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Global Currents Blog

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  • The Impact of the 2021 International Studies Research Lab

    Through the International Studies Research Lab (ISRL), the Center for Global Studies and collaborating centers leverage the campus’ expertise and vast library resources to support the development of international and area studies programming in community colleges across the country, providing access to important US Department of Education Title VI resources to institutions and regions without direct access to these important grant funds.

  • Returning to French Archives Amid the Pandemic

    International travel to France and French archives in year two of the pandemic.

  • April 2021 iSEE Congress “The Future of Water”

    This year’s Institute for Sustainability, Energy, and Environment at University of Illinois (iSEE) Congress was co-organized with the Center for Global Studies, in partnership with the Illinois Global Institute and the Joint Area Centers Symposium (JACS), four of which are funded through U.S. Department of Education Title VI grants.  The series of Zoom events brought together a diverse group of researchers, educators, journalists and activists to address global water crises under the rubric of “The Future of Water”, and to introduce the Illinois campus and community to cutting-edge thinking from highly influential scholars on topics ranging from drought to the global politics of water to pollution, public health, and biodiversity. 

  • SAOA: The South Asian Open Archives

    The South Asian Open Archive (SAOA) is an initiative that makes open access materials on South Asia available for teaching and research.

  • At Home with Over 170 Million News Stories: My Assistantship with the Cline Center over Covid-19

    PhD student, James Steur, talks about his experiences during Covid-19.

  • Syndemics and Coronavirus: The Social Dimensions of Public Health Crises

    Can we deepen our understanding of the current COVID-19 pandemic by analyzing it as a syndemic?

  • “Global Education Symposium,” October 14-17, 2020

    Proving stronger than an epidemic, the University of Illinois College of Education and Office of International Programs presented the “Global Education Symposium” on October 14-17, 2020.  Educators and students from around the world shared knowledge and personal thoughts, albeit, through the travel agent known as Zoom. 

  • Spurlock Museum Big History Project

    Hi. I’m Kim Sheahan Sanford, the Spurlock Museum’s assistant director of education, and I have a confession to make. Sixth graders are my favorite students on earth. They are willing to suspend disbelief as I tell them a myth or a folktale, but they also latch onto adult concepts, like reincarnation and the development of complex writing systems.

  • Web Archiving and the Global Response to COVID-19

    One doesn’t need to look far to see how much the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the world, halting the mobility of people and goods that we took for granted as critical components of the global economy. This crisis has put a strain on nearly every system of our global society, impacting every sector of civil society. To attempt to preserve some of the initial reactions and concerns brought about the health emergency, the Center for Global Studies and the International and Area Studies Library began archiving websites of civil society organizations around the world as they respond to this crisis.