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Month: June 2020

NYU Prague Instructor on Travel Writing in the Time of No Travel

Posted on , modified on by Martha J Bekink

Zoom image from the classNYU Prague Instructor Veronika Bednářová, who teaches the Travel Writing course, shares her thoughts on remotely teaching her course during a time when no one can travel.

Paris. Shanghai. Oklahoma. Toronto. Vienna. Students from around the world used to meet in our Travel Writing class in Prague, the Czech Republic. For the past 14 years, I have found great comfort in seeing the students leave Prague every weekend in starfish-like directions. I enjoyed reading their passionately written articles from the various European destinations they visited and found so cool.

Now I see them in their pajamas. In the background, there are posters from the  high school years before they left home. We share the mood swings of our Wifi networks together.  I sometimes hear a dog barking, a younger sibling giggling in the next room. We chucked our syllabus: the Travel Trends 2020 section became completely irrelevant, and one student’s planned trip to Brno, the second biggest city in the Czech Republic, was left behind at the NYU Prague dormitory as a totally unachievable dream. 

The world closed, but not our creative writing class.      

We Zoom thru our non-existent travels together. I appreciate how much the students have taught me about virtual platforms. Not only do we dream about traveling, we live for traveling. Thanks to Zoom, we constantly plan our future travels, and we take advantage of our past travel experiences. 

More than before, we feel we don’t have to travel in style but with good intentions for the planet in mind. The whole tourist industry is asking the same questions at the same time as our class is; it is easy to keep up with those questions thanks to new embedded videos about the travel industry and the newly-recorded interviews with travel specialists. We see a lot of professional travelers in their rooms, in their hometowns. 

My TW students still keep their travel journals even though their physical travel is from the bathroom to the living room. They keep writing travel pieces. They just finished profiles, conducted via phone/Skype/Zoom interviews, and it has been an honor to get to know their family members through this forum: an 86-year old grandmother who cant wait to be taken on a tour of Greenwich Village by her grandchild after the quarantine. An 11-year-old sibling who is, like Phoebe in The Catcher in the Rye, the moral compass of the whole extended family. 

We might have learned less about foreign destinations during our class, which I have re-named Travel Writing in the Time of No Travel. But we have learned much more about ourselves. For a creative writing course, I can´t imagine a better device. 

NYU Buenos Aires Students Combat Stereotypes in Argentine Football

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Leila Al Dhzeref and Arik RosensteinIn Argentina, football is sacred. The beautiful game is widely watched — and worshiped — often with deep passion. Unfortunately, descriptions of the passionate Argentine fan  can at times veer toward stereotype, and two NYU Buenos Aires students decided to contribute to a local project trying to address the negative stereotypes of football fans, which they viewed as unfair representations.

Leila Al Dzheref, a sophomore at NYU Abu Dhabi, and Arik Rosenstein, a junior at the School of Professional Studies, thought sharing stories about  “regular” Argentine football fans would go a long way in dispelling the notion that the country’s football fans’ passion somehow by definition violent or barbaric. They developed a project, El Mismo Amor in Passion FC, provides a different perspective by sharing stories about “regular” Argentine football fans. Al Dzeref and Rosenstein recently became involved in the Passion FC movement, hoping to highlight the real mindsets and beliefs of Argentine football supporters because they believe it is important to share these stories. Passion FC existed as a social movement before the students arrived in Buenos Aires, but they were able to make a contribution and remain active.

El Miso Amor imagePassion FC was founded in Buenos Aires 2018 by local football fans hoping to engage others by creating a space for conversations around football. They have a website and social media presence, and sometimes organise events. The NYU Buenos Aires students’ El Miso Amor project was a series of Instagram stories. Passion FC released these stories to raise awareness about the misconceptions of Argentine football supporters.

Although it was Al Dzheref’s interest in learning Spanish that led her to study at NYU Buenos Aires, she is a huge football fan, so saw this also as a great opportunity to explore the culture of Argentine football. Rosenstein’s passion for sport has inspired him to pursue a BS in Sports Management, Media, and Business at SPS’ Robert Tisch Institute for Global Sport. He said he chose to study at NYU Buenos Aires in part because his experience studying at NYU Accra in fall 2016 was so positive that he knew he “needed to have another unique and different experience.” Rosenstein immediately started attending football games and, like Al Dzheref, was keen to experience Argentine football culture.

Together Al Dzheref and Rosenstein started working with Passion FC, focusing on using football to facilitate conversations around contemporary social issues in Argentina. They developed their project, El Mismo Amor or “the same love,” after becoming acquainted with enthusiastic and kind fans of Argentine football. Despite being advised to be wary of certain clubs or neighborhoods because the football supporters were “animals” or “barbarians,” the two went to many matches and engaged the Argentine fans they met in conversation. According to Rosenstein, they “asked Argentinian supporters about their love of football and also about the common negative stereotypes of fans.” They found people eager to talk and after “moments of pure and authentic connection,” they realized that although football may be supported in different ways, the love of the game is the same. 

The stories highlighted in El Miso Amori illustrated the vibrancy of Argentine football cultures and fans. One story focuses on Naza, whom Al Dzheref and Rosenstein met at a match in Lanus, a city just south of Buenos Aires. After asking him where they might purchase a Lanus team scarf, Naza invited the students to sit with him and explained what it means to be from Lanus. Bonding through football, they learned so much more about his life than they would have without that common interest.

Another story features Camilla, whom they met at a Velez Sarsfield match, the very first match Al Dzheref and Rosenstein attended in Buenos Aires. She was with her high school friends, and they bonded over being pushed and pulled by the other supporters. According to Rosenstein, “We had in-depth discussions about why Camila comes with her friends, her viewpoints of the team, the experience and of course her love of the game. Being welcomed by a group of highschoolers with no need to talk to us, shows just how many connections and social differences this game has.” The students found that Camilla and her friends valued showing them what it means to be from Velez. They left knowing that the next time they would go back, they would have friends at the stadium.

football fans and young playersAl Dzheref and Rosenstein are quick to emphasize that they do not mean to imply that are not serious issues in Argentinian football or that all stadiums are safe. Rather, they say, “El Mismo Amor is about having a conversation.” They explain that it is about considering another culture, respectfully challenging other views or opinions. According to Al Dazheref, seeing the passionate commitment of the Argentinian football fans inspired her to “want to change their representation for the better.” Through El Mismo Amor they are “showing another side of football, not the side of fights and violence that is usually reported in the media.”

The El Mismo Amor project, via the Passion FC website and social media channels, has reached over 90,000 people, according to Rosenstein. He and Al Dzheref collaborated on sharing seven individual stories on Instagram, painting a picture of the different football cultures. The responses and the ensuing conversations have been positive and resulted in dialogues and debates about the public perceptions of violence in football and football fans, something Rosenstein believes demonstrates effective advocacy online. Al Dzheref finds that the move to remote learning because of COVID-19 has allowed them to think strategically about future campaigns and effectively sharing content. 

Both students remain active with Passion FC and Rosenstein emphasizes they only “met because of NYU’s global commitment, so it’s a testament to NYU.” Al Dzheref is enthusiastic about her time at NYU Buenos Aires saying, “My experience in Argentina was one of the best in my life.” She was grateful for the opportunity “to see Argentina through my own eyes, without the distortions of others.” She and Rosenstein are similarly trying to open eyes through this project and encourage us to engage in dialogues about stereotypes and assumptions in Argentine football. 

NYU Washington DC student Brianna Hall Hosts Dialogue on Inequity in Education

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Brianna HallInequality in the education system is often debated and increasingly in the media due to COVID-19 and the global transition to remote learning. NYU Washington, DC recently hosted a virtual discussion to participate in the conversation on inequity in education and education reform, with special attention to the COVID-19 pandemic. Entitled The Education Divide: Inequity in the Age of COVID-19, this event was conceived of by former DC Dialogues Executive Board Student Member Brianna Hall, a rising Steinhardt sophomore. The dialogue aimed to bring attention to the inequalities in the United States K-12 education system that hinder higher education being an opportunity for all.  

Finding that the COVID-19 crisis made existing inequalities, such as access to technology and the uneven distribution of resources, even more apparent, Hall explains that she wanted to organize this dialogue “because educational equality is the cornerstone to social equality.” Hall believes that a quality education is a crucial “building block to a brighter future” regardless of background. And further believes that those fortunate enough to obtain a higher education have a responsibility to have discussions about and consider solutions to the enduring inequalities in the education system. “We must never stop talking about those that the education system leaves behind,” says Hall, “and those future children the education system will continue to leave behind unless reform is implemented.”

One reform that Hall believes is “critical” to improving the education system is “educating the whole child.” This includes teaching children practical life and personal skills alongside the academic curriculum so that students leave school with the tools necessary to move forward in all areas of life. Hall also believes that it is important to “emphasize the value of each student’s individual culture and identity” from an early age to foster confidence and self-acceptance. Another reform that Hall sees as key is “increased public school funding and increased teacher pay.” With this increased funding, she would like to see “high standards of dedication, quality and professionalism” and believes teachers should receive summer training on how to support students emotionally and socially as well as academically.

graduation caps and bricksThe discussion naturally focused on possible solutions to mitigate inequalities and also ideas to better prepare school systems for future, similar extenuating circumstances. The panel included notable experts including Dr. Martha Kanter, Executive Director of the College Promise Campaign and a Senior Fellow at NYU Steinhardt’s Institute for Higher Education Policy; Dr. Tiffany Jones, Senior Director of Higher Education Policy, The Education Trust; Dr. David Kirkland, Executive Director, NYU Metropolitan Center for Research on Equity and the Transformation of Schools, Associate Professor of English and Urban Education, NYU Steinhardt; and Dr. Hua-Yu Sebastian Cherng, Associate Professor, International Education, NYU Steinhardt. Hall moderated the discussion.

Hall found moderating the event a meaningful experience and was impressed with the passion and knowledge of the panelists. One aspect of the discussion that she considered “illuminating” related to the COVID-19 pandemic because “people largely view the transition to remote learning and the closure of schools as the crisis, however, there has always been a crisis of inequality in education – COVID-19 just makes this crisis impossible to ignore.” In exploring this theme, Dr. Kirkland emphasized the structure of vulnerabilities that create what we often call “marginalized children.” These vulnerabilities can be related to a child’s socio-economic status – living in poverty, food or housing insecurity, insufficient adult support at home, coming to school hungry or with inadequate clothing, needing to work before and after school. Prejudice is another common structural vulnerability. Students facing assumptions or bias at school must study in a hostile environment, which compromises their abilities to learn or grow successfully. Discussing these vulnerabilities and the obstacles children face was “not an easy discussion to have,” according to Hall, but she believes it is important not to shy away from those difficult or uncomfortable conversations. 

 Hall was pleased with the discussion, saying, “It was everything that I anticipated and hoped for.” She hopes that this dialogue will continue to spur conversations generating ideas and solutions about how to improve the education system.

Virtual Commencements for New York, Abu Dhabi, Shanghai

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NYU 2020 graduatesNYU celebrated its graduates in virtual commencements involving students, faculty, staff, and families joining from across the globe. Having to postpone the Commencement Exercises in Yankee Stadium due to COVID-19, the virtual commencement for New York took place on May 20. NYU Abu Dhabi’s commencement, celebrating all its seniors have accomplished, followed on May 27. NYU Shanghai’s commencement celebrated both its students and the importance of China-US cooperation on May 29. Congratulations graduates!