The Jackson School’s commitment to regional, cross-cultural and comparative studies extends well beyond the boundaries of its many formal academic programs. The school has five Title VI National Resource Centers funded by the U.S. Department of Education. Our National Resource Centers focus on area and international studies, languages and thematic issues, and provide teacher training and critical global education resources for students, K-12 teachers, community college teachers, university faculty and the public at the local, regional, national and international levels.
Examples of activities in 2022-2023:
The collaborators on the NSF grant project were given a tour of the Burke’s Northwest Native Art Gallery by Sven Haakanson, Curator of Native American Anthropology. May 2023
This past spring quarter, the Canadian Studies Center celebrated the fifth and final workshop of an international team of scholars engaged in a National Science Foundation-funded planning project “Navigating the New Arctic: Co-Designing Civic Education for the Circumpolar North.” The two-year grant (2021-2023) was awarded to Jason Young (Principal Investigator), UW Information School, Nadine Fabbi (co-Principal Investigator), UW Canadian Studies Center, Jackson School of International Studies, and Michelle Koutnik (co-Principal Investigator), UW Department of Earth and Space Sciences.
The workshop, held in May 2023, hosted over 20 emerging and senior scholars from the UW, the United States, Canada, Finland, and Iceland. Collaborators discussed what elements might be included in a curriculum inclusive of Arctic Indigenous voices and appropriate for those outside the circumpolar region. Other supporting partners included the UW Department of Scandinavian Studies, the Coordinating Committee for Nordic Studies Abroad, and the Scan Design Foundation.
Task Force 2023 Hybrid Warfare, Disinformation and NATO
As part of its ongoing support for the Jackson School’s International Policy Institute Cybersecurity Initiative, the Center for Global Studies sponsored two student learning opportunities: a Task Force capstone course on “Hybrid Warfare, Disinformation and the NATO Response” that was taught by Sarah Lohmann and a Global Research Group applied research project on the global challenge posed by ransomware led by Jessica Beyer. Lohmann is a cybersecurity expert and former Visiting Professor at the U.S. Army War College, while Beyer is Co-Lead of the Cybersecurity Initiative and a newly appointed Assistant Teaching Professor in the Jackson School.
The mission? Giving students the opportunity to gain skills and knowledge in critical areas that will be of increasing importance to U.S. business and government. Students in both courses had the opportunity to research and present on these themes to expert practitioners in the field. In Task Force, they presented their final report and policy recommendations to Jeff President of the American-German Institute at Johns Hopkins University and a former diplomat and expert on U.S. security and defense policy. Global Research Group students produced and presented a research report for the National Democratic Institute on ransomware attacks where NDI works globally.
Snippet of the Filipino American graphic timeline
Thanks to support from the Center for Southeast Asia & Its Diasporas’ faculty, a new course in Filipino American history that integrated the input of local communities was offered in Seattle Public Schools during the academic year 2022-2023. CSEAD affiliate faculty Third Andresen was the chief curriculum designer with two other CSEAD affiliate faculty Rick Bonus and Vicente Rafael involved in the review process. CSEAD also funded the printing of a graphic timeline of Filipino American history that was designed by Andresen. It is currently still used in classes and at Filipino cultural events. The course was featured in media, including a Seattle Times article titled, “Seattle Public Schools Offer New Filipino-American History Class.”
Chips and Chains publicity poster
For two days in May 2023, experts from academia, think tanks, journalists, and industry specialists from the U.S. and overseas gathered to discuss the timely issue of Taiwan’s position in the global economy. 70 people attended the conference in person at Founders Hall in the UW Foster School of Business, while more than 500 streamed the event online.
The backdrop? With Taiwan and the U.S. signing a major bilateral trade deal and the global economy still reeling from multiple years of supply chain disruptions from the COVID pandemic and its effects on inflation, how would these changes impact Taiwan’s businesses?
The conference, called “Chips & Chains: Trends in US-Taiwan Business,” devised and co-sponsored by the East Asia Center, Taiwan Studies Program, and the Foster Global Business Center, focused largely on panel discussions on the Taiwan-based semiconductor firm TSMC who responded to the recent U.S. CHIPS Act by building a new fabrication plant on U.S. soil. Ryan Hass (B.A. International Studies 2001), Chen-Fu and Cecilia Yen Koo Chair in Taiwan Studies at the Brookings Institution, featured as the keynote speaker. Watch the conference (Part 1) | Watch the conference (Part 2)
Afghan Diaspora, Taliban and Rule of Law poster
In April 2023, the South Asia Center hosted three Afghan scholars located in the U.S. and Afghanistan in a discussion on critical topics in contemporary Afghanistan, including the Taliban and modernity, the rule of law in the Muslim context, and the Afghan diaspora. Nearly 100 people in 12 countries attended the public event, which was held online. It was moderated by the director of the Jackson School’s Middle East Center at the University of Washington. Watch the video
The event was a unique collaboration among the South Asia Center, Jackson School of International Studies, and MESA Global Academy, which awards competitive scholarships to social science and humanities scholars from the Middle East and North Africa region to join interdisciplinary research collaborations at North American universities.
