International Initiatives Events

Gender Equity Lecture Series

Gender Equity Lecture Series: "Women' s Executive Leadership in Europe."
Thursday, March 16 at 5:30 p.m. in 334 Major Williams Hall, CEUTTSS will host the next iteration of our Gender Equity Lecture series. Louise Davidson-Schmich, Professor of Political Science, University of Miami and Malliga Och, Associate Professor of Global Studies, Idaho State University will cover the topic of "Women' s Executive Leadership in Europe."
This event will discuss recent trends regarding women's incorporation in executive positions in Europe (prime ministers/presidents and cabinets) and the potential benefits of having more women in positions of executive power. Farida Jalalzai, CLAHS Associate Dean for Global Engagement and Initiatives and Professor of Political Science at Virginia Tech, will moderate Q&A after the formal presentation. This in-person event is free and open to the public.
For more details, please contact Chris Price: chprice5@vt.edu
Conversations about Education

Join Mervi Kaukko, Professor of Multicultural Education at Tampere University, Finland, and Fulbright Senior Scholar at the Graduate School of Education, Harvard University, to discuss education and how it can help students to live a good life in a world worth living in.
Refugee Education for Uncertain Futures - Analysis of Teachers Practices in Finland, South Africa, and Australia
Date: Tuesday April 4, 2023
Time: 6-7 p.m.
Location: Newman Library 207a
Moderator: Deirdre Hand, Community Engagement Specialist, Center for Refugee, Migrant, and Displacement Studies
Education for Living Well in a World Worth Living In
Date: Wednesday April 5, 2023
Time: 6-7 p.m.
Location: Zoom
Moderators: Charles Lowery, Associate Professor of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies and Iuliia Hoban, Assistant Director for Intercultural Learning , Cranwell International Center
Cranwell International Center
Northern Virginia Community College
College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences
School of Education
Center for Migrant, Refugee, and Displacement Studies
Blacksburg Refugee Partnership
Fulbright Program
Past Events
Feb. 20–24, 2023
Wondering what you can do to become a better advocate for sustainable development? The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a collection of 17 interlinked global goals designed to be a "blueprint to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all".
SDGs LAB empowers youth to become sustainability leaders through virtual educational sessions that will connect, educate, and empower participants to become catalysts for change in their communities.
Through a speaker series, seminar, and interactive workshop, participants will have the opportunity to reflect and build on their understanding of sustainable development. This program is sponsored by the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences, in partnership with Foundation For Environmental Stewardship. Upon successful completion of the SDG's LAB, students will receive a certificate of completion.
All three program sessions are mandatory for students to receive their certificate. The Boost Session is live (in virtual format), while the other two sessions are virtual programs that can be completed at your own pace once they are launched (before the Boost Session).
SDGs Deep Dive Interactive Keynote, presented by youth activist Steve Lee. You’ll learn about the SDGs — their history, their targets, their indicators, and more.
* This is an asynchronous online course that you can complete at your own pace.
This seminar will give you specific examples of real ways youth can engage with the SDGs in their local communities. We’ll discuss where and how you can actually intervene and innovate to make an impact.
* This is an asynchronous online course that you can complete at your own pace.
This training and action-plan development workshop will guide participants through the practical ways to begin SDGs projects in their local communities and the steps on how to convert those ideas into action! In this live (virtual) session, you'll be working in groups with your peers so that you can network and apply SDG action theories to your campus and community.
* This training and workshop will be held live (virtually) via Zoom.
Something Supernatural: Tales from Around the World
This webinar series explores a variety of supernatural phenomena worldwide. Blending academic discussion with story telling, we delve into specific cultural expressions of the supernatural as well as shared elements among various societies. Are such stories evidence of our shared humanity? Do they speak more to cultural specificity? Or are we dealing with something as inexplicable as the supernatural itself? Join us for such probing questions and chilling tales.

Thursday, Oct. 27, 2 p.m.
Register for the webinar
Across time and space, there are references to the existence of beings referred to as jinns. Ali A. Olomi, assistant professor of history at Loyola Marymount University, will discuss the origins of the jinn and different cultural and religious conceptions of these creatures. Throughout he will also share tales featuring jinns and their interactions with humans across the globe. Farida Jalalzai will moderate.
Olomi is a historian of the Middle East and Islam researching, writing, and publishing on medieval and modern Muslim thought. He studies how Muslims imagined the “Islamic world” at the intersection of religion, science, and empire. He works on how Muslims in the premodern and modern world deployed the concept of homeland to etch the borders of empire, construct collective identity, and imagine the other. Olomi's research examines the Muslim imagination of the monstrous through the djinn/jinn, the early history of astronomy and its role in empire-building, and Islamic apocalypticism and cosmology. He has an interest in the deep roots of nationalism, the histories of science and rationality, Islamism, gender and sexuality, and the tension between global religious community and local identity. He has additional research and teaching interests in world history, critical theory, the global south, historiography, folklore, and mysticism.
Click HERE to view the webinar.

Friday, Nov. 4, 9 a.m.
Register for the webinar
This webinar discusses a new edited collection by Devin K. Joshi and Christian Echle (2022, Routledge) that assesses the progress women have made in pursuing legislative office throughout Asia, but, more crucially, how women and men parliamentarians advance women’s well-being and gender equality. Panelists are authors of various chapters, including Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, and will also feature parliamentarians from Indonesia and Malaysia. Farida Jalalzai will moderate.
This webinar is made possible in collaboration with the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, Singapore and Asian Democratic Leaders' Alliance.
Click HERE to view the webinar.