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Global Initiatives Staff Invited to Present at Fall Conferences

Molly Heidemann, Dave McAvoy, Alicia Castillo Shrestha, and Tarah Trueblood

Four Global Initiatives staff members will be presenting at conferences during the months of October and November.

In early October, two staff members will be part of Miami's 3rd annual Accross the Divide Diversity and Inclusion Conference. International Student and Scholar Services director Molly Heidemann will facilitate a discussion panel, "Study Abroad in the United States: The International Student Experience." A panel of international undergraduate and graduate students will discuss their experiences both in and out of the classroom and propose actions toward meeting our inclusion goals. Audience participants will review the Miami experience from the international student perspective, and formulate actions that will ensure a welcoming environment for international students at Miami University and in our local communities.

Tarah Trueblood, director of the Center for American and World Cultures, will co-present "Strategies to Identify and Dismantle White Supremacy in the Classroom" with Dr. Gillian Oakenfull (marketing) and graduate student Natalee Price. Attendees will be presented with Critical Whiteness Studies concepts, common ways that Whiteness presents itself in classrooms, and strategies to dismantle aspects of White culture that serve as barriers to inclusion. 

Later in October, Global Learning Coordinator David McAvoy and Program Coordinator Alicia Castillo Shrestha will co-present their session, “Building Intercultural Skills with Students & Faculty through Credentialing Programs," at the NAFSA: Association of International Educators All-Region Summit, held virtually. NAFSA, the world's largest nonprofit association dedicated to international education and exchange, encompasses 11 regions, and the virtual format will allow registrants to explore content from outside of their home region.

McAvoy's and Shrestha's session will focus on two credentialing programs developed by Global Initiatives for students and faculty. They will share their experience developing and executing the programs before and during the pandemic, and participants will engage in small groups to discuss applications to their own organizations.

In November, Miami University hosts the 2021 Original Lilly Conference on College Teaching, one of the nation’s most renowned conferences presenting the scholarship of teaching and learning. Trueblood will co-present a pre-conference workshop, "Innovative, Interactive, Evidence-Based Strategies for Anti-Racism Work in the Classroom." McAvoy and Shrestha will present "Getting on the Same Page for Student and Faculty Global Learning," a workshop designed to explore the learning challenges of framing internationalization through intercultural learning outcomes. The pandemic highlighted the need for students and faculty to re-envision what global learning is, identify a more holistic approach to internationalizing the curriculum at home, and, ultimately, get on the same page about what intercultural learning is and how it can be done. This interactive session will give participants the tools they need to develop a global learning curriculum for students and faculty at their home institutions.