Warm greetings from cold Minnesota! ICGC is wrapping up a busy fall semester. We welcomed a wonderful new cohort of ICGC Scholars to campus. We've had a record number of wonderful events and activities this year, many involving our alumni. Here are a few examples:
Launched an artist exchange and visiting artists program in our partnership with the Centre for Humanities Research, directed by ICGC alumnus Premesh Lalu, at the University of the Western Cape with funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation (including an exchange of puppet artists from Handspring Puppet Theatre in Cape Town and In the Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theatre in Minneapolis)
Convened a panel discussion titled "A World Gone Mad? The U.S. Elections and Global Change" to consider the global context of the U.S. elections featuring several ICGC faculty affiliates (Ragui Assaad, Barbara Frey, Greta Friedemann-Sanchez, Vinay Gidwani, and August Nimtz)
Welcomed a new cohort of ICGC Global Food Security Fellows with work focused on food security and social justice from Philosophy, Entomology, Sociology, Natural Resource Sciences, and Public Affairs
Organized an interdisciplinary University of Minnesota delegation to visit Cuba and explore academic collaborations with Cuban higher education institutions with the assistance of ICGC alumna Melisa Riviere - I was joined on the delegation by ICGC alumni Greta Friedemann-Sanchez and Julie Grossman
Welcomed ICGC alumni returning to the University of Minnesota to give ICGC Distinguished Public Lectures (Derek Peterson from the University of Michigan and Elizabeth Lunstrum from York University)
Hosted a series of film screenings and filmmaker discussions including the beautiful Ethiopian film "Lamb" with filmmaker Yared Zeleke
Welcomed five visiting scholars from South Africa and Turkey in residence at ICGC, including ICGC alumna Asli Calkivik as well as two doctoral fellows and our first Andrew W. Mellon Foundation-supported postdoctoral teaching fellow from the University of the Western Cape (ICGC graduate Maurits van Bever Donker)
We are always happy to hear from our alumni and colleagues, and to explore ideas for working together to advance scholarship related to global social justice. We at ICGC send you our wishes for a happy and productive 2017.
Sincerely,
Karen Brown, ICGC Director
Welcome New Scholars!
2016 ICGC Scholars
The 2016 ICGC Scholars cohort-the twenty-eighth-includes 15 new Scholars. The Scholars represent twelve different departments within five partner colleges and schools at the University of Minnesota. They come from Chile, Costa Rica, India, Mexico, South Africa, USA, and Zimbabwe. These exceptional students bring a wealth of intellectual energy, academic and personal experience, and a shared commitment to understanding issues of social justice in a global context.
The Master of Development Practice (MDP) program, co-administered by ICGC and the Humphrey School, welcomed a cohort of eighteen graduate students this semester. This cohort came energized to address the problems of poverty and sustainable development surrounding livelihood practices in the global south. They will close out the semester with final projects that are free and open to the public. Through their Ways of Knowing course (taught by Professor and Program Director Dave Wilsey) the cohort featured a pop-up gallery on October 19, 2016 on "Contested Environments" where students showcased research and visuals displayed in the Humphrey School.
With the support of the University's Office of the Vice President for Research and MnDRIVE funding, ICGC continues to welcome recipients of this fellowship.The fellowship supports graduate student research focused on interdisciplinary approaches to global food security, with a particular emphasis on questions of social justice.
Melanie Bowman, CLA (Philosophy)
Dana Boyer, HHH (Science, Technology, and Environmental Policy
ICGC is again hosting an Interdisciplinary Doctoral Fellow in the 2016-2017 academic year. Mingwei Huang, Department of American Studies, was among one of 20 graduate students awarded the fellowship by the Graduate School. The awards give exceptional doctoral students conducting interdisciplinary research the chance to work with faculty at one of the University's interdisciplinary research centers or institutes.
Mingwei Huang
Visiting Scholars and Professors
UWC Partnership
Through the partnership between ICGC and the Centre for Humanities Research (directed by Professor Premesh Lalu, an ICGC alumnus) at the University of the Western Cape, our collaborative graduate education and faculty research initiative offers faculty and student exchanges; graduate student fellowships; and joint research projects, workshops, conferences, and courses. Current activities include an ongoing faculty and doctoral fellow exchange program with faculty and students from each institution. Fellows conduct research and engage with students and faculty on the partner campus for periods of two to six months.
Visiting Scholars
Fernanda Pinto de Almeida is an Early Career Researcher at the Centre for Humanities Research and a PhD candidate at the Department of History at the University of the Western Cape. Her research maps Cape Town's landscape of cinemas in the twentieth century, exploring the relations between cinema-going, aesthetics, and inhabiting urban space. Approaching the neighborhood bioscope as a medium of particular kinds of politics, public imagination, and racial subjectivities, her project aims to understand how the spatialization of aesthetics has been central to the modernizing city before and during Apartheid.
Innovative initiatives focused on the art of teaching and the teaching of the arts expand professional development for our doctoral students and emerging postdoctoral scholars. The partnership brings artists, performers, and scholars into dialogue around critical global issues. Stay tuned for more details to be announced on our website in the near future.
Support Us
Private support plays a critical role in our mission of fostering an interdisciplinary and cross-cultural community of faculty and students committed to supporting and advancing research, education, and collaborative initiatives related to global change at the University of Minnesota and abroad through our international partners. Your gift will allow us to continue enriching student and scholar learning, faculty and staff research and teaching, as well as engagement and support. We invite you to join us in preparing the next generation of global citizens through your financial support.
You may make a gift today with a credit card or make a pledge for a future gift by visiting the University of Minnesota Foundation's secure website. You will also find information on how to mail a check, if you prefer. All gifts will support the ICGC Director's Fund, which helps promote and enhance the mission and work of ICGC.
