CEA CAPA is pleased to announce our 2024 Woolf Symposium, hosted by Emerson College in Boston on March 19, 2024 from 1-4:30 PM EDT. This year's theme will be: "Navigating Difference: Otherness, Boundaries, and the Idea of the Stranger."

The enterprise of education abroad is, at its core, about navigating difference-the idea that by going somewhere else, where things are different, we learn things that we would not have learned by staying at home. But now, in many ways, students are confronted with sameness as much as different global brands scattered throughout their new environs, English as a lingua franca, and ever-present social media and popular culture providing familiar backdrops to ostensibly novel experiences.

As a field, how do we effectively navigate this tension between sameness and difference in pedagogy and program design? As importantly, why? What exactly do these dynamics teach our students? Difference is defined by boundaries and notions of otherness-and the idea of the stranger can be a fertile one in how we construct and convey the experience of education abroad.  How do we frame perceptions of groups and individuals, constructions of stereotypes, and the narratives around them? How can we, with pedagogical skillfulness, trace the lines between exotic allure and dehumanization, alienation and engagement, curiosity and indifference, openness and mistrust? In a world that is both rife with conflict and collectively facing common global challenges, how do we prompt students to leverage self-reflection and critical thinking in interrogating difference, navigating boundaries, and engaging with strangeness? 

This symposium seeks to bring scholars and practitioners-from early to late career-together around these questions, with a focus on translating ideas into publications and further dialogue for the field of education abroad. Participants may choose to simply attend, or to prepare a 15-minute thought piece to share and discuss with the group on the following or related topics:

• Navigating difference
• Encountering strangers, and being a stranger
• Boundaries and otherness
• The idea of ambilocation
• The role of the incidental: coincidence and casual conversations
• The effect of the digital age
• Ethical dimensions of engaging across difference
• Sameness in a foreign land

 
Symposium Speakers:

• Dr. Anthony Pinder - Vice Provost, Internationalization, and Equity – Emerson College
• Dr. Amir Reza - Dean, Babson Academy and Global Education – Babson College
• Samantha Brandauer - Associate Provost and Executive Director of the Center for Global Study and Engagement – Dickinson College 
• Dr. Kalpen Trivedi - Vice Provost for Global Affairs and Director, International Programs Office – University of Massachusetts Amherst
• Dr. Dan Waite - Executive Director of Rutgers Global, Study Abroad – Rutgers University
• Dr. Bo White - Director of Study Abroad – Baylor University
• Dr. Keshia Abraham – President - Abraham Consulting Agency
• Angela Schaffer - Executive Director - Fund for Education Abroad
• Phil Agbeko - Chief Executive Officer - Hilltop Global Group
• Dr. David Wick - Associate Professor of International Education Management - Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey
• Dr. Michael Woolf - Deputy President for Strategic Development – CEA CAPA Education Abroad
• Dr. Martha Johnson - Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost – CEA CAPA Education Abroad
• Dr. Andrea Custodi - Dean & Vice President of Academic and Strategic Initiatives – CEA CAPA Education Abroad
• Emily Resnevic – Senior Custom Program Developer – CEA CAPA Education Abroad

RSVP as an Attendee Here!