Thursday, April 7, 1pm Eastern Time
Presenter: Randal Mason, Randal Mason Consulting
How are international exchanges working to include more lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) people? How can global institutions be more adept at addressing issues around sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) in program design and delivery? During this webinar, we’ll walk through the typical stages of an international exchange initiative from outreach and recruitment to selection and implementation and explore ways each stage can be made more responsive to LGBTQ participants’ needs.
Thursday, April 14, 1pm Eastern Time
Presenter: Dr. Roger Adkins, Gustavus Adolphus College
The title of this webinar is inspired by the closing line of Jeannette Winterson's gender-bending fantasy novel Sexing the Cherry: "The future and the past exist only in our minds, and from a distance the borders of each shrink and fade like the borders of hostile countries seen from a floating city in the sky." With this image of blurred national borders in its final phrases, the novel speaks to the experiences of intercultural educators. Inspired by this sense of breaking down boundaries, this webinar will consider how several key concepts from queer theory can help intercultural educators rethink some of our field's tacit (and troubled) assumptions, including our nation-centeredness and our often static understandings of cultural differences. We will briefly address concepts such as performativity, queering (as a verb), and disidentification, considering possible practical applications of each in our day-to-day work.
Thursday, April 21, 1pm Eastern Time
Presenters: Scott Tayloe and Kris Holloway, CISabroad and Dr. Genny Beemyn, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
LGBTQ students are proud of their campus communities but often don't go into their study abroad offices for fear their questions won't be answered. For a transgender student, can they access their medications abroad? For a gay student, what homestay families are gay-friendly? In this interactive session, we will share lessons learned from Ally training to help study abroad advisors be inclusive in their advising, share a questionnaire to assess how LGBTQ-friendly existing overseas programs are (ex. gender neutral bathrooms), and hear how to partner with LGBTQ Centers on campus.
Thursday, April 28, 1pm Eastern Time
Presenters: Jacquis Watters, Maryland Institute College of Art and Nic Sakurai, University of Maryland, College Park
Jacquis Watters and Nic Sakurai will speak to the experiences of LGBTQ people of color studying and traveling abroad, including in both heritage countries and in non-heritage countries. They will translate some of these experiences into good practices that both international educators and LGBTQ/multicultural center staff can take to advise students and create programs where LGBTQ students of color can thrive.