Conferences

Conferences

The Workshop on Intercultural Skills Enhancement (WISE) Conference

February 3-4, 2023

On Feb. 3 and 4, three teams from Elon University presented at the Workshop on Intercultural Skills Enhancement (WISE) Conference on intercultural learning at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

Maureen Vandermaas-Peeler, professor of psychology and director of the Center for Research on Global Engagement (CRGE), Eric Hall, professor of exercise science and director of the Undergraduate Research Program, Caroline Ketcham, professor of exercise science, and Amy Allocco, associate professor of religious studies and director of the Multifaith Studies Program, presented their research on “Reimagining Mentoring Undergraduate Research in Global Contexts: Supporting Intercultural Learning and Well-Being.”

Professor of English Steve Braye and Ryan Zaslaw ’22 presented “The Impact of Beginning Abroad: Reflections from a First-Year, First-Semester Engagement.” CRGE Pre-Doctoral Researcher Janelle Papay Decato, Danielle Lake, director of the Center for Design Thinking, and Shineece Sellars, executive director of the African American Cultural Arts and History Center, engaged participants in their presentation, “Exploring the Role of Power and Place in Decolonial, Critical Internationalization.” Maia Stewart and Denise Teeters, staff members of the Isabella Cannon Global Education Center, also attended the conference.

AAC&U Global Learning Conference

October 7 – 9, 2021

CRGE director Maureen Vandermaas-Peeler and other Elon faculty members presented at the yearly AAC&U Global Learning Conference. In this year’s conference, attendees explored practical and theoretical approaches to re-imagining global education at the course, department, and institutional levels. It offers an opportunity to examine tactics and strategies for ensuring global learning is more equitable and inclusive as well as aligned with students’ and societies’ needs. The goal of this year’s event was to explore the theme “Global Learning Reimagined.”

Maureen Vandermaas-Peeler, Kris Acheson-Clair, Susan Buck Sutton, Kate Patch, Jasmine Epps, and Dawn Michele Whitehead presenting at the AAC&U Global Learning Conference.
There were two presentations featuring Elon faculty. A dialogue for learning session entitled, “Reimagining Mentored Undergraduate Research in Global Contexts,” Maureen Vandermaas-Peeler, director of the Center for Research on Global Engagement and professor of psychology at Elon, co-presented with four colleagues including Kris Acheson-Clair from Purdue University, Susan Buck Sutton, with the Institute of International Education, Kate Patch from Grinnell College and Dawn Michele Whitehead, a vice president at AAC&U. Presenters elaborated on the three types of mentoring, their study’s themes, and the Ten Salient Practices of Mentoring framework, developed by Eric Hall and colleagues during a Center for Engaged Learning Seminar on Excellence in Mentoring Undergraduate Research.

The second presentation was a Pecha Kucha (“chit chat” in Japanese) session in which presenters showed 20 slides for 20 seconds each. Amy Allocco, associate professor of religious studies and director of the Multifaith Scholars Program, and Caroline Ketcham, professor and chair of exercise science, each presented high-quality models of mentored undergraduate research in global contexts.

In addition, Maureen Vandermaas-Peeler, Olivia Choplin, Associate Professor of French in the WLC department, and Philip Motley, Associate Professor of Communication Design, were a part of the conference planning committee that developed the conference’s themes and program. To view the conference’s program, click here.

*Excerpts were taken from the ‘Today at Elon’ story