Fulbright Conference presentation, "Cultivating Global Citizenship in Higher Education"

I enjoyed participating in my third Fulbright Association Conference. This year's annual meeting was held in Atlanta at the Omni Atlanta Hotel.

I presented my poster/paper presentation "Cultivating Global Citizenship in Higher Education: Internationalizing the Curriculum by Creating Collaborative Learning Partnerships."  I focused on the project I developed with Professor Gabriel Andreescu at the National School of Political Science and Public Administration in Bucharest, Romania (SNSPA). The students in my U.S.Constitutional Law: Civil Liberties and Civil Rights partnered with Dr. Andreescu's seminar on religion and politics at SNSPA to work together on comparative legal research papers comparing decisions of the European Court of Justice, the European Court of Human Rights, and the Supreme Court of the United States on topics related to religious freedom in the US and the EU. My students' dialogue with their counterparts in Romania, explaining the US Supreme Court precedents we covered in class to their Romanian colleagues and learning from them about the ECJ and ECtHR precedents, provided an opportunity for my students (and the Romanians) to challenge their assumptions about American government and politics and to think more deeply about the role of religion in politics and in society.

For more information about this project, please see my blog

http://europeancourtofjusticeproject.blogspot.com/

Presenting the paper in the atrium of the CNN Center:

It is always a pleasure to have the opportunity to meet with Fulbrighters from all around the world -- and especially Moldova! I met a Fulbrighter who is in Atlanta studying Public Administration at Georgia State. We have shared interests, and we look forward to staying in touch and to collaborating in the future.

The theme of the conference was  "Creating Pathways to Peace: Global Health and Education."  It was with great sadness that we learned at the reception on Friday evening about the horrific terrorist attack in Paris. The event underscored that now, more than ever, we need programs like Fulbright -- to promote mutual understanding and peace.

There was a wonderful reception and private tour at the World of Coca-Cola. Pictured with USF Professor Darlene De Marie

What a treat to learn more about the research of Dr. Madeleine Hackney during her Selma Jeanne Cohen Dance Lecture. She shared the results of her studies about how the tango can improve mobility of those with Parkinson's disease. She got us to do a few tango moves as well! I don't think I have done the tango since my husband and I danced the tango as our wedding dance. slow, slow, quick, quick, slow.

With Stela, Fulbrighter from Moldova

The hotel was across from Centennial Olympic Park, which gave me the opportunity to visit my brick!

I was pleased that I was also able to visit the Civil and Human Rights Museum, which was located on the other side of the park.

at the interactive display at the lunch counter you can test yourself to see how long you could sit there and be insulted (the timers are lit in red)

in the theater with a video presentation about the Freedom Riders...here is the back of one of the "bus" seats used as theater seating

an exhibit about the Letter from Birmingham Jail

Coffee (selfie) with Stela to discuss future projects

Dr. King's notes for his acceptance speech at the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony 

outside the World of Coca-Cola, the inventor of Coke, Atlanta pharmacist Dr. Pemberton

USF World, Certificate in Global Acheivement

The USFSP website recently featured an article about the USFSP faculty who were recognized at the USF World Global Achievement Breakfast.



Three USF St. Petersburg faculty members were recognized at the USF World inaugural Global Achievement breakfast on Nov. 13.
Drs. Judithanne Scourfield McLauchlan, associate professor of Political Science and founding director of USFSP’s Center for Civic Engagement, Tiffany Chenneville, associate professor and department chair of Psychology, and Martine Fernandes Wagner, associate professor of French and associate chair in the Department of Society, Culture, and Language, each received the 2015 Honorable Mention for Global Engagement faculty award.
The inaugural Global Achievement awards were given to faculty, staff and administrators around the USF System. The award is given to faculty who demonstrate active participation and promotion of student success in the global environment.
“This recognition speaks to the quality of our Institution’s faculty and their incorporation of a broad, global perspective in their research and instruction,” said V. Mark Durand, interim regional vice chancellor for Academic Affairs. “We are proud to have these three scholars among the growing number of our faculty whose work is having an international impact.”
“There are a lot of really exciting things happening throughout the USF System to help develop global citizens,” said McLauchlan, whose work in globalizing course curricula was recognized during the ceremony. “Teaching overseas has changed how I teach here: I try to incorporate a comparative element in all of my courses now.”
McLauchlan was recognized for her work in several classes that connected USFSP students with others from around the world. In Spring 2013, her civil liberties class partnered with a class in Romania on human rights issues. In another class, she connected students with others in Moldova on issues of human trafficking. And when students can’t travel outside the U.S. she brings to world to her classes by helping them to interact with people around the world.
“I’m still teaching American politics classes, but I help give them an international perspective in those classes,” McLauchlan said.
Wagner, who was nominated for her global research on Francophone and Lusophone cultures and for her teaching and student mentoring, also has a strong focus on helping students study abroad. She helped co-design a summer study abroad program in France in collaboration with the Study Abroad Office.
She said she was surprised and proud to learn that she had been nominated for the USF World award by some of her students.
“USFSP students nominated me for the award without my knowledge,” she said. “It was an excellent surprise.”

Click here to see the USFSP article

International Exchange -- literally

Mayor Leslie Waters was heading overseas for an assignment in May/June 2015 -- to Prague where she would be meeting with women leaders from the Middle East.

We were so pleased that Mayor Waters was able to visit Chisinau, Moldova as well -- where she gave another presentation about "Empowering Women in Leadership" and to visit the Moldovan Parliament and other sites.

Mayor Waters was so kind to bring some small gifts to Moldova for our dear friend and colleague Larisa Patlis and her family -- and to bring some treats from Moldova back for us! A literal international exchange!

 

Peggy gives Mayor Water the packages to deliver to Larisa

And she brought back some treats from Moldova! Our favorite Bucuria chocolates -- and some

Маша и Медведь cartoons for Peggy -- THANKS Leslie and Larisa!

We loved hearing stories about Mayor Waters adventures in Moldova!

"Cultivating Global Citizenship" article published

I am delighted to report that the article that Larisa Patlis and I co-authored about our Joint Study Abroad course has been published in the international service learning journal Revista Internacional de Educacion para la Justicia Social (RIEJS)

"Cultivating Global Citizenship in Higher Education: Civic Engagement and Service Learning in Joint Study Abroad Courses"

You can read the full text here: RIEJS website

Florida Political Science Association Annual Meeting, "Facilitating Globally Oriented Learning"

It was a pleasure to be back at the Florida Political Science Association Annual Meeting. This year it was held at the Honors College at the University of Central Florida in Orlando.

I participated in a panel "Facilitating Globally Oriented Learning."

While I do teach a study abroad course to Moldova (you can see a video about the course here ), I strive to internationalize the curriculum and to provide opportunities for my students to become “global citizens" without leaving St. Petersburg.  

In my presentation I discussed examples such as my projects in Women and the Law in which my students worked together in groups with students at the Moldova State University’s American Studies Center on research projects related to human trafficking (more on this blog) and in Civil Liberties and Civil Rights in which my students working on comparative legal research papers about women’s rights in the Middle East were paired with a woman lawyer from that country (we partnered with the Women’s Lawyer Group in the Middle East) who mentored them on their projects (see www.womensrightsinmiddleeast.blogspot.com ). We ran this project in Women and the Law as well.  This semester  my students in Civil Rights and Civil Liberties partnered with a seminar at the Scoala Nationala de Studii Politice si Adminstrative in Bucharest, Romania, working in groups on legal research projects about religious freedom in the U.S. and in Europe (I am going to be updating this site with more information about the collaboration: http://europeancourtofjusticeproject.blogspot.com/ )

Since returning from my Fulbright in Moldova, I have been looking for ways to connect my students with students overseas to conduct research and to exchange ideas.  

Ours was a robust panel discussion, and I enjoyed learning about my colleagues' techniques for "facilitating globally oriented learned" -- including creative uses of international sources in the classroom, twitter, simulations, and exchange programs.  (I solicited articles to publish in the Political Scientist, of which I am editor, so we can share some of these ideas more broadly.)

The "Facilitating Globally Oriented Learning" Panel

It was also a pleasure to see my graduate student Marissa present her paper "The Democratic Peace: Achieving Liberalization and Stability in the Post-Soviet Space through Eastern EU Enlargement"

with my graduate student Marissa on a break. So pleased that she will be starting a PhD program in Political Science at Ole Miss in the Fall

Farewell visit with Fulbrighter from ULIM, visit to Tarpon Springs

Happy to report that we were able to see the Fulbrighter from ULIM (who had been conducting research at USF Tampa), Svetlana, before she had to return to Moldova.

She wanted to go to Tarpon Springs, the destination for an upcoming Fulbright Association event that she would have to miss.

As the tourist website  http://spongedocks.net/ declaraes

"The Sponge Industry helped build a Greek Community that is now famous not only for the worlds finest sponges, but for some of the finest Greek Restaurants, Markets, and Bakeries in the Country. What will you find in Tarpon Springs? The Sponge Docks, Greek Restaurants, Bakeries, Attractions, Natural Sponges, Sponge Diving, Tours, Sightseeing Cruises, Unique Greek and Florida Souvenirs, lots of Shopping, Sightseeing and Live Entertainment (Bouzoukia)."

We had a delightful afternoon in Tarpon -- highlights were the sightseeing cruise with a sponge diver who gave us a demonstration (and I learned about the 5 kinds of sponges you see pictured below) and the dinner and dessert at Hellas.

We wish we had more time to visit with Svetlana -- but we will look forward to greeting her on our next trip to Moldova!

Now I know more about the sponges that we occasionally see at the beach

We really enjoyed learning more about sponge diving

Marissa's MA Thesis Defense! "Stabilizing De Facto States in the Post-Soviet Space: The Role of the EU in Conflict Resolution in Moldova"

It was a pleasure serving as Marissa's Thesis Advisor as she worked on research that grew out of her participation in my Study Abroad course to Moldova.

The title:

"Stabilizing De Facto States in the Post-Soviet Space: The Role of the EU in Conflict Resolution in Moldova"


Very proud to announce that she begins a PhD program in Political Science in the Fall at Ole Miss.

Thoughtful discussion of her analysis of the ENP Action Plans and Annual Progress Reports, evaluating Moldova's progress towards resolving the Transnistrian conflict

with the MLA Graduate Program Director, Dr. Lisa Starks-Estes

with the Committee....thanks Dr. Mark Amen (pictured) and Dr. Marco Rimanelli for your guidance

It's official!

No better way to celebrate than with a bottle of Moldovan wine! One of our classmates from the Study Abroad course sent this to Marissa. Multumesc!

Wave Week Moldova! You can support their work

Wave Week Moldova is a wonderful program that trains volunteers and inspires young people to become civically engaged in Moldova.

I have spoken at previous training sessions -- and have worked with Wave Week volunteers -- and I can tell you this is a great program.

I just made a contribution using this firstgiving page to support their work. Here is the link, if you want to help, too!

Multumesc!

Wave Week Moldova page

Wave Week Moldova fundraising page

my previous blog posts about Wave Week Moldova

Speaking with the Wave Week volunteers in 2012

Betty Castor, Chair of the Fulbright Scholarship Board

Congrats to Betty Castor -- former President of the University of South Florida -- on being selected to be the Chair of the Fulbright Scholarship Board! 

You can read more about Betty Castor and this appointment in this article in the Tampa Bay Times

At the 2012 USF Fulbright Breakfast with President Genshaft, Carnegie Fellow from ULIM Larisa Patlis, and                      the Hon. Betty Castor

Fulbright Association Mid-Florida Chapter, visit with scholar from ULIM

There is a Mid-Florida Chapter of the Fulbright Association that organizes events and activities for our visiting Fulbrighters to experience life and culture in our region -- and to get to know other Fulbrighters who are here.  I am sorry to say that my schedule often prevents me from attending these activities. 

However, I wanted to make a special effort to attend one of these events this year so that I would have the opportunity to visit with Svetlana, a Fulbrighter from ULIM now conducting research at USF.

I was delighted when the activities brought Fulbrighters to the Dali Museum (right next door to our beautiful USFSP waterfront campus) in January 2015.  Sadly, I was not able to get out of the office in time to visit the Dali Museum, which is a real treat (see Dali Museum website ), but I was able to get over to the Hangar restaurant http://www.thehangarstpete.com/) to visit with Svetlana over dinner.

I hope we are able to see each other again before she returns to Chisinau!

with Svetlana, a Fulbrighter at USF this year, from ULIM, at the Hangar restaurant in St. Petersburg

USF Fulbright Breakfast 2014: ULIM scholar awarded USF Fulbright Medal

Each Fall, USF honors its Fulbright Scholars from USF and those who conduct research at USF from around the world.

I was delighted to meet a scholar from ULIM at this year's Fulbright Breakfast! 

Those of you who follow this blog know that I taught at ULIM, the Free University of Moldova, when I was in Chisinau on my Fulbright, and ULIM was our partner university and host for our USFSP-ULIM Joint Course (when my USF students traveled to Moldova for my study abroad course). And our collaboration continues!


Svetlana is not the first ULIM scholar to attend the breakfast.  My colleague Larisa joined me in 2012 when she was here at USF as a Carnegie Fellow.

Svetlana receiving her USF Fulbright Medal

With Svetlana from ULIM at the USF Fulbright Breakfast

(As I am trying to catch up on my Moldova blog posts, I am realizing that I did NOT (yet) post from last year's (2013) breakfast, at which I was a speaker....)