The 9th Annual Globalizing the Community College Curricula Conference 2025: Arts and Education without Borders conference was an immensely successful conference that will positively impact the Global Studies Program at Heartland Community College (HCC) in Normal, Illinois. The conference featured “innovative strategies and best practices for integrating global perspectives into community college curricula through the arts” and followed through with a diverse speaker lineup that provided multiple subject examples ranging from philosophy, art, composition, anthropology, and political science.
The most immediately impactful of the presentations offered concrete and practical suggestions for how art can be used in multiple subject areas, bridging not only disciplinary silos but also global boundaries. In particular, the talk on “Analyzing Graffiti and Murals of Modern Revolutionary Movements” and “Bridging Borders Through Art: A Cross-Disciplinary Collaboration in Identity and Community” were noteworthy for applications to many faculty at HCC. Personally, as an English teacher, “Globalizing the English 1302 Classroom” was also worthy of mention.
Most importantly, beyond the content of the presentations, all the presenters provided significant resources to share which will be distributed to the Committee for Global Education at HCC and then forwarded on to subject area faculty directly. In sum, the conference was both immediately gratifying for the attendees but also succeeded in creating a larger impact to educators who were unable to attend. In this way, the conference was able to both demonstrate what and how to make a global impact.
Finally, I would also like to note the conference allowed us to make connections with the Navajo Nation’s Dine College, which will be of interest to HCC as we look to explore short-term multicultural exchange opportunities.
This opportunity was funded through the Center for Global Studies’ Title VI grant, provided by the U.S. Department of Education as part of the program’s focus on Community Colleges.
