Northeastern Voice

Global studies program to expand to India

Denis Sullivan

Starting this spring, Northeastern students majoring in international affairs and human services will have the chance to participate in a new global studies program in India.

Students in this pilot program, known as the Global PACT India Dialogue – short for Global Partnership for Activism and Cross-Cultural Training (Global PACT) and Dialogue of Civilizations -- will work together both on campus in Boston as well as in Hubli, Karnataka state in south-western India.

The Global PACT India Dialogue is the result of a new partnership between the university and the Deshpande Foundation, one of the leading philanthropic foundations in Massachusetts and India in the areas of innovation, entrepreneurship and international development.

This partnership responds to a growing interest among students seeking non-traditional international career paths and the university’s interest in forging and maintaining links with India. The novel program is made possible through the efforts of the Deshpande Foundation's Social Entrepreneurship Sand Box in India.

“Northeastern University’s ‘global vision’ asks faculty and students to be fully engaged with the world community, an engagement that gives their efforts meaning, and has a positive impact on the communities with which they engage,” said political science professor Denis Sullivan, director of the international affairs program. “We can do this by calling upon the knowledge, passion, and energies of students and faculty alike as positive forces for change in our local community and global society.

Global PACT India will be led by Denise Horn, assistant professor of international affairs, and by Lori Gardinier, director of the human services Program. The Deshpande Foundation will provide additional funding for the new program as well as logistical assistance.

In the spring, international affairs and human services majors involved in the new program will sign up for their normal four-class course load.

Students will first take two intensive courses on campus in January and February. They will then travel to Hubli in March, and remain there for up to two months. In India, they will take two more courses to round out their four-course load. The third course is a three-week intensive training program led by Global PACT trainers and supervised by Horn.

Upon successful completion of this training, students will take a fourth course, which involves an internship with local Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO), supervised by Gardinier. Students will stay in Hubli until the end of the semester with the option to remain in co-op or intern positions. The four courses include:

• International Human Services:  In this intensive course students will explore structural and organizational responses to human rights and community need. Using a comparative approach, students will identify how culture influences organizational design and service delivery. This course will also examine how organizations develop coordinated community responses in collaboration with government entities and other organizations. Students will be placed in service-learning sites in Boston working with recently-immigrated populations.

• Transnational Activism and Global Civil Society: This course examines transnational advocacy and activism from theoretical and practical perspectives.  Students will explore the growing literature of transnational activism with a focus on the impact of such movements upon global and local civil society and issues of democratization and development. Students will research local and global problems and organize a community development project over the course of the semester to address these issues.

• Global PACT India:   Students will work with their Indian peers at a local NGO to create community development programs around the theme of poverty, development, and technology.  Over three weeks of intensive training with experts in the field, students will learn the key skills of community development work, including action research, leadership skills, organizational development, and cross-cultural communication.

• Internship: Students will stay on through the remainder of the spring 2009 semester to work as interns in local NGOs.

Global PACT India Dialogue is the first of Northeastern University's semester-long Global PACT and Dialogue of Civilizations programs. Northeastern has also formed a partnership with Casa de las Américas, a prestigious academy of the arts and literature in Cuba. The university will send as many as 20 students to the country beginning in January to study its rich cultural uniqueness and become acquainted with its history.