The Provost’s Speaker Series will reconvene this spring after a fall hiatus, navigating new territory with the first in a themed series focusing on diversity, sustainability and global education.
Grant Cornwell, president of the College of Wooster in Ohio, will present “Everybody’s Business: Globalization and Liberal Learning in the 21st Century” at 4 p.m. Monday, Feb. 1, in Ashurst Auditorium. The event is co-sponsored by the Office of the Provost and the Center for International Education.
The series topic is a reflection of efforts by an NAU Task Force on Global Education, charged by the president and the provost to transform Northern Arizona University into a global campus, helping students to become citizens of the world.
“President Grant Cornwell was invited to speak to help move along the conversation around global engagement—one of the university’s seven strategic goals—on the campus,” said Harvey Charles, vice provost for International Education. “His talk will address the importance and relevance of global learning and explain that committing ourselves to global learning is an imperative if we are to succeed in preparing students to meet the complex and changing demands of the 21st century.”
Cornwell, a philosopher, is nationally recognized for his work in the areas of human rights, globalization and critical race theory. He is co-editor of two books: Global Multiculturalism: Comparative Perspectives on Ethnicity, Race, and Nation and Democratic Education in an Age of Difference: Redefining Citizenship in Higher Education. He currently serves on the advisory board for the National Institute for Technology and Liberal Education and is a member of the Association of American Colleges and Universities SAGE Group, which is a catalyst for educational improvement and reform.
The Provost’s Speaker Series was created to connect the university community with leading academics who can speak to core values in the university curriculum. The series was postponed last fall because of budget constraints, but a new model of partnering with other units to share resources and appeal to larger audiences has allowed the series to make a comeback.
“We want to provide faculty with a face-to-face opportunity to interact and build on the ideas of good thinkers who are leading the way in their respective fields,” explained Susanna Maxwell, vice provost for Academic Personnel. “We also expect that such exchanges will result in even more positive experiences in the classroom.”
The Provost’s Speaker’s Series continues in March, with environmental mavericks Van Jones and Billy Parish trading ideas about green jobs and the environment in “A Conversation with Van Jones and Billy Parish” at 4 p.m. Monday, March 22, location to be determined.