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New Chief Global Officer Named

Brian Gibson

University of Utah Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs Dan Reed announced Brian Gibson has been named the university’s new chief global officer.

Gibson, a noted leader of internationalization and global engagement efforts, joins the U after most recently serving as executive director of George Mason University’s Global Education Office. He will assume his new role July 1 and will be working both on campus and remotely until students return for the Fall semester.

“Brian Gibson joins the University of Utah at a moment of incredible global transition and change,” Reed said. “His expertise in building international education networks will be essential as the university strengthens its support for international students, learning abroad initiatives, and campuses and learning programs around the world.”

In five years at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, Gibson founded the university’s Global Education Office and oversaw global learning programs, which doubled in size during his tenure, growing from 900 to 1,700 students. He managed more than 200 global programs, launching the university’s first experiential learning program and developing its first travel safety and security system.

Before his time at George Mason, Gibson led Northeastern University’s Global Experience Office for two years. From 2012 to 2014, he was a visiting professor at City University of Hong Kong; and from 2006 to 2012, Gibson was Columbia University’s assistant dean for Comparative and International Programs. He served as acting branch chief for the U.S. Department of State’s Fulbright Office from 2004 to 2006.

At the U, Gibson will be responsible for leading the Office of Global Engagement, leading the planning and execution of strategic internationalization initiatives, including the Utah Asia Campus, where student enrollment has grown to more than 400 students studying in six undergraduate and two master’s degree programs. He will be a member of the Academic Affairs leadership team.

Gibson said his passion for global engagement started with a transformative experience in high school, when he was a foreign exchange student to Sweden.

“Our conversations must always start and end with students,” Gibson said. “I see global engagement at the center of this swirling mass of creativity, research, discovery and enrichment, where we broaden our diversity and align strengths between our international partners and our faculty and broader university community. Indeed, robust global engagement is a fundamental objective of the university and it is everyone’s job, not just the Office of Global Engagement.”

Gibson’s research focuses on African customary law. He earned a bachelor’s degree in International Economics and a J.D. in Comparative and International Law from Georgetown University, and a master’s degree from Columbia University. He received a Ph.D. from the University of Amsterdam.

Gibson succeeds Chris Ireland, who is retiring after serving as the university’s chief global officer since 2018.

KAREN MARSH SCHAEFFER SELECTED BY U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE FOR ENGLISH LANGUAGE SPECIALIST PROJECT

The U.S. Department of State announced the selection of Karen Marsh Schaeffer of the U’s Department of Linguistics for a 6-week virtual English Language Specialist project focusing on engaging K-12 language learners with online learning in Istanbul, Turkey. Marsh Schaeffer is part of a select group, as her project is one of 150 that the English Language Specialist Program supports each year.

Marsh Schaeffer maintains roles as Director of English for Academic Success in the department of Linguistics, and as Interim Director of Utah Global Faculty in Undergraduate Studies.

Marsh Schaeffer’s dedication to global learning has been ongoing. She has worked with refugees, local organizations, and teachers to build language abilities for many students over the years. In 2018, Marsh Shaeffer received the Office for Global Engagement’s Excellence in Global Engagement Award. She was a member of a Linguistics team who were awarded a Global Learning Across Disciplines grant in 2019. She’s been deeply involved in the Faculty Learning Community on Global Learning and attended the Global Learning Retreat.

Marsh Schaeffer has previously worked in Narva, Estonia and Indonesia as a specialist and has helped with orientation for Fulbright English Language Teaching Assistants, as well. Her favorite thing about working with students is learning about their backgrounds, cultures and native languages.

The English Language Specialist Program is the premier opportunity for leaders in the field of teaching English to speakers of other languages (TESOL) to enact meaningful and sustainable changes in the way that English is taught abroad. Through projects developed by U.S. Embassies in more than 80 countries, English Language Specialists work directly with local teacher trainers, educational leaders, and ministry of education officials to exchange knowledge, build capacity, and establish partnerships benefiting participants, institutions, and communities in the United States and overseas.

Since 1991, the English Language Specialist Program has supported in-country, virtual, and mixed projects in which hundreds of TESOL scholars and educators promote English language learning, enhance English teaching capacity, and foster mutual understanding between the U.S. and other countries through cultural exchange. During their projects, English Language Specialists may conduct intensive teacher training, advise ministries of education or participate in high-level educational consultations, and offer plenary presentations at regional, national or international TESOL conferences. These projects are challenging and those selected represent the best of the U.S. TESOL community. In return, the program provides professional development opportunities to help participants experience different cultures and build skills that can greatly enhance their TESOL careers at home.

English Language Specialists are counted among the more than 50,000 individuals participating in U.S. Department of State exchange programs each year. The Specialist Program is administered by the Center for Intercultural Education and Development at Georgetown University.

Learn more at elprograms.org/specialist.

U signs agreements with the University of Aberdeen

The University of Utah and University of Aberdeen in Scotland recently signed a memorandum of understanding for universitywide collaboration and a joint exchange agreement opening learning abroad opportunities to students from both campuses.

“This agreement creates an opportunity for our students to study at one of the top universities in the U.K. and experience an institution with over 500 years of history,” said the U’s Sabine Klahr, associate chief global officer and executive director for Learning Abroad.

Richard P.K. Wells, vice principal international partnerships at the University of Aberdeen added, “Education changes lives, and in particular the opportunity to experience different countries and cultures can deliver lifelong opportunities to students. This new agreement between the Universities of Aberdeen and Utah gives a whole new range of opportunities to students from both countries.”

The academic disciplines offered at Aberdeen complement those offered at the U, and students across most fields of study may choose to spend a semester or academic year at Aberdeen once university travel is permitted again. “We also look forward to hosting students from Aberdeen on our campus and their cultural perspectives and contributions to classes and student life,” said Klahr. The partnership is expected to expand to include faculty and staff collaborations in research and scholarship, teaching and other joint initiatives.

The partnership grew out of a chance meeting that Joni Smith, Scottish affairs counselor to North America, and Ian Houston, now the U.S. ambassador for the Scottish Business Network, had while on an official visit to Utah for the 2019 celebration of the Golden Spike monument. Scotsman John Sharp played a key role in the historic driving of the “last spike” in the Transcontinental Railroad in Promontory Utah in 1869. Smith and Houston met Al Landon, David Eccles School of Business assistant dean, and found a shared desire to connect Utah and Scotland through student and scholar experiences.

The state of Utah has deep historic connections to Scotland due to early immigration by individuals who became leaders in the Mountain West, including David Eccles, for whom the U’s school of business is named. This is the first partnership of its kind between the U and an institution in Scotland.

“In the U.S. we tend to have a romantic view of Scotland—castles and kilts. While that is certainly there and that history and culture needs to be revered and preserved, it’s also so important for students and industry to see the modern progressive Scotland. The converse is true as well—Utah is sometimes misunderstood and people don’t know all that it offers,” said Houston, noting the innovation and spirit of entrepreneurship endemic to both regions.

The University of Aberdeen is ranked in the top 20 universities in the U.K. and in the top 200 in the world (QS World Rankings 2019). Celebrating its 525th anniversary this year, Aberdeen was founded in 1495 and has grown to encompass a broad range of disciplines organized in 12 schools, as well as multidisciplinary research centers and institutes bringing together experts in their fields engaging in cutting-edge research with colleagues around the world.

5 Ways to Integrate Global Learning in the Classroom

As the world becomes increasingly complex, universities are seeking to help students better understand the interconnection of global political, economic, social, and health systems. While not every student may have the chance to experience these complexities first-hand, as educators we can craft our curriculum and classroom experiences in ways that encourage an appreciation of cultural nuance and global perspective. Here are five ways you can help facilitate global and intercultural learning for your students:

Start where you are

Establish your classroom as an inclusive space.

Make it clear that your classroom is a safe space for diverse perspectives and earnest, respectful discourse. Be on the lookout for ways that you can encourage peer-to-peer interaction. Seek opportunities to broaden the content of your lectures to include examples and citations from around the world. Pose questions that invite students to investigate their assumptions and develop answers from multiple perspectives.

Find community

Join the Faculty Learning Community on Global Learning.

This supportive community is open to faculty and staff interested in presentations, discussions, and information sharing regarding global and intercultural learning. The group meets once a month during the academic year and lunch is provided by the Center for Teaching and Learning Excellence. All meetings are held in the Marriott Library, Faculty Center Meeting Space. Check out the calendar here and come join us!

Get funding

Apply for a Global Learning Across the Disciplines (GLAD) Grant.

The Office for Global Engagement awards grants of up to $10,000 for faculty teams to engage in curriculum revision, define global learning outcomes, and tweak your syllabi to design activities and assignments that meet these outcomes. Learn more.

Broaden your network

Join other state educators at the Forum on Global Learning in Utah Higher Education.

This one-day Forum is open to faculty, staff, and administrators at all Utah higher education institutions who are interested in curriculum and program revision to integrate learning outcomes and assessment focused on global and intercultural competency. You may participate in the entire day or select activities as your schedule allows. Learn more here. (Edited: The Spring 2020 event was postponed due to COVID-19 travel restrictions and will be rescheduled when safe to do so.)

Go deeper

Participate in the annual University of Utah Global Learning Retreat.

The Office for Global Engagement coordinates an annual faculty/staff retreat in early fall for U faculty and staff at the U’s beautiful Taft Nicholson Center in Centennial Valley, Montana. Conversation focuses on building global learning into curricular, academic, and student life programs. Participants can meet others at the U who are interested in global learning while enjoying the Red Rocks Wildlife Refuge, outdoor activities, and the peaceful setting of the Centennial Valley. Two sessions will be offered in 2020 and will include faculty and administrators from all Utah higher education institutions:

Session 1: September 3 – 6
Session 2: September 10 – 13

Watch our website, or email oge@utah.edu for more information.

OGE Announces the 2020 Excellence in Global Engagement Awards

The Office for Global Engagement is pleased to announce the winners of the 2020 Excellence in Global Engagement Awards—an annual recognition of faculty and staff who have made exceptional contributions to developing the global dimension of the University of Utah.

Dr. Debra Penney

Associate Clinical Professor and Certified Nurse-Midwife Dr. Debra Penney has dedicated her career to global healthcare of women. Specializing in International Health, Public Health and Refugee Health Service, she has been a valued member of our U community for nearly 20 years. Her reputation shows she has been “going global” long before it became a campus priority. Dr. Penney’s ongoing work with University Neighborhood Partners has fostered priceless learning opportunities for undergraduate and graduates alike. She stands out as a dedicated, compassionate mentor to students looking to expand their global perspective, whether through fostering supportive overseas experiences or initiating local projects with diverse groups. Her passion and dedication to our global community is evident in the way she serves her patients, our local refugee community, the U Nursing and School of Medicine community, and the field of global health care.

Dr. Steve Burian

Professor of Civil Engineering Dr. Steve Burian came to the University of Utah in 2003. In the 17 years since, he has made an indelible mark in many areas across campus. This year, Burian completed the five-year USAID project that created the U.S.-Pakistan Center for Advanced Studies in Water—a joint-initiative between the U and Mehran University for Engineering & Technology in Jamshoro, Pakistan aimed at addressing water security in the region. The project launched 7 new degrees and 32 new courses at MUET, boasts 75 graduates and 220 active students (36% of which are female), and has raised an additional 2.5 million dollars in funding. Over 160 students and faculty from MUET have called the U home for a semester during technical and cultural exchanges over the duration of the project. Burian logged countless hours of travel between Utah and Pakistan and remained readily available to colleagues in Mountain Standard Time as well as colleagues 11 hours ahead in Jamshoro. Throughout, he never stopped innovating, constantly seeking new ways to enhance the capacity of program participants. His efforts were recognized in 2019 by the President of Pakistan when he was awarded the Sitara-i-Imtiaz—one of the nation’s highest civil decorations noting significant contribution to the country.

Mr. Onsoo Kim

From his first days on the job as Assistant Director of Marketing & PR at the University of Utah Asia Campus, Mr. Onsoo Kim demonstrated a championing attitude, genuine concern for students, and desire to shout University of Utah spirit to the rooftops. He is a regular feature at all UAC events and is prompt to promote campus activities. It is notable that two of the nominations for Kim came from students. His engagement with our student community at UAC has been truly outstanding–above and beyond the scope of his job title. Kim has taken it upon himself to create new opportunities for students to intern with Korean media, marketing and PR companies. He has spearheaded workshops and job fairs that have helped UAC students advance their careers and has even facilitated remote internships for UAC students struggling to find internships in the U.S. “Mr. Kim has not only enriched UAC students’ academic experiences by offering numerous volunteer and work opportunities, but has also significantly
raised the reputation of the university through his participation in myriad outside programs,” notes one student nominator.

Excellence in Global Engagement Awards are peer-nominated and awarded by OGE in late Spring. If you would like to nominate a colleague for this distinction, visit https://global.utah.edu/excellence-award/ to learn more.

OGE Celebrates the 2019-2020 Global Learning Across the Disciplines Grant Recipients

In lieu of the Office for Global Engagement’s annual in-person awards ceremony, we’d love your help in giving a big round of virtual applause to the three teams who received this academic year’s Global Learning Across the Disciplines (GLAD) grants. These awards help faculty implement curriculum enhancements so that U students can gain greater global and intercultural competencies.

Improving Health Providers’ Cultural and Linguistic Proficiency

Dr. Deanna Kepka, Dr. Debra Penney, Dr. Sara Hart, Dr. Jennifer Macali, Romany Redman

Approximately 8.5% percent of the U.S. population are classified as Limited English Proficiency (LEP). This team aims to lessen the educational gap that exists between health professionals’ communication skills and populations with LEP by developing interactive mandatory student/trainee learning modules to improve communication and cultural understanding in partnership with faculty and staff in the College of Nursing, Pediatrics, and Internal Medicine.

Integrating Global Learning to Enhance Global Health Curricula in Graduate Medical Education

Pamela Carpenter, M.Ed, C-TAGME, Elizabeth Keating, MD, Anik Patel, MD, Jeff Robison, MD, Bruce Herman, MD, Angelo Giradino, MD, Sonja Raaum, MD, Caroline Milne, MD

This team plans to introduce Global Learning into the UU Pediatric Residency Program Global Health curriculum. They will develop a strategic framework with new co-curricular activities that can transfer and produce new knowledge, allow growth through transpection, and collaboratively address solutions to complex global child health issues.

Pasifika Indigeneity and Diaspora: The Global at Home and Abroad

Dr. Hokulani K. Aikau, Dr. Adrian Viliami Bell, Dr. Maile Arvin, Dr. Angela L. Robinson, Dr. Matt Basso

This GLAD award will support the expansion of course offerings for the Pacific Island Studies certificate. PI Studies at the University of Utah is an emerging field with significant potential for providing students with opportunities for global learning. SaltLake City’s Pacific Islander population, which is one of the oldest on the continental US and one of the largest per capita, offers a unique opportunity to explore the intersections of the global and the local.

Learn more about Global Learning Across Disciplines grants at https://global.utah.edu/glad/

Awards Honor Faculty/Staff Excellence in Global Education

The winners of the 2017 Excellence in Global Education Awards were recognized in April during the Office for Global Engagement’s (OGE) annual awards reception. OGE established the award to recognize extraordinary and long-term staff and faculty contributions to the university’s global dimension and those who have demonstrated excellence in facilitating global learning and intercultural understanding. This may include international partnership development that engages students, curriculum revision to include global learning outcomes, advancement of the learning of languages, and other initiatives that provide significant opportunities for global learning either on campus or abroad. It may also include providing support or mentoring to international students or students participating in learning abroad programs.

In order to be considered, faculty and staff members must first be nominated. Nominations must be submitted along with two letters of recommendation. Nominations can come from faculty, staff, or students. A committee composed of U staff and faculty select the recipients from the nominations and announce them in spring semester. Awardees are awarded $1,000 and recognition at a reception and University of Utah publications and websites. This was the first year that several staff members were nominated and OGE was able to award the first staff recipient, Marilyn Hoffman.

Marilyn recently retired from her position of Assistant Director for the Academic Advising Center. In this role, she had a significant impact on the experience and success of international students at the U, both directly through her academic advising, and indirectly by helping academic advisors across campus increase their skills and confidence in addressing the needs and concerns of international students. She was considered the expert on international student advising in the Academic Advising Center and demonstrated cultural sensitivity as well as vast knowledge of the University which made international students feel comfortable reaching out to Marilyn. She was also considered an expert among the advising staff members and was committed to sharing her knowledge and understanding of international student issues with the rest of the staff. Additionally, Marilyn provided advising staff with helpful resources she compiled to use when meeting with new international students.

Marilyn served as a liaison between the Academic Advising Center and International Student & Scholar Services (ISSS)/OGE as well as the University Academic Advising Committee to coordinate resources and support structures for international students and to build relationships between students and advisors. She was a long-term partner to ISSS/OGE in coordinating the International Advising Workshop Series once a semester which focused on addressing the unique needs of international students in academic advising contexts.

Marilyn’s nominator stated: “Having traveled extensively herself, Marilyn genuinely appreciates the value of cross-cultural awareness. All students benefit when they have the opportunity to learn side-by-side with students from vastly different backgrounds and cultures.”

Kathy Pedersen, an Associate Professor in the Department of Family and Preventive Medicine, received the faculty award. She has demonstrated an exceptional commitment to global engagement and provides students with opportunities to gain global competence. Kathy volunteers with the international community in Salt Lake City and connects students to these glocal opportunities as well. Additionally, Kathy has been very active in meeting health needs for underserved populations on a global basis for over three decades by conducting humanitarian outreach trips and hosting delegations from around the world to address problems with access to health care for those living in rural and other underserved areas in particular countries.

She has also led three faculty-led learning abroad programs to Nepal for PA and medical students which constitutes part of an elective rotation.
Kathy co-founded the “Global Partners Program” at the U under which she hosted visiting scholar physicians from Indonesia who come to the U for 9-month training programs in best practices in primary care, public health, and occupational medicine. This has resulted in rich cross-cultural experiences for Physician Assistant (PA) and Global Health students, residents in Family Medicine & Occupational Health, and faculty/physicians. Under this program, she has also coordinated a series of Emergency Medicine training workshops in Morocco and is hosting a visiting scholar from Angola at the U.
Her nominator spoke about Kathy’s compassion when describing her work. They stated: “Kathy cares passionately about the underserved in our community and around the world and works tirelessly on behalf of those less fortunate. She feels a sense of injustice and futility when trying to help diverse, often poor patients obtain sometimes critical medical care, preventative care, adopt healthier behaviors, and develop good lives for their children.”

For more information on the Faculty & Staff Excellence in Global Education Award and to see past recipients, visit http://global.utah.edu/global-resources/global-awards/excellence-global-education-award.php or contact Sabine Klahr, Associate Chief Global Officer, at s.klahr@utah.edu

Global Learning Gaining Momentum

The Office for Global Engagement (OGE) held its third annual Awards Ceremony on April 27^th. Among those recognized were the teams that were awarded Global Learning Across the Disciplines (GLAD) grants.

In 2016-17, OGE awarded three grants in the fall and one in the spring semester. The GLAD grant provides up to $10,000 in funding for teams composed of at least three faculty members to integrate global learning into the curriculum. GLAD focuses on transforming curriculum to allow opportunities for students to engage in global learning in their respective discipline. Winners this year represented architecture and design, anthropology, nursing, and ethnic studies.

Mimi Locher, Lisa Henry Benham, Jonathan Mills, and Adam DeChant won a grant this past fall for their project Transcending Borders: Embedding Global Citizenship Within Architecture and Design. During her speech, Locher stated that at a staff meeting they began to discuss “how we could start look at our curriculum, very critically, and think about ways in which to implement and integrate ideas like global citizenship.” Their project will create a working group that includes faculty, students, staff, and local practitioners supported by a graduate assistant to develop relevant programming and research to embed the teaching and practice of global citizenship and learning into their academic programs.

Shane MacFarlan, Adrian Bell, and Brian Codding, the GLAD faculty team for the Department of Anthropology, plan to formally integrate global learning outcomes into the department’s curricula and to expand and formalize opportunities for global learning. Research assistants will coordinate with faculty and students to organize offerings and assess demands. The final product will include revised syllabi incorporating global learning outcomes, a new proposal for an emphasis in Global Anthropology, and a series of poster presentations designed to promote the new global learning courses, emphasis, and learning abroad opportunities.

In the College of Nursing (CON), the GLAD faculty team made up of Debra Penney, Susanna Cohen, Amy Cutting, and Catherine Hatch Schultz, plan to conduct a comprehensive needs assessment (curricular, stakeholders and partnerships) and develop and pilot a “Global Facilitation” training program. The assessment will identify strengths and areas for improvement in the CON curricula and determine the role the CON can play in bridging global learning gaps. Findings will be presented to CON curriculum, Interprofessional Education, and Global Health committees. The facilitator training will equip global learners with knowledge, experiential learning and mentorship to collaborate effectively with individuals and teams in global settings, and will include both preparation for- and debriefing after- global learning experiences.

The Ethnic Studies team: Lourdes Alberto, Edmund Fong, and Elizabeth Archuleta initiated a multi-phase process to (re)envision a curriculum that emphasizes comparative approaches to student learning by challenging undergraduates to think through global perspectives, global flows, and global systems in relation to the U.S. Edmung Fong stated at the ceremony that “This is something that we’ve been talking about for a number of years, about what future directions for ethnic studies would be. This is giving us the momentum to really make that a reality.” There has also been demand from students to provide a transnational focus in Ethnic Studies as many students recognize the global in US ethnicity and diversity.

Over the past two years OGE has provided GLAD grant funding amounting to $100,000 to ten faculty teams. The success of the program is evidenced by the increasing number of U faculty (113 individuals on 30 teams) who have submitted applications; the development of a campus-wide core group of 42 faculty in 13 departments/colleges with expertise in global learning integration; and the establishment of a Global Learning Faculty Learning Community under the Center for Teaching and Learning Excellence (CTLE).

Common misconceptions of the GLAD initiative are 1) that it requires faculty to add content to their existing curriculum and 2) that it requires the development of a learning abroad experience. Global learning should be woven throughout the curriculum and can be achieved by adding global comparison to already existing assignments, for example, or encouraging international students or students with experience in other countries to share their perspectives with the class to better understand other countries and cultures. Developing themes within the discipline that address big global issues woven throughout the curriculum, can be an effective way to integrate global learning. The idea is to develop global learning outcomes: what is the pertinent knowledge and skills students in the particular discipline need to gain that prepares them for a career in a multicultural and global environment and graduate programs in the discipline? Once those learning outcomes are established, the curriculum can be adjusted to ensure assignments and class work allow students to demonstrate these outcomes.

For more information on GLAD grants and to see all recipients and their project proposals, visit http://global.utah.edu/global-resources/global-awards/. The following is a resource page for global learning: http://global.utah.edu/global-resources/global-learning-resources.php. If you have any questions about global learning or GLAD grants, contact Sabine Klahr, Associate Chief Global Officer at s.klahr@utah.edu.

Ethnic Studies Goes Global

By Brooke Adams, communications specialist, University Marketing and Communications

A new initiative in Ethnic Studies is aimed at adding a global perspective to the division’s curriculum.

The program’s courses on race and ethnicity have been largely grounded in a U.S. context, but that no longer reflects the transnationalism of today’s world.

“We wanted to explore more comparative approaches in ethnic studies, which is where the field has been moving,” said Lourdes Alberto, associate professor in the Division of Ethnic Studies and the Department of English. “Our students are also asking us to go beyond the areas we currently have organized in ethnic studies.”

The division received a $10,000 grant from Global Learning Across the Disciplines and the Office for Global Engagement that it will use over the coming year to study how to bring a global emphasis to its offerings.

Alberto is leading that effort, with colleagues Edmund Fong, associate professor in Ethnic Studies and political science, and Elizabeth Archuleta, associate chair and academic program manager in Ethnic Studies.

They’ll use the grant to form a global curriculum working group, create a learning “track” and propose pilot courses. Alberto said over the year they’ll bring in speakers, host workshops for students and faculty and begin to explore internships and study-abroad opportunities.

The Division of Ethnic Studies is part of the newly founded School for Cultural and Social Transformation, launched last November. The Division of Gender Studies is also housed in the new school.

“That has allowed us to really pursue changes that we’ve wanted to make in ethnic studies,” Alberto said.

The “Race and Ethnicity in Global Contexts” initiative coincides with other curricular revision activities underway in the division, including streamlining undergraduate major and minor degree programs and exploring creation of a combined ethnic studies/gender studies graduate degree program.

Adding a strong global component to the curriculum that emphasizes awareness, critical analysis and engagement with complex and interdependent global systems and their legacies will equip students to be transformative citizens and leaders of change in the U.S. and abroad, she said.

“It will position us to ask much more daring questions and to meet our students where they are,” Alberto said. “Our undergraduates increasingly ask us to account for their transnational identities and global connections — global experiences not easily slotted into our curriculum of African American, Asian Pacific American, Latina/o and Native American areas.”

An example: at its core, Asian-American studies have focused on Japanese, Chinese and Korean experiences in America but other Asian populations have grown in significance in recent years — Nepalese, Burmese and Indian, etc.

“Currently, our classes don’t necessarily speak to the multitude of differences within that category,” Alberto said. “Our students are asking to have more expansive content that covers all of this variety.”

Middle Eastern refugee and Muslim students also question how Ethnic Studies’ offerings align with their experiences as religious racialized minorities.

Another example: Native American studies have tended to be U.S. based but the reality, Alberto said, is that Native American tribes are sovereign nations that can be placed in a transnational context — particularly given the fact some tribes straddle the borders of Canada and Mexico.

The grant will give faculty, many of whom already conduct research that emphasizes global and transnational crossings and exchanges of peoples, the opportunity to think creatively about how to address questions our students have, Alberto said. They’ll be able to explicitly engage global questions on topics such undocumented lives and how legal status interacts with race, gender, class and whiteness.

“For the team, this is the start of a much longer project but for supporting our faculty doing this kind of work and translating all that exciting research into opportunities and courses for students,” Alberto said.

Adams, B. (2017, April 24). Ethnic Studies Goes Global. Retrieved from https://attheu.utah.edu/facultystaff/ethnic-studies-goes-global/

Listening for Solutions

By Liz Ivkovich, University of Utah Sustainability Office

During the course of two transatlantic trips to India, and a semester of intercultural collaboration, University of Utah students discovered that before you can solve, you have to listen.

From December 2015 through June 2016, history professor Benjamin Cohen and Stephen Goldsmith, associate professor (lecturer) in the Department of City & Metropolitan Planning, built an interdisciplinary cohort of six University of Utah and nine Indian student researchers. Tasked by the United States Consulate General in Hyderabad to create ‘market-ready solutions for sustainable urbanization,’ the team chose to target water. Hyderabad, the capital of the Indian state Telangana, was once known as the city of lakes. Today, Hyderabad’s residents face water insecurity due, in part, to problematic urban development. Cohen and Goldsmith used the grant as a singular opportunity for U students to connect sustainability, culture and applied research toward addressing one of Hyderabad’s wicked problems.

“The students came in with a sense that they were going to be confronted with urban systems that are in need of repair,” Goldsmith explained. “So they came in listening to Hyderabad, and from there you figure out the patterns that you may see or the urgency, and where you may want to intervene.”

During an initial two weeks of fieldwork in Hyderabad, the U and Indian students toured the city, observing, documenting and meeting with local leaders, activists, academics and policymakers. In the evenings, the students gathered over dinner to share their observations. This practice of listening and creating together inspired Sukruti Gupta, one of the Indian students in the cohort.

“We would meet in the evening and Stephen Goldsmith would ask, ‘So, what did you see today?’ It was just one simple question, but even though we went to the same places and talked to the same people, everybody had a different piece to share,” Gupta said. “Just listening to different impressions of the same thing opened us up to so many different ideas. Then you were sitting and brainstorming these two things together, and you would come up with a solution.”

After their fieldwork was complete, the students organized into six smaller project groups. They designed the projects from March to May, and collated them into a book. In June 2016, some of the University of Utah students returned to Hyderabad to present their results at a public event.

Julia Maciunas was one of the U students in the project whose group tackled the intersection of gender inequality and water issues. Declining water supplies have collapsed rural agricultural communities, driving many Indian farmers to migrate to India’s urban centers for employment. This urban migration places excessive strain on Indian women, and constricts facilities, limiting women’s access to basic human rights – such as the right to use the toilet. Maciunas’ group learned that a lack of adequate, safe and accessible toilets in Hyderabad has put women at risk of assaultand health issues.

While Maciunas was learning about the complex problem of gender inequity and water, she was simultaneously discovering how fraught it is, as an American student, to promote a market-ready solution.

“The project was called ‘Market-Ready Solutions for Sustainable Urbanization,’ so we were thinking, ‘oh, we’re going to come up with these solutions, but once we got there we realized that we can’t just impose our ideas on people,” Maciunas said. “The system is different — there are different cultural stigmas associated with talking about sanitation and creating a public toilet system. For example, jobs that involve cleaning — the caste system plays a huge role in any way that functions. It’s not easy to just say ‘get more public toilets.’”

Because the project partnered U students with Indian nationals, Maciunas was able to benefit from the expertise of her Indian peers. This intercultural learning transformed her engagement with the issues.

“Working with the Indian students really opened us up and made us realize that the project was going to have to go a different direction than we had expected to, in our opinions, be more effective,” said Maciunas.

As the project progressed, Maciunas and her group began to rethink what proposing a market-ready solution could look like. As they learned about the powerful ways in which Indian women are already driving solutions for water issues, the group decided to focus on amplifying the work of these women to the U.S. Consulate for expansion. The group researched the initiatives of several organizations, particularly the feminist development strategies of the Mamidipudi Venkatarangaiya Foundation (MVF), and promoted these efforts in their final report.

“The MVF work on only $70,000 a year, but helps build stronger communities in ways that respond to their specific needs,” Maciunas said. “That became our idea; to push these interventions out there to the government and other community leaders. We weren’t trying to reinvent the wheel, but rather to say that effective models like MVF’s already exist and are working now.“

For Cohen and Goldsmith, the students’ transformation was a powerful lesson in partnership building.

“When people think about India, they think about poverty and a ‘third-world country,’ and our students had those same views,” Cohen said. “As we got busy in Hyderabad, you could see student’s minds really changing to what India is all about. It is a much more complicated country and series of civilizations. India had many things to teach us about cities, urbanization and water usage. I saw our students become transformed.”

For Maciunas and Gupta, this experience of being creative together has lasting impacts. Gupta will continue to focus on urban water issues as a new graduate student at Cornell University. For Maciunas, who is finishing a double major in Environmental & Sustainability Studies and Business, the future feels wide open.

“It opened up my eyes,” Maciunas said. “Wow — I could do a lot more things with my degree than what I expected.”

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