University of North Carolina Center for Global Initiatives
University of North Carolina Global
GO! Workshops 2012
Those at any level are welcome to attend any workshop; however, there are several noted below which are of particular benefit to those preparing for their first global engagement experience.
Click here to REGISTER for GO!
Session One: 1:30-2:25pm
Developing a Meaningful and Mutually Beneficial Internship Experience Abroad
Room 3024
Friederike Seeger
Director of Burch Programs and Honors Study Abroad, Honors Carolina
Bowen Kelley
Junior, African Studies and French
International internships offer students a unique opportunity to engage with and contribute to the host community in a meaningful way. Working in developing countries can nevertheless provide unexpected challenges. This workshop is designed to help students prepare for the realities of a work environment in a developing country by providing tools and exercises to maximize the impact of their internship experience abroad. Participants will practice how to set learning goals and navigate cultural differences. We will also explore issues of power and privilege that will foster critical reflection on students's roles as Americans working in a developing country. This workshop will enable students to identify ways in which an international internship can provide opportunities to develop skills relevant to their professional goals and help them market those skills.
Health, Safety and Culture:
Successfully juggling the tensions
Room 1009
Mamie Harris
Director, Africa Programs, Institute for Global Health and Infectious Diseases
Graduate Student, Department of Health Behavior
This workshop is intended for students planning to work in developing contexts, particularly middle and low-income countries. When does respecting culture impact on your health and safety? How do you say no and still show respect? How does transparency in your work impact your safety? This workshop looks at how we bring our identities into cultural experiences and, how to maintain our health and safety whilst embracing different cultural experiences. Cultural immersion should include balancing the tension between our social awareness and our personal safety and health. Through varied forms of dynamic interaction, students will explore these issues and identify value-based decisions.
Doing No Harm and Measuring Our Effectiveness Over the Long Term
Room 3009
Tom Kelley
Professor, School of Law
This workshop is intended for students who will be visiting non-Western, developing countries to study or to engage in research. We will discuss American's attempts to understand other societies and other cultures, as well as attempt to help those perceived as less fortunate, and how those attempts sometimes go awry. The workshop will encourage students to remember that they are listeners and learners and to measure their effectiveness in their host countries over the long-term: years in the future rather then the end of the semester or academic year.
How To Be a Good Partner:
Tales, cautions and best practices
Room 2008/2010
Michal Osterweil
Lecturer, Global Studies
This workshop will provide some very concrete guidelines for how to be a responsible and ethical partner in global service, internship and research scenarios. It departs from the premise that while our intentions are always good, there are many things that can and often do go wrong, sometimes leading to serious consequences. The workshop will address possible logistical and ethical challenges you might face and how to best respond. Using a few examples we will suggest that rather than provide a blue print or checklist, we must internalize a series of ethical principles/guidelines that can help us act in a respectful non-harmful way in a diversity of situations. Students will gain skills in: selecting and working with a community partner, building trust and local capacity, and flexing with shifting community priorities.
Traveling and Studying with Cultural Sensitivity
Room 4003
[ This workshop is particularly helpful for first time global engagement ]
Joseph Jordan
Director, Sonja Haynes Stone Center for Black Culture and History
This session will focus on our understanding of what it means to be a U.S. citizen and/or UNC student while studying or traveling in another country. The session will examine some of the attitudes and situations you might encounter and will also consider your role in shaping those encounters. We will review some commentary from other students who reflect on their experiences, as well as consider the advice of those who have studied international perspectives on the U.S. and its citizens.
Session Two: 2:30-3:25pm
Students Providing Healthcare Abroad
Room 1005
Ron Strauss
Executive Vice Provost and Chief International Officer, Office of the Provost
Student panelists include Burcu Bozkurt, David Holcomb, and Molly Hrudka.
This one-hour interactive, student panel discussion-based session will encourage students to think and share about:
- How to envision working in a clinical or healthcare delivery context abroad so that it becomes a life-changing experience.
- Examine getting ready for health-related clinical or research endeavors, service activities, healthcare delivery and internships
- Dealing with the desire to"fix" things abroad; research/clinical credentials approvals and conduct; getting permissions; dealing with disparate professional, religious and cultural views and norms.
The Power of the Camera:
Responsibilities and ethics using photography in global contexts
Nelson Mandela Auditorium
Alexandra Lightfoot
Director, Community-Based Participatory Research Core, Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention
Graduate Student, Department of Health Behavior, UNC Gillings School of Public Health
This session will engage students in thinking about their roles and responsibilities using photography and/or videography in the context of their experience living and working in another culture. Questions we will explore include: What should you consider in taking photographs in a culture or community not your own? In using images once you return? When is it appropriate (or inappropriate) to take photographs? Are there ethical dimensions to consider? What does consent mean in this context and when and how do you get it given potential language or cultural barriers? This workshop will explore these questions in an interactive format, using real examples drawn from students's overseas experiences to frame the discussion.
On Gender and Sexuality in "Cross-Cultural" Travel and Study
Room 1009
[ This workshop is particularly helpful for first time global engagement ]
Karen Booth
Associate Professor, Women's and Gender Studies
Lydia Boyd
Assistant Professor, African and Afro-American Studies
We will address the implications of gender and sexual differences and inequalities in cross-cultural travel. We will discuss the variations in gendered and sexual social norms of travelers and "hosts" and the complexities of studying "others's" gender and sexuality. Why is it important to be aware of oneself as a gendered person? What are the sexual implications of how our gender is perceived? How can students practice culturally-appropriate behavior related to gender and sexuality? What specific issues confront women, transfolk, and LGB-identified students? How can students use cross-cultural experiences to explore different ways in which gender and sexual identities are expressed? How can students see beyond stereotypes about the gender and sexuality of "others"? How are religion, the body and its treatment/adornment, and notions of gendered and sexual oppression and liberation relevant to students' experiences?
Decoding Intercultural Experiences
Room 3024
Cate Brubaker
Program Manager & Instructor, Carolina Navigators, Center for Global Initiatives
Gina Difino
Assistant Director, MBA Global Programs, Kenan-Flagler Business School
In this highly interactive session you will learn a simple and practical tool that you can use in cross-cultural encounters abroad. Whether a new or experienced traveler you will take away a deeper understanding of the invisible ways culture influences our behavior, communication, perspectives, and expectations. Our goal is to encourage you to develop greater cultural and personal self-awareness, which in turn will aid in successfully interacting and communicating with new friends, professors, host parents, and colleagues abroad. Learn this simple and practical tool now, spare yourself frustration later!
Ethics of Short-Term Experiences in Africa
Room 4003
[ This workshop is particularly helpful for first time global engagement ]
Jim Thomas
Associate Professor, Epidemiology
What gives you the right, as a privileged person on the global scale, to visit a less privileged community and ask them to give you "an experience"? What obligations do you have to that community after returning to your own? What care should you take about photographing your host community and sharing your photos on your facebook page? In this workshop we will discuss these ethical questions and more that relate to cross-cultural visits. Our interactions will be highly participatory, discussing questions that cause us to consider different perspectives. The workshop will be most useful for people traveling the first time. But because these questions have no easy answers, experienced travelers also appreciate the opportunity to reflect on them. In fact, a mix of new and experienced travelers will make for the best discussions.
Traveling to a Post-conflict Society
Room 3009
Andrew Reynolds
Professor, Global Studies
What are the challenges and difficulties of living and studying in a society that has been through conflict? How can you navigate and better understand a place where families and communities have been ripped apart by civil war, ethnic violence, or state repression? How can you maximize your experience and at the same time feel secure in your interactions with your hosts? This session will draw on examples from throughout the world: not least Africa, Asia, Latin America and Europe.