SPICE’s Jonas Edman Moderates Panel of Community College Instructors

Sponsored by Stanford Global Studies, the Education Partnership for Internationalizing Curriculum (EPIC) Community College Faculty Fellowship program brings together a cohort of community college faculty and academic staff from various disciplines to work collaboratively with Stanford staff for one academic year (August–May). Each EPIC Fellow designs a project that aims to internationalize curricula and develop global competencies among community college students. Jonas Edman worked with four of the nine 2021–22 EPIC Fellows throughout the academic year. The fellowship culminated with the EPIC Symposium, “Integrating Global Topics into Community College Curricula,” which was held on May 22, 2022 and featured panels of current and past EPIC Fellows. The four EPIC Fellows with whom Edman worked are listed below. Each gave an overview of their project to an audience of Stanford faculty and staff, EPIC alumni, and other community college faculty.

Lauren M. Blanchard, Faculty, Political Science, Monterey Peninsula College
Project: Hands-on Migration: Service-Learning Curriculum in Global Studies

• The goal of this project is to introduce migration studies to Monterey Peninsula College. Crafting a service-learning curriculum will provide students the opportunity to dedicate a semester to the comparative study of internal and international migrations in the 20th and 21st centuries, alongside the chance to gain hands-on experience working with the diverse immigrant communities of Monterey County. This curriculum will provide insight into the international agreements and values that have shaped government responses to immigration in the past and will shape responses to migration in the 21st century.
   

Miloni Gandhi, Faculty, Global Studies and Workforce, Foothill College
Project: Virtual Study Abroad

• Virtual Study Abroad is a way to bridge equity gaps in international education at the community college. Study abroad is a unique experience to explore other cultures and traditions firsthand. However, it is often limited to those with the ability to leave their current situations for long periods of time or those with the financial ability to cover the opportunity cost of being away from home. Virtual Study Abroad allows for all students to have firsthand experiences exploring other cultures through meaningful curated content and authentic relationship-building with people in other countries without having to physically be abroad.
   

Tomasz B. Stanek, Associate Professor, History, Victor Valley College
Project: Global Ethnic Studies Course Proposal

• The Global Ethnic Studies Course Proposal involves the construction of a new global or hemispheric ethnic studies course with major emphasis on paradigmatic discoveries, environmental and indigenous ideas, transnational issues, climatology, human behavior, a trauma of conflict, and modern philosophy, all encapsulated into one community college course bound from the 1500s to the present. The idea of this course is to create an interdisciplinary discussion space and a comparative analysis beyond national borderlands and local marginality.
   

Alexandria White, Professor, English, Sacramento City College
Project: Black Atlantic Explorations

• The purpose of Black Atlantic Explorations is to provide a comparative approach to understanding the intersectionalities and divergences among Black Atlantic identities and experiences. Juxtaposing the diverse experiences of Afro-Brazilians, Afro-Caribbeans, and Afro-Americans through literature, art, and history will not only be provocative and inspiring, but will also plants seeds in our collective imaginations about the possibilities of Black Atlantic futures rooted in liberation and rooted in the “profoundest creativity to throw bridges across chasms, to open an architecture of space within closed worlds of race and culture (Guyanese writer, Wilson Harris).”

Following the panels, the EPIC Fellows received certificates from SGS upon their successful completion of the Fellowship. With the formal close of the Fellowship, they are now invited to join the Global Educators Network (GEN), which in partnership with Stanford Global Studies (SGS) seeks to inform, inspire, engage, and empower community college educators—and their students—to more deeply engage with global themes and learning resources, as well as international dialogue, research, and pedagogical strategies.

Reflecting on the EPIC Symposium, Edman noted, “Not only was it rewarding to observe the 2021–22 EPIC Fellows giving their impressive presentations after a year-long preparation, but it was also gratifying to see EPIC alumni from many cohorts interacting with this year’s cohort and encouraging them to join GEN. Importantly, I am most grateful to Kristyn Hara for expertly facilitating the EPIC Program over the past year and for planning and implementing this year’s EPIC Symposium.”

The EPIC Community College Faculty Fellowship program is made possible through the support of Department of Education Title VI funding. Pitches of all of the nine 2021–22 EPIC Fellows can be found here.