Over the past two years, the center has held so many outreach activities funded largely by both NRC grants (2018-23, 2022-26) that we cannot list them all here, but here’s a taste of the kind of area studies public education the center staff has been carrying out.
Educator Workshop for immigration project, “Coming to the Heartland”, fall 2021. Latinx immigrants shared what it’s like arriving to and living in the region, from which outreach staff and visiting schoolteachers design lesson plans about eliciting narratives from their own students.
Center Director Monthly Speaker Series on Indigeneity, Afro-descendants, and Other Marginalized Populations in Latin America, 2021-2022. Each month, directors of Latin American studies centers from around the country arranged for online speaker to discuss a particular topic on this theme. Former director Marta Carminero-Santangelo co-organized the roundtables, “African-descended Peoples’ Contribution to the Struggle for Cuban Independence and Their Role in Creating a Racially Inclusive Nationality” in December 2021 and “Indigenous Identities and Activism” in January 2022. Brent Metz recruited the speakers and chaired the latter, and Anthropology PhD student, Daniel Bagheri Sarvestani, also presented.
Traveling World Languages Fair, every February/March. Outreach Coordinators and language instructors from all 5 KU area studies centers travel to Kansas high schools to give brief immersion experiences in different languages and promote enrollment and FLAS scholarships in KU academic programs.
World Languages Fair, every fall. Outreach Coordinators and language instructors of the KU area studies centers unite with the Ermal Garinger Academic Resource Center (EGARC) to present our languages and opportunities to visiting Kansas schoolteachers and students.
Global Opportunities Expo, every spring. The KU area studies centers present programs and information to Minority Serving Institutions and community colleges over multiple days.
Tertulias, intermittent. Scholars unite in a roundtable to discuss pressing Latin American and Caribbeans issues to the campus and community.
Kansas-Paraguay Partners conference, “Indigenous Survival and Sustainability”, October 1-2, 2021. In 1968 Kansas and Paraguay joined in President Kennedy’s “Partnership in the Americas” program, which supports business, government, and academic exchanges. This hybrid conference focused on the threats to Paraguay’s 17 indigenous groups.
Faculty Study Abroad Development Grants, annual. Designed and led by former director Marta Caminero-Santangelo, professors from Donnelly College (Minority Serving Institution), Johnson County Community College, and Metropolitan Community College of Kansas (Minority Serving Institution) are funded to travel on KU study abroad programs to Costa Rica (winter) and Cuba (spring). In turn, the non-KU professors recruit students from their institutions.
Global Themes Speaker Series, annual. Experts of a pressing international theme are invited from each area studies center to present and provide information for K-12 teacher workshops.
PanAmerican Summit, every spring. Mock OAS exercise with students from KU and Minority Serving Institutions Donnelly College and Metropolitan Community College of Kansas City courses. Accepting courses for spring 2024!
American Society of Ethnohistory "Indigenous Peoples of the Americas" conference, September 8-10, 2022. The center hosted the ASE meetings, at which 60 scholars participated online and in person.