Learning to Thrive in the New Normal
What lessons learned, adjustments made, and/or innovations has your program implemented in the last 15 months?
Our faculty learned that they could teach online and do it well. That doesn’t mean there weren’t bumps along the way—there were many—but in a crunch, we made it work. Faculty now have a new skill set—online teaching—and improved computer program competencies in Zoom, Canvas, and Teams. I expect we’ll take these skills with us back into the classroom. Ironically, holding o ice hours online may facilitate more one-on-one meetings between faculty and students as barriers to face-to-face meeting, including jobs, internships, and long commutes, are eliminated.
How are the mechanisms of policymaking changing to adapt to a post-pandemic world?
The global pandemic brought weaknesses in our local, state, and federal policymaking process into sharp relief. The need for cooperation became clear early on, when mayors, governors, and the executive branch initiated contradictory policies on masks, school closings, and travel. The importance of clear lines of decision-making was also made depressingly obvious when governors demanded the president purchase and distribute COVID-19 tests, only to be told it wasn’t the federal government’s job to do this. We weren’t ready for the pandemic. Our policymaking apparatus needs to be rebuilt from the ground up.
How does your school promote new voices and new perspectives in its diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice (DEIJ) initiatives?
Like most higher education institutions, the School of International Service still has much work to do on DEIJ initiatives. At the faculty level, we’re focusing on hiring. We need to bring Black, Latinx, and Indigenous voices onto our faculty and into our classrooms to catch up with our increasingly diverse student population.
As a faculty, we’re building DEIJ skills for the classroom. We’ve decolonized core courses by adding units on nontraditional topics and incorporating authors from Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East in our syllabi. We’re learning how to lead di icult conversations in the classroom and strategizing how to keep these conversations focused on readings rather than polemics. We realize that providing students with DEIJ knowledge and skill-building is crucial to their future professional success.
How do leadership roles for traditionally underrepresented groups enhance your programs?
Representation matters, especially at a school for international a airs and especially at the leadership level, because it provides a more accurate picture of the world. Having leaders from underrepresented populations broadens the perspective of everything we do, from helping students with problems they encounter to making policy and from designing curricula to forging new international partnerships.
As the new U.S. administration refocuses on international diplomacy and cooperation, how do your programs prepare students for a more open dialogue on the global stage?
We’ve always prepared our students to engage in diplomacy and dialogue with allies and adversaries alike. What’s di erent now is that we’re also teaching them how to repair damaged relationships and to build up what was lost during the last administration and the global pandemic.