Global Context and Relationships: CFA and CFA-students in an increasingly global context; influence of global political and cultural trends; extended “reach” of CFA beyond local region.
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Global Context and Relationships (from meeting notes)
January 7, 2011 at 3:14 pm
6 Comments
Jim Petosa posted on January 19, 2011 at 8:20 am
99 percent of our students do a study abroad semester. That semester is a critical part of their formation. Perhaps we can do more with the preparation phase of that experience? Perhaps we can do more on the other side of it as well. We have toyed with a performance piece that the returning seniors do that could be an artiful distillation of their abroad semester. We did that one year. It was fascinating. We would like to revist that. Perhaps this is a CFA notion that might cross the schools?
Also, we are always looking for ways to increase our students awareness and curiosity of global notions. Political, cultural, etc. They come to it slowly, however, as they seem more skilled at absorbing the subtlest variations in popular culture. But, as we have made it an increasing value, we do see them rising to the challenge and then, in several cases, allowing it to impact their work in some very distinguished ways.
Phyllis Hoffman posted on January 19, 2011 at 7:04 pm
The School of Music had its first audition tour in Asia that included Beijing, Shanghai, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Seoul, Singapore, etc. The applicant pool is large and we can anticipate a significant enrollment to result. During the past year, Director Dodson, and four music faculty members have made several trips to China giving master classes and cultivating relationships with important schools there. Dodsen and Sharon (Chair of the Piano Dept) visited Moscow’s Central Conservatory and while there one of our freshmen pianists won 2nd prize in a competition there. These successful ventures bode well for the future of our global outreach and will lead to more cross pollination among students.
lynne allen posted on January 20, 2011 at 12:19 pm
We believe that it isn’t just the study abroad options, which our students do take advantage of, but how we teach our subjects from a global context, how our international undergrads and grads illuminate the scope of our community. It creates a less provincial atmosphere. This can be invested in, expanded and strengthed. We also have talked about instituting specific study abroad initiatives beyond Venice or other IP destinations, but some that are specific to discipline, like India (huge printmaking culture) or China (graphic design, painting, Sculpture) or even New York City.
Stephanie Trodello posted on January 20, 2011 at 1:38 pm
From a development and alumni relations perspective, this is an area (international) that always seems to get short shrift, and yet – I love the way Lynne expresses it here -our alumni, too, can “illuminate the scope of our community.” Are there opportunities for alumni engagement with any of our existing student abroad programs? (guest lectures? networking mixers for students with alums in the region?) We might also think about how to better promote the accomplishments of our alums around the world – students, too, like the recent example of Leon placing in the piano competition in Russia – within CFA and BU.
The central development office is beginning to put more resources into cultivating our international community, as well – BU’s three biggest campaign gifts to date came from families who live overseas, and Ifundraising-wise that was a big wake-up call for BU on where it might refocus some development efforts. So we need to be cognizant of taking full advantage of what’s going on centrally, and dovetailing our efforts with theirs where appropriate.
emcarr posted on January 27, 2011 at 12:47 pm
This is such a natural area of opportunity for our students, since the arts are a universal language and there is so much reciprocal benefit to their studying abroad and gaining a global perspective, while also being arts ambassadors for our country. I really responded to Theatre’s concept of having students returning from semester abroad do some sort of distillation project, to focus/reflect on the meaning of that challenging/profound component in the context of their university education….and the prep process before they go seems critical…so the experience is fully integrated into the students’ education.
Lydia Diamond posted on February 3, 2011 at 2:45 pm
In the theatre funding world right now, there seems to be a lot of emphasis being placed on “internationalism”. I suppose many people in CFA have already done this… cultural exchanges, or professors, with other Universities. I sometimes envy our students’ built in abroad experience, and wonder if something similar, like a mandated/financially supported teaching/artistic cultural exchange for professors might not only set a great example for how our students see themselves as part of the global conversation, but also inspire and broaden us.