New Information and Communication Technologies
 | Based on a loose international network of scholars, the IEC is increasingly using new information and communication technologies to carry out its activities in cost effective fashion. The IEC is keen to continue expanding the use of NIC technologies, together with a broad variety of digital tools, to create virtual spaces for free academic exchange and dialogue on Cuban affairs connecting scholars in the island and the Diaspora. |
ACTIVITIES
The IEC develops various initiatives in the following fields:- Academic events and training
- Production of educational and research resources
- Facilitating dialogue and consensus building processes
- Fostering national reconciliation
- Citizen Diplomacy towards conflict transformation
Programs
The above mentioned activities are organized around the following four IEC programs:Cuban Studies
An essential part of our institutional mission is to foster the interest in Cuban affairs and support studies in this field. To that end the IEC members organize every year various seminars, round tables, workshops, lectures, publish articles and support research activities of its members.
Being part of the IEC also offers its membership a space to forge and develop a new field of independent Cuban Studies, to publish or promote books, essays and newsletters on this field of interest, as well as, to organize panels at professional international gatherings such as the Latin American Studies Association (LASA) and Caribbean Studies Association (CSA)
Con Cuba
Since 2009, the IEC manages and work on the expansion of the specialized educational and research resource Con Cuba (www.concuba.org).
Diaspora Dialogues
The IEC educate and trains in dialogue, negotiation consensus building techniques in close partnership with Miami Dade College.
Since 2005, Consenso Cubano (www.consensocubano.org), a plural umbrella of two dozen influential organizations, has also benefited from some of the training activities above mentioned. In recognition to transparent IEC’s commitment to pluralism and non violent conflict transformation, as well as our institutional capabilities as consensus builder, Consenso Cubano asked the IEC to chair its meetings and to act as its general coordinator.
Fostering National Reconciliation
Since 1969, the IEC has fostered national reconciliation through education, discussions, publishing and the use of different media formats.
A former President of the IEC, Marifeli Perez Stable (PhD), lead an important project sponsored by Florida International University and Ford Foundation to produce a white paper on the challenges posed to transitional justice in any process of democratization that may take place in Cuba. Her blue ribbon commission included various IEC members.
An ongoing IEC video project, in partnership with a Canadian NGO (Citizen Digital Facilitation), is to collect voices of victims of human rights abuses that today stand for non violent change and national reconciliation. Fifteen interviews had been filmed in the Diaspora and are now been edited while another round of testimonies should be collected inside Cuba during the second stage of this project. The collection should gradually appear at the multimedia page of the IEC website. The multimedia section will also include cultural and musical video clips somehow connected to the topic of reconciliation.
Citizen Diplomacy
Since its creation, the IEC, –as an academic institution specialized on Cuban affairs, and based on its mission and values, - has engaged in various hearings, dialogues and exchanges with representatives of the governments of Cuba and the United States as well as from different countries of Europe and Latin America.