Faculty Resources

CSIU sponsors and encourages intercultural initiatives in the classroom. The classes at Bergen are characterized by a diverse student body. Our goals are twofold: to increase communication and empathy among the students and to encourage faculty to identify curricular material that enhances intercultural understanding. Bergen Community College is emerging as a major player in supporting intercultural understanding in pluralistic Northern New Jersey. CSIU is dedicated to creating an educational learning environment approriate for a multicultural society.

Given the diversity of the student body, CSIU realizes that there are multiple ways that students view the world, both emotionally and intellectually. A "one shoe fits all" type of education is no longer appropriate or desirable. The diverse cultural identities of students at Bergen (coming from 140+ countries) require that we better clarify the issues with which they struggle as they try to participate in remarkable heterogeneous classes. How does the traditional teaching methodology and pedagogy impact such classes? Diversity today is more than a mere recognition of minorities; it requires creating a climate that welcomes heterogeneity.

CSIU seeks to assist professors as they work with issues of diversity in their classrooms.

CSIU encourages faculty to examine their curriculum to identify what diverse traditions might justify inclusion.

CSIU encourages faculty to explore research opportunities, seeing the environment on campus as a living laboratory for scholarly inquiry.

TEACHING/LEARNING RESOURCES

1. WEB LIBRARY

Annotated Bibliographies created by BCC faculty members for the purpose of expanding diversity curricula.  Click on the following links to access bibliographic information and abstracts for diverse texts that you may use in your classroom.  Please note that all texts are available in our library.

Contemporary International and Intercultural Narratives, Professor Stacey Balkan

Psychological Effects of Poverty, Dr. Jessica Datema

Native American Literature and Culture, Dr. Diane Krumrey

Intercultural Communications for Global Business Models, Prof. David Eichenholtz

International and Intercultural Ethics, Prof. Tobyn DeMarco

2. United Nations Millenium Development Goals (2000-2015)

CSIU supports initiatives that incorporate the following goals into instructional and cultural programming on campus: 

To eradicate extreme poverty

To provide universal primary school education

To work to end gender inequality

To reduce child mortality and improve children's health

To improve maternal health care

To combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis, and other diseases

To promote environmental sustainability

To build global partnerships

3. Focus on Africa

A major resource for faculty who wish to teach the Millennium Development Goals is the website www.bergen.edu/foa. This website, entitled Focus on Africa, provides information on how the MDGs are affecting the African continent. It also includes numerous website links for additional research. An additional source is the united Nations: www.un.org/millenniumdevelopmentgoals/

4. CSIU Sponsored Seminar: Cosmopolitanism & Globalization

This series of six seminar discussions will entertain questions of pedagogy, diversity, and cultural theory that reflect the current global field in which academia resides. The seminar seeks to interrogate the usefulness of cosmopolitanism as a concept for understanding and contributing to our current historical, cultural, and political moment. Using philosophies of cosmopolitanism in the context of higher education, we will focus specifically on the classroom as the most cosmopolitan of places today.

There will be: (1) Stipends for participants (tenure track first priority); (2) Three meetings a semester; and (3) Possible publication. For more information contact Dr. Jessica datema x7039 or jdatema@bergen.edu.

FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES

The Center works with individual faculty members providing stipends for projects that result in pedagogical approaches which develop intercultural understanding between and among students. Stipends depend upon the scope of the initiatives. Faculty may receive funding for the development of specific programs that have application not only in their own classes but also in those of their colleagues. Such initiatives may be posted on this website for the benefit of all faculty.

Initiatives such as developing a specific course in cultural competency can receive a larger stipend.

ONGOING RESEARCH

The CSIU Video Project is an effort to document and describe the exciting intercultural environment on campus. CSIU encourages the assessment of all of its sponsored initiatives to empirically validate what is effective.