CAORC-WARC FACULTY DEVELOPMENT SEMINAR

West Africa and the Diaspora: Continuities and Transformations

Senegal: January 2022*

Application Deadline: August 30, 2021

*Exact seminar dates to be determined and subject to change based on pandemic developments

About the Award

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CAORC recognizes the immediate and growing need for professors at U.S. community colleges and minority-serving institutions to provide a global perspective to their students. These administrators and faculty understand the value of developing “internationalized” learning environments that both broaden their students’ cultural horizons and foster critical thinking, communication, and leadership skills for an increasingly interconnected world.

To support community colleges and minority-serving institutions, CAORC offers fully-funded overseas seminars that help faculty and administrators gain the requisite first-hand experience needed to develop and improve international courses, curricula, and teaching materials.

This award program, administered by CAORC in collaboration with the West African Research Association and its member center in Senegal, the West Africa Research Center, funds participation in a two-week capacity building workshop in Dakar that will also include visits to Gorée Island, Toubacouta, and Saint-Louis, among other locations. The two-week-long seminar is currently scheduled for January 2022. Specific seminar dates are still to be determined and program dates may change based on developments related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Funding for this program is provided to CAORC through a grant from the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, with additional financial assistance from the following U.S. National Resource Centers in African Studies: Boston University, Howard University, Indiana University, Michigan State University, University of California, Berkeley, University of Kansas, and University of Wisconsin, Madison.

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Round-trip travel, accommodations, in-country transportation, and meals will be provided for the seminar.

Seminar Overview: West Africa and the Diaspora—Continuities and Transformations

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This two-week seminar geared towards faculty at U.S. community colleges and minority-serving institutions will feature lectures, site visits, panel discussions, and film screenings on the history, culture, arts, economy, and political life of Senegal, with a focus on cultural, intellectual, political, and economic connections between West Africa and the diaspora. The seminar will also place a special emphasis on Senegal’s spiritual diversity and religious tolerance, as well as the region’s growing transnational movements and their impact on society and especially young people.​

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Eligibility and Program Expectations

The program is open to full-time or part-time faculty and administrators at U.S. community colleges or minority-serving institutions.* The program is open to faculty in all fields and encourages applicants from a diverse array of academic departments. Applicants must be U.S. citizens or permanent residents at the time of application and must also have a valid passport or have already submitted an application for a new passport. Please note: Previously awarded CAORC seminar participants must wait at least two full competition cycles (typically three years) before applying for a new award.

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At the conclusion of the program, participants will be required to:

• Develop a 1-pg concept note of short and long-term goals to increase teaching and awareness about Senegal and West Africa in their classes and college community.

• Develop new or improved course materials about Senegal that can be shared as Open Educational Resources on CAORC’s website and social media to enhance U.S. teaching on West Africa.

• Contribute a short blog article, written for a popular audience, that expresses something about how the seminar improved your knowledge or understanding of Senegal.

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*A useful directory of MSIs can also be found at the Rutgers Center for Minority Serving Institutions.

Application Process

Applications can be accessed via CAORC's SM Apply application portal. You must sign up for an account to access the seminar application. This will allow you to save and return to your application before submitting. Please save your login/password information for future applications. Please note that the CAORC online grant application portal, Fluid Review, recently transitioned to SM Apply. If you previously signed up for a Fluid Review account, you can log in to SM Apply with your Fluid Review username and password.

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In addition to providing basic personal and professional information, applicants are required to respond to the following essay questions (up to 500 words each):

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1. Please describe your professional and/or academic interest in participating in the faculty development seminar to Senegal. How will your professional and personal experiences, qualifications, and perspectives allow you to make the most of the seminar opportunity?

2. Please describe how participation in this seminar is essential for your own professional development, i.e., improving your teaching, research, and/or administrative activities. How will you benefit professionally and personally from participating in the seminar?

3. Please describe how participation in this seminar will directly impact your teaching, curriculum, and/or research. What specific projects, courses, or activities do you envision resulting from the seminar? More broadly, how might the experience positively impact your students, colleagues, institution, and/or community?

4. Please discuss an occasion or time when you were confronted with attitudes, perspectives, values, or behaviors different from your own. How did you respond and what did you learn about yourself and your attitudes from the experience?

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In addition, applicants are required to:

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• Upload a current cv/resume (less than 3 pages in length); please upload your cv/resume as a PDF

• Request a letter of support from a department chair, academic division head, or academic dean at your college or institution. You will be able to send a link to your recommender via the online grant portal, SM Apply, by entering their contact details, which will trigger the system into sending an automated email. Your recommender will then be able to upload their letter. Recommendation letters will be confidential in the system. The applicant is responsible for checking in with their recommender to ensure the letter is submitted before the application deadline. 

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In their letter, the recommender should address the following questions/points:

1.  Please tell us why you support the applicant’s participation in the CAORC faculty development seminar. From your perspective, how will they benefit professionally from the program?

2. Please describe the applicant’s engagement with your institution’s internationalization efforts and how their participation in the seminar might benefit students, colleagues, and the broader campus community.

3. Please discuss the applicant’s collegiality, teamwork, and professionalism. How have they demonstrated the ability to cooperate, work, and share with others to achieve goals and positive outcomes?

All letters must be written and signed on institutional letterhead and uploaded as PDF documents.

The application deadline for this seminar is Monday, August 30, 2021, at 11:59 PM EST. Applications submitted after the deadline will not be accepted for review.

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All applicants will be notified of award decisions by early October 2021.

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To learn more about the opportunity, please email: fellowships@caorc.org.

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