Location

Room 218

Strand #1

Teaching - Higher Education

Strand #2

Teaching - General/Other

Relevance

Our panel explores innovative methods of collaborative teaching and cross-divisional honors courses using Active Learning principles. Our class is taken by undergraduate students in the USC Upstate honors program where they will be encouraged to pursue world languages and are exposed to cultural competencies that will better prepare them for a global citizenship. Our faculty panel has the following global studies experience: directing of study abroad programs around the world, teaching of world languages and cultures, publishing on a variety of international themes, advocating for ethnic and international communities, and representing diverse international backgrounds from three continents.

Brief Program Description

How do we engage undergraduate students in intercultural awareness and global citizenship? One way is to better prepare them for a service-oriented, complex, multi-lingual, and globally focused workplace. Our panel will present how a public university with a metropolitan mission encourages interdisciplinary, cross-divisional, and co-taught courses where French and criminal justice professors collaborate for a global education cause.

Summary

We will explore how the honors program at USC Upstate, which is located in the fastest growing and most internationally diverse business region in the US, encourages interdisciplinary and cross-divisional collaborative teaching as part of the university’s new strategic plan. French and criminal justice faculty partner for a global education effort that culminates in student and faculty collaboration that extends beyond the classroom by hosting a French & Francophone film festival with social media discussion forums involving the community.

Our course provides a challenging learning experience to honors program students by broadening the traditional inquiry into terrorism and torture by taking a global perspective and examining the current culture of fear that has manifested. We explore important representations of moral dilemmas in prose, theater, and film that plagued war-torn Europe and France during World War II and the Algerian War and how some of the most important ethical questions related to terrorism, torture, and truth still haunt the United States today in post 9/11 society and around the world. The connection between the American response to 9/11 and France’s own failed counterterrorism strategies involving torture during its militarized effort to safeguard French Algeria (populated by a Muslim majority) will be carefully explored. Utilizing criminological and sociological theory, we will analyze the complexities and divergences of existential writers as they grapple with the evils of war that often involve both terrorism and torture. The relevant documentaries and films, such as The Battle of Algiers (used by the Pentagon in 2004 as training material prior to the invasion of Iraq), help us frame sensitive debates on war censorship and national security. We contemplate diverse positions on ethical and controversial issues: can terrorism be justified as a means for social justice? Can a democracy torture and at what costs to its ideals? How is political crime different from senseless murder? Can and should genocide be defined differently from a civil war operation? Who has the right to decide on the life or death of others?

Format

Panel Discussion - 30 minutes

Biographical Sketch

Araceli Hernández-Laroche is from Mexico, has taught at three universities in France, directed a study abroad program in Spain, and has conducted doctoral work in Italy; she has experience teaching French, Italian and Spanish at the university level in the United States. She publishes on Mediterranean Studies and currently serves as the president of the South Carolina Chapter of the American Association of Teachers of French. In three states she has worked on advocacy programs related to education, cultural awareness and legal access for immigrant communities.

Samantha Hauptman is a Canadian who was raised in an ethnically and culturally diverse family and is a relentless advocate for cultural awareness who continually conveys the importance of a global world view to her students. Even as an undergraduate and graduate student, she worked with incoming international students and advised American students that were new (and often apprehensive) to studying abroad. She is the author of The Criminalization of Immigration: The Post 9/11 Moral Panic (2013) and has published on several international themes including globalization, policing, terrorism, and immigration.

Cathy Canino grew up and was educated in the diversity of Southern California, and was always interested in other cultures and languages. She has been traveling abroad since college, and finds travel to be a transformative experience. When she began to teach English at USC Upstate, she wanted to share that experience with her students, and began organizing yearly trips to Europe, which were very successful. Now, as Director of the Honors Program at USC Upstate, she has made international travel and engagement the core of the Honors Program.

Keyword Descriptors

Honors program, Active-learning, Global awareness, Criminal justice, French, Collaborative, Cross-divisional, Interdisciplinary

Presentation Year

2015

Start Date

9-18-2015 2:15 PM

End Date

9-18-2015 3:15 PM

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Sep 18th, 2:15 PM Sep 18th, 3:15 PM

Teaching Honors Cross-Divisional & Active-Learning Courses: Terrorism & Torture from a Global Perspective

Room 218

How do we engage undergraduate students in intercultural awareness and global citizenship? One way is to better prepare them for a service-oriented, complex, multi-lingual, and globally focused workplace. Our panel will present how a public university with a metropolitan mission encourages interdisciplinary, cross-divisional, and co-taught courses where French and criminal justice professors collaborate for a global education cause.