Faculty Highlights

Professor Pushkala Prasad, Professor Charlene Grant, Professor Aiwu Zhao and Professor Ela Lepkowska-White presented their research and pedagogy that explores diverse topics of globalization at the Faculty Resource Network Symposium. This year the symposium examined "The Global Imperative for Higher Education" and took place in San Juan, Puerto Rico on November 21-22, 2014.

BUILDING A COSMOPOLITAN SENSIBILITY IN A LIBERAL ARTS INSTITUTION: MULTIPLE APPROACHES AND CHALLENGES

OVERVIEW

The focus of this 2014 FRN National Symposium is entirely relevant to us at Skidmore College where educating our students for “global citizenship” is an integral component of our strategic plan. In this workshop we explore our efforts to assess and implement a range of internationalization initiatives on campus that seek to build a cosmopolitan sensibility. Our panelists will (a) share research relating to our study abroad experiences and the integration of international students and (b) discuss different approaches to teaching and holding co-curricular events.

Presentation I:

Being Foreign and Returning Home: Assessing Diverse Student Experiences (Elzbieta Lepkowska-White, Associate Professor of Marketing)
This presentation shares the results from studies seeking to understand student experiences of studying abroad and occupying international identities in a liberal arts school. The first study examined the effectiveness of study abroad programs and the second looked at the nature and prevalence of adjustment issues confronting international students in a small liberal arts college. Both studies also surfaced possible resolutions and improvements.

Presentation II:

We are What We No Longer Have to Eat: Experiencing Global Climate Fallout (Charlene Grant, Lecturer, Foreign Languages and Literatures).
Oxfam’s recent media briefing details the lack of preparedness around the globe regarding food production that is already beginning due to the impact of climate change, whether this be in California, Zimbabwe, Russia, or countries in Central America. Their efforts can be mirrored on campus via co-curricular events such as the Hunger Banquet which our Spanish Club hosts. Here the vital linkage between such local efforts as the Real Food Challenge, making food served on campus to be as humanely raised and ecologically safe as possible, and the effects of climate change on countries’ abilities to sustain their agriculture becomes readily apparent to students.

Presentation III:

From “World in a Town” to World in a Classroom: Incorporating Ideas from Globalization into Managing a Diverse Classroom (Aiwu Zhao, Assistant Professor of Finance)
"World in A Town" is a First-Year-Experience course I designed to expose students to the dominant factors that have changed and are still changing our lives in the process of globalization. The course was first taught in fall 2011, a semester when the college had a sudden increase of international students. Many classroom management issues arose due to the self-segregation of students. I then applied some subject contents of the course, such as ideas on how to build teams in globalized business working environment, to classroom management when I taught the course again. Rationales and evidence will be discussed on how both American and international students had become more willing to work together with a mix of peers from different backgrounds.

Presentation IV:

Examining and Evaluating Transnational Cultural Flows (Pushkala Prasad, Professor of Management)
A major feature of contemporary globalization is the intense flow of cultural objects and practices in multiple directions. How are we to understand and evaluate these flows? Referring to current debates about cultural imperialism, cultural hybridity, and cultural translations, the presentation will share some experiences of teaching an international business course in which students analyze this phenomenon. A goal in this course is also to help students appreciate connection between cultural imperialism and soft power by looking at 3 cases: the entry of Yoga and Chinese medicine into the West, the globesity epidemic and the export of Western mental illness to the non-Western world.