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Message from the Chair, Dr. Arne Kalleberg
The completion of the 2021 semester brings to an end my two-year term as Chair of the Curriculum in Global Studies. My stint went by quickly—perhaps too quickly—as we were unable to spend much time at the Global Education Center due to the Covid-19 pandemic. I missed the face-to-face interactions with our excellent teaching faculty (Carmen Huerta-Bapat, Erica Johnson, Michal Osterweil and Jonathan Weiler) as well as the terrific staff members (L.E. Alexander and Zach Ward) who kept the Curriculum running smoothly despite the disruptions caused by the demands of remote learning and meeting. Due largely to their efforts, the Curriculum in Global Studies managed to teach its courses, have students defend their senior honors papers and MA theses, and confer degrees on 126 undergraduate Global Studies majors and 9 Global Studies MA students. (For those who haven’t seen it, check out Zach’s stirring production dedicated to our graduating students here.) It has been an absolute pleasure working with all these folks and I heartily thank them for their support of me and for their commitment to global education.
The past two years have seen a greater involvement in the Curriculum of UNC faculty who are jointly appointed in Global Studies and their home departments. We held yearly retreats (one in person, the other necessarily via Zoom) as well as a number of seminars that brought together the joint faculty along with our teaching faculty to discuss ways of adding more global content to courses and, in the past year, ways of decolonizing global studies and dismantling racism. Much more needs to be done in these areas, of course, but I am excited that we are increasingly focusing on these important and timely topics.
Moving forward, I am happy to report that the Curriculum will be in good hands with the appointment of a new Chair for a four-year term: Banu Gökariksel. She is a skilled geographer who studies religion and feminist political and cultural geographies and is dedicated to students and advancing UNC’s global research and teaching goals. She most recently served as The Caroline H. and Thomas S. Royster Distinguished Professor for Graduate Education at The Graduate School, mentoring a highly gifted diverse interdisciplinary cohort of doctoral students. I am confident that Banu will infuse the Curriculum with new ideas and initiatives that will bring the level of global education at UNC to new heights. She will be on research leave in Fall, 2021 but not to worry: stepping in as Interim Chair will be Jonathan Weiler, the Curriculum’s Associate Chair and Director of Undergraduate Studies; Jonathan’s depth of experience and deep and lasting commitment to Global Studies majors and students bode well for the continued vitality of our programs and efforts.
My departure from the Curriculum in Global Studies thus has a bittersweet quality. I am sad to miss the day-to-day interactions with our wonderful teaching faculty, staff and joint faculty. But I am cheered in the certainty that global studies will be more important than ever as we emerge from the pandemic and that the Curriculum in Global Studies is positioned to play an increasingly central role in making Carolina a leading global university.
Have a great summer!
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Congratulations Spring 2021 Graduates!
The Curriculum in Global Studies congratulates our Spring 2021 BA & MA graduates on this important milestone in your lives and the perseverance you have displayed during these unusual and trying times. We look forward to following your future journeys and the ways in which you will impact communities across North Carolina, throughout the United States, and around the world.
The Curriculum in Global Studies created a graduation video to celebrate the Class of 2021. The video can be viewed here.
Spring 2021 Honors Recognition
Eight Global Studies seniors completed senior honors theses during the Spring 2021 semester. Faculty advisors and readers universally praised the original research, theoretical frameworks, and writing in these projects. This strong & resilient cohort (listed below) should feel a great deal of pride & accomplishment for this outstanding achievement!
Nazrawith Alemayehu- Honors
Maeve Cook- Highest Honors
Courtney Halverson- Honors
Yampiere Lugo-Acosta- Honors
Svetlana Nesteruk- Honors
Sarah Payne- Highest Honors
Cameron Ward- Highest Honors
Madison Wiedeman- Highest Honors
Eyre Award
 Each year, the Curriculum in Global Studies presents the Douglas Eyre Award for Excellence to the Global Studies major who produces the best senior honors thesis. We are proud to recognize Cameron Ward as this year's recipient of the Eyre Award. Cameron's thesis, Musical Textures of Migration: Music’s Role in the Syrian Refugee Experience in Germany, was universally lauded for its overall significance and interdisciplinary approach to such an important and complex issue. Cameron was supported in her thesis project by her advisor Dr. Michal Osterweil and reader Dr. Annegret Fauser.
Scaff Award
 The Anne Scaff Award is presented each year to a Global Studies senior who has committed themselves to serving the Curriculum and the overall internationalization of the University. We are proud to recognize Anna Gray Bennett as this year's recipient of the Scaff Award.
During her time at UNC, Anna devoted herself to a wide range of globally oriented initiatives, including founding Baataaboom, serving as director & choreographer for From The Inside Out, and co-editing & serving as creative director for Project Black Keys.
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Dismantling Racism and Decolonizing Global Studies
Like many individuals, institutions, and businesses, we in the Curriculum in Global Studies were tremendously affected by the events of 2020, particularly for what they revealed about the ongoing effects of white supremacy within the United States and globally. While for many years Global Studies has been committed to anti-racism and decolonization as a core pillar of our scholarly agenda, the events of this past year—including the disproportionate effects on communities of color of the virus itself, the inequities in healthcare and vaccine distribution domestically and abroad, and the horrific state of ongoing police violence and vigilante terror facing people of color, especially black Americans—compelled us to devote more time and resources to addressing the ways we as a department and discipline can further the work of Dismantling Racism and Decolonizing Global Studies. This included taking a hard look at how we are involved and implicated in white supremacy/coloniality, intellectually, institutionally, and otherwise.
After surveying our student population and holding a listening session in September*, our key focus turned to creating resources for our faculty to better redress the ways racism and white supremacy show up in our classes and our scholarly work. Throughout the year, we held three workshops for faculty affiliated with the curriculum dealing with different aspects of pedagogy. The first in October 2020, part of our faculty retreat, addressed the ways in which all global courses and research were implicated in white supremacy, whether conceived of as such or not. As Dylan Rodriguez asserts, “The Global is very much a racialized concept, as are many of the imaginaries that underpin and go with it.” And moreover, that, “White supremacy, in its historical totality, constitutes the organization and production of the world in which we live and move, from the local to the global.” As such whether focused on Europe, politics, culture, local or global forces, all courses are implicated. Moreover, any discussion of key tropes often seen as “universal”—i.e. development, progress, poverty/inequality, human rights—are often mired in racialized perspectives that implicitly situate the world’s non-white majorities as deficient. We also reviewed micro-aggressions and micro-affirmations and created space for faculty to have honest and difficult conversations about how racism shows up in their classes. In this initial discussion, faculty acknowledged the importance of continuing to hold such spaces for honest and critical discussion. As a result, we created a committee focused on Anti-racism, Decolonization and Inclusion that includes faculty, staff and students, and planned for ongoing events. In the Spring semester, in collaboration with a new initiative building towards a Globally Oriented Interdisciplinary Pedagogy, we hosted two more events, mostly geared towards faculty...
Continued here
* Please feel free to email Dr. Michal Osterweil (osterwei@email.unc.edu), with any questions or for further information on these initiatives.
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2021 Rangel Fellowship Recipient: Angela Chin
 Global Studies alumna, Angela Chin (BA ‘20), was awarded a 2021 Charles B. Rangel International Affairs Fellowship from the Ralph J. Bunche International Affairs Center, administered by Howard University. The Rangel Fellowship provides individuals with the opportunity to procure a career in the Foreign Service of the U.S. Department of State through extensive professional development programs. After successfully completing the program following a two-year master’s degree, and several internship opportunities, Angela will become a U.S. diplomat in summer 2023.
As an Honors Carolina student, Angela interned for the Brookings Center for Middle East Policy through the UNC Honors Seminar on Public Policy and Global Affairs in Washington D.C. Additionally, she studied abroad in Ecuador and Jordan, presided over the Black Students Abroad campus organization, and received the Chancellor’s Award for International Leadership.
Post-graduation with distinction from UNC-Chapel Hill in 2020 with a Bachelor of Arts in Public Policy and Global Studies, Angela currently works as the Sudan and South Sudan Program Assistant at the U.S. Institute of Peace.
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Eight Global Studies students inducted into Phi Beta Kappa
Two hundred and twenty-one UNC students were recently inducted into Phi Beta Kappa, the nation’s oldest and most honored college honorary society. Of those two hundred and twenty-one, eight were Global Studies majors. The names of our inductees appear below and we offer them our sincerest congratulations on this wonderful recognition.
- Patrick McClung Barley, a senior with economics and global studies majors and a history minor, of Charlotte, North Carolina.
- Alexandra Call Barrett, a junior with business administration and global studies majors and an Arabic minor, of Richmond, Virginia.
- Olivia Dorothy Curran, a senior with a global studies major and Spanish for the professions and medical anthropology minors, of Needham, Massachusetts.
- Hannah Morgan Denuzzi, a senior with global studies and peace, war and defense majors and an Islamic and Middle Eastern studies minor, of Jacksonville, North Carolina.
- Julia Wendell Henn, a senior with a global studies major and a social and economic justice minor, of Durham, North Carolina.
- Tyler Kwok, a senior with English and comparative literature and global studies majors and a Chinese minor, of San Francisco, California.
- Hannah Elizabeth Marable, a senior with global studies and Hispanic literatures and cultures majors, of Wilmington, North Carolina.
- Ashley Hunt Wade, a junior with global studies and interdisciplinary studies majors and a Spanish for the professions minor, of Spartanburg, South Carolina.
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Griffin McGuire Receives Boren Scholarship
 Global Studies and Political Science double major, Griffin McGuire was awarded a David L. Boren Scholarship from the National Security Education Program. Boren Scholarships are given to undergraduate and graduate students to fund intensive language study overseas. Scholars agree to work in federal security positions for at least one year after they complete the program.
McGuire joined UNC's Russian Flagship Program in Fall 2020. The program includes Russian language coursework, a summer of intensive Russian language study in a Russian-speaking country, and a Capstone academic year in Almaty, Kazakhstan. McGuire's Boren Scholarship will help fund his time in Almaty where he will study at Al-Farabi Kazakh National University and complete an internship.
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2021 Global Career Night
February 24, 2021 marked UNC-Chapel Hill's 5th Annual Global Career Night, co-organized by the Curriculum in Global Studies and the Center for European Studies. Centered around providing insight on post-graduation career paths, various UNC alumni took to the virtual stage to elaborate on their globally-focused careers. Additionally, panelists supplemented this open discussion by detailing the processes they underwent to pursue a sustainable career. Hosted by the Curriculum in Global Studies’ Zach Ward, and UNC’s Center for European Studies’ Kathleen Shanahan, the event facilitated conversation for over 80 participants, spanning faculty, staff, graduate and undergraduate students. Panelists included Sarah Bidgood (‘11), Sarah R. Champagne (‘20), Will Jarvis (‘16), Dr. Melani McAlister (‘84), and Hakeem Smith (‘05).
For many panelists, pursuing a globally-oriented education via Chapel Hill became a gateway into strengthening personal and global interests. Raised in a small town in Quebec, freelance journalist Sarah Champagne took the initiative to expand her worldview during her time at UNC. Post-graduation, with degrees in journalism, international peace, and conflict resolution, she began to focus on the promotion of global dialogue through journalistic practices.
In the case of Dr. Melani McAlister, Professor of American Studies and International Affairs at George Washington University, her professional interest in working to implement positive changes to the U.S. national policy stems from an educational background in challenging cultural ideas from a political level. As a reminder to current students, she stressed the importance of a necessity for curiosity and a continual willingness to learn.
The panelists discussed skills transferable to professional positions post-graduation. Technologist with the machine learning start-up Tanjo, Will Jarvis recommended getting into the practice of making a plan for everything, even if it doesn’t work out. Optimism is half the battle, he said. Taking the time to consider a problem in the world that holds a significant amount of importance, and believing that you can make it better is the first step. For Amazon Business Analyst Hakeem Smith, practical soft skills are needed now more than ever. Being able to understand and navigate modern practices of equity and inclusion are critical showcases of competencies, and can be utilized by everyone in virtual fields of communication.
During the interactive Q&A portion of the event, panelists discussed topics such as valuable life skills established at UNC, maintaining a work-life balance, and the competitive nature of job-hunting. Sarah Bidgood, an adjunct professor at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies, focuses her research on US-Soviet and US-Russia nonproliferation and arms control cooperation. For her field, which places a heavy emphasis on the motives behind policy-making tends to require a Masters’s. In an attempt to expand entry-level job opportunities to recent graduates, however, these requirements are becoming more lenient. Sarah encouraged all attendants to take advantage of all professional opportunities available to students, both during and after their undergraduate careers.
To conclude the event, Dr. McAlister offered words of encouragement to all students: "You have things that you will bring to the world, and I know that you're aware of your own strengths."
The Curriculum in Global Studies would like to extend a thank you to all of our panelists & event participants, our co-organizers in the Center for European Studies, and the support from colleagues in our other area studies centers!
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Faculty Spotlight: Dr. Chad Bryant
Author of the recently published book Prague: Belonging and the Modern City, which tells the stories of five individuals and their experiences with finding community in one of Europe's greatest cities, Dr. Chad Bryant, Associate Professor of History, makes it his mission to encourage Global Studies students to explore beyond their comfort zone during their time at Chapel Hill.
In an effort to continue fostering international engagement and curiosity within the Curriculum, Professor Bryant is in the process of developing a globally oriented course that will make its debut in Spring of 2022: "A History of Lies, Conspiracies, and Misinformation". This upcoming academic year, Professor Bryant will also be instructing an honors course on Prague and the history of East-Central Europe called "From Kings to Communists".
 Throughout his time at UNC, Professor Bryant has always enjoyed teaching HIST 140: The World Since 1945. "As the present-day world is always changing," he said, "each new semester requires students to grasp an understanding of how history can help us better understand the world we live in." As a result, no semester is similar to another.
Recently, Professor Bryant and his colleagues were able to procure a contract with Oxford University Press in order to write a book surrounding the political trials in Communist Czechoslovakia during the Stalinist era, a research project that has been supported by an American Council for Learned Societies Collaborative Research fellowship.
Evident from Professor Bryant's interest in Europe, his favorite place in the world to visit is Prague, due to the fond memories that he associates with his past experiences in the city. As for future global excursions, Professor Bryant would like to visit Vietnam, particularly the city of Hanoi.
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Alumni Spotlight: Andreina Malki (MA '16)
 Global Studies alumna Andreina Malki (MA '16) returned to UNC to begin her PhD in Geography in Fall 2019 after serving as Youth Director with Student Action with Farmworkers. Since her return to campus, Andreina has distinguished herself as both a scholar and an activist. A Royster Fellow, Andreina has received a scholarship to Hong Kong University's Law and Humanities Summer School as well as a UNC Humanities for the Public Good Fellowship with Siembra NC, an immigrant rights organization. She also recently served as a panelist on "Instabilities and Collective Responses: Labor and Housing Rights During the Pandemic" during the 2021 North Carolina Conference on Latin American Studies.
We asked Andreina to reflect on her time in Global Studies as well as offer advice for our current students. Her responses are below.
What are some of your fondest memories during your time in our program or as a UNC student generally?
One of the fondest experiences during my time as a Global Studies MA student was learning from my fellow cohort members, particularly from those that had extensive professional experience and experience in social justice work. I also enjoyed attending conferences co-hosted by the Curriculum and other centers, including ISA.
What made a globally oriented education attractive to you?
I came to the program after working in international public health. Although I enjoyed the work, I lacked the geopolitical and historical understanding to contextualize my work, and the desire to do so initially attracted me to this type of education. Moreover, as an immigrant to the United States' south concerned about racial justice, immigrant rights, and other ethical and justice issues, I know that a globally oriented education is necessary to fully understand and change our realities.
How has your globally oriented education informed your personal and professional pathways since graduation?
After graduation, I worked for a non-profit organization working on migrant farmworker issues in North Carolina. My globally oriented education informed the ways I understood farmworker migration and the international economic context that affects it. I am now a PhD student in the Geography Department. The geography courses that I took during my Global Studies MA convinced me that geography was a fitting discipline for the topics and issues of space and justice that interested me.
What is one word of advice you would give to current students majoring in Global Studies?
I think a great way to learn is to take whatever issue is important to you-- whether it is nature conservation, local architecture, vaccine development, family genealogy, or immigration rights, and draw out the global connections. There is not a single thing that we encounter that is strictly spatially bound and we can learn much more deeply and with much more nuance if we think globally. I think this is a particularly important reminder for students that are primarily focused on STEM subjects as well as those in the social sciences and humanities.
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Faculty Spotlight: Dr. Meenu Tewari
Associate Professor of Economic and International Development, Dr. Meenu Tewari believes instructing Global Studies students allows for a rich comparative perspective to develop during classroom discussions, showcasing the extensive global interconnectedness of the world today. In conjunction with the diverse backgrounds that students bring into her classes, Professor Tewari takes great pleasure in teaching PLAN 547: The Political Economy of Poverty and Inequality. By juxtaposing a number of topics, including a deep dive into processes of economic, inequality, disparities in access to basic services, systemic racism and exclusion, and the structure of local institutions, students will take a closer look into the inner workings of generational and situational poverty, efforts to build bridges and mitigate hardship as well as the lived experiences of disenfranchised communities.
This spring, Professor Tewari received a grant from the Carolina Asia Center to introduce more globally-focused content in PLAN 547, as well as PLAN 58: Globalization and the Transformation of Local Economies: The Impact of Covid-19. She has enjoyed teaching this course this Spring to a very bright group of freshmen and sophomores.
As an extension of her research into the impact of the pandemic on cities of the global south, Professor Tewari recently moderated a webinar sponsored by UNC's Modern Indian Studies Initiative, Urban Recoveries - Resilience and Well-being through the Lens of the Pandemic. The webinar explored the varied and unequal impact of the Covid crisis on India's urban and rural communities, avenues for a more just and equitable recovery post-pandemic. Another aspect of her work on the pandemic can be found in this podcast for the Center for Urban and Regional Studies, Viewpoints on Resilient & Equitable Responses to the Pandemic - Economic Resiliency. She recently published two co-edited volumes on global value chains in Asia. Both volumes were published by Cambridge University Press; Development with Global Value Chains (2019), and Labour in Global Value Chains in Asia (2017).
Out of her past global experiences, Professor Tewari has enjoyed visiting Kanha Shanti Vanam near Hyderabad city in India. She refers to it as a self-sufficient, ecologically resilient, and innovative community and a place for personal growth and transformation that's "home to some of the most progressive environmental innovations and experimentation that I have seen."
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Support the Curriculum in Global Studies
We are very grateful for all gifts to the Curriculum in Global Studies to help students pursue global opportunities, near and far.
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