The UNESCO Chair on “Visual Anticipation and Futures Literacy towards Visual Literacy” is being officially established at the Open University of Cyprus (OUC). Chairholder is the Associate Professor Vicky (Vayia) Karaiskou. OUC joins UNESCO’s prestigious universities network, and the award of this unique Chair through a competitive call builds on the work of Dr. Karaiskou on Visual Literacy. With an aim to enhance individual empowerment and support societal inclusion, transcultural empathy and solidarity the UNESCO Chair focuses on mastering the tools to comprehend the subtexts behind cultural visuals. Its research work will focus on the investigation and questioning of how cultural visuals mould our thought patterns and determine our relations with the past, the ways we experience it in the present and carry it in the future. It will, as well, develop and provide tools for emancipated and critical visual thinking and acting.

The official Launch Event of the UNESCO Chair will be held on Saturday, December 10, 2022 at 18:00 (GMT+2) at the Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation. It will also be broadcasted live through the OUC eLearning Platform at https://bit.ly/3BYQdkJ

PROGRAMME OF THE EVENT

  • Welcoming and opening remarks by the Rector of the Open University of Cyprus Professor Petros Pashiardis
  • Address by the Deputy Minister of Culture Dr Yiannis Toumazis
  • Address by the President of the Cyprus National Commission for UNESCO Ms Loukia Loizou Hadjigavriel
  • “Future Imagining and Imagining the Future: Pathways to Enriched Futures Literacies”, Mr. Riel Miller, Former Head of Foresight, UNESCO; Senior Fellow at: Ecole des Ponts Business School, Paris; University of New Brunswick, J. Herbert Smith Centre; University of Stavanger [online]
  • The OUC UNESCO Chair “Visual Anticipation and Futures Literacy towards Visual Literacy”, Associate Professor Vayia Karaiskou, UNESCO Chairholder

Source: Open University of Cyprus I News (https://bit.ly/3uoZTCD)