We Are a Community of Practice, Not a Paradigm! How to Meaningfully Integrate Gender and Feminist Approaches in IR Syllabi

The most frequent practice in teaching western undergraduate students about international relations (IR) is either to avoid gender studies altogether or at best to compartmentalize them to a single week. This practice marginalizes feminist research by amalgamating highly heterogeneous publications under the pretense that “they look at gender.” Rather than treating gender studies as a unified research program, they should be linked to the full range of theories, approaches, or topics they are relevant to, based on their normative and ontological assumptions. In the end, gender-oriented scholars do not form a would-be paradigm, but a community of practice. This community, however, can itself perpetuate colonial exclusions and silencing. This study is based on a content analysis of fifty western undergraduate “Introduction to IR” syllabi from 2015 to 2020, as well as a reflection on my own experience since 2011 as a student, teaching assistant, guest lecturer, and professor in ten IR courses at three western universities.

“Student-led education for a better world?”Reflections in conversation

This essay provokes who the “experts” are in discussions about education: why not the students who are most impacted by it? At the Centre for Environment and Development Studies (CEMUS), a joint centre between Uppsala University and Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, students are hired as Course Coordinators (CCs) to develop and facilitate freestanding university courses. This paper is an outcome of a collaborative reflection exercise in the form of a written dialogue between students, CCs, and a guest lecturer of a CEMUS course “Reimagining Education”. This course focused on approaching learning and education on a meta-level where students and their experience become the subject of collaborative learning. By comparing the experience from this course with other courses at CEMUS and beyond, we discuss whether and how CEMUS challenges traditional pedagogies based on teacher-student hierarchies. Both the capacity for CCs to influence the content and pedagogical arrangements as well as the opportunities for non-CC students to take responsibility in steering class discussions were highlighted as empowering experiences. We reflect upon how this and the use of arts-based pedagogies can lead to fostering community and how it motivates students to collectively engage in their personal learning experiences beyond curriculum goals.

Foucault in Hamburg. Notes on a One-Year Stay, 1959–60

This article provides a detailed account of the year that Michel Foucault spent as Director of the Institut Français in Hamburg and as a guest lecturer at the Romance Studies Department at the University of Hamburg. It discusses the beginning of Foucault’s time in Hamburg, the courses he taught at these two institutions, his interactions with German students in his classes, and events with invited guests from the French intellectual sphere. But it also sheds light on the friendships he made in Hamburg, in particular with Rolf Italiaander; the completion of his own projects including Histoire de la folie and the translation of Kant’s Anthropology from a Pragmatic Point of View; and finally his nocturnal wanderings through Hamburg’s red light district, Sankt-Pauli.

Performance Pedagogy: Performing Fluxus Pedagogy in a Contemporary Lithuanian Context

Educators practice performance pedagogy as the method where an educator/facilitator is seen as a performer or actor (Pineau 1994, p. 4). This paper presents an analysis of the historical roots of performance pedagogies in Fluxus pedagogies and performance pedagogy practices within participatory art events in Lithuania as exemplified by festivals AN88 (1988) and AN89 (1989). The case of my research rests on the contemporary implementation of performance pedagogy techniques during the course The Temporary Department of Time, Space, and Action for BA students at the Vilnius Academy of Arts in Lithuania. This research aims to define the concept theories within performance pedagogy in the art academy education, which developed behind the terms Human Semiotics (Andersen 2002), Hyper Performer,1 and InterMedia (Higgins 1984). This project was implemented using the strategy of critical utopian action research in the context of the Vilnius Academy of Arts. The empirical material was gathered during my employment as a guest lecturer and the implementation of my pedagogical internship at the Vilnius Academy of Arts.2These concept theories are defined through. a reflexive analysis of archive material on the historical origin of performance pedagogies, originating in Fluxus pedagogies, local Lithuanian participatory art, and data from the contemporary case of my project The Temporary Department of Time, Space and Action (2018), in the form of archive material, photographs, interviews, observations, notes, and my diary. The results of this research are the application of performance pedagogy concepts and terminology to the art and education projects and the definition of the key concept theories within this field. These results can be useful for artists and those practicing university pedagogy.

Transdisciplinaritāte studiju kursa „Latviešu valoda kā svešvaloda” īstenošanā

Each year international students from Asia enroll in the study programs implemented by the Faculty of E-Learning Technologies and Humanities of Riga Technical University. It is interesting to note that some of these students come with the preliminary knowledge of the Latvian language at level A2 and some even at level B1 according to CEFR, which they have acquired in their home country. Therefore, one of the tasks the instructor should complete within the study course “Latvian as a Foreign Language” is to select appropriate pedagogical contents and methods that would not only facilitate acquisition of a foreign language, but would also promote positive attitude to the country and culture which language is being acquired. Adoption of the transdisciplinary approach is one of the options. Resting on these premises, the paper analyzes the experience of the author through the prism of trans-disciplinary pedagogical approach. Delivering the study course “Latvian as a Foreign Language” to the students with preliminary knowledge, the instructor shall not focus solely on expanding student vocabulary range and training in grammatical regularities. It is important to develop understanding about the cross-cultural dialogue and include the elements of creativity in the curriculum. Both components are connected with the transdisciplinary approach. Transdisciplinary pedagogical approach may be really challenging for the instructor. Interest, involvement and eagerness to expand one’s knowledge play a crucial role. Attitude becomes a category of self-education. One of the options implementing the above-mentioned approach is to invite a guest lecturer – a professional in a definite field – to deliver a class together. It is not only the students who benefit from this practice but also the instructor, as in such a way self-education process occurs. Transdisciplinary pedagogical approach opens to both students and the instructor a wider, more comprehensive perspective on different areas of research and culture, their interconnectedness and contexts, as well as promotes awareness of the fact that the borders among the areas are not set but rather are flexible. Before delivering a practical class based on the transdisciplinary approach, it is necessary to design a precise action plan comprising several action points: selection of the relevant theme and a guest lecturer, getting ready for the class, delivery of the transdisciplinary class, polling the student after the practical class, or getting feedback. Only successfully completing each action point included in the plan both students and the academic staff may reach the desired positive outcome.

Bridging Critical Constructivism and Postphenomenology at Techno-Anthropology

Both postphenomenology and critical constructivism are central paradigms used as philosophies and theoretical resources at the Master’s program in Techno-Anthropology at Aalborg University. In the fall of 2018 a didactical experiment was set up as Techno-Anthropology Master’s students were introduced to postphenomenology and critical constructivism and asked to compare these two theoretical positions. This comparative assignment and following class discussions between students, a guest lecturer and teachers is the point of departure for this paper. First, the paper introduces Techno-Anthropology with a special focus on the roles of postphenomenology and critical constructivism in the Master’s program. The next part of the paper zooms in on how these two philosophical positions were presented to the students. The third part analyzes students’ comparisons of postphenomenology and critical constructivism. On that basis, the author identifies similarities and differences between the two positions and discusses how the two positions can complement each other in a unified Techno-Anthropological research strategy.

Diversity Now! Sequins, Style & the End of Gender with Dr. Madison Moore

Diversity Now! is an annual lecture series hosted by the Centre for Fashion Diversity and Social Change at Ryerson University in Toronto, Canada. This lecture series explores how individuals have used fashion as a means to inspire social change and political advocacy in their personal lives, their community, or the fashion industry. The 2019 guest lecturer was Dr. Madison Moore, an artist-scholar, DJ, and Assistant Professor of Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies at Virginia Commonwealth University. In this seventh series lecture, Moore discussed the journey and research behind his recent book Fabulous: The Rise of The Beautiful Eccentric (2018). Drawing on autobiography, anecdotal evidence, and interviews, Moore took his audience on a journey from his childhood in Ferguson, Missouri, to the night scene in New York, London, and Berlin, with an emphasis on Vogue Balls and catwalks. While Moore’s lecture drew on various sources, his message was unequivocal: style and clothes have the power to inspire social change.

Optimization of Internationalization Program of Biology Program Fmipa Unnes with UTM Malaysia

Internationalization Programs of the Biology study, Semarang State University (UNNES), in order to realize the vision of UNNES as an international conservation university, continues. The objective of this study is to conduct internationalization program for Biology study in the form of student mobility, Credit transfer, guest lecturer, and world-class professor at UTM. This study is an Operational Research (OR). Operational Research is a research that aims to resolve operational problems, which result is used to help solving problems using scientific methods. UNNES Biology study proposes activities in the form of student mobility, credit transfer, guest lecturer, and world-class professor for Biology Student, but then the credit transfer is not done. The results obtained from the student mobility will be the topic at a public lecture from the Biology studies program. Student mobility program is an excellent opportunity for students to have the experience and knowledge at the international level.

Role of Guest Lecturer in Research Proposal Writing: Students’ Perception

The present research focuses on the experience of undergraduate students in a Middle Eastern college on attending guest lectures at the initial stage of preparing their dissertation. Here an attempt to apply the constructivist approach (Kirshner et al., 2006; Westwood, 2008) to teaching the subject of English Research Methods (ERM) is made by using a technique of multiple guest lecturer sessions by the department working in different areas of linguistics to familiarize the students with research interests of their tutors. This paper is an attempt to find out students' attitude to the sessions, their (sessions) benefits and drawbacks. Students’ feedback was collected at the end of each session to identify advantages/disadvantages and extent of helpfulness of the practice through a questionnaire. The data was analysed with the help of both qualitative and quantitative methods. The results of the survey demonstrated the importance of guest speaker presentations for project writing as well as their (guest speakers’) positive impact on students’ motivation. Moreover, they helped to identify both the preferred and dispreferred approaches to conducting the sessions that are related to students’ personal attributes. See the comments