GSL 6 – Call for Posters at One World: Inclusion and Transformation in Global Service-Learning

The 6th Global Service-Learning Summit theme is: One World: Inclusion and Transformation in Global Service Learning.

After reading the Call for Posters below, submit your proposal here. The deadline for poster proposals is 11:59 pm EDT, June 30, 2019.

Consistent with GSL Summit precedents, the upcoming Summit at Clemson University seeks proposals that prioritize community partner perspectives, community partnership/impact research,  and case studies that involve community voice in the writing process (both co-written or co-edited by community partners) related to effective, inclusive partnerships that advance shared approaches to global learning, inclusion, and transformation.

Poster presenters are encouraged to concisely explore the same themes that will run throughout the Summit. Namely:

SUB-THEME ONE:  The work and challenge of supporting global learning at home and abroad and the connections that apply in both settings.  Presentations under this theme might address:  

• Local community-campus partnerships
• Deliberate, interdisciplinary collaboration in GSL programming
• Intentional inclusion of STEM disciplines and traditionally under-represented groups in global service learning

Example critical questions:

• What program factors ensure intended global learning – or even transformation – in local and international partnerships? How do we know? How do these factors vary, if at all, in relation to distance from campus?
• What strategies ensure successful interdisciplinary collaboration, inclusion of STEM fields, and inclusion of underrepresented populations? How do we measure success in these efforts?
• Does the location of global learning – on-campus, near campus, or abroad – influence how we theorize or measure intended global learning and transformational learning outcomes?
• These questions are intended to stimulate thinking, and are not intended to limit the scope of possible proposals in this category.

SUB-THEME TWO: Best practices, program models, and ethical approaches for global service-learning and community-campus partnerships.   We encourage proposals that address the following topics:

• The co-construction of programs with full participation and inclusion of diverse and diffuse stakeholders,
• The complexity of community-based global learning and important critiques developed through decades of research.

Example critical questions:

• How has stakeholder inclusion and diversity been theorized, advanced, and measured? What next steps must be taken?
• What does conceptual vacillation between global service-learning, volunteering, internships, experiential learning, and community-based global learning signify for our field? How do we step forward in practicing, theorizing, and measuring increasingly ethical approaches?
• Considering contemporary and historic critiques of global service-learning and volunteerism, is it evident – theoretically and empirically – that researchers and practitioners have identified program models that avoid or ameliorate the most trenchant critiques? How do we discern quality – and what is its minimum level?
• These questions are intended to stimulate thinking, and are not intended to limit the scope of possible proposals in this category.

SPECIALIZED TRACKS:  Based on previous Summits and ongoing conversations in the field, we anticipate enough interest to provide specific tracks that address:

• Educating in pre-health, health, and allied health fields with full awareness of the significant challenges in off-campus undergraduate and graduate health professions education.
• Advancing best practices for reciprocal relationships in global service learning and education amidst diverse/differing cultural assumptions, as is the case in many contexts around the world, including collaboration with indigenous communities.

Example critical questions:

• How do campuses ethically respond to the extraordinary demand for experiential pre-health education programs?
• How do campuses support students physical and emotional safety in contexts with extraordinarily varied conceptions of human rights, women’s rights, gender inclusivity, and sexual propriety?
• How might conceptions of partnership and exchange necessarily vary according to community and cultural context?
• These questions are intended to stimulate thinking, and are not intended to limit the scope of possible proposals in this category.

Poster proposals are encouraged from practitioners, community partners, faculty/educators, researchers, graduate and undergraduate students.  

Submit your proposal here. 

The proposal deadline is midnight EDT on June 30, 2019.