Kupatadze, senior lecturer in Spanish, in collaboration with a colleague from Aarhus University in Denmark, delivered a presentation at ISSoTL in Norway titled “Inclusivity in Academia: Perspectives, Experiences and Roles of International Teaching Faculty”
Ketevan Kupatadze, Senior Lecturer of Spanish in the Department of World Languages and Cultures, gave a presentation on the research project on which she has been collaborating with Stavey Cozart, Educational Developer and Senior Consultant at the Center for Teacher Development at Aarhus University, Denmark. The panel, co-organized and co-led by Kupatadze, was on the topic of international faculty roles, experiences and perspectives of teaching, collegiality and research.
With the increase in academic mobility and wider focus on intercultural competence and global learning, the experiences, challenges and opportunities for international students have been extensively researched. Kupatadze and Cozart’s research intends to bridge the gap that exists in scholarship on the experiences, roles and perspectives of the teaching faculty who self-identity or are identified as international. If we, as a society, value inclusivity and diversity, (how) do we support those who not only teach about it, but are of diverse backgrounds themselves?
Using the concept of hospitality as an inseparable attribute of cosmopolitan society and the grounding principle of social justice and a basic human right according to the eighteenth century philosopher, Immanuel Kant, the aim of Kupatadze and Cozart’s research was to: understand whether, and to what extent, university communities are or can be characterized as hospitable communities of practice from the perspectives of the international faculty interviewed; and explore ways in which to build civic capacity on university campuses for the development of cosmopolitan education.
Kupatadze plans to extend her research on this topic incorporating the perspectives and experiences of international faculty from other universities in the US and abroad, as well as exploring those of ‘home’ (or national) faculty and of diverse levels of university leadership.