Global Currents Blog

CGS Connections: Reflecting on Relationships with Think Tanks

dtonini@illinois.edu (Donna C. Tonini, MBA, Ed.D) — Mon, 13 Jul 2026 17:45:00 CDT

CGS has spent the past year developing connections with think tanks through increased engagement with thought leaders at the On Think Tanks (OTT) School for Thinktankers’ conferences. Dr. Tonini, Associate Director of The Center for Global Studies, reflects on the 2025 and 2026 annual School for Thinktankers’ conferences and provides insights on prominent scholars, projects, and research in the field of think tank creation and strategy.

An Economic Perspective on Korea’s Hagwon System

jieunk4@illinois.edu (Jieun Kim) — Tue, 30 Jun 2026 20:15:00 CDT

Korean students spend a significant amount of time and energy at hagwons, and the social consequences are serious.

More Than New Friends, “Framily” For Life

global-studies@illinois.edu (Sandra McAnany) — Mon, 18 May 2026 10:00:00 CDT

How I Became a Sponsor

In early 2023, I read an article about Kyle Varner, a doctor in Spokane Washington who had sponsored over 40 Venezuelans through a humanitarian parole program and reached out to him via social media to find out more. When I commented on his post on Facebook, my messenger started flooding with messages from individuals and families in Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua who were looking for sponsors through the new Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, Venezuela (CHNV) humanitarian parole program. I met with Kyle virtually, learned the steps involved, and wanted to sponsor a few people. After exchanging messages with individuals online and not knowing any of them, I decided to sponsor four single women who were working hard in Venezuela, displayed resilience and focused on having a safer future. I added the mother of one of the four when I realized she would be all alone in Venezuela if her daughter left. For me, this was an opportunity to make a true commitment to immigrants after being an informal advocate for years. ...

CGS Faculty Honored for Excellence in Instruction

carruth3@illinois.edu (Jasmine Carruth) — Fri, 08 May 2026 12:30:00 CDT

CGS is proud to celebrate the achievements of these Center for Global Studies faculty affiliates and congratulates them on their Campus Awards.

From Illinois to the UN: CGS Affiliate Professor Lisa Hinchliffe on Information Integrity

carruth3@illinois.edu (Jasmine Carruth) — Mon, 04 May 2026 16:45:00 CDT

Professor Lisa Janicke Hinchliffe of the School of Information Sciences, Coordinator for Research Professional Development at the University Library, and CGS Affiliate, recently addressed the UN General Assembly High-Level Meeting on the topic of libraries and information integrity.

Convening Global Perspectives: CGS’ Inaugural Global Policy Forum

carruth3@illinois.edu (Jasmine Carruth) — Thu, 30 Apr 2026 12:15:00 CDT

The Center for Global Studies (CGS) hosted a successful two-day Global Policy Forum (GPF) on April 14th and 15th, 2026. With almost 100 registrants, this forum spotlighted student presenters from over a dozen departments, covering academic areas such as political science, human rights, climate resilience, and sustainable development.

Exploring Global Studies through a Global South Lens: CGS Fall 2025 Event Roundup

shoutao2@illinois.edu (Shoutao Wu) — Wed, 17 Dec 2025 10:45:00 CST

In the Fall 2025 semester, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) Center for Global Studies (CGS) focused its programming lens on the Global South, hosting nine lectures that collectively engaged various global challenges across broad geographical contexts, and diverse fields and scholarship.

Center for Global Studies Highlights Climate Leadership in Multinational Student Competition

leonl@illinois.edu (Dr. Leon Liebenberg) — Mon, 08 Dec 2025 15:15:00 CST

Urbana, Illinois – The Center for Global Studies (CGS) at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign proudly celebrated the achievements of students from around the world during the 5th annual Reimagine Our Future sustainability competition held on December 6, 2025. CGS has supported the competition since its inception, advancing its mission to foster global perspectives on sustainability, climate resilience, and interdisciplinary innovation.

Who gets to speak for Iran? Global Media, Regime Narratives, and an Ignored People

vesalr2@illinois.edu (Vesal Razavimaleki) — Mon, 08 Dec 2025 13:15:00 CST

Iran might be the most lied-about country on Earth. You may assume I’m talking about crude axis of evil stereotypes – headlines that reduce Iran to terrorists, turbans, and uranium. Those, as it happens, are real, but they are not what I find most dangerous.

The real distortion is subtler, more insidious, and far friendlier to the Islamic Republic itself. It’s the story that says: Iran is changing; the regime is quietly moving away from theocracy; secular youth and clerics are converging toward some pragmatic middle. In this story, the state and the people are blurred into one complex society that just needs time, sanctions relief, and a bit of gradual reform.

CGS Faculty Affiliate Antoinette Burton Wins 2025 Campus Award for Public Engagement

carruth3@illinois.edu — Mon, 08 Sep 2025 09:15:00 CDT

Individuals and teams from the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences who have visibly impacted society were recently recognized with the 2025 Campus Awards for Excellence in Public Engagement. Faculty, staff, students, and community members who engage the public to address critical civic and community issues at the local, state, national, and global levels were honored at an awards ceremony last month.

This year's LAS recipients include faculty member Antoinette Burton, graduate student Ananya Yammanuru, and the Entomology Graduate Student Association team.

Burton, a history professor and director of the Humanities Research Institute at Illinois, received the Distinguished Award for Excellence in Public Engagement.

Published initially by the Illinois News Bureau.

Multilateralism’s Collapse Under Trump and the Call for Global South Pluriverse

shoutao2@illinois.edu (Shoutao Wu) — Thu, 31 Jul 2025 15:15:00 CDT

Multilateralism, in brief, refers to multiple countries working together to achieve a common goal through diverse membership in international institutions. As Charvet and Mota argue, multilateralism and international cooperation exist, as no nation can be shielded from global threats, regardless of the framing of altruism or geopolitical interests. They require reconciling short-term national interests with long-term global prosperity for mankind. Such reconciliation, however, is at odds with the sweeping “America First” agenda, as multilateralism takes time, compromises self-interests, and requires subsidies from wealthier and more powerful states. Donald Trump and his administration do not want that.

Bringing Them Home: CGS Affiliate Dr. Scott Althaus Helps Recover WWII Airmen Lost for Decades

carruth3@illinois.edu (Associated Press) — Tue, 27 May 2025 12:15:00 CDT

This Memorial Day, CGS recognizes the contributions of faculty affiliate Dr. Scott Althaus and his involvement with Project Recover, which helps bring home World War II service members.

From Exploitation to Empowerment: Rethinking Carbon Markets and Offsetting Mechanisms

shoutao2@illinois.edu (Shoutao Wu (Vincent)) — Wed, 21 May 2025 14:45:00 CDT

Key Points

Despite claims of a "triple win" for environmental conservation, economic growth, and equity, carbon markets and offsetting mechanisms often perpetuate structural exploitation and neocolonialism at the global, local, and procedural levels.
Globally, countries in the Global North benefit disproportionately from carbon markets, outsourcing environmental responsibilities to countries in the Global South, which have unevenly distributed market power and an unjust territorialization of southern lands.
Locally, carbon offsetting projects often result in the exploitation of Indigenous and local communities in terms of land and carbon sovereignty, as well as fundamental human rights and a share of project benefits.
Procedurally, the neglect of local knowledge and place-based environmental stewardship excludes Indigenous communities from project initiation, negotiation, and decision-making processes.
To circumvent these pitfalls, this brief provides recommendations to mobilize all stakeholders engaged in carbon markets and offsetting mechanisms, and together adopt rigorous, just, and equitable strategies to ensure the rights of the South and Indigenous peoples.

Illini Engaged: Envisioning Education at CIES 2025

toninil1@illinois.edu (Donna C. Tonini, MBA, Ed.D) — Fri, 16 May 2025 19:15:00 CDT

The Comparative and International Education Society (CIES) met in Chicago, Illinois, for its 69^th annual conference. Held at the historic Palmer Hotel, the conference brought together educators and practitioners who focus on educational issues worldwide to explore the theme of Envisioning Education in a Digital Society. The conference had strong representation from the College of Education at Illinois, broaching topics such as the relationship between education and cultural processes, democratization, globalization, economic development, and political conflict. This blog post highlights a few key aspects of the excellent scholarship presented by Illinois students, staff, faculty, and affiliates.

Academia Meets Policy: Partnering with Think Tanks to Improve Student Experiences

toninil1@illinois.edu (Donna C. Tonini, MBA, Ed.D) — Wed, 23 Apr 2025 11:00:00 CDT

This past February, I had the privilege and pleasure of being invited to Spain to attend the School For Thinktankers 2025, sponsored by the organization On Think Tanks (OTT) at Fundació Bofill in Barcelona. The weeklong training seminar started with an inspiring welcome session, setting the stage for an exciting week of learning, collaboration, and growth. As the Center for Global Studies (CGS) is launching a new Master of Science in Global Studies (MSGS) with 3 tracks including Global Governance, Global Security, and Gender and Public Policy, partnering with think tanks to collaborate, create student internships, and develop opportunities for students to present work and publish is a strategic focus of the center. Through the new master’s degree, CGS can offer avenues for networking, increased exposure to, and engagement with think tanks across the world.

CGS Faculty Affiliates Recognized in LAS Faculty Awards Announcement

toninil1@illinois.edu (Donna C. Tonini, MBA, Ed.D) — Thu, 03 Apr 2025 16:00:00 CDT

We are proud to celebrate the achievements of two Center for Global Studies (CGS) faculty affiliates who have recently been honored through the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences (LAS) faculty awards and announcements.

Arts and Education without Borders: The 9th Annual Globalizing the Community College Curricula Conference 2025

zpetrea2@illinois.edu (Dr. Zach Petrea) — Wed, 12 Feb 2025 14:45:00 CST

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.

Scholarly Publishing in the Globalization Context: A Glimpse into the Relationship Between Global Market and Global Welfare

yliu370@illinois.edu (Yanling Liu) — Thu, 19 Dec 2024 16:30:00 CST

In 2022, when I was in the process of applying to the MSLIS program at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, I attended the KnowledgeWorks Global Ltd. (KGL) PubFactory Virtual Series, which had a session about the impact of globalization on scholarly publishing presented by KGL’s Director of Consulting, Kevin Lomangino. Lomangino pointed out that the western countries used to have absolute dominance in the scholarly publishing industry, which went hand in hand with the dominance of English-speaking countries, but due to globalization, this dominance was challenged. China was gaining more power in scholarly publishing as it strived to collaborate with researchers from all over the world, especially those coming from the Middle East and Asia, and publish quality research in the world's highest impact journals. Globalization was not a new trend, but journal publishers were increasingly noticing the impact of globalization on the scholarly publishing industry, and whoever ignored the global trend would potentially miss out on revenue opportunities. Scholars in regions such as Latin America, Asia Pacific, and the Middle East were seizing the opportunities to expand their research output and global outreach, which increasingly diversified scholarly communication.

Care Work and Climate Change, Feminist Perspectives under the Neoliberal Economic Malestream

shoutao2@illinois.edu (Shoutao Wu (Vincent)) — Mon, 16 Dec 2024 13:45:00 CST

I once heard a story about an ordinary rural woman. Born in a small village in southeast China in the 1970s, she had four siblings, two older sisters, one younger sister, and one youngest brother. Her family was not rich. At that time, a small household in a small village in that area relied mostly on small-scale farming, rice, sugarcane, tea, and cattle breeding. Children were a promising source of labor that could translate into economic growth for the family in the future. Therefore, before China's one-child policy, it was not uncommon to see a household with five, six, seven or more children.

International and Area Studies Library joins 2025 Global Press Archive Area Studies Initiative with CGS support

ldenehy2@illinois.edu (Lily Denehy) — Mon, 16 Dec 2024 11:30:00 CST

Recently, the International and Area Studies Library (IASL) at the University of Illinois pooled US Department of Education, Title VI National Resource Center funding from the Center for Global Studies, Center for African Studies, Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, and the Russian, East European, and Eurasian Center to make important historical newspapers available Open Access through the Global Press Archives' 2025 Area Studies Initiative.

Students Reimagine the Future in Global Sustainability Competition

toninil1@illinois.edu (Donna Tonini) — Mon, 09 Dec 2024 16:30:00 CST

On December 7, 2024, 14 teams from across the globe gathered via Zoom for the 4th annual Reimagine Our Future sustainability competition award ceremony. The competition brought together 249 students from 11 institutions in the USA, UK, Ukraine, South Africa, China, Austria, Colombia, and Italy, who spent eight weeks crafting innovative solutions for the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals and showcasing contributions of diverse disciplines such as engineering, health sciences, agriculture, and architecture to sustainability through factsheets.

Professor Manfred Steger's recent visit culminated with his talk "Globalization at a Crossroads: Deglobalization or Reglobalization?”

ldenehy2@illinois.edu (Lily Denehy) — Mon, 11 Nov 2024 12:30:00 CST

The Center for Global Studies hosted prominent globalization scholar Professor Manfred Steger (Professor and Chair, Sociology, University of Hawai’i at Mānoa), co-sponsored by the Center for Advanced Study. On Monday, October 7th, Professor Steger gave a talk titled “Globalization at a Crossroads: Deglobalization or Reglobalization?” making a case that the world is in an era of reglobalization fueled by exponentially increasing “disembodied globalization.”

International Studies Research Lab hosts 12 fellows from across U.S.

ldenehy2@illinois.edu (Lily Denehy) — Mon, 14 Oct 2024 11:45:00 CDT

The Center for Global Studies ran the International Studies Research Lab (ISRL) this summer, making its first full in-person session since the Covid-19 pandemic. This blog post summarizes the lab, its purpose, and highlights three of the eleven projects developed through the ISRL.

Migration, Religion, and Technology in Rural Cambodia

paulun2@illinois.edu (Paul Un) — Wed, 25 Sep 2024 13:00:00 CDT

During the summer of 2024, I traveled to Cambodia to conduct field research for my dissertation. I was there to study foreign aid, public finances, and how the Cambodian government negotiated loan terms. While studying these mass flows of international capital I came across money that was crossing borders in smaller amounts but was perhaps even more interesting.

Reimagine Our Future

av56@illinois.edu (Sandra Voskoboynikova) — Tue, 17 Sep 2024 15:45:00 CDT

Reimagine Our Future invites undergraduates to use their critical and creative thinking skills to develop ideas supporting United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.