TF: Global Citizenship

Task Force Presentation 2022

Overview

What does it mean to be a global citizen? In a world increasingly divided along national, ideological, religious, racial, cultural, and other lines how can we, as citizens, make a positive difference? Over the course of the 2021-22 academic year, the IAJU Task Force on Global Citizenship convened 31 students from 19 Jesuit universities across 16 countries to address these questions. The Global Citizenship Fellows Program is a unique effort to galvanize a worldwide conversation among young people about the common challenges we face – from climate change and public health to development and peace. The program aims to embody what Pope Francis calls a “culture of encounter”, given that “educating people for world citizenship involves recognising diversity as a constitutive dimension of a full human life” (Fr. Arturo Sosa).

Project

Global Citizenship Fellows Program

Coordinators

Thomas Banchoff (United States of America), Vice-President for Global Engagement at Georgetown University and David Kaulem (Zimbabwe), Professor, Arrupe Jesuit University.

The goal

The goals of the IAJU Global Citizenship Fellows Program and a potential Global Citizenship Curriculum Project are to advance education and intercultural dialogue in a critical area; to strengthen collaborative ties across Jesuit colleges and universities; to embody the Jesuit mission of education in service to the world; and to raise the profile of the IAJU as an innovator in global higher education.

Next steps

Feedback from the pilot of the IAJU Global Citizenship Fellows program, as well as the panel presentation and discussion at the 2022 IAJU assembly, might inform a wider Global Citizenship Curriculum Project to foster the teaching of global citizenship across the global Jesuit network of some two hundred colleges and universities. For example, the lectures, readings, and discussion questions prepared for the 2021–22 program might be revised and folded into a two-week (six hours) global citizenship module to be shared across the IAJU network beginning in the spring 2023 semester. Faculty teaching around the world would have the opportunity to integrate the module into existing courses. Students in those courses in a given semester could engage one another in global Zoom dialogues on topics ranging from climate change to development, adding an international dimension to their on-campus experiences.