Promoted and nurtured for years, the philosophy of Borderland's work has matured enough to be successfully adapted for implementation in other border regions. To share its good practice in the field, Borderland has started promoting its expertise and experience in the academic world. So far, Borderland has cooperated with many universities around the world e.g. New School University in New York, the University of Michigan, Syracuse University, University of Chicago, University of Warsaw - Polish Cultural Institute and the College of Artes Liberales, Oranim Academic College, Israel, and the European University Viadrina in Frankfurt (Oder).
In 2008, the Polish Institute in cooperation with, among others, the New School University organized a two-week presentation of the work of the Borderland, including lectures and workshops for students of the New York university. The cooperation consisted in conducting workshops and lectures by Borderland team members, performances and video presentations, seminars and internships for students of the universities at the ICD in Krasnogruda. This year, the cooperation is going to assume yet another new form. Two prestigious universities - Rutgers University in Newark and Bologna University launch full time semester courses for students. The course at Rutgers is initiated by the chair of the Department of Art, Culture and Media, Professor Ian Watson, a frequent guest at Borderland, author of numerous articles on the work of our Center. The idea of the program was born last year, when the new rector of the University, Nancy Cantor, invited Krzysztof Czyżewski to contribute to the initiative of opening the university to its social environment, which in the case of Newark and New Jersey is a multi-cultural environment featuring many tensions and problems associated with the social exclusion and uprooting. Established then was also cooperation with the civic organization "Youthbuild" conducting innovative programs involving young people from poor families of the local borderlands. In this way, Rutgers University, with the participation of Borderland, founded the Urban Civic Initiative which is to develop a new model of cultural animation in a multicultural community, largely based on the practices of the Borderland, by conducting courses for students and combining them with "Youthbuild" activities.
Krzysztof Czyżewski has been invited this spring by Rutgers University as a visiting professor (Urban Civic Initiative Visiting Professor) and in the summer 2016, the International Centre for Dialogue in Krasnogruda will become the venue of the first edition of the program Summer School. Planned is also organization at Rutgers University of the "New Agora" Itinerant Academy to be conducted by Borderland and a presentation of the work of the Sejny Center in the local American borderland. In the spring semester of this year, the Faculty of Political Science, University of Bologna initiated, thanks to a grant from the Visegrad Fund for the first 3 years of its implementation, a program dedicated to Central Europe after 1989 - "Visegrad Countries as a Post-socialist Geopolitical Region". The program will take the form of one semester course to be selected as part of the curriculum by the students of the University of Bologna. The project leader of the program is Professor Stefano Bianchini, Director of Interdisciplinary Master's in East European Research and Studies Apart from its geo-political content the program includes also a cultural module - for its preparation and running invited was Krzysztof Czyżewski as the visiting professor. The result will be a cycle of classes for students titled "Identity - Dialogue - Trust: The Culture of Coexistence in Central and Eastern Europe" based on Borderland practices. The program implementation will include future summer schools, study visits and internships at ICD, conferences and seminars. The program will be based on "A Handbook of Dialogue: Trust and Identity", published by Borderland in English, Polish and Russian, the fruit of symposia organized under the "New Agora" Itinerant Academy.