St. Paul, Minn. – Macalester College presents its 22nd annual International Roundtable with the theme, “Education in a Globalized World: Equity, Diversity and Civic Participation,” Wed. – Sat., Oct. 7 – 10, 2015, in the John B. Davis Lecture Hall, Ruth Stricker Dayton Campus Center, 1600 Grand Ave., St. Paul, Minn.  Other Roundtable events are in multiple campus locations. It is free and open to the public.  For more information, call 651-696-6655 or email [email protected].

The 2015 Macalester International Roundtable (IRT) will seek to better understand disparities in education. Participants will explore opportunities for closing the education gap(s) through discussion of emerging innovations and socio-political and cultural platforms that promise to improve the delivery of, diversity of and access to education. The IRT will consider local, national and international perspectives on education and learning in the context of globalization and explore a variety of ways to participate in the challenging task of overcoming disparities in education:

Equity and diversity: 
Consider social, cultural, political, economic and geographic barriers to quality education locally, domestically and in nations around the world. Seek to understand how socio-economic determinants (e.g. race, class, ethnicity, language, gender and disability) limit access to quality education in the humanities and the arts, social sciences, civic participation, natural sciences, mathematics and technology.

Teaching and learning: 
Explore models, innovations, and best practices—including formal and informal, state supported and privately funded, indigenous and community-based—aimed at reducing educational disparities in a globalized world.

Political voice and policy: 
Explore the complex dynamics that limit or give voice to the many stakeholders in education. Consider the complementary and often conflicting positions of educators, students, families, citizens, advocacy groups, and communities as they work to shape global systems. Seek to understand how they interact with transnational corporations, NGOs, international agencies, foundations, and all levels of government—in advancing education for all.

The IRT is featuring the following plenary speakersCarlos Alberto Torres, Associate Dean for Global Programs and Distinguished Professor of Social Sciences and Comparative Education, and former Director of the UCLA-Latin American Center, is a political sociologist of education; Andrew Delbanco is Director of American Studies at Columbia University and has been Columbia’s Julian Clarence Levi Professor in the Humanities since 1995; Changu Mannathoko, UNICEF Senior Policy Advisor, Education; Carlos Mariani Rosa is a distinguished leader in the nonprofit and public sector, appointed executive director of the Minnesota Minority Education Partnership, Inc. in 1997, and elected to the Minnesota House of Representatives in 1990, representing St. Paul district 65B; and Joel Spring is a professor at Queens College and the Graduate Center, City University of New York, whose scholarship focuses on educational globalization policies, the politics of education, and multicultural education.

There will be five plenary sessions, 17 student-led workshops, and engagement with various Twin Cities communities to examine a multitude of themes.

Previous Roundtable themes:

  • 1994 – The International Community and the Emerging World (Dis) Order
  • 1995 – Literature, the Creative Imagination, and Globalization
  • 1996 – The Divided Self: Ethnicity, Identity, and Globalization
  • 1997 – Nature, People, and Globalization
  • 1998 – Globalization and Economic Space
  • 1999 – Contending Gods: Religion and the Global Moment
  • 2000 – International Feminisms: Divergent Perspectives
  • 2001 – The Body: Meditations on Global Health
  • 2002 – Prometheus’s Bequest: Technology and Change
  • 2003 – Complex Contradictions: African, American, and Middle Eastern Perspectives
  • 2004 – America and Global Power: Empire or . . . ?
  • 2005 –  Quixotic Offspring: The Global Legacy of Don Quixote
  • 2006 – The United Nations Organization (UNO): What Future?
  • 2007 –  The Musical Imagination in the Epoch of Globalization
  • 2008 – Whither Development? The Struggle for Livelihood in the Time of Globalization
  • 2009 – Global Environment: The Eleventh Hour?
  • 2010 –  “My Sister’s and Brother’s Keeper? Human Rights in the Era of Globalization”
  • 2011 –  “Children of the World: The Dialectic of Promise and Vulnerability
  • 2012Feeding the World: Globalization, Food, and Agriculture in the 21st Century
  • 2013 – Global Health: Promoting Equity Within and Across Borders
  • 2014 – Migration

Macalester College, founded in 1874, is a national liberal arts college with a full-time enrollment of 2,045 students. Macalester is nationally recognized for its long-standing commitment to academic excellence, internationalism, multiculturalism, and civic engagement. Learn more at macalester.edu.

September 15 2015

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