Arts and Education without Borders
Globalizing the Community College Curricula Conference 2025
- Date: January 17-18, 2025
- Location: The University of Arizona. Lodging is at the Aloft hotel (1900 E. Speedway Blvd, Tucson, AZ 85721)
➤➤➤ Visit the conference website for all the details and to register!
The registration deadline is January 10th, or when space is filled.
The University of Arizona’s U.S. Department of Education Title VI Centers — Center for East Asian Studies (CEAS), Center for Educational Resources in Culture, Language and Literacy (CERCLL), Center for Latin America Studies (CLAS) and Center for Middle Eastern Studies (CMES) — are hosting the next annual community college conference on the theme of Arts and Education without Borders. Presentations will explore innovative strategies and best practices for integrating global perspectives into community college curricula through the arts, offering fresh insights, sharing successful models, and exploring innovative ways to infuse global and multicultural elements into community college arts education.
Theme and Focus Areas
Arts encompass a wide range of creative expressions that include visual arts, performing arts, literary arts, and more. Each form of art uses different mediums, techniques, and styles to convey ideas, emotions, and experiences.
Arts in education play a vital role in fostering a well-rounded and holistic learning experience. By incorporating arts into the curriculum, educators help students develop essential life skills, enhance their academic abilities, and nurture their emotional and social well-being.
As our world becomes increasingly interconnected, it is crucial for community colleges to prepare students to thrive in a globalized society. The arts provide a unique platform for fostering cross-cultural understanding, empathy, critical thinking, and creative expression. The conference theme, “Arts and Education without Borders,” explores how the arts can be leveraged to globalize community college curricula, creating more inclusive and culturally responsive educational experiences for students, and preparing them for diverse, multicultural environments.
Proposals were due in October, but you can visit the Call to learn more about the general content of the conference. Presentations were invited to focus on the following themes:
- Cross-Cultural Art Collaborations: Strategies for fostering partnerships between community colleges and international institutions to create joint art projects, exhibitions, or performances.
- Art as a Medium for Global Education: Innovative pedagogical approaches that use visual arts, calligraphy, music, theater, dance, or digital media to teach global perspectives and issues.
- Curriculum Development: Designing or revising community college courses that integrate global themes through the arts, including interdisciplinary approaches.
- Interdisciplinary Learning:
- STEAM: Combines the arts with STEM subjects to promote innovative thinking and creativity in problem-solving.
- Social Studies and History: Using visual arts, music, and theater to explore historical events, cultural practices, and societal changes.
- Language Arts: Incorporating drama and creative writing to enhance understanding of literature, narrative structure, and language use.
- Community Engagement: Initiatives that involve local and global communities in the educational process, using the arts to build bridges and foster understanding.
- Technology and the Arts: Leveraging digital tools and platforms to create global art projects and enhance cross-cultural communication and collaboration; utilizing digital storytelling as a medium for exploring global issues through the arts; using AI-generated arts in the classroom and its ethics/challenges.
- Case Studies and Best Practices: Presentations of successful programs or projects that have effectively globalized community college curricula through the arts.
- Articulating Social (In)Justice through Art: Specific topics could revolve around immigration, refugee, wars, women and children’s rights, human rights, LGBTQ rights, etc.
➤➤➤ The conference website–with full details and the registration form–is here: https://tinyurl.com/GCCCAZ
Or go direct to registration:
Questions? Contact us at TVI-Outreach@arizona.edu.