As part of the award, Sandy Marshall will co-design and co-teach a transatlantic course pairing Elon’s “Foundations of Peace & Conflict Studies” with “Atrocities, Conflict, Human Rights,” led by Peter Manning of the University of Bath.
The US-UK Fulbright Commission and the American Association of Colleges & Universities (AAC&U) have named Associate Professor of Geography Dr. Sandy Marshall to the 2025–26 cohort of the Global Challenges Teaching Awards. Marshall’s project is recognized in the Peace and Justice category and will connect Elon undergraduates with peers in the United Kingdom through a VE/COIL (Virtual Exchange/Collaborative Online International Learning) course.
Launched by the US-UK Fulbright Commission in partnership with AAC&U, the awards support pairs of U.S.- and U.K.-based faculty who co-deliver VE/COIL courses addressing climate Action, health Inequality, disinformation & misinformation, or peace and justice. Each recipient works with an institutional team (administrator and instructional support colleague) to scale VE/COIL on their campus.
As part of the award, Marshall will co-design and co-teach a transatlantic course pairing Elon’s “Foundations of Peace & Conflict Studies” with “Atrocities, Conflict, Human Rights,” led by Peter Manning of the University of Bath. Implementation is slated to begin in fall 2026 following AAC&U-led clinics and mentoring for recipients.
Marshall’s scholarship and teaching center on political and cultural geography with expertise in the Middle East, migration and refugees, and the geographies of children and youth. He has authored more than three dozen articles and chapters and leads community-engaged research using methods such as oral history and digital storytelling.
“I’m excited that this collaboration will offer students in my Peace and Conflict Studies course the opportunity to engage in dialogue and peer-to-peer learning about pressing global issues from a truly transnational perspective,” Marshall said. “This kind of project not only enhances students’ intercultural learning but also provides them with valuable real-world collaboration skills.”
Representing Elon, Marshall is joined by an institutional team of Nick Gozik, dean of global education, and Becky Kloepfer, instructional technologist with Teaching and Learning Technologies. Institutional teams in the program help integrate virtual exchange across the curriculum and build campus capacity for VE/COIL.
“This recognition highlights Elon’s commitment to relationship-rich global learning that is accessible to all students. VE/COIL allows us to embed meaningful, mentored international engagement directly into courses, advancing our goals for inclusive excellence and global education as found within Elon’s Global Strategic Plan,” said Gozik.
Kloepfer added: “I’m thrilled to contribute to this project and to see how intentional instructional design and purposeful technology integration can create opportunities for meaningful collaboration across our global community. By embedding VE/COIL into our courses, we’re not only expanding cultural perspectives but also engaging students in authentic, real-world learning experiences that prepare them for a connected world.”