Atlanta Global Research and Education Collaborative Funds Six ‘Global at Home’ Projects

Posted February 12, 2021

Projects co-led by two Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts faculty members are among six funded in the initial round of grants by the Atlanta Global Research and Education Collaborative (AGREC) following its fall 2020 launch.

The AGREC grants support collaborative, interdisciplinary, and cross-university research and education projects focusing on global engagement. The 2020–2021 grant program is called “Connecting Globally While Grounded at Home.” It placed significant focus on programs’ impact on Atlanta communities and their potential to develop new and sustainable relationships among universities, businesses, non-governmental organizations, and community groups.

The funded projects exploring a wide range of issues and student experiences with a “global at home” perspective and involve numerous community organizations, including Grady Emergency Medical Services, Somali American Community Center, South River Watershed Alliance, West Atlanta Watershed Alliance, Welcoming America, Clarkston Community Center Foundation Inc., Cosmo Health Center, and TRENDS Global.

Project teams consist of faculty from the five AGREC member institutions — Georgia Tech, Georgia State University, Emory University, Spelman College, and Agnes Scott College, as well as faculty from Kennesaw State University, Atlanta Metropolitan State College, Morehouse College, and Georgia Piedmont Technical College.

The Ivan Allen College projects include one co-led by Allen Hyde, assistant professor in the School of History and Sociology. Hyde is working with Cathy Liu of Georgia State University. They seek to use community-based participatory research methods to evaluate the One Region Initiative by Welcoming America. That program models regional policies for creating welcoming communities for immigrants and refugees.

“This grant allows us to provide funding to partner with local community partners, municipal leaders, and Welcoming America to help identify successes and areas of improvement for other regions to replicate if they want to pursue similar policies and goals; publish academic publications; and complete and share reports/materials for the general public,” said Hyde.

Hyoun-A Joo, assistant professor in the School of Modern Languages, is the co-PI on the second Ivan Allen College-linked project: “Growing Intercultural Competence for Peace and Mediation: Piloting an Atlanta-Based Global Community of Practice for Hyperlocal Case Studies and Education.” Barbara Drescher of Agnes Scott College is Joo’s co-PI.

Joo said the project’s goal is to contribute to communication and interactions that bring about peace and mutual understanding through intercultural and global competence.

“To pursue this goal, we propose to leverage the case study method in the foreign language classroom to immerse students in decision dilemmas that they must solve through communication, thereby applying their intercultural knowledge,” Joo said.

Other projects funded by AGREC include:

• The Global Communities Internship Program led by Ruth Yow of Georgia Tech’s Serve-Learn-Sustain and Philip Ojo of Agnes Scott College
• A program to adapt the “Stop the Bleed” program for refugee residents of Clarkston, led by faculty at Georgia State University, Perimeter College, and Emory University
• An effort to better understand the role and risk of climate change for Atlanta-area migrant communities, led by faculty at Georgia State and Emory.

More information about funded projects and upcoming grant programs is available on the AGREC website.

AGREC received generous support for the collaborative from Georgia Tech’s Office of the Vice Provost for International Initiatives through the Steven A. Denning Award for Global Engagement.