Pedagogy with a Pulse

Eight countries, two continents. One poverty studies grant for research in Bosnia and a plane ticket for a conference in Paraguay.
If I had one mantra it would be quite simple.
WORK THE SYSTEM

With so many resources and funding available for students, it is like a game. Classes can be planned for years in advance, scholarships translate and therefore can be used for study abroad, speakers can be invited to campus, additional funding applied for. If you want to attend a conference, look for a call for papers and submit yours - it is normally the only requirement to secure your travel expenses be covered.
Quite often, your university will have an office responsible for student travel/grants etc (at Furman this is Susan Zeiger, director of internships). Summer internships offer even more options- Poverty studies and Furman Advantage both give out 2-4k dollar grants. In addition, your department has independent funds. Go for both.
This blog is a testament not only on how easy the game is, but how easy the game should be. Why shouldn't we have access and information to all opportunities of exposure?

The following article was written for the "O-Week" edition of the Paladin, which is typically read as an advice issue to incoming freshman.

The Paladin

I came to Furman to leave. What permanently recruited me were the study abroad programs Furman offers.

I wanted to use the opportunities presented to gain exposure to all that I could absorb; to study abroad as frequently and in as many countries that a four-year degree would allow. Eight countries and three years of an undergraduate degree later, I have yet to regret my decision to allow Furman to escort me through Latin America and Africa. Why would I stay stateside when I could take the exact same class abroad?

I have little interest in touring the western, industrialized world. In my opinion, Europe seems more appropriate to save for when you are an older person, someone with a Volvo, children and a mortgage. It represented the status quo, a simple mirrored reflection of a life I was already familiar with. I wanted an explicit break - an environment so challenging that the only option was the change and adapt. The curriculum for the Global South is sexy, the subject matter on fire: revolutions, "dirty wars," U.S. foreign policy, poverty, inequality and resistance. A reaction is demanded in response to the issues confronted; one is not allowed to remain neutral. You will never be bored, but always provoked.

The study abroad programs in the Global South, the developing world, are unique in the sheer intensity they offer. The programs are built on a foundation of autonomy and mobility allowed by a structure where professors travel with the students. Consequently, the students are not anchored to one university; yet experience a new country with each new class, often visiting four countries per term. Thus, pedagogy is given a pulse when the classroom becomes mobile.

Nicaragua, El Salvador, Botswana, South Africa - this is authentic engaged learning; experiential learning at its finest. The subjects are saturated with context. Often times, an average day abroad will consist of two rounds of meetings, a tour and a lecture during class. In addition, the home stay component allows pairs of students to briefly live with families to get a taste of authentic local life. The first week schedule of the southern Africa trip is the perfect example of the pace: day one in South Africa we heard from a former freedom fighter involved in the anti-apartheid struggle and visited Soweto, with the Hector Pieterson Museum and President Mandela's home. Careful not to waste precious night hours, we heard a lecture from Dale McKinley, a Furman alumnus. Finally, we found ourselves completing our assigned work in Soweto, the famous South African township. We were living in the same place we were reading about for our homework.

In short, Furman has an amazing amount of resources for students to utilize. Scholarships are not lost in translation- they often fund travel.

So sojourn as often as you can. This is our time to explore, to change and to be pushed. To those hesitant to leave behind the familiar, I promise the vacuum you fear will develop in your absence will be more than filled with what you bring home - new friends, new experiences and new ideas. Go abroad, and go South. Let Europe wait.

Rules of the Game

If you are wondering, "didn't we already do this?" Yes - I did travel with my school in Latin America, thank you for reading my blog.

8 countries and 3 years of an undergraduate degree later, we have grown up....

Hola, from South Africa. Study abroad number 2.
I will not be faithfully sending an update email because they take forever to write and the audience participation declines when you receive 6 emails a semester from people who are all over seas and want to tell you about it. Well, I am abroad and still want to tell you about it, so here are my rules:

I will not write about finding myself.
I will not write about saving Africa.
I am well aware that Africa is not a country.
I do not want to move to Africa.

I will not be objective.
If you assume you can feel a pull to the left, it will in fact be a white American's interpretation from time spent in the margins, learning from the oppressed.
"I will explicitly be writing with one bias - a preferential option for the poor."
Finally, all of this writing will be done while NOT wearing a safari vest and in fierce loyalty to Latin America.

Arm Your Voice

Banksy

"You're collapsible - you break down and build up fast."
Favorite compliment

"You're never here, never present."
Most common critique


After years exiled in suburbia, I went to college to leave - to play the system and consequently gain exposure to all that I could absorb. Eight countries and three years of an undergraduate degree later, here I am, writing from Southern Africa, compliments of Furman University. Why would I stay in Greenville, South Carolina when I could take the same class in Southern Africa?

I surrender to a state of carpe annum because it is the only way I can justify my education. It is how I convince myself not to leave it all behind and just start doing some form of tangible work - building a school, monitoring elections, coordinating logistics for a safe house. When my American passport can stop bullets and bombs I need an impressive reason to play with ideas.

I consciously choose to fight back by paying tuition to learn about poverty. Each year, class, and country makes me more dangerous, more informed. Surely it is a crime to consume knowledge and not take a side! We should all be branded radicals after exposure to an education from the margins. After learning from the oppressed, neutrality should no longer be a viable option; there should be a burden to provoke the status quo. Systemic oppression can only be maintained through ignorance, dependent on apathetic consumption. So, why not ask who is making our clothes or preparing our food?

Each textbook is a weapon. I feel more powerful with each new idea and speaker. I can feel the momentum building as we imagine a different, just world. I use my privilege to "arm my voice" with words, not weapons. I continue to stay in the tower of academia in honor my brothers and sisters disappeared from their classrooms for wanting a liberating pedagogy. In honor of them, I refuse to play ideological dress up. I will not put on and take off ideas as they become fashionable. If students living under repressive governments are dying for what they believe in, I will justify every opinion I proscribe.



_________

Textbooks used in-country are the following:
The Invisible Cure
Sickness and Wealth
Mandela's Children

In addition, we have a course reader with excerpts from books such as:
White Man's Burden
The Body Hunters: Testing New Drugs on the World's Poorest Patients