Teaching International Relations (IR) in the Time of Global Disruptions

• In Event: Creativity in World Politics Pedagogy

Abstract

How can institutional infrastructures of campuses be leveraged to teach international relations (IR) during disruptive natural calamities? While COVID-19 adversely affected thousands of activities around the world and disrupting educational activities globally, the pandemic also created unique opportunities for faculty to make international relations truly ‘international’ by virtually connecting students with populations living in remote and hostile areas, such as refugee camps. This paper describes the implementation of an educational exchange program that was developed during the COVID-19 pandemic to engage students in the United States with refugees living in the Dzaleka Refugee Camp in Malawi. As classes shifted online in spring 2020, we created a program to provide college level educational opportunities to people experiencing forced migration, while also engaging US students in IR courses with the affected population. In a partnership between a student-led non-governmental organization called Refugee Outreach Collective and Central Michigan University (CMU), we launched a virtual education program called Global Classroom that allows refugees living in Dzaleka to enroll in IR courses at CMU and to share their lived experiences and engage with US students, creating an international student community. Over 300 students, including 94 refugees, have successfully participated in this program so far, suggesting that innovative programs can help provide higher education access to forcibly displaced persons, while giving US students a rare opportunity to interact directly with refugees who have lived experiences with violence and a life in a camp.

Authors

• Prakash Adhikari, Central Michigan University

• Wendy L. Hansen, University of New Mexico