Dear Students and Faculty,

As the 2024-2025 academic year at Miami University comes to a close, I want to take a moment to acknowledge the incredible efforts of both our students and our faculty. Students, your hard work, curiosity, and resilience have been truly inspiring. To those graduating this year, congratulations!  This is an accomplishment to celebrate!  I know that your class is one that has been on the forefront of rapid change. It has required the ability to be adaptable and flexible in response.  You likely did not have the “traditional” graduation experience when you completed high school during the COVID pandemic and started your time at Miami online or via a hybrid format.  As you commemorate this moment, I hope you pause, reflect, and acknowledge this major life accomplishment. I wish all of you the best in your future endeavors and hope you stay in touch.

For continuing students, I encourage you to also reflect and consider your goals; what do you want to accomplish as you complete your brief sojourn at Miami? Maybe there are opportunities you’ve yet to take advantage of, or topics you want to learn more about, or organizations you’d like to explore. You’ll see a lot of changes going forward and I hope that you’ll find them positive as we move toward building an even stronger sense of community. Although I try not to speak for others, I will say that GIC faculty are here for you. In our many conversations supporting students is the strongest recurring theme.  These are not just “words.” We, as faculty, hold a deep commitment to enriching student experiences and lives.

Faculty, your dedication to teaching, mentorship, service, and scholarship has been the cornerstone of our success. You have stepped up this year and accomplished so much in terms of fulfilling bureaucratic and administrative tasks.  We are well positioned moving forward.

This year has been filled with memorable events such as the week-long visit with the Tandana Foundation, the visit with Dr. Raj Patel, and our career exploration day, not to mention many mini career events. While engaged with all of that, you continue to achieve promotions and contribute to research in your fields. Seeing our community come together and become more integrated has been a highlight.

Thank you all for your commitment and contributions. I wish everyone a restorative and enjoyable break. I eagerly anticipate welcoming you back in the new academic year, ready for new opportunities and achievements.

Sincerely,

Dr. Sande Garner Chair, Department of Global and Intercultural Studies

Andy Brown '25 is a graduating History and Critical Race & Ethnic Studies major with a minor in Geography.

At Miami, Andy's classes have synergized well, allowing the easy incorporation of all five GIC program areas into the History major. By their junior and senior year, Andy's career aspirations began to come into focus. 

Andy says, "What I like about interdisciplinary learning is its focus on making well-rounded students who are adaptable to new environments, whether that is a new job, field of study, or social setting. Recently I have been concerned about the sanctity of this model with the advent of AI allowing for students to ChatGPT their way through classes they only signed up for to fulfill a degree requirement, but maybe it's time for more analog education."

Andy comes from a place that many people try to leave: Portsmouth OH, a river town where Appalachia, the Rust Belt, and the south all converge. At first, coming to Miami felt like a welcome escape. But now, fortified by critical interdisciplinary knowledge, Andy looks forward to returning home to work, with an eye to enroll in graduate school in the future.  The constellation of GIC, HST, and GEO classes have helped Andy understand their position in the world, and how to navigate it while leaving it better than they found it.  Andy says, "It was a guest lecture by Dr. Cherisse Jones-Branch in Dr. Jazma Sutton's 'Black Women in America' class, who told us that we don't need to go to New York City or San Francisco to find soul-fulfilling work because there are stories that are just as rich right at home." 

Some of the most influential classes in Andy's roster include: 

CRE 385 Race, Science and Disease (Dr. José Amador)

CRE 287 Anti-Racism Social Movements (Dr. Rodney Coates)

WGS 406 Indigenous Sacred Lands (Dr. Sande Garner)

LAS 410 From the Amazon to Amazon.com: Capitalism & Commodities in the Americas (Dr. Elena Jackson Albarrán)

and various courses taught by former faculty member Dr. Tammy Brown.

According to Andy, "The GIC department was something I sort of fell into during my first year while I was still majoring in Political Science, and I couldn't be more grateful for how welcoming and personable the faculty has been. I've also made some great friends that continue to inspire me and make each day brighter. If there's one think I could say to stick with you it's that GIC has a home for you on campus." 

Brendan Butler '26 (ITS/LAS) is a recipient of the Garrote Scholarship for study abroad in Latin America, and writes to us from Argentina where hi has been spending the semester: 

"Before studying abroad in Buenos Aires, Argentina, I had never had the opportunity to travel outside the United States. Now that I’ve managed to do so, I’ve grown in many ways that seemed impossible not too long ago. Practicing Spanish, and gaining fluency within it, has allowed me to broaden my horizons and understand Argentine society. I’ve learned so much about the sports, food, and the stories that come with each individual person. For me, every story is important, but the ones about immigration to the country especially stand out, regardless if it’s from an Italian, Bolivian, Venezuelan, or from another place. I’m starting to understand more of why people choose to move to different countries and how that adds to the uniqueness of each place. Because I aim to work in immigration eventually, starting a simple conversation like this can change everything."

Christine Emanuelli '25 (ITS/EALC/Western) presented her honor's thesis research at the Undergraduate Research Forum on April 25. Her project, directed by Dr. Dilchoda Berdieva, "The Social, Political, and Economic Impact of Jangmadangs in North Korea," examines the impact of informal market economies that have emerged in the area in the neoliberal period, and the unique ways these have ushered in a capitalist economy. 

Following graduation, Christine plans to pursue a graduate degree in North Korean Studies.

Below are some highlights from GIC classrooms this semester. 

Students in Sande Garner's course AMS 259 Intro to the Miami Tribe playing the bowl game, the straw game, and the moccasin game.

Dilchoda Berdieva's class ITS 201 Intro to International Studies visited the Art Museum's Global Perspectives Gallery this spring to work with the artifacts in the collection. 

Elena Jackson Albarrán's students in LAS/SPN 332 Latin American Popular Culture finish the food unit by making tortillas and tostones in class. 

Dilchoda Berdieva's students from ITS 201 Intro to International Studies also visited Special Collections to work with primary documents. 

Students in Juan Carlos Albarrán's LAS 315 Latin American Diaspora visited the Makerspace to design buttons that promote empathy, in conjunction with an assignment to conduct an oral history with someone of a Latin American background. 

Sigma Iota Rho is the honor society for International Studies. They held their last meeting of the semester last week and elected a new slate of officers.

This year's Grayson Kirk Lecture featured Raj Patel, who delivered "A Survivor's Guide to the Polycrisis." Patel's visit also included many opportunities to engage with faculty and students through class visits and meals. Thanks to all for their part in making this event a success. 

Yeliz Cavus was nominated for the Miller Center's Disability Advocate Award, in recognition of her efforts to support an accessible learning environment for students. She is a historian of the Ottoman Empire and teaches Intro to International Studies.

Elena Jackson Albarrán contributed an op-ed to The Miami Student, titled "The University is an Ecosystem: An Extended Metaphor for Our New Fiscal Priorities." It was based on her speech at the Hands Off Higher Ed rally held on April 17, a coordinated effort by national, faculty, and student organizations. In it, she analogizes the university to a forest ecology, with all of the interdependent forces that each contains. 

Indivar Jonnalagadda recently published a book review of Nitin Bathla, ed. Researching Otherwise: Pluriversal Methodologies for Landscape and Urban Studies (Verlag 2024), in the journal City: Analysis of Urban Change, Theory, Action. In it, he evaluates the volume's efforts to elevate the practical, transformational application of academic research in the context of global crises. 

Rodney Coates was featured in a recent piece for The Christian Science Monitor, "US Soldiers Left Vietnam 50 Years Ago. How Do Those Nations Cooperate Now?" Coates, a veteran of the Vietnam War, reflects on his experience transitioning from the college classroom to being an enlisted officer in the Army, and his evolving political consciousness from that point to the present. 

Kathleen Kollman co-edited (with Josefine Smith) the book Still Reading Romance: Identity and Engagement with Popular Romance Fiction (Rowman & Littlefield, 2025), an update of Janice Radway's landmark 1984 study of romance novel readership. The book interrogates assumptions about romance fiction readers, and reevaluates the gendered and cultural stereotypes that accompany them. 

We are sad to announce the departure of two cherished and valued colleagues. Jen Cohen (L) and Chelle Reinstatler (R) will be leaving Miami at the end of the semester. Their respective teaching and collegial contributions are irreplaceable, and we thank both for their role in shaping the GIC culture and classrooms. Best wishes for your future endeavors!

For summer advising questions, please contact Dr. Sande Garner. 

Stay tuned for news in our first fall newsletter about GIC's growing partnership with the Tandana Foundation, as a student begins the first internship, and faculty prepare for an exploratory trip to Ecuador. 

Submit newsletter content to Elena Jackson Albarrán at albarrej@miamioh.edu

Global and Intercultural Studies Contact Info

513-529-5333

MacMillan 120

Dr. Sande Garner, Chair

garners2@miamioh.edu

Martha Sapiro, Admin Assistant

sapiromc@miamioh.edu

Denise Roell, Admin Assistant

roelled@miamioh.edu