Home » Faculty from Five ACM Colleges Set to Visit Program Site in Pune, India

Faculty from Five ACM Colleges Set to Visit Program Site in Pune, India

Faculty from Five ACM Colleges Set to Visit Program Site in Pune, India October 18, 2013

Five ACM college faculty will get an intensive – and inside – view of the India: Culture, Traditions, & Globalization program and site in Pune, India on October 21-24.

The visit, sponsored by ACM’s Faculty Site Visits Program, will feature meetings with on-site faculty and staff, as well as with students currently participating in the fall semester program and this year’s Coordinating Representative, Luther College history professor Brian Caton. The faculty participating in the site visit will also give presentations and workshops to contribute their expertise to the program’s curriculum.

India Program groupACM India Program students and staff visiting Ellora.

The faculty will attend a Marathi language class and the program’s interdisciplinary courses in environmental studies, public health, contemporary India, and gender, culture, and globalization. Rounding out the busy schedule will be visits to a Hindu temple and the Department of Environmental Sciences at the University of Pune, excursions in Pune for meals and to commercial and shopping districts, and meetings with families that host ACM students for home stays.

“The faculty participating in the visit want to learn more about India, both for their own research and teaching and to be more knowledgeable when they advise students in their departments who are interested in studying abroad in India,” said Joan Gillespie, ACM Vice President and Director of Off-Campus Study. “The fact that they come from disciplines such as economics, art, English, geography, and sociology demonstrates the breadth of the India Program’s offerings.”

Following a three-week orientation that includes intensive Marathi language study, students on the India Program take a Contemporary India class, choose among several elective courses on current issues, continue their Marathi study, and complete an independent study project under the guidance of a local advisor.

India site visit participants

  • Tori Barnes-Brus, Associate Professor of Sociology, Cornell College

Tori Barnes-BrusTori Barnes-Brus

Barnes-Brus’ research and teaching interests include gender and reproduction, social class and inequality, culture, community, and social policy. She has led students to Japan as part of Cornell’s exchange program with Aoyama Gakuin Women’s Junior College in Tokyo and has presented on the topic of “Engaging Undergraduate Students in Faculty-Student Collaborative Research.”

During the site visit, she plans to lead a workshop that will tie into the students’ independent study projects. Her session will focus on how to critically analyze content, such as in newspaper articles or movies, as part of conducting research.

Marlo BelschnerMarlo Belschner

With interests in early modern literature, culture, gender, and sexuality – as well as early canonical writers such as Shakespeare, Milton, and Chaucer – Belschner teaches courses ranging from composition to Shakespeare to women’s studies.

Noting that she is “always looking for ways to help students to bridge cultures,” Belschner will give a presentation in Pune discussing Bollywood Shakespeare, with a focus on cultural imperialism and cultural appropriation, to provide students with some ideas for the complex and ever-evolving ways in which cultures and cultural productions interact.

  • Mary Griep, Professor of Art and Associate Dean of Fine Arts, St. Olaf College

Mary GriepMary Griep

A specialist in teaching drawing and painting, Griep also has taught interdisciplinary courses in women’ studies and contemporary art. Her work has been shown nationally and internationally, including at the Chicago Navy Pier International Art Expositions, and exhibition venues in Texas, Washington, D.C., Minneapolis, Thailand, Finland, and the Dominican Republic. Griep was Field Supervisor for St. Olaf’s Term in Asia in 2000 and 2003.

Griep will do a presentation called Onsite/Insite about students observing, interacting, and reflecting on their experiences abroad, which will include the “postcard assignment” to help them synthesize their observations in India.

Bill MoseleyBill Moseley

Moseley’s research interests focus on political ecology, tropical agriculture, environment and development policy, and livelihood security. He teaches a range of international courses, including Human Geography of Global Issues; People, Agriculture, and the Environment; Geography of Development; and a senior seminar on environment and development. In spring 2012 he served as Faculty Program Director of the ACM Botswana Program and has also led study abroad programs in South Africa.

Drawing on his background as a geographer who works on environment and development issues in the Global South, mainly Africa, Moseley plans to give a lecture outlining comparisons between West Africa and India.

  • Diep Phan, Assistant Professor of Economics, Beloit College

Diep PhanDiep Phan

In addition to introductory economics, Phan teaches courses on international economics, globalization, and international development. Her primary research interest is in economic growth and development of developing nations, especially in East and Southeast Asia, and she is currently researching the labor market in Vietnam and how it relates to poverty and income distribution in that country.

Phan is planning to give a lecture during the site visit discussing globalization and comparing economic growth and transformation of various Asian countries.

The Faculty Site Visits Program was established in 2011 to familiarize faculty at ACM colleges with consortial off-campus study programs. Previous site visits have taken groups of faculty to Florence, Chicago, Costa Rica, and London.

Faculty at ACM colleges are invited to apply for the next site visit to Gaborone, Botswana on March 22-28, 2014. See the Call for Applications for more details.

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