Penn State faculty, World in Conversation team travel to Qatar to facilitate United Nations event
TLT Faculty Fellows Sam Richards, senior lecturer in sociology, and Laurie Mulvey, lecturer in sociology, are traveling to Doha, Qatar, with a contingent from their World in Conversation (WinC) project to participate in the United Nations Alliance of Civilization’s Youth Day forum Dec. 10.
They will facilitate a series of small group discussions between young people from all over the world on global issues of diversity, intercultural-exchange, peace-building, and development. The WinC sessions are scheduled to be visited by Ban Ki-moon, the Secretary General of the UN, and Her Highness, Sheikha Mozah of Qatar. Assisting Richards and Mulvey with facilitating these discussions will be other WinC facilitators and WinC alumni.
“We are running small group dialogues with approximately 300 young people who are traveling to the conference from around the world in an effort to help ‘mainstream’ these youth participants in the Doha Forum workshops and activities,” Richards said. “Young people often take a back seat at events such as these, particularly when there are so many notable and ‘high achieving’ adults in the room. We are helping to prepare them to not cede the space and to more centrally participate in the conference activities, bringing their voices and ideas into each session.”
Richards said they will also get to meet with some of the Qatari, Palestinian, and Kuwaiti students who have been in video dialogues with Penn State students throughout this past semester.
“This is an opportunity to test out our methodologies on the world stage. Certainly we do this in our video dialogues when we facilitate conversations with students who live in different parts of the world, but this will be our first face-to-face encounters in another cultural setting,” Richards said. “Also, our staff will have the opportunity to meet with so many diverse people that the event will surely stretch them into new territories of their thinking.”
Richards said there are several ways to follow along before, during, and after the event. Videos by presenters and facilitators will be posted to World in Conversation’s Youtube channel, and updates will be posted to the World in Conversation Facebook page.
In addition, Teaching and Learning with Technology will post summaries to the Daily Buzz the day of the event, as we receive them from the World in Conversation team. Please return to the Daily Buzz Sunday, Dec. 10, for updates.
“We are running small group dialogues with approximately 300 young people who are traveling to the conference from around the world in an effort to help ‘mainstream’ these youth participants in the Doha Forum workshops and activities,” Richards said. “Young people often take a back seat at events such as these, particularly when there are so many notable and ‘high achieving’ adults in the room. We are helping to prepare them to not cede the space and to more centrally participate in the conference activities, bringing their voices and ideas into each session.”
Richards said they will also get to meet with some of the Qatari, Palestinian, and Kuwaiti students who have been in video dialogues with Penn State students throughout this past semester.
“This is an opportunity to test out our methodologies on the world stage. Certainly we do this in our video dialogues when we facilitate conversations with students who live in different parts of the world, but this will be our first face-to-face encounters in another cultural setting,” Richards said. “Also, our staff will have the opportunity to meet with so many diverse people that the event will surely stretch them into new territories of their thinking.”
Richards said there are several ways to follow along before, during, and after the event. Videos by presenters and facilitators will be posted to World in Conversation’s Youtube channel, and updates will be posted to the World in Conversation Facebook page.
In addition, Teaching and Learning with Technology will post summaries to the Daily Buzz the day of the event, as we receive them from the World in Conversation team. Please return to the Daily Buzz Sunday, Dec. 10, for updates.
