This September, the International Center for Academic Integrity (ICAI) brought its first major European event to Greece. Hosted at Deree’s sunny campus, the Inaugural Mediterranean Conference ran with the theme Integrity as a Way Forward, enriched by the participation of nearly 100 researchers and educators from all around Europe, the United States, Canada, Asia, Africa and, of course, Greece.
The conference’s featured speakers included: Nikos Passas, Professor of Criminal Justice at Northeastern University, and Distinguished Inaugural Professor at the International Anti-Corruption Academy, Vienna; Venia Papathanasopoulou, Attorney-at-Law at the Supreme Court and General Secretary to the Board of Transparency International Greece; and Teresa Fishman, Director of the International Center for Academic Integrity and Professor at Clemson University.
Dr. Nikos Passas, the newly appointed Distinguished Inaugural Professor at the International Anti-Corruption Academy, has more than 200 publications on corruption, illicit financial/trade flows, sanctions, informal fund transfers, remittances, terrorism, white-collar crime, financial regulation, organized crime, and international crimes. Passas regularly consults with law firms, financial institutions, private security and consulting companies and various organizations, including the United Nations (ODC, Development Programme, Security Council, etc.), the European Union, OECD, OSCE, the IMF, the World Bank, other multilateral and bilateral institutions, the US National Academy of Sciences, research institutions, and government agencies in all continents.
Venia Papathanasopoulou is an Attorney-at-Law at the Supreme Court, LLM Legal Director, Secretary to the BoD and Corporate Compliance Coordinator of ATHENS INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT SA. She has worked as General Counsel, Legal Advisor and Company Secretary in various companies such as PPC, ATHOC, ATHENS STOCK EXCHANGE., OPAP, QUEST Holdings SA. She is a CEDR UK Accredited Mediator and a rapporteur for mediation issues at the Diploma in Negotiations program of the Athens University of Economics & Business. She is presently General Secretary to the Board of Transparency International Greece.
Dr. Teresa “Teddi” Fishman has served as the Director of the International Center for Academic Integrity (ICAI) since 2008, after five years at Clemson University in the College of Architecture, Arts and Humanities where she taught courses on subjects ranging from science, technology and society to digital and visual rhetoric. As Director of ICAI her focus has been on internationalization, learning-centered policies, and inquiring into the systemic roots of academic dishonesty as well as proactive, customized, and creative means of promoting integrity in both academia and society at large. Her interest in ethics and academic integrity dates back to her pre-academic career in law enforcement which also inspired her master’s thesis. Dr. Fishman believes that integrity and authentic learning are necessary to create, maintain, and nurture just and self-sustaining societies.
Such gatherings are necessary to establish an understanding of the many facets of academic integrity and the impact it has on society’s faith and confidence in education, as well as the added value of fostering a space in which educators can discuss, explore, and present their findings.
Though its importance is irrefutable, events such as the Academic Integrity Conference are not only crucial due to their content, but also due to their context. They bring together experts from all corners of the world and from multiple areas, bridging a range of different disciplines and promoting a multi-disciplinary understanding; opening up a dialogue between business, non-governmental agencies, and the academic world, public and private institutions alike; all hinged on the unquestionable need to protect and cultivate integrity in academia and beyond, as education has the inherent ability to shape an entire society’s ideals and morals.
FACULTY RESEARCH
In the true spirit of collaboration and debate, participants presented and discussed their research and work, with key topics of the program including:
◦ Integrity as a societal value
◦ The development of ethical decision-making capacities
◦ Courage and integrity in the face of corruption and injustice
◦ Veracity in education and assessment
◦ Educative responses to breaches of integrity
◦ Inspiring, developing, and supporting integrity “Champions”
◦ Research in academic integrity
ACG faculty and staff also played an active role in the Conference, many of them presenting their own research.
Professor of Composition and Applied Linguistics, Dr. Jane Mandalios, held a workshop to examine how vivas can help detect and prevent ghostwriting, and philosophy professor Dr. Ioanna Patsioti-Tsacpounidis presented a paper on “Promoting Courage and Integrity in Business Schools and the Corporate World.”
Dr Antonios Klidas, Head of the International Business department, proposed an “alternative approach to the design and assessment of student group projects, which utilizes key principles of managing teams discussed in organizational behavior literature,” to combat the occurrence of free-riding in group projects.
Dr. Alexandra Jeikner, Professor of Academic Writing and Research Skills, explored the concept integrity in Greece, in an attempt to start a dialogue to help educators “better understand perceptions of academic veracity in Greece as well as identify potential solutions to breaches of academic integrity despite the current socio-economic climate.”
Other faculty included:
School of Business: G. Papageorgiou, D. Gavrili-Alexandri, and S. Voliotis (Alba Graduate Business School)
School of Liberal Arts and Sciences: A. Logotheti, A. Sotiropoulou, G. Katsas and student A. Moutsiou (representing Student Academic Support Services)
and D. Loizos (O.U. Validation Office)
You can find the full program, including a session abstract for every lecture and workshop, here.
