Public Group active 2 weeks, 1 day ago

Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL)

A group for faculty and staff interested in COIL education at CUNY.

Admins:

  • Posted by Olga Aksakalova (she/her) on July 11, 2019 at 12:11 pm

    Dear COIL’ers,

    Is anyone interested in co-developing a COIL-related proposal  to participate in this Mellon-funded Seminar on Public Engagement and Collaborative Research offered by the Center for the Humanities at the Graduate Center?

    Collaborative applications are encouraged: “Full-time CUNY faculty in the humanities or humanities-related social sciences with experience in the public humanities will be considered. Both individual and collaborative applications with other full-time CUNY faculty from the GC and senior and community colleges are welcome. If you apply as an individual and are selected you will be paired with another CUNY Faculty Coleader to lead one of three research teams (themes and structures outlined above).”

    These two themes are particularly relevant to COIL:

    • The Humanities and Public Discourse: How can humanistic research and activities enrich public discourse on topics including education, democratic practice, and civic inclusivity? In an increasingly polarized culture, might public humanities practices and community engagement  create opportunities to better understand, and thus mitigate, the personal, social, historical, and cultural conditions that prevent open, democratic conversation across difference? This group will research, analyze, and deploy strategies for transforming conflict into constructive public debate.
    • Urban Neighborhoods: What role does humanistic research play in bettering urban life at the neighborhood level? How can the public humanities help preserve the uniqueness of diverse and integrated cultural and ethnic enclaves in cities increasingly homogenized by rising rent, local development, and the global real estate market? We envision this theme bringing together a diverse cohort of humanists and social scientists to activate topics ranging from immigration and sanctuary to equitable food distribution; from community control of public and green spaces to community archives and oral histories; from gentrification and displacement to public art and the production of culture; from local governance and participatory budgeting to racial, religious, and linguistic inclusivity.

    https://commons.gc.cuny.edu/groups/teaching-and-learning-center/forum/topic/fwd-call-for-applications-announcing-the-seminar-on-public-engagement-and-collaborative-research-2020-2022/

6 replies
    • Schiro Withanachchi
      Participant
      July 17, 2019 at 6:54 am

      Olga,

      I am interested.

      However, I am not sure if I am eligible as a full-time CUNY faculty in Economics since the call is looking for faculty in “humanities-related social sciences.”

      Best,

      Schiro

    • Maria Savva
      Participant
      July 17, 2019 at 9:20 am

      Hi there,

       

      I am open to this possibility.  Olga, let me know what you have in mind.

       

      Maria

    • Maria Savva
      Participant
      July 17, 2019 at 9:21 am

      We could probably brainstorm some ideas.

       

    • Grace Pai (she/her)
      Member
      July 17, 2019 at 11:08 am

      YES, I’m definitely interested! In reading the prompt though, my main question is how to connect COIL to a public humanities practice? Does CUNY have a working definition of public humanities? In any case, I’d love to chat about it more!

    • Amy Ramson
      Member
      July 17, 2019 at 12:11 pm

      I see the humanities and public discourse as  a good fit for COIL as the projects are all aimed at creating cross-cultural competence.

      Amy

    • Kim Holland (she/her)
      Participant
      July 18, 2019 at 11:09 am

      I agree that COIL is an easy fit in the humanities (although I hope we work to make COIL at CUNY inclusive of other disciplinary areas).

      I think the issue is whether this particular conference is open to contributions from COIL-interested faculty outside of the humanities and humanities-related social sciences.  Because of the proposal wording and because of the Mellon funding behind the event, I think the answer is no.

      *However*, economics is a diverse field, and parts of it definitely qualify as a humanities-related social science.  So I think it’s up to the individual faculty in these “grey” areas to make sure what they want to present on is a good fit for this event.  If it isn’t, this is not the last opportunity or a boundary for COIL development at CUNY; it’s just the parameters for this particular event.

      Either way, this is a good opportunity for those of you interested in implementing COIL in humanities (and humanities-related social sciences) to come together; glad to see the discussion taking off.

      Kim

6 replies

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