Global Seminars Diversity Dashboard
Global Seminars Mission
The UC San Diego Global Seminars program was established in 2008 with the purpose of increasing access to study abroad opportunities for all students in good academic and disciplinary standing regardless of socio-economic status, race, gender, sexuality, or disability. Our programs are designed to provide a supportive environment where students can pursue an academically meaningful experience with highly rated faculty members focused on socially relevant topics for credit towards their degree.
Student Diversity 2014 - 2019
Program Diversity
Many global seminars have themes related to diversity and social justice, in line with UC San Diego's broader "changemaking" philosophy.
From the UC San Diego Changemaker Institute website:
UC San Diego is driving positive change locally and worldwide.... Examples of changemaking include social innovation projects, socially impactful research, service-learning courses and programs, education about critical social and environmental issues, civic engagement, and direct service.
Faculty Diversity
Below is a sample of some of the Global Seminar faculty leaders, who represent a variety of perspectives on race, gender, ethnicity, and disability.
Yến Lê Espiritu, Distinguished Professor, Ethnic Studies
Academic Focus: critical refugee studies; critical immigration studies; Asian American studies; gender and migration; U.S. militarism
Global Seminar: Race, Gender, Sexuality, and the Vietnam War
Ivan Evans, Provost, Eleanor Roosevelt College
Academic Focus: change in modern South Africa; race and ethnicity; political sociology; violence and society; social movements; and environmental sociology
Global Seminar: Change in Modern South Africa and Zambia
Testimonial: "The Global Seminars I recently led to South Africa and Zambia beautifully captured the spirit of practical world citizenship. The MMW courses were designed as 'service' seminars, giving students the opportunity to work with and for communities in Cape Town and Livingstone, Zambia. Students rolled up their shirtsleeves, picked up nails and hammers and shovels and wood to construct beehives and plant hundreds of trees in the company of local school children and community members."
Dredge Kang, Assistant Professor, Anthropology
Academic Focus: love, beauty, race, gender variance, sex work, sexual health, global health, inter-Asian / transnational Southeast Asian studies, and the Korean wave
Global Seminar: Sex and Health in Southeast Asia
Testimionial: "The Global Seminar provided me the opportunity to teach material about Thailand in situ. This meant that students had the opportunity to ... develop practical health interventions within the context of the place we were studying, so the exercise was not done in hypothetical imaginaries but grounded in the realities of local life."
Peggy Lott, Continuing Lecturer, Linguistics
Academic Focus: archaeology and poetics of ASL, Langue des Signes Française and International Sign; sociolinguistics of deaf communities
Global Seminar: Sign Language Studies in Paris
Nancy Kwak, Associate Professor, History and Urban Studies; Director of the Institute of Arts and Humanities
Academic Focus: housing affordability, racial and income segregation, gentrification, and the relationship between cities and climate change
Global Seminars: Urbanisim and Asian American Identity in Korea, Race and the City in Berlin
Testimonial: "Global Seminars offers the truly extraordinary opportunity to teach and learn from real places. It's one thing to talk about the Nazi Party, and another to show them the Gestapo headquarters, to talk about gentrification in Seoul versus walking through the rapidly transforming neighborhoods of Gangbuk."
Cecil Lytle, Professor Emeritus, Music; former Provost of Revelle College; founding member of Preuss School
Academic Focus: Black music studies, jazz, nineteenth century literature, improvisation
Global Seminar: Jazz in Paris
Testimonial: "Taking students abroad even for the short five-week summer session helps notoriously Amer-centric students foster an appreciation for a globalized community of ideas."
Simeon Man, Associate Professor, History
Academic Focus: race and empire in the twentieth century United States, American Studies, Asian American Studies, and comparative ethnic studies
Global Seminars: Asian Americans and the Cold War, Globalization and Social Movements in Hong Kong
Patrick Patterson, Associate Professor, History
Academic Focus: history of 20th-century Eastern Europe and the Balkans, with major emphases on everyday life and consumer culture and on the interplay of Islam, Christianity, and secular society
Global Seminars: Revolution, Industry, and Empire in Berlin, Revelle in London
Testimonial: "For me, teaching in the UC San Diego Global Seminars is especially satisfying because it offers the opportunity to do something we just can't do on campus, that is, to use the incredibly rich sights, experiences, and histories of the foreign location to advance the instructional aims of my courses."
Nancy Postero, Professor, Anthropology
Academic Focus: the intersection between politics, economics, and race, with a focus on indigenous politics in Latin America
Global Seminars: Development, Human Rights, and Environmental Justice in India; Indigenous Health in Bolivia
Testimonial: "Teaching the Global Seminar in India gave me the rare opportunity to bring my teaching out of the classroom into the world. I got to work closely with a wonderful and committed group of students who were eager to challenge their own understandings and allow the new place and people they met to remake them."
Babak Rahimi, Associate Professor of Communication, Culture and Religion; Director of Third World Studies Program
Academic Focus: Shi'i Islam; Medieval and (early) modern history, information communication technologies (ICTs), social media, public sphere, civil society, theories of modernity
Global Seminars: In Search of Kafka in Prague, Literature and Politics in Latin America, Modern Japan, Popular Culture in Japan
Testimonial: "Some of the most emotionally challenging places that I have taught through the Global Seminar program include the small village of Lidice (Czech Republic), a target for Nazi reprisal in the wake of the assassination of a high-ranking SS official, and Terezin Concentration Camp (also Czech Republic), operated by the Gestapo until 1945. To teach history at such sites, entrenched in tragedy, has been educationally as rewarding as emotionally demanding, which I believe are integral to an undergraduate experience."
Meg Wesling, Associate Professor, Literature
Academic Focus: U.S. Imperialism; Postcolonial Theory; Popular Culture; Cultural Studies; Critical Gender Studies
Global Seminar: Literature, Art, and Film in Paris
Diversity Awards Received by Global Seminars Faculty
- Leslie Lewis, Continuing Lecturer, Urban Studies and Planning, 2019-20
- Mirle Rabinowitz-Bussell, Associate Professor, Urban Studies and Planning, 2019-20
- Yến Lê Espiritu, Distinguished Professor, Ethnic Studies, 2020-22
- Matthew Herbst, Teaching Professor, Making of the Modern World, 2020-22
- Simeon Man, Associate Professor, History, 2020-22
- Phoebe Bronstein, Director of Academic Programs and Assistant Teaching Professor, CAT, 2021-23
- Bill Robertson Geibel, Associate Director of Experiential Learning and Practicum and Lecturer, CAT, 2021-23
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Distinguished Teaching Award
- Cecil Lytle, Professor Emeritus, Music, 2017-18
Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Diversity Award
- Matthew Herbst, Teaching Professor, Making of the Modern World, 2017
Go Abroad 2020 Innovation in Diversity Award Finalist
- Peggy Lott, Continuing Lecturer, Linguistics, 2020
