MATE

On April 29 – 30, the University of Alicante organised the last workshop in the framework of MATE project entitled “How to design a public communication and awareness campaign for digital, online and social environments”. Due to current situation the training took place on-line and involved 14 students from different academic backgrounds. The aim of the workshop was to help students through short lectures on communicational and technological topics initially to comprehend issues on hate speech and the forms it is expressed and afterwards to be able to create their own personal campaign via the production of short duration audiovisual spots which would convey their aspect on racism and xenophobia.

In the framework of European project MATE past December, 21 local students of the University of Alicante were trained in the Human Universals or Commonalities concept to further become MATE facilitators.

Donald E. Brown, American professor of anthropology, in his book “Human Universals” (1991), explains that human universals or commonalities "comprise those features of culture, society, language, behaviour, and psyche for which there are no known exception". In other words, they are attributes that characterise us all or which we have adopted collectively during human evolution and progress.

In the framework of the Erasmus+ project MATE – An Innovative, Student-Centered Approach to Intercultural Skills Acquisition for Students and Young Migrants, coordinated by M.M.C. Mediterranean Management Centre (Cyprus), the University of Alicante implemented 5 “Report Racism” Workshops. 

The aim of the workshops was to help students comprehend how dominant discourses – often carrying bias, stereotypes, and ill perceptions – are formed and reproduced. The main topic of the workshops – Hate Speech – was divided in five subtopics, comprising the five modules of the curriculum and corresponding to important aspects of the “Hate Speech phenomenon”, as discussed and decided by the MATE partnership.

El pasado 17 de diciembre, varias personas de diferentes ámbitos profesionales y académicos asistieron al evento de presentación del Proyecto MATE organizado por la OGPI en la Universidad de Alicante. Este proyecto trata de identificar las percepciones, posturas y actitudes de estudiantes hacia distintas formas del discurso de odio en las redes sociales y en la vida cotidiana.

Entre el público que asistió a este evento había profesorado, estudiantes y expertos en diferentes ámbitos como sociología, trabajo social, estudios árabes, filología inglesa y traducción e interpretación. También nos acompañó funcionariado del Ayuntamiento de Alicante representado por la Jefa del Departamento de Inmigración y de la Generalitat Valenciana, representada por la Directora General de las Relaciones con la UE y el Estado.