At the Crossroads of Cultures. Dialogues of Consciousnesses and Intelligences

The IPAG Chair “Toward an Inclusive Company” advocates for a pragmatic humanism at the workplace; it aspires to a continuous improvement of managerial practices through critical and reflective thinking, collective intelligence and expanded learning, and warmly calls for social actors’ ethical rising and for corporate’s plural (and pluralistic) regulation.

Aware of its social mission and congruent with its humanist aim, the Chair promotes a fruitful dialogue between science and art, the humanities and the organizational sciences, to explore the “Miracle of Human Being”: his/her promises and his/her challenges, his/her ambivalences and his/her resilience.

Under the spotlight of pluralism, the Chair promotes an innovative cycle of conferences entitled “At the crossroads of cultures. Dialogues of consciousnesses and intelligences”. Alternating seminars and symposia chaired by acknowledged researchers in management, conferences given by reputed specialists in humanities (such as anthropologists, ethno-historians, philosophers, sociologists, etc.) and speeches delivered by internationally renowned fine art gallerists, philanthropists, and lawyers, the cycle aims to be a bridge among sciences and cultures as well as a series of selected moments of sharing and discussing.

Open to all – and particularly researchers, doctoral and graduate students –, these events take place both in Paris and in Nice, thanks to international meetings or conferences (first and foremost, the 18th International Diversity Meetings), and benefits from institutional partnerships and cooperations (like the world-famous Museum Barbier-Mueller Cultural Foundation).

Levers for reflective and critical journeys, leaven for a growing civic consciousness, these dialogues among intelligences engender the “promises for tomorrow." By placing themselves at the service of an Ethics of Otherness, always lived in the present, these events encourage to recognize the richness of diversity and a call for building together a “Universalism rich from all the Particularisms” (A. Césaire).

The inaugural conference of the 2023-2024 cycle has been given by Dr. Adrien Viel, anthropologist, filmmaker and author of several documentaries and works on the Chepang natives from Nepal and their shamanic thought. He is also co-director of the Le Toit du Monde art gallery. The event was organized in partnership with the prestigious Museum Barbier-Mueller Cultural Foundation (with the philanthropic support of the luxury watchmaking group F.J. Journe - Invenit et Fecit), and the Association for the Recognition of Himalayan Cultures (ARCH).

The event has been opened by Prof. Maria Giuseppina Bruna (Dean for Research, Dissemination, and Impact of the IPAG Business School, Founder and Director of the IPAG Chair “Towards an Inclusive Company”), Mr. Juan-Carlos Torres (President of the Museum Barbier-Mueller Cultural Foundation and Chairman of the Board of Vacheron Constantin Group), Mr. François Pannier (owner of the Le Toit du Monde art gallery, international expert and president of the ARCH) and Mrs. Laurence Mattet (director of the Museum Barbier-Mueller Cultural Foundation and honorary director of the famous Barbier-Mueller Primitive Arts Museum).

The cycle of conferences “At the crossroads of cultures” continued on March 7, 2024, with an exceptional panel gathering as part of the 18th International Diversity Meeting (an international academic conference in management sciences), two leading French management researchers: Professors Jean-François Chanlat (Emeritus Professor, PSL-Université Paris-Dauphine - HEC Montréal) and Jacques Igalens (Emeritus Professor at the University of Toulouse, former Dean & Managing Director of Toulouse Business School). Moderated by Prof. Maria Giuseppina Bruna (Dean of Research, Dissemination and Impact of the IPAG Business School), the symposium enabled fruitful and interdisciplinary discussions on the humanist challenges of management. In our post-modern times when “no company can ignore Corporate Social Responsibility” (Prof. Jacques Igalens), and when a civilizational revolution is called to restitute to the worker his completeness as homo anthropologicus (Prof. Jean-François Chanlat), these worldwide renowned scholars pleaded for a responsible reorientation of organizations as well as for an “ethical conversion of management”. An invitation to critically think about the splendors and miseries of Corporate Social Responsibility and promote a renewed leadership as ethically sensitive and eco-strategically aligned as well.

On March 25, 2024, the “At the crossroads of cultures” cycle has been enriched by a fascinating lecture by Mr. François Pannier and Dr. Adrien Viel on the topic “Himalayan shamanic ritual objects”. Where science meets art, when the collector's taste meets the gallerist's skill, the pioneer's passion encounters the scholar's erudition, one benefits from a moment of intelligence and emotion.

Then, on April 22, 2024, the cycle hosted the research-based lecture “Epiphanies of Inuit shamanism: songs, amulets, and memory objects” by ethno-historian Prof. Giulia Bogliolo Bruna, an internationally recognized specialist of traditional Inuit thought and art, the Great North imaginary, as well as the first encounters between Inuit and Europeans. 

Grounded on a fruitful dialogue between ethnology and history of the arts, the talk explored the richness of Inuit shamanic thought, through an interplay between an aesthetics of meaning (Inuit shamanic objects) and an inspired speech (Inuit songs and tales read by the talented actress and radio-journalist Mrs. Myriam Guilhot). The conference paid a vibrant tribute to the late great anthropo-geographer Jean Malaurie and his ecological humanism.

The 2024-2025 edition of the “At the crossroad of cultures” cycle has been inaugurated by the exceptional evening “The Sacred and the Shamanism: crossed views on singular traditions”, promoted, to commemorate the 15th anniversary of the Barbier-Mueller Museum Cultural Foundation, at the Quai Branly-Jacques-Chirac Museum, by the Foundation under the inspiring aegis of its Director Mrs. Laurence Mattet, with the support of the Quai Branly-Jacques-Chirac Museum, the ARCH and the IPAG Chair “Towards an Inclusive Company." Among the guest speakers: Mr. Emmanuel Kasarhérou, President of the Quai Branly-Jacques-Chirac Museum; Mr. Juan-Carlos Torres, President of the Cultural Foundation and Chairman of Boards of Vacheron Constantin; Mr. Stéphane Martin, President of the Cultural Foundation's Scientific Committee, former President of the Quai Branly-Jacques-Chirac Museum; Mrs. Laurence Mattet, Director of the Cultural Foundation and Honorary Director of the Barbier Mueller Museum, as well as numerous researchers. Prof. Maria Giuseppina Bruna, Director of the IPAG Chair “Towards an Inclusive Company," had the distinguished honor of contributing to the commemorative book entitled “15 years of anthropological research, 15 studies to reveal 15 unknown cultures at risk," published on occasion. 

On December 16, 2024, the “At the crossroads of cultures” cycle has been enriched by a lecture, remarkable for its documentary richness and for its humanistic view, given by ethno-historian Prof. Giulia Bogliolo Bruna, on the construction process of the ambivalent and stereotyped image of the Inuit from the Renaissance to the Age of Enlightenment. A lesson of scientific criticism for all researchers and practitioners seeking for knowledge and alterity.

Coming up in the next few months: an interdisciplinary study day and other conferences at the crossroad of anthropology, heritage law and art economics…