NOTE: Location Change! This month will be at Gwangju International Center.
Workshop 1: Mary Abura on Diversity & Inclusion in Higher Education
Title: EMPOWERING THE HIGHER EDUCATION LEARNER THROUGH PEDAGOGY
The quest of my larger research hopes to make the international student presence and experiences more equitable by providing a bridge to the learning community that fosters integration with regards to diversity and inclusion. The talk shall discuss empowering pedagogy, focusing on diversity and inclusion in the classroom space. The first half of the literature review shall cover different pedagogical approaches, leading into pedagogies of emplacement: the modern university takes a particular shape that is recognizable across the globe. Knowledge making is organized into distinct and discrete units (the disciplines), which compete for resources, prestige, and students (Gordan 2014); while the spaces of knowledge -making are removed from the everyday word of wider society (Nyamjoh, 2019). Displacement in contemporary pedagogy occurs throughout the university. The authors argue that one way to resist coloniality/modernity is to bring place and materiality more strongly into our pedagogy through emplacement. The second half section of this literature will position the importance of inclusive and diverse education to this research. The issues of social justice and critical pedagogy are important themes in this literature as they relate to student equitable pedagogical experiences, the focus of the research.
Note: This topic is still in the developmental stages.
BIO
Mary Abura is a Liberal Arts Education Department lecturer at a Seoul based university. She is also a Research Assistant in the Education, Conflict and Peace Lab at Seoul National University, Seoul, South Korea. She has held full-time higher education positions at two higher education intuitions in Korea. She identifies as a pracademic who seeks to have her research work applied in her pedagogical practice and the educational projects she engages in. Her research interests lie in the sociology of education; decolonizing higher education; social justice in higher education; international student experiences; prefigurative politics; and global citizenship education. She is a Rotarian with a passion for educational social enterprises.
Workshop 2 & Art Exhibit: Lisa Casaus on Peace is a Forest
Exhibition Title: PEACE IS A FOREST
Art by Lisa Casaus will focus on the theme of peace, love, growth and community. Narrative includes questions surrounding growing a community. Painting, drawing, sculpture will be used to create a an installation that illustrates a poem by the artist entitled: Little Bits of Love.
Workshop:
Three short activities invite attendees to reflect on the themes during a reflective practice workshop. The activities include: Little bits of love - collaborative post-it notes; Pieces of peace - collaboratively solve a puzzle with team; Gathering growth - discussion and poem writing.
BIO
Lisa Casaus is an artist from Albuquerque, New Mexico with a special love for illustrative and narrative art forms. She is especially interested in how storytelling, visual and otherwise, motivates and aids in memory retention. Lisa has been combining her love of learning, art and language by teaching English and volunteering as an instructor of community art classes for the last few years in Gwangju, South Korea. Her goals for 2024 and beyond are to create as much as possible and find ways to form community through art!
Join us for dinner at First Nepal after the event.
Check out our other activities this month here.
