Collaborations Across Indiana and the Nation

By Eli Konwest, Taurean Webb, and Isaiah Green

The Center for the Study of Global Change is proud to collaborate with many diverse groups across Indiana, the United States, and internationally. A central component of our mission is to find ways to leverage Indiana University resources to meet the needs of our partners.

This year, Eli Konwest wrapped up a multi-year grant with Dr. Deb Getz at the IU School of Public Health called Community Engagement to End Child Sexual Exploitation which focused on the global issue of child exploitation and human trafficking in three rural Indiana counties. Resulting outcomes included a resource guide for local communities, an informational website with a resource database, and soon to be published video resources on online learning materials.

The Global Center was proud to continue our collaborations with the IU School of Education and Dr. Vesna Dimitrieska in 2022. Highlights of these collaborations include a new cycle of the innovative “Principal’s Academy” which helped K-12 leaders think about how to comprehensively internationalize their schools. This spring, a new cohort of teachers presented their projects as part of the Global Literacy Invitations. Get inspired by checking out their projects now available online. This Fall, with the African Studies Program and the Global Center, the IU School of Education launched Global STEAM: free, immersive, one-day workshops for educators interested in the intersection of global literacy and STEAM education.

The Global Center was also proud to co-sponsor The Project School’s 2022 International Night on November 14, 2022. The Bloomington Project School is a K-8 charter school, specializing in project-based learning. The annual International Night allows students and their families an opportunity to experience ethnic and cultural traditions, customs, and crafts from around the world. Hosting a range of activities, such as motanka doll crafts, Arabic name-writing stations, performances from the IU Slavic Choir, the event’s co-sponsors included: IU’s Center for the Study of Global Change; Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies; Center for the Study of the Middle East; Institute for European Studies; Inner Asian and Uralic National Resource Center; East Asian Studies Center; the Russian and East European Institute; and the African Studies Program. 98 attendees were present at the event!

We have also been proud to expand our partnership with the International Studies Consortium of Georgia. A highlight was the Fall Virtual Symposia on Integrating Global and International Perspectives into Humanities Courses. Attendees at these conferences are faculty and administrators from southern schools, many of them at minority serving institutions. One attendee wrote, “I will incorporate Story Maps in my Introduction to Humanities Class and the global perspectives into my first-year composition course” and another wrote, “Excellent group of presenters! Very Inspirational.”

In collaboration with the IU Area Studies centers, the University Club, and Meadowood Retirement Home, we continued our long standing support of the Great Decisions Series of lectures for Bloomington community members and retirees. Global Center provided additional support with the series in facilitating a lecture on Climate Change and Foreign Policy by Professor Anthony Liu and another on Outer Space Policy by Dr. Eytan Tepper. 

The Global Center has also continued to engage with our community outreach efforts. Along with several other IU entities we also continued our support of the annual Lotus World Music Festival at their lotus in the park event held at Switchyard Park. Each year, Lotus hosts this event as a free way for the local community to see some of the many great musicians from around the world, such as the wonderful performance by the Finnish Folk Music group Kardemimmit,  that they bring. Further, The Global Center has been pleased to support the 2022-2023 “Bridges: Children, Languages, World” program—an opportunity for advanced university language learners to share ten global languages with youth across Bloomington’s several K-6 schools. Bridges is a wonderful opportunity to ignite a passion for global learning in K-6 students and strengthen civic-leadership skills in IU undergraduates. During the 2022-2023 Academic Year, the Global Center is supporting the teaching of Hindi.