Professional Development Workshops

 

When: Thursdays, 6:00-7:30 p.m. (details below)

Where: Virtual

 

This reading group for K-16 educators explores literary texts from a global perspective. Content specialists present the work and its context, and participants brainstorm innovative pedagogical practices for incorporating the text and its themes into the curriculum. A copy of the book and 3 Act 48 credit hours are provided for each session. Contact Catherine Fratto with questions. Registration required. Find more information about the program and book selections on the Global Issues Through Literature (GILS) webpage.

 

Dates and Selections listed below:

January 30, 2025: The Breadwinner by Deborah Ellis

March 27, 2025: Hope against Hope by Sheena Wilkinson

April 24, 2025: City of Saints and Thieves by Natalie C. Anderson

May 15, 2025: K-Pop Confidential by Stephan Lee

CERIS Spring 2025 Book Discussion

 

When: Friday, April 4, 2025 from 5:00-8:00 p.m. and Saturday, April 5, 2025 8:30 a.m.-4:00 p.m.

Location: 4130 Posvar Hall, University of Pittsburgh and Virtually

This two-day, K-12 mini course explores the Opium Wars of the 19th century, their causes, and far-reaching consequences, connecting historical events with modern global issues. Through examining the relationship between imperialism, trade, and culture, participants will gain insight into how the Opium Wars reshaped international dynamics, especially between China and Western powers, including the emerging empire of the United States. Sessions include presentations, activities and teacher-led strategies for curricular development.

 

For more information, check out the Registration page. Registration is required. 

 

If you have any questions, please contact Catherine Fratto.

When: Tuesday, October 29, 2024 from 5:00-6:30 p.m.

Where: Zoom

 

Join us for this free online K-12 educator workshop that will explore the topic of migration today through the global lens of politics, economics, and climatic changes.

Using modern-day migration case studies, our presenters will share content and pedagogical strategies to help introduce or extend your current study of the topic of migration in the classroom. ACT 48 hours will be provided for PA educators as well as resources and materials for classroom use.  Register here. 

 

 

Dr. Eleanor Gordon, “Migration, Conflict, Climate Change and Economic Inequalities: The Intersection of Crises and the Marginalization of Vulnerable Groups”

Dr. Eleanor Gordon has spent 25 years working in the field of conflict, security, justice and human rights. This includes 10 years working in UN peace operations in management and advisory roles, and a further 15 years as a scholar and consultant to various governments, international organizations and universities. She is currently the Director of Monash University’s Global Peace and Security research center (Monash GPS), which addresses intersecting threats to peace and security. Her research, teaching and practice focus on inclusive approaches to building security and justice during and after conflict. Her current research investigates barriers to the participation of women in peacekeeping and peacebuilding, including caring responsibilities as a driver of women's underrepresentation, funded by the Government of Canada as part of the Elsie Initiative for Women in Peace Operations 

Dr. Piro Rexhepi is a research fellow at the School of Slavonic and East European Studies at UCL. He is the author of White Enclosures: Racial Capitalism and Coloniality along the Balkan Route (Duke University Press, 2023). 

Dr. Meredith Oyen, “The Challenge of Chinese Migration across the U.S. Southern Border."

Dr. Meredith Oyen is an Associate Professor in the Department of History at the University of Maryland Baltimore County. Professor Oyen teaches courses on U.S. History and U.S. Diplomatic History. She specializes in the history of Sino-American relations, focusing her research on the role of migrants, transnational networks, and nongovernmental organizations in bilateral relations in the twentieth century. Before coming to UMBC, she taught for two years at the Johns Hopkins University-Nanjing University Center for Chinese and American Studies. Her book, The Diplomacy of Migration: Transnational Lives and the Making of U.S.-Chinese Relations in the Cold War, was published by Cornell University Press in 2015.  She has published articles in Diplomatic History, Journal of Cold War Studies, and Modern Asian Studies.  Professor Oyen is currently at work on a project involving Jewish refugees in WWII Shanghai.  Professor Oyen served as the first Faculty Veterans Fellow at UMBC in 2015-2016.  She participated in an NEH summer institute on Veterans Studies in summer 2016.   She won a 2017 Hrabowski Innovation grant for her project on creating a better environment for UMBC’s Student Veterans. She also won 2017 CAHSS Summer Faculty Research Fellowship (SFRF) from the Dresher Center at UMBC for her new project: Shanghai Survivors: World War Two’s Displaced Persons in Asia and the International Politics of Refugee Resettlement. 

Dr. Innocent Badasu is a Visiting Assistant Professor of African Politics in the Department of Africana Studies at the University of Pittsburgh.

As a scholar- practitioner, his teaching and research interests focus on Africa’s political history, African political economy, African agency in international politics, electoral politics and democratization, US foreign policy in Africa, migration and the Global south issues. He is also interested in protest movements, political violence, refugee studies and international security with emphasis on Africa. He is currently working on a book project titled Losers Consent in African Elections: Evidence from Ghana and Kenya. In this book, he seeks to explore the complex interrelated factors that shape the decision making of candidates and political parties in consenting to an electoral loss and how other political actors matter in preventing post-election violence. 

Dr. Badasu earned his PhD and MA in International Relations from the University of Ghana; LLM in International Law from the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Switzerland. He has taught at the graduate and undergraduate level in a number of universities in Ghana: University of Ghana, Lancaster University, Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration and the Ghana Armed Forces Staff and Command College.

The sessions can be counted as an elective for the Global Studies Center’s K-12 Educator’s Certificate in Global Studies. Educators can also receive up to six (2 hours per session) of Act 48 credit hours for attending all three sessions. Participation in all three events in the series is not required but encouraged.

 

Virtual on Zoom

 

Accepted participants will receive a $200 stipend

 

 

These days, educators at all levels are worried about technology in their classrooms. How can we help our students use it responsibly? How can we, as teachers, incorporate technology in our classrooms in ways that help students think about truth claims and the link between information and power?

 

While AI and ChatGPT dominate today’s discussions around these issues, concern about technology, authenticity, and authority have a long and global history.  In this one-day virtual professional development workshop for educators at all levels, our three speakers will explore 500 years of “big data”, technology and political disinformation, and people’s fascination with the idea of “automatic writing.” Apply here by uploading a resume, short letter of interest, and a sample assignment.