the current era we are observing a paradoxical presence of increased connectedness through globalization, mobility and digitalization and extreme disconnectedness because of fear, indifference and individualism. We see that growing transnational (cultural and religious) connections go hand-in-hand with increasing populism and ethno-politics.
Societies, organizations and individuals are in the midst of growing diversity in terms of people, values and ideas. The paradoxical presence of increased mobility and connectedness (e.g., through new technologies, globalization) and extreme disconnectedness and individualism provides a new angle in investigating the layers of diversity. Culture, ethnicity and religion seem to have become sites of contestation, identity politics, and management.
Read more: Diversity & Inclusive Communities - Research Master Societal Resilience FSW/VU
The Master in Culture, Organization and Management (COM) is one of the courses offered by the Faculty of Social Sciences of the VU University. This Master course fills the knowledge gap with respect to the cultural dimension of management and organizations and provides the necessary skills to research and describe this dimension. It mainly concerns the link between organizational-political and cultural processes, which do not only take place within the formal structure, or the ‘system’, of the organization, but also extend to the largely informal networks within and between organizations.
Read more: Master Culture Organization and Management (COM) at the VU University Amsterdam
Master Sociology at the VU university
The Master Sociology is one of the Master’s programmes of the Faculty of Social Sciences. Halleh Ghorashi is lecturer of the English course Social Continuity and Change within this programme.
Postgraduate module Management of Diversity
In 2012 and 2014 Halleh Ghorashi provided the Management of Diversity module. This module was part of the Organizational Issues and Management Dilemmas-course of the Department of Organizational Sciences at the VU. In this module, participants learned to reflect analytically and critically on issues of diversity within organizations and the Dutch context by means of intensive, practice-oriented teaching methods.
The Benefits of Summer Course at VU University (2011)
Prof. dr. Halleh Ghorahi talks about the benefits of Summer Course.
Masterclass Management of Diversity (2007 and 2008)
In 2007 and 2008 Halleh Ghorashi has held the successful Masterclass Management of Diversity. This masterclass brought together as participants professionals working in various Dutch organizations interested in the issue of diversity and refugees residing in the Netherlands participating to the refugee empowerment project ‘Van Binnen naar Buiten’. The main goal of the masterclass was to obtain new insights on the issue of diversity in general, and specifically within organizations, by stimulating an exchange of perspectives that would help to connect seemingly disparate groups: (native) Dutch professionals and refugees in the Netherlands. The master class provided participants with a more in-depth understanding of diversity in organizations, stimulating them to create more space for agency in relation to the dominant processes of exclusion in organizations.