The next speaker of Fulbright’s Academic Speaker Series is a familiar face to the Vietnamese audience, Dr. Nguyen-Phuong-Mai, author of best-sellers namely “Con đường Hồi giáo” and “Tôi là một con lừa”.
Dr. Mai Nguyen (Mai Nguyen-Phuong-Mai) is Associate Professor at Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences. She also delivers corporate training in intercultural communication, diversity and bias management, cultural and organizational neuroscience. She is a frequent keynote speaker at major events and conferences such as Forbes Women’s Summit, SIETAR, Culture and Brain Science, ELLTA, etc.
In the last few years, she has taken interest in brain science together with her Master study in Neuroscience at King’s College London. She recently published a book “Cross-Cultural Management with Insights from Brain Science”. It questions the cultural theories of Hofstede and the like. It advocates for a shifting paradigm, from seeing culture as static to seeing culture dynamic, context is the software of the mind, opposing values coexist, change is constant, and individuals can develop a multicultural mind.
On this seminar, Dr. Mai Nguyen will talk about whether “culture is socially learned”, and the biology of our culture. Intercultural studies have been strongly dominated by the assumption that “culture is software of the mind”, nurture shapes who we are. Taking an interdisciplinary approach, we will see why culture is shaped by biology as well. For example, genes and brain play a significant role in forming the values of individualism-collectivism. Culture is not free of humans’ flesh and blood. It’s nature AND nurture. This seminar introduces a holistic look at our own culture and discusses the directions in theories and practices as a result of this new approach.
The details of the seminar are as follows:
Date and time: 13:30 – Monday, January 6, 2020
Address: Fulbright University Vietnam, 105 Ton Dat Tien, Tan Phu Ward, District 7, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
Register for the event here: https://bit.ly/2SAKAoY
