plenary12

Tracing the Experience:

From Inquiry to Integration

8th Annual Conference

March 21-23, 2012

Opening Plenary Speaker

The Forum is pleased to announce that Richard Slimbach will give the Opening Plenary Address at the 8th Annual Conference, Denver, March 21, 2012.

“The Fate of Civilization and the Future of Study Abroad: From Doorstep to Planet”

Modern urban civilization faces its own dire version of the age-old “to be or not to be” question. Although its economic performance has been nothing short of stunning, the negative social and ecological effects of 150 years of industrialization have become impossible to ignore. This presents global educators today with a rare opportunity and responsibility: to mediate the question of whether we can - or even should - save industrial civilization. Taking this charge seriously will require that we re-consider the ultimate purposes of a global education as the necessary first step for re-imagining global learning in an era of “peak everything.” Using Kentucky farmer and essayist Wendell Berry as dialogue partner, we propose an integrated, “doorstep-to-planet” pedagogy that transcends the false choice to either “stay at home” or “study abroad.” A local-to-global model of global learning, it’s suggested, can enable students to embrace one of the great tasks of our time: discerning what to cherish and what to challenge within the “modern way of life” as a precondition to making worthy homes in the world.

Richard is Professor of Global Studies and Director of the Global Studies Program at Azusa Pacific University in Southern California. He founded Azusa’s Los Angeles Term and Global Learning Term programs. More recently, he co-created the Master of Arts in Tra photo of Richard Slimbach nsformational Urban Leadership (MATUL), perhaps the only academic program in the world focused exclusively on the one billion slum and shantytown dwellers. Slimbach holds a Ph.D. in comparative and international education from UCLA. He specializes in cross-cultural program designs that integrate traditional and experiential pedagogies, and cultivate in students a “fair share” of responsibility for the fate of the world. He is the author of Becoming World Wise (Stylus, 2010). In his spare time, Richard enjoys converting castaway bicycles into fixed-gear commuters. He lives with Leslie, partner of 28 years, and their two children (Justus and Destinae) in Monrovia, California.

Resource:

An extended version of Richard Slimbach's Opening Plenary Address was distributed to conference participants. A pdf version of the publication is available here: The Fate of Civilization and the Future of Education Abroad: From Doorstep to Planet