Unity Day Focuses on Leadership, Decolonization and Studying Abroad

April 3, 2023

Passport Rav giving a musical performance during Unity Day's Lunch and Learn panel discussion. Photo by Susan Allen.

Galloway, N.J. — The Social Justice & Education subcommittee of the Committee on Campus Diversity and Inclusion Excellence (CCDIE) hosted their annual Unity Day conference on Thursday, March 30.

The theme for this year’s event was “Unity in Global Education,” and topics included promoting solutions to social issues, exploring strategies for promoting global education, and interrogating colonization through exploring decolonization.

“��˾��’s Unity Day celebration is an impetus for how we move forward and how we think about unity,” said Guia Calicdan-Apostle, an associate professor of . “As a co-convener for CCDIE and convener of the Social Justice & Education subcommittee, I’m passionate about unity. The world is in chaos all of the time, so today is the day when we can be actively connected with each other as human beings. All of this is intentional.”

Virtual and In Person Presentations

In her virtual presentation, “Strategies for Shifting Mindsets for Readiness in Global Transformational Change,” Sequetta Sweet, assistant professor of , talked about understanding diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), social change, and how that work requires “a change in each of us individually to reach the collective.”

When discussing transformational change, she pointed to understanding schemas or the mental models that drive our behaviors, thoughts and actions. She said examining one’s schema can lead to unlearning both behaviors and constraints on behaviors.

“Changing deeply held beliefs means fundamentally changing our reality or the way we see reality is an extremely involved process,” Sweet said. “It’s not easy to change, but getting to the very heart of why you think the way that you think is important.”

Other topics of her session included leadership development as a strategy for change; the importance of questioning and challenging one’s beliefs, assumptions, values, and thinking that underpins one’s actions; individual unlearning as part of the process of change; critical reflection as a change readiness strategy, and leadership styles as a mechanism that supports change.

Guia Calicdan-Apostle during her presentation. *Photo by Loukaia Taylor.*

After acknowledging that her in-person presentation was taking place on Lenni-Lenape land, Calicdan-Apostle presented “Working Toward Decolonization and Reconstruction in Higher Education: Small Steps or Giant Leap?”

In her presentation, she defined decolonization as “a process of deconstructing colonial ideologies of the superiority and privilege of Western thought and approaches through collective action.” In other words, decolonization is the practice of calling out settler-colonialist thinking and actions and therefore dismantling them through careful examination and reclaiming lost Indigenous practices.

“So, what does it means to decolonize education?” Calicdan-Apostle asked the audience. “Well, we need to examine the limitations and biases of the curriculum. Yes, the curriculum is set, but is there any input coming from Indigenous peoples? How are we examining the political and societal legacies of colonialism and how it has influenced educational policies?”

To connect the concepts of decolonization and global education, Calicdan-Apostle used a quote by Nelson Mandela, anti-apartheid activist and former president of South Africa.

“’Education is the most powerful weapon that you can use to change the world,’” Calicdan-Apostle said. “Our theme today is ‘Unity in Global Education,’ so decolonizing higher education is important. Indigenous people come from north, south, east and west of the world, and yet, they have little to no voice in designing education.”

Lunch & Learn Panel Discussion

Following a talk and musical performance from Passport Rav, a panel of faculty, staff and students offered perspectives on studying abroad.

“I was always interested in learning about languages, cultures and exploring different countries,” and double-major Riya Goyal said. Goyal is an from India who has participated in studying abroad in Taiwan from ��˾��. “I really like hearing different points of view and meeting different people in the world.”

“I was welcomed as if I was family: I felt at home,” Kimoni Yaw Ajani, assistant professor of said about his trip to Benin and staying at a Black-owned hostel. “I didn’t have to worry about the police. I wasn’t eating fast food every day and was instead eating from the land and the people. The energy was different, and I felt that I underwent a transformation. From that moment on, I knew I was an African person and that I had a connection to other African and Black people across the globe.”

The panelists for the Lunch and Learn — (L-R): Haashim Smith-Johnson ‘19, Admissions recruiter; Tamara Farrow ‘22 Business, current MBA student; Riya Goyal, undergraduate Mathematics & Computer Science majors; Kimoni Yaw Ajani, assistant professor of Africana Studies; Ramya Vijaya, professor of Economics; Ian Adjangba, undergraduate Finance major and Shedia Laguer, associate director of Student Development. *Photo by Susan Allen.*

“The entire trip was me learning my own culture,” Haashim Smith-Johnson, Admissions recruiter, said, sharing how much he learned in South Africa. “It’s very common for Black Americans to not know their ancestral roots: I don’t know if I’m from Nigeria, Ghana, or any of the other countries, so going to South Africa and visiting the motherland as a whole was a win for me. It was very fulfilling. I got to see many of the different arts, music and dances there, and a lot of them were very similar to the Black American culture here.”

“Going to other countries as a Fulbright scholar is a unique situation as you are going there as a representative of the (United States), and their expectation of a representative was very different from me,” Ramya Vijaya, professor of , said, describing her experience in Sri Lanka. “You do feel a sense of letting people down, but you should own it instead: it’s okay to say that and to use your privilege as a visiting American student to talk about it, question it and educate others.”

Finance major Ian Adjangba and MBA student Tamara Farrow both studied in Ghana and shared some advice for students who are interested in following in their footsteps.

“I would definitely say to look at the pop culture of (where you’re visiting),” Adjangba said. “Both of my parents are from Ghana, but I’d never been there outside of when I visited as an infant. I learned how entrepreneurial Ghanaians were once I got there —– people were selling wristbands with your name on them in the street.”

“It’s an experience that you can only experience for yourself,” Farrow said. “Like, I can tell you that Ghana is great and that you should go or show you photos and videos of how excited I was when I was there, but you have to live in that experience yourself.”

Guest speakers with CCDIE subcommittee — Laguer, Calicdan-Apostle and Christopher Lipari-Pazienza posing with guest speakers Dani Cramer and Al Morales and an attendee of Unity Day. *Photo by Loukaia Taylor.*

Calicdan-Apostle encouraged the ��˾�� community to think about the “oneness of humanity,” despite the negativity happening in the world.

“We are surrounded by negativity and all of the things that are contrary to our sensibilities as human beings,” Calicdan-Apostle said. “When people talk about weapons of mass destruction and war, we should think about peace, unity and our commonalities with other people in the world. That is why I’m here!”

Guest Speakers

Yolanda C. Padilla, University of Texas

Yolanda C. Padilla, University of Texas

The Promotion of Global Education in Social Work Through Literature

Abstract: Dr. Padilla will describe an exciting inter-university project that uses literature to promote global education in social work. The project is being implemented through the Center for Diversity and Social & Economic Justice at the Council for Social Work Education and is being carried out in collaboration with Words Without Borders Campus, an organization that makes contemporary international literature in translation accessible to students and educators. The focus of this project is on developing intercultural competence. Together teaching and learning resources inform service delivery, program planning, community partnerships, advocacy, policy, and other areas of social work practice across a broad range of fields.

Bio: Yolanda C. Padilla, PhD, MSSW, LMSW-AP is the director of the Center for Diversity and Social & Economic Justice at the Council on Social Work Education and the Clara Pope Willoughby Centennial Professor in Child Welfare at the Steve Hicks School of Social Work at The University of Texas at Austin. She is engaged in developing innovative approaches to professional social work education. Dr. Padilla served as Vice President of the Society for Social Work and Research for 2014-17. Her research focuses on social disparities in health and social well-being on poverty, race and ethnicity, and immigration as well as the responsiveness of social service delivery to cultural background. She has published extensively on the topics of Latino immigration and poverty and has received funding from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. She is a fellow of the American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare, a fellow of the Society for Social Work and Research, and in 2019 was awarded a distinguished alumni award by the University of Michigan School of Social Work.
Sophia Emmanouilidou, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki

Sophia Emmanouilidou, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki

Convivial Classrooms: Learning in the Anthropocene

Abstract: What is conviviality? How can educators create convivial tools to shed light on and, eventually, amend societal ills? Is a convivial interlude feasible and/or effective in a multicultural learning environment? This workshop draws from Ivan Illich’s philosophy of education, as proposed in the 1970s, and Paul Gilroy’s recent refashioning of conviviality as ‘at ease’ cosmopolitanism. The session offers critical thinking and good practice examples of how knowledge can become/transform into a tool for the reconsideration of both the physical cosmos and human cultures in the age of the Anthropocene. We will present learning/educational activities which give prominence to our ‘glocalized’ selfhoods, and signal channels of communication whereby local knowledge informs universal intelligence/concern and vice versa. To these goals in mind, the workshop explores how the eco-cosmopolitan (i.e. ‘glocal’) approach highlights (some) of our common experiences in the physical cosmos and propels both educators and learners to think and act as citizens of a global village. Attendees with varied backgrounds (cultural, social, religious, and more) participate in creative activities, which prompt them to produce narratives that accept difference and diversity, but above all ascertain the common ground of all human enactment: planet Earth.
Victoria Parker, Purdue University

Victoria Parker, Purdue University

Studying Abroad While Black: Examining Study Abroad from the Perspective of Black Students at Historically Black Colleges and Universities

Abstract: This session will examine the barriers that hinder Black students from studying abroad and suggest ways that these barriers can be addressed. Additionally, this session will explore the advice Black students who participated in a study abroad program have for other Black students interested in studying abroad.

Bio: Victoria Parker is the Program Manager for Purdue University’s Office of Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging, where she works with campus partners, student organizations, and individual students to ensure a campus climate where all students, particularly Black Boilermaker undergraduates, can maximize their potential. Additionally, she is a doctoral student in the Department of Agricultural Sciences Education and Communication (ASEC) at Purdue University. Her research interests focus on the study abroad and collegiate experiences of Black students. She earned her Master of Science in ASEC and graduated with her Bachelor of Science in Agriculture with a concentration in Agribusiness from Prairie View A&M University.
Thomas Mantzaris, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki

Thomas Mantzaris, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki

The Strategy of Multimodality in Fiction and its Impact on Global Education: Valeria Luiselli’s Lost Children Archive and the Global Migration Crisis

Abstract:
A growing number of contemporary literary authors have embraced multimodality, an inventive strategy that combines regular text with non-verbal elements such as photography, maps, typography, and design as part of their narrative composition. The creative experimentation and innovative practices that the reader encounters in the genre of print-based multimodal novels have challenged literary conventions, offered different forms of readerly engagement, and attracted significant cross-disciplinary scholarly attention.

In this presentation, I focus on the multimodality that the Mexican-American author Valeria Luiselli employs in her novel Lost Children Archive (2019). In building her literary narrative on the migration crisis at the Mexican-American border, Luiselli mobilizes the meaning-making affordances of Polaroid images, maps, and other design elements. For instance, by placing GIS maps of migrant deaths alongside her prose text, Luiselli instills the abstract, dotted representation of migrants on maps with poignant storytelling and partly restores the humanity of these lives.

Luiselli’s strategy of multimodality transcends local boundaries and contexts through its visual immediacy and allows a shared humanity to emerge, empowering different communities towards empathy and respect. To illustrate the educational capacity of this strategy, I draw observations from the context of an undergraduate course on Literatures of Anglophone Countries, where Luiselli’s strategy of multimodality proved pivotal in building bridges between the migration crisis in the Mexican-American border and that in the Mediterranean. In particular, the combination of verbal and visual stimuli as integral parts of the narrative promoted the fostering of a common experience of migration across different geographical territories, one that goes beyond standardized representations in media and discourses. Through multimodality, Luiselli promotes Global Education and highlights the significance of literature in sustaining peace and understanding in a global society.
Tina Zappile and Jiangyuan "JY" Zhou, ��˾��

Tina Zappile and Jiangyuan "JY" Zhou, ��˾��

Model UN International Travel Team

Abstract:
Presenters -- and founders of this team -- will describe how the Model UN International Travel Team fosters diversity in global education through its mission and structure, with evidence from successful academic competitions abroad from 2014 through today. A combination of international academic competition and faculty-led program (FLP) abroad, this project seeks to enhance the global education of a diverse set of undergraduate students through multiple modes of experiential learning. The foundation of the International Travel Team is the premise that complex global challenges need interdisciplinary approaches, and we work towards that goal by developing the following skills: negotiations; conducting research and ultimately crafting global public policy, professionalism in a global setting; diplomacy; learning from experts; civil society; and other stakeholders about a variety of perspectives and approaches to solving complex global challenges; teamwork; communication (written and oral); intercultural competencies in attitudes and skills; and developing oneself as a globally competent citizen. We are proud to partner with multiple stakeholders across campus to achieve these goals and provide students who would otherwise not have the opportunity to participate without university support.
Dani Cranmer, Urban Indigenous Collective

Dani Cranmer, Urban Indigenous Collective

The Impact of Colonization Among Indigenous People: Is Global Education Just Another Solution?

Abstract: The impact of colonization affecting oppressed groups like the missing and murdered indigenous people (MMIP) has widely contributed to their historical trauma, racism, abuse, and neglect. The needs and challenges of this vulnerable group have not been addressed by the very system that is supposed to protect them. The lingering and insidious effects of historical and multigenerational trauma are manifested in their daily lives, thus increasing suicide, child abuse, neglect, and generational poverty. To combat the perpetual effects of colonization, global education is a good place to begin the process of healing.
Al Morales, Climate Reality, Inc.

Al Morales, Climate Reality, Inc.

Climate Reality: Victimization and Global Education

Abstract: As we have become increasingly aware, Climate Change is an immensely complex problem with global implications. Its scope and reach require global education and outreach, a central tenet of Climate Reality’s mission "to catalyze a global solution to the climate crisis by making urgent action a necessity across every sector of society." To date, Climate Reality has trained 45,229 trained Climate Reality Leaders, 19,481 US chapter members, and 190 countries represented. Critical to this work is the notion of Climate Justice and the need to center the impacts of those most vulnerable. While these individuals and countries have done little to contribute to this problem, they will be the victims who will suffer the most. Climate Reality has embraced its role in educating and providing justice for people around the world.

About the CCDIE

The Committee on Campus Diversity and Inclusion Excellence (CCDIE) serves as an advisory body to the President to assist the university in meeting its commitment to campus diversity and inclusive excellence and the continuing transformation from a campus that believes in diversity to a campus that lives its commitment to diversity.

The CCDIE includes faculty, staff, students and alumni who contribute to the University’s efforts to support and further campus diversity, equity, inclusion and social justice, as well as the University’s mission to develop engaged and effective citizens with the capacity to adapt to change in a multicultural, interdependent world.

The Social Justice & Education Subcommittee of the CCDIE organizes programs, panel discussions, and research presentations by collaborating with faculty, students, and others whose academic fields or research interests address issues related to diversity and inclusion, whether national or global, in focus.

Members of Social Justice & Education Subcommittee

Valerie Hayes, Chief Officer for Diversity and Inclusion
Guia Calicdan-Apostle, Associate Professor of Social Work
Shedia R. Laguer, Assistant Director of Student Development
JY Zhou, Director Office of Global Engagement & Senior International Officer
Christopher Lipari-Pazienza, Engage NJ Changebuilder VISTA
Dianne Stalling, Assistant Director, Student Development
Loukaia Taylor, Multicultural Communications Specialist
Julie Shockley, Professional Services Specialist 3, Facilities & Operations

– Story by Loukaia Taylor

– Photos by Loukaia Taylor and Susan Allen

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