Institute for the Study of Culture & Society Newsletter

Events/Happenings in Spring 2024

1.  Faculty Fellowship Information Session

Monday, April 15, 12 p.m. in the Sky Bank Room, 201A BTSU
ICS will be hosting an information session for prospective applicants to provide more information about the fellowship, answer questions about the application process, and share    examples of strong recent proposals from previous ICS faculty fellows.  

2.  Call for Proposals: Better Toledo Series

The Institute for the Study of Culture & Society invites you to submit a proposal for a public presentation for Better Toledo—a personal and professional development series to ensure “you will do better in Toledo.”
The presentation will take place on September 5, 2024 at the Toledo Public Library to kick-of Welcoming Week: an annual event that brings together neighbors of all backgrounds to build strong connections and affirm the importance of welcoming and inclusive places in achieving collective prosperity.
We are looking for an engaged and enthusiastic graduate student or faculty member at BGSU to deliver an interactive talk or workshop on a topic of their choice that speaks to the “Welcoming” theme. Presentations should be 1 to 2 hour long (including audience participation) and may cover a variety of themes relevant to Welcoming Week such as diversity and inclusivity in a creative way.
Your proposal should include a brief description of the talk or workshop topic related to “Welcoming” and how it serves the public good through interdisciplinary humanities/arts/social sciences research, as well as a short resume.
Submit your proposal by April 3, 2024, to ics@bgsu.edu. 

3.  Application Deadline: Student Internships

Are you a student who is looking for opportunities to put academic research and writing skills into practice? Are you looking for meaningful work experience and course credit from the convenient location of BGSU’s campus? Then consider applying to be an intern with ICS. Interns gain valuable experience with event planning, marketing and public relations, graphic design, research and curricular development, media production, and more.
Applications for Fall 2024 ICS Internships are due by March 11th.

4.  Info Session and Workshop: Team-Teaching Program (in collaboration with the CFE)

Speaker: Dr. Valeria Grinsberg Pla, Institute for the Study of Culture and Society (ICS) Director
Interested in co-teaching a course with a colleague outside your discipline? In this information session, you will learn more about the Institute for the Study of Culture and Society (ICS) Team Teaching Program and the interdisciplinary team teaching process.
ICS views interdisciplinary team teaching as an innovative approach to education where two or more instructors collaborate to plan, teach, and assess students together. This teaching method allows educators to combine their strengths and expertise in two different disciplines to create a dynamic and engaging learning environment for students. The Team Teaching Program provides an opportunity to support interdisciplinary teaching teams and empower faculty and students alike while leveraging the strengths of the humanities to serve the public good.
During this session, you will:
Learn about the ICS Team Teaching Program, eligibility for the program, and the application process.
Identify what should be included in proposal applications as well as what proposals will be given priority.
Ask any questions you may have about being a team-teaching partner.
Date & Time: April 12, 2024, 12:30-1:30 p.m.
Location: Online via Zoom
You can register by clicking the link.
Find more information about team teaching.

In case you missed it.

Powering collaboration across campus and the community

Fighting Poverty in Northwest Ohio

The ICS U.S. Poverty Cluster has been collaborating with community health agencies to improve health and social outcomes for low-income women and babies, and to improve patients’ relationships with medical providers. The cluster received grants totaling more than $626,000 to study infant mortality in Northwest Ohio, through the Ohio Department of Higher Education's Third Frontier Research Program, in collaboration with ProMedica, the Hospital Council of NW Ohio, and Mercy Health. Contact Dr, Justin Rex (Political Science) and Dr. Karen Johnson-Webb (School of Earth, Environment, and Society) for more information.  

Building Bridges with Latino/a/x Communities

The ICS Latin American and Latino Studies Cluster continues their work on and off campus to increase the visibility of Latin American and Latino/a studies through programming initiatives, curriculum development, and research. Current activities include the annual Latino/a/x Issues Conference – coming up on March 15, featuring filmmaker Michèle Stephenson – as well as community conversations on timely topics, K-12 tutoring programs, and visiting speaker presentations. Contact Dr. Francisco Cabanillas (World Languages) for more information. 

Partnering with K-12 Schools

During Fall 2022, Dr. Michaela Walsh (Ethnic Studies) collaborated with Bowling Green High School Students as part of her ICS Faculty Fellowship project on “Navigating Crisis Across Borders: Experiences of a Mexican Indigenous Community in Times of Covid.” Walsh facilitated an interactive arts-based workshop with BGHS’s upper-division Spanish classes to consider the challenges that language barriers present to marginalized communities, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the importance of translation in information accessibility. The students created public health posters and shared that work at ArtsX and at the Wood County District Public Library.

In Fall 2022, Dr. John Dowd (Communication) collaborated with Dr. Jo Beth Gonzalez’s theatre students from Bowling Green High School as part of his ICS Faculty Fellowship project on “AI and Everyday Life: Finding Our Footing in Contemporary Digital Society.” The high school students developed a short performance centered on teens’ social media use and body dysmorphic disorder, which they performed at Way Public Library in Perrysburg. 

Promoting Town-Gown Collaborations

BG IDEAS Podcast Season 9

From poetic ethnography to indigenous representation in film to the importance of leadership, Season 9 of the BG Ideas podcast features fascinating discussions with academics, muscisians, filmakers, and writers about amazing interdisciplinary work being done in and around the university to help address social problems for the public good. New episodes of BG Ideas drop Wednesdays at 9:00 a.m. ET, from January 31 through March 20. For more information, visit: bgsu.edu/bgideas.