On March 12, 2021 eight HLS Title VI centers at IUB presented a faculty development conference for the International Studies Consortium of Georgia, established in 1993 and comprised of the following universities and colleges: Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College (ABAC), Andrew College, Dalton State College, Georgia Highlands College, Gordon State College, South Georgia State College, Albany State University (HBCU), Middle Georgia State University, Clayton State University, Fort Valley State University(HBCU), and the University of North Georgia.
The centers worked with Dr. Rajgopal Sashti, the Director of the International Studies Consortium of Georgia. Over the years the Georgia Consortium collaborated with a number of institutions of higher education to organize professional development programs and intercultural forums on global issues and international development for its faculty.
The overarching theme of the conference on March 12 was Globalization and Technology: The Fourth Industrial Revolution. IAUNRC invited Malika Bahovadinova who received her doctoral degree in Indiana University in Cultural and Social Anthropology and is currently a Postdoctoral Fellow for Building Tomorrow Program at the University of Amsterdam, Netherlands. She does research on migration management bureaucracy and infrastructure and how they shape and are shaped by labor mobility in Eurasia. The title of her presentation was “Transnational Working Class and Counter Hegemonic Struggles.”
The evaluation and feedback from participants confirmed that the conference was very successful:
“This conference was amazing. So much information and research was explained as we opened our minds and attempted to absorb all that was presented to us. The program was very well organized and moved right along as it stayed the course to cover everything in a timely manner. Wow. I'm still taking it all in. I haven't attended many conferences that truly stay with a participant for days. Great job! Thank you.”
“Great presentations, cutting edge and fascinating - I learned a lot.”
“Thank you very much for the topical, informative and well managed conference.”
We are planning to continue collaboration with the Georgia Consortium and to present a conference annually.
IAUNRC continues to participate in the IU’s Global Employability Initiative. Since the development of the new Global Workforce Skills (GWS) Certificate for Ivy Tech Community College system last year, the Indiana Commission for Higher Education has approved it for eighteen campuses throughout the state. The GWS Certificate Introduction course (GLOB 101) ran as a virtual class for the first time during the Spring 2021 semester.
The third workshop in the Ivy Tech International Career Series presented by several IU NRCs and CIBER took place on March 19, 2021 and was devoted to Supply Chain sector of global careers. We had four speakers representing Conexus Indiana, Cummins Inc., Piazza Produce, Gordon Food Service as well as the Director of Supply Chain Consulting Practicum from the Kelley School of Business.
IAUNRC participated in a speaker series for Dr. A’ame Joslin’s Multicultural Education and Global Awareness course at IUPUC. On April 7, 2021, Brian Cwiek’s talk, titled “The Education and ‘Reeducation’ of Uyghurs, Kazakhs, and Others in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region,” addressed recent developments in that region. Students learned about long term impacts associated with curricula that deemphasize the meaningful incorporation of the languages and cultures of ethnic minorities. In addition, the presentation also addressed how mass internments were related to coercive forms of adult education. Students not only benefited from learning about recent events, but were able to use this case as a mirror to reflect upon their own beliefs and educational experiences in the United States.
Because of the virtual format of all our events and lectures, faculty from our collaborating MSIs and CCs were able to attend them, something that was rarely possible in the past. We are planning on creating hybrid events in the future to keep them open to our collaborators across the country.