The Area Studies Centers at The Ohio State University recently concluded their seventh year of organizing the K-14 Global Fellowship Program. The Global Fellowship Program first started during the 2017-18 academic year with the goal of connecting teachers from across the state of Ohio in a series of discussion group sessions that focus on contemporary issues from a global perspective. Since 2020, this program has been held virtually which has allowed the centers to reach a larger number of educators across the United States as well as those teaching at international schools across the globe.

The theme for the 2023-24 program focused on “Women's Rights and Issues Around the World" and included regional sessions led by guest experts that focused on multi-disciplinary approaches to this year's theme. In particular, the program aimed to highlight the role of intersectionality with other identities and what activists are doing to create change so that educators could leave with a better understanding of such movements that are not centered in the Western world. Regional topics included women’s rights and gender politics in Eastern Europe, Japanese women’s reform, political reproductive rights in Latin America, gender equality in Africa, and activism and radical protest surrounding girl's and women’s rights in Iran. To finish off the year, the cohort ended with a pedagogy session during which they brainstormed about how to integrate the program topic into their own curriculum, crowdsource support in their own communities, and incorporate practical teaching activities and strategies in order to teach and discuss complex topics in the classroom.

The centers welcomed thirty-two educators from seventeen different states and two countries into this year's program. Their teaching covered a wide range of grade levels and disciplines including ESL, ELA, graphic design, history, mathematics, philosophy, Spanish, sociology, and more. For successfully completing the program, the participating teachers were given access to texts, videos, and other resources and 2 Continuing Education Units (CEUs). The centers would also like to thank our guest experts Dr. Jennifer Suchland (Ohio State U.), Dr. Ann Marie Davis (Ohio State U.), Hajia Hamdatu Ibrahim Haruna, Dr. Lucia Stavig (U. of Pennsylvania), Dr. A. Marie Ranjbar (U. of Colorado, Boulder), and Dr. Daniel Redman (Ohio State U.) for leading this year's sessions and discussions.

More information on the 2024-25 program and application will be released late June, 2024. For more information, please visit the Global Fellowship Program page on our website or email CSEEES' outreach coordinator, Alicia Baca (baca.31@osu.edu).