Stanford EPIC fellowship supports community college educators dedicated to fostering global studies

Twelve community college instructors have been named 2020-21 Stanford EPIC fellows. Through the year-long professional development program, the fellows will work on projects to incorporate global themes into their courses.

Established in 2015, the Education Partnership for Internationalizing Curriculum (EPIC) fellowship program supports community college instructors committed to advancing global and international area studies. The program is led by Stanford Global Studies, the Center for Spatial and Textual Analysis, and the Stanford Program on International and Cross-Cultural Education.

Representing nine community colleges in agricultural, urban, and suburban locations across California and Illinois, this year’s fellows teach a wide range of subjects across the humanities and social sciences. Their projects engage with topics as diverse as immigration, gender and sexuality, virtual reality, feminism, and public health.

The fellowship commenced with a summer intensive, which was held virtually in response to the coronavirus pandemic. Over the course of two days, the fellows attended lectures led by Stanford faculty, participated in a virtual visit to the Cantor Arts Center, and learned about several university resources.

At the start of the workshop, SGS Director Jeremy Weinstein welcomed the fellows and led a discussion around the importance of developing global competencies among college students. Following this opening session, Jonathan Rosa, associate professor in the Graduate School of Education, talked about his research on the intersection of language, identity, inequity, and education in the U.S. Latinx community.

"Jonathan Rosa's talk on ‘looking like a language’ inspired me to think about teaching borders and the conflation of language and race in new ways,” said Melissa King, assistant professor of anthropology at San Bernardino Valley College.

The fellows also had the opportunity to hear from Kären Wigen, professor of history, who shared creative ways to use maps in the classroom. Other highlights of the workshop include a guided virtual tour of Stanford Libraries and a talk by JSK Journalism Fellow Michael Rain on using data and analytics to better serve diverse communities. 

At the conclusion of the workshop, the fellows heard from three alumni of the program—Dana Grisby, Andrew Hill, and Takami Nieda—who discussed their experiences as participants and offered advice.

Over the next year, the fellows will participate in monthly online seminars as they develop their projects.

“I look forward to developing my project with the resources available at Stanford and my fellow faculty cohort,” said Oliver Rosales, professor of history at Bakersfield College, who is developing a curricular unit that focuses on international migration, civil rights, and agricultural labor. “I am excited to learn more about the innovative projects my colleagues are doing and building networks across various community colleges all over the state.”

To read more about the fellows and their projects, visit the Stanford Global Studies website. The fellows will present their final projects at a symposium in May.