Ambassador Oliver on "UNESCO and Culture"

On May 24 at the University of Southern California School of Cinema-Television, Ambassador Louise Oliver, this country's Ambassador to UNESCO, gave an address on the topic:

American Culture in the age of Globalization

The address was made to the President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities, as well as representatives from the American Film Institute, the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, and the Western States Arts Federation. They were made in the context of a conference, entitled "A Symposium on Film, Television, Digital Media and Popular Culture," and addressed achievements and future opportunities for cooperation in these respective fields. Ambassador Oliver commented on the current age of globalization and how it has affected the popular culture industry. She suggested that in this day and age, film, television, and other forms of digital media have the ability to affect perceptions of culture. They can influence the way people view their own culture and that of others. Cooperation through popular culture creates a foundation for further global collaboration in other areas of interest.

Click here to read Ambassador Oliver’s remarks in full.

Ambassador Oliver on "UNESCO and Culture"

On May 24 at the University of Southern California School of Cinema-Television, Ambassador Louise Oliver, this country's Ambassador to UNESCO, gave an address on the topic:

American Culture in the age of Globalization

The address was made to the President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities, as well as representatives from the American Film Institute, the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, and the Western States Arts Federation. They were made in the context of a conference, entitled "A Symposium on Film, Television, Digital Media and Popular Culture," and addressed achievements and future opportunities for cooperation in these respective fields. Ambassador Oliver commented on the current age of globalization and how it has affected the popular culture industry. She suggested that in this day and age, film, television, and other forms of digital media have the ability to affect perceptions of culture. They can influence the way people view their own culture and that of others. Cooperation through popular culture creates a foundation for further global collaboration in other areas of interest.

Click here to read Ambassador Oliver’s remarks in full.

Reel Intercultural Dialog

Reel Intercultural Dialogue is a series of five short fiction films supported by UNESCO and made by students from India, Israel, Mexico, Romania and Burkina Faso. The project, launched in 2003, is a series of independent fiction films without dialogues. They deliver the young filmmakers' vision of humanity in peace and harmony and are dedicated to the international community. The films were created with the intention of increasing intercultural understanding and sensitising young people to tolerance, dialogue and peace. Such messages were delivered in very different and interesting ways depending on the diverse cultural backgrounds of the selected countries.

You can view the films through the Reel Intercultural Dialogue website.

Reel Intercultural Dialog

Reel Intercultural Dialogue is a series of five short fiction films supported by UNESCO and made by students from India, Israel, Mexico, Romania and Burkina Faso. The project, launched in 2003, is a series of independent fiction films without dialogues. They deliver the young filmmakers' vision of humanity in peace and harmony and are dedicated to the international community. The films were created with the intention of increasing intercultural understanding and sensitising young people to tolerance, dialogue and peace. Such messages were delivered in very different and interesting ways depending on the diverse cultural backgrounds of the selected countries.

You can view the films through the Reel Intercultural Dialogue website.

ICTs for Intercultural Dialogue: Developing communication capacities of indigenous peoples (ICT4ID)

Lizzie at work
Originally uploaded by Tim in Mexico.

In a health center in Patzun, Guatemala, a woman in traditonal dress and a foreign worker use the computer.


This cross-cutting UNESCO program seeks to preserving indigenous peoples’ cultural resources by fostering access to ICT. Thus it seeks to narrow the digital divide by making the technology more relevant and useful to people who are characterized especially by their lack of adaptation of foreign ways and technologies. The project waa launched as a direct result of the International Forum on Local Cultural Expression and Communication held with UNESCO support in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic on 3-6 November 2003.

"The Heart of the Cheetah: Biography, Identity and Social Change in North-western Namibia" is another effort related to this program. It is an ethnographic collaboration between filmmaker, anthropologist and translator, which aims to make visible the often unacknowledged life-story of the translator whose particular positioning as ‘cultural broker’ between ethnographers and indigenous communities is unmapped.

ICTs for Intercultural Dialogue: Developing communication capacities of indigenous peoples (ICT4ID)

Lizzie at work
Originally uploaded by Tim in Mexico.

In a health center in Patzun, Guatemala, a woman in traditonal dress and a foreign worker use the computer.


This cross-cutting UNESCO program seeks to preserving indigenous peoples’ cultural resources by fostering access to ICT. Thus it seeks to narrow the digital divide by making the technology more relevant and useful to people who are characterized especially by their lack of adaptation of foreign ways and technologies. The project waa launched as a direct result of the International Forum on Local Cultural Expression and Communication held with UNESCO support in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic on 3-6 November 2003.

"The Heart of the Cheetah: Biography, Identity and Social Change in North-western Namibia" is another effort related to this program. It is an ethnographic collaboration between filmmaker, anthropologist and translator, which aims to make visible the often unacknowledged life-story of the translator whose particular positioning as ‘cultural broker’ between ethnographers and indigenous communities is unmapped.

International Journal on Multicultural Societies

The International Journal on Multicultural Societies (IJMS) is a scholarly and professional journal, published by UNESCO. It provides a platform for international, interdisciplinary and policy-related social science research in the fields of migration, multiculturalism, and minority rights. Established by UNESCO's social sciences research and policy division in 1998, it aims at improving the linkages between academic communities in various regions and across different social science disciplines. One of its particular features is to promote the policy-relevance of social science research. Each issue is devoted to a coherent thematic debate on a key issue in the field of migration and multiculturalism. All articles published in the IJMS are refereed in external peer-review.

International Journal on Multicultural Societies

The International Journal on Multicultural Societies (IJMS) is a scholarly and professional journal, published by UNESCO. It provides a platform for international, interdisciplinary and policy-related social science research in the fields of migration, multiculturalism, and minority rights. Established by UNESCO's social sciences research and policy division in 1998, it aims at improving the linkages between academic communities in various regions and across different social science disciplines. One of its particular features is to promote the policy-relevance of social science research. Each issue is devoted to a coherent thematic debate on a key issue in the field of migration and multiculturalism. All articles published in the IJMS are refereed in external peer-review.