Internationalization Summit

Call for Proposals

Internationalization Summit, April 11, 2025

Who Gets to Speak and Who Gets Heard? Free Expression and the Internationalization of Higher Education.  

There is increasing attention to questions of how speech and expression are negotiated, supported, and limited, particularly in historically pluralistic societies. Higher education institutions in such regions are often sites generating both innovative and hegemonic approaches, thought and systems. Many have argued that a primary role of international education is to bridge gaps between perspectives, providing opportunities for embracing greater tolerance and acceptance of diverse worldviews, values, and beliefs. But, how are we doing in this effort? How should those in international education engage with these issues? What are the challenges or opportunities presented in questions of free expression?  What are the challenges or opportunities presented when centering multiple perspectives in internationalized curriculum, faculty and staff engagement, partnership development, student mobility, among so many other aspects?

Join us for an event that brings together the DU community, regional university colleagues, and international partners to explore this theme of global perspectives on how the ideas of free expression intersect with international education. Through thought-provoking discussions and presentations, we will examine how we can cultivate and practice a more mindful global engagement throughout our daily work at home and abroad  

Call:  

We encourage all members of the regional academic community including faculty, staff, graduate, and undergraduate students to consider submitting a proposal especially those pertaining to this year’s theme. Aligning with the theme we want to increase the number of voices participating, so while the committee will gladly accept all proposal types, this year we are encouraging sessions that are round-table or otherwise facilitated-conversation formats.  

Session proposals should highlight long-term action or strategy as well as everyday work in the university – teaching, research, learning, and working with students and community – that contribute to the global engagement in higher education and building human connections.  
Proposals can come from diverse philosophies and perspectives including research-based, theoretical, reflective, dialogic, collaborative, practical/applied, experiential and action-oriented.  

The priority deadline to submit is Monday February 17, 2025, though we will accept later submissions on a rolling basis.  

Some guiding questions for proposals:   

• How do approaches to and perceptions of free expression differ and converge in global contexts and higher education?   

• What issues or questions within international education would benefit from more global voices and perspectives? How so?

• How can (international) educators create space for increasing unspoken or unheard voices and perspectives, including international students?  

• How do pervasive questions of power factor into narratives and realities of practices, communication and relationship development in international education?           

• How are shifting legal, social, and political forces impacting attitudes toward pluralism in global contexts? What does the future hold and is the role of higher education?  

• How can higher education support the development of more cohesive and inclusive societies from diverse and global populations.  

2024 Summit Schedule

8:00-8:30 AM Registration & Breakfast
Please click on the expanding lists below for details on each session.

• 8:30-9:30 AM Opening panel discussion

  Title: How do we (re)connect in an increasingly dis/connected world?
  Panelists:
  Uttiyo Raychaudhuri, Vice Provost for Internationalization (University of Denver, United States)
  Jennifer Howell, Pro Vice-Chancellor Global Engagement (University of Western Australia, Australia)
  Himanshu Rai, Director of IIM Indore (IIM Indore, India)
  Carl Jubran, President (The American College of the Mediterranean, France)
  Normah Zondo, Executive Director (University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa)
  
  Room # 1700
  
  Streaming of this session will be available for registered participants. Please register if you are interested in viewing and a link will be sent.

• 9:40 - 10:30 AM Session 1

  Title:  High Impact Opportunities for Community building through Faculty-led travel class Pedagogy
  Panel Moderator:
  Monica Kosanovich, University of Denver
  Panel:
  Helen Hazen, University of Denver
  Mike Kerwin, University of Denver
  Thomas Lavanchy, University of Denver
  Erika Trigoso Rubio, University of Denver
  Session Focus: Teaching, Curriculum, and Pedagogy                Room # 1700

  Faculty-led travel classes offer uniquely high impact experiential learning supported by active instruction, exploration, adventure, and emotion. During the pandemic, at least 93% of all faculty-led and study abroad programs in all countries were disrupted or cancelled (Santiso et al., 2022). In-person university and high school classes and activities also paused or were pushed online for up to 1.5 years. Since resuming teaching international field classes in 2022, we have observed that many of our students are craving rigorous in-person connections and interactive group opportunities. Yet, these same students often maintain social relationships and experiences via virtual formats. Faculty-led travel classes, therefore, present not only an opportunity for deep learning and cultural synthesis, but also provide spaces to nurture individual, peer, and community engagement skills and adaptations. Here, we present emergent logistical and pedagogical techniques designed to promote active learning and reconnect students in a disconnected world during cutting-edge international education.

  Title:  Charting New Courses: International Fellowships and Graduate Study Abroad
  Presenters:
  Lindsay Lawton, University of Denver
  Savannah Pine, University of Denver
  Sarah Smith, University of St. Andrews
  Tom Tomezsko, Schwarzman Scholars Program
  Session Focus: Education Abroad or Away                                   Room # 1600

  Join us for a panel conversation about how and why to consider graduate study outside the U.S. Panelists will discuss opportunities to complete a graduate degree at Tsinghua University in Beijing and the University of St Andrews in Scotland, along with practical strategies to develop the individual, academic, and institutional connections that can facilitate this experience. Panelists will share perspectives on the experience of graduate study overseas and discuss various fellowships that can help pay for it. 

  Title:  A critical view of data in international higher education
  Presenters:
  Charles Mathies, Old Dominion University
  Session Focus: Campus Internationalization                               Room # 2600

  There has been a significant expansion of available data in international higher education. This is coinciding with an increasing interest in using data to guide institutional planning and decision-making. But does more data lead to better decision making? This session will look at data in international higher education (global rankings, bibliometric databases, students) and connect it with concepts of data-driven decision making, data-informed decision making, QuantCrit framework, and the concerns with data analytics/artificial intelligence. This will provide session participants a better understanding of the available data, the issues surrounding their use, and how to be more critical consumers of international higher education data.

  Title:  The DU Cross-National Inter-University Research Consortium (IUR) on the integration of Behavioral Health and Primary Care - A case study on building an international research consortium: From DU to South African to Sweden.
  Presenters:
  Lena Lundgren, University of Denver
  Johannes John-Langba, University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN)
  Ulrika Bejerholm, Lund University
  Lavita Nadkarni, University of Denver
  Akeem Modeste-James, University of Denver
  Session Focus: Global and/or International Research and Scholarship            Room # 2800

  Using the DU Cross-National Inter-University Research Consortium (IUR) on the Integration of Behavioral Health and Primary Care as a case study, this session gives an overview of how to build an international research consortium. The IUR integrative research consortium’s senior leadership currently includes 8 Research and Community Mentors, two doctoral students and two post-docs. The overall purpose of the IUR network is to use research, mentoring, and research dissemination in South Africa, Sweden, and the USA to promote integrated care systems that enhance the well-being of people with complex care needs (i.e., multiple health, behavioral health, and social welfare needs).  The long-term outcomes for IUR is to support increased global research activities among students and faculty. The emphasis is research to improve the health and wellbeing of individuals with co-occurring disorders.  Research and national policy recommendations increasingly point to the importance of improved integration between care sectors and that research needs to examine access, use and outcomes of integrative care and systems.

• 10:40-11:30 AM Session 2

  Title:  Intentionally Internationalizing teaching and learning
  Presenters:
  Laura Sponsler, University of Denver
  Leslie Alvarez, University of Denver
  Casey Dinger, University of Denver
  Session Focus: Teaching, Curriculum, and Pedagogy                Room # 2600

  This session is designed to bring together faculty, administrators, and partners to reflect upon the ways that internationalization efforts can be brought into the classroom with intentional pedagogy. All students and all faculty are unlikely to be able to travel - and even if they do, there is no guarantee that students gain intercultural skills and perspective taking without supported and guided facilitation. This session centers the idea of bringing global and intercultural learning to the home classroom and how faculty could consider adapting, changing, modifying, or altering their current practices and pedagogy to better support students and their learning. Three panelists will share practical examples of internationalization for faculty including COIL (Collaborative Online International Learning); international partnerships influencing course development and pedagogy; and ideas about evidence-based practices for teaching and learning.

  Title:  For Faculty: Scholar Fulbright Program
  Presenters:
  Leasa, Weimer, University of Denver
  Olena Fomenko, Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv
  Nadia Kaneva, University of Denver
  Heather Taussig, University of Denver
  Paul Kosempel, University of Denver
  Session Focus: Global and/or International Research and Scholarship     Room # 1600

  The application call for the 2025-26 Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program is currently open! Join us to learn more about Fulbright program opportunities for scholars. A panel of DU faculty and a Visiting Fulbright scholar will share their tips and experiences on the application process and how to use a Fulbright award to advance international research agendas and infuse global learning into the classroom. The application deadline for U.S. scholars is September 16, 2024.

  Title:  Building International Research Communities: Lessons from the Masamu Advanced Studies Institute
  Presenters:
  Paul Horn, University of Denver
  Session Focus: Global and/or International Research and Scholarship   Room # 2800

  The Masamu Advanced Studies Institute is an NSF funded research workshop, held annually in Southern Africa.  Running since 2010, the workshop has brings together mathematicians from Africa, Europe and the US to collaborate in different areas of mathematics, and to build collaborative networks.  The benefits are huge both in creating new knowledge and bringing people together. 

  In this presentation, I'll discuss some of the lessons and ideas behind the workshop and its success, with an eye to how similar workshops might be developed elsewhere.  I'll talk about the challenges and innovations that came with the pandemic, and restarting the program in person after two virtual years.  Finally, I'll discuss some technical issues (eg. funding) that have been instrumental in putting together a successful workshop series.

• 11:40 AM-12:30 PM Session 3

  Title:  Unpacking the Impact of Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) on Tutors and Students: A Critical Reflection
  Presenters:
  Gabriella Rodolico, University of Glasgow
  Mark Breslin, University of Glasgow
  Rhona Brown, University of Glasgow
  Abimbola Abodunrin, University of Glasgow
  Neeraja Dashaputre, The Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Pune
  Session Focus: Teaching, Curriculum, and Pedagogy                Room # 2800

  In this session, we will explore how COIL could address the increasing demand for educators capable of thriving in cross-cultural settings (Esche, 2018) and for students to have positive learning experiences in an international setting. Through a case study (Rodolico et al., 2022b), we will reflect on how the careful selection of experiential learning tools and digital platforms such as social media could impact on the collaborative learning aspect of COIL, (Chan et al., 2020; Khan et al., 2021). In addition, considering COIL as an effective alternative to internationalisation abroad, language dynamics within COIL warrant scrutiny. We will analyse the challenges including racio-linguism, influencing language, race, and culture interactions that English as lingua franca could generate (Alim, Rickford & Ball, 2016). Finally, we will explore COIL's role in promoting a sense of belonging and interconnectedness among culturally diverse students, emphasizing digital empathy and connectedness (Hagerty & Williams, 2020; Naicker et al., 2021).

  Title:  Perspectives on Internationalization from Senior International Officers
  Presenters:
  Uttiyo Raychaudhuri, University of Denver
  Kathleen Fairfax, Colorado State University
  Clay Harmon, AIRC (the Association for International Student Enrollment Management)
  Isadora Helfgott, University of Wyoming
  Session Focus: Campus Internationalization                               Room # 1700

  Title:  Learning and Teaching On Three Continents: A Student and Faculty Conversation
  Presenters:
  Paul Kosempel, University of Denver
  Lindsay Baker, University of Denver
  Maite Montes Gonzalez, University of Denver
  Session Focus: Education Abroad or Away                     Room # 1600

  Join this conversation about meaningful learning outcomes realized in abroad classrooms as University of Denver (DU) students who studied abroad, one in Dakar, Senegal and the other in Seoul, South Korea, and a DU faculty member who just returned from teaching at a university in Dublin, Ireland interview one another about their experiences. This conversation will focus on differences in pedagogy that yielded deep learning in the classroom. 

  Title:  Building a partnership despite the pandemic: A collaboration between the University of KwaZulu-Natal and the University of Michigan
  Presenters:
  Johannes John-Langba, University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN)
  Katie Lopez, University of Michigan
  Sandra Momper, University of Michigan
  Session Focus: Campus Internationalization                 Room # 2600

  This presentation explores how an institutional partnership developed between the University of KwaZulu-Natal and the University of Michigan. This presentation examines the perspectives and experiences of supporting a group of traditionally underrepresented graduate students from the U.S. to meaningfully engage in global education in South Africa. Targeted support mechanisms and interventions before, during, and after the education abroad experience of a selected group of social work graduate students are examined using a social justice approach that espouses a more horizontal approach to education abroad that amplifies the unique contributions of faculty mentors, a study abroad office, and the host community. A discussion of how the pandemic impacted planned activities and the role of technology in facilitating different types of collaborations is included. Presenters will explore current challenges and future plans to maintain a mutually beneficial long-term relationship in an ever-changing world.

• 12:30-1:45 PM Keynote Lunch Address

  Dr. Kari Grain
  
  Title: Practicing Critical Hope in Global Engagement and University Teaching 

  Dr. Kari Grain is the author of Critical Hope and teaches in the University of British Columbia (UBC)’s Faculty of Education, where she leads the Adult Learning and Global Change Master’s Program. In her ongoing community engaged scholarship, Kari is a research consultant in Vancouver’s Downtown East Side with SFU's Community Engaged Research Initiative. Her research in global education, experiential learning, adult education, and anti-racism has been featured in peer reviewed journals, books, and podcasts. In higher education and beyond, Dr. Grain believes that critical hope has the potential to be a vibrant pathway toward systemic and personal change; vital to that process of transformation is an attunement to relational, creative, and vulnerable ways of being in the world with others. Grain is the co-editor of a forthcoming (2024) volume on Community Engaged Research with University of Toronto Press. Kari lives on unceded Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh territories. 
  
  Room # 1700
  
  Streaming of this session will be available for registered participants. Please register if you are interested in viewing and a link will be sent.

• 2:00-2:50 PM Session 4

  Title:  Cross-cultural Travel Courses
  Presenters:
  Roma Sur, University of Denver
  Lilith Diringer, University of Denver
  Charlie West, University of Denver
  Session Focus: Education Abroad or Away                                    Room # 1600

  The objective of this presentation is to showcase how collaboration with international universities can help develop a richer global perspective while fostering lifelong friendships and professional connections.

  This fifty-minute panel presentation, highlights the conceptualization, execution and learning outcomes of an interdisciplinary course across the globe. Along with MFJS Faculty member, Roma Sur, this will be co-presented by Lilith Diringer, a Grad Student at the Korbel School of International Studies and Charlie West, an Under Grad student in the MFJS department. These students recently took the class, Hashtag Bollywood at Whistling Woods International, Mumbai.

  The presentation focuses on designing and leading an inter-disciplinary course of this nature. It also focuses on the the deliverables which were low stakes, like social media reels on cultural immersion days, short iPhone films on a chosen research topic, and reflection papers. All of these can be adapted to any discipline. Each DU student was paired up with a student from WWI and they co-created these films, yielding a sense of partnership. Two shorts films and one Behind-the-scene film will be shown at the end of the session.

  Title:  AI in International Education: Reimagining and Reshaping Practices
  Presenters:
  Krishna Bista, Morgan State University
  Session Focus: Global and/or International Research and Scholarship            Room # 2600

  In the rapidly evolving landscape of global education, artificial intelligence (AI) stands at the forefront of transformative change, offering unparalleled opportunities to reimagine and reshape educational practices. This presentation seeks to explore the multifaceted impact of AI on international education, addressing both the opportunities and challenges it presents. By integrating theoretical insights with practical examples, we aim to provide a comprehensive overview of how AI technologies are being utilized to enhance learning outcomes, increase accessibility, and promote inclusive educational experiences across diverse geographical and cultural contexts.

  Title:  Purposeful Learning - A Framework for Study Abroad Returnee Engagement
  Presenters:
  Alisha Stanton, University of Denver
  Session Focus: Campus Internationalization                               Room # 2800

  This session will begin with an overview of study abroad participation at DU, purposeful learning as a possible framework for engagement and the what integrating purpose into student learning looks like. Participants will then participate in a purposeful learning exercise and help answer the following questions: 1. Thinking about this study abroad learning outcome (students will gain an international perspective on their academic or career pathway) where is there existing overlap in campus resources? 2. What existing campus resources can help bridge gaps? The session will wrap up with suggestions for future directions.

  Title:  Poster Session
  Presenters:
  Carmel Stralen, University of Denver
  DU undergraduate students from the Global Living and Learning Community
  Madeline Torres
  Namugga Nakayiza
  Caroline Borham
  Kat Seale
  Christine Jordan
  Olivia McDaniel
  Alister Cobb
  Nicole Jensen
  
  Session Focus: Global and/or International Research and Scholarship            Room # 1700

  We are living in a time of polycrisis and one multilateral global response has been the creation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) framework. In this dedicated poster session, undergraduate students from the University of Denver's Global Engagement Living and Learning Community will present their work on this framework and some of the issues it is attempting to address. The posters will address how a specific country is addressing issues relevant 5 of the SDGs: 2 - Zero Hunger, 4 - Quality Education, 10 - Reduced Inequalities, 12 - Production and Consumption; and 16 - Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions. This presentation will include an overall evaluation of the present status of progress toward these SDGs in the target country and provide some  insight to what the peoples of that country, from their voices, want to be successful in addressing the relevant issues.

  Title:  Poster Session: Denver's Sister Cities and the Art of Connection and Exploring Country-Level Progress Toward 5 Sustainable Development Goals
  Presenters:
  Sacha Francois Heppell, Denver Sister Cities International
  Session Focus: Engaging Cultural Diversity at Home                  Room # 1700

  Explore the inspiring world of Denver's Sister Cities program in 'Bridging Communities, One City at a Time.' This session unveils how local initiatives are making a global impact, connecting us with diverse cultures right from our city. Discover the power of grassroots efforts in shaping international friendships and learn about the unique cultural exchanges enriching our community. Join us for an eye-opening discussion on how Denver is bridging global communities, one sister city at a time!