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Global Programs Booklist

Posted on April 15, 2024 by Katie L

Inspired by the first NYU Bookstore display collaboration between the Office of Marketing Communications and the Office of Global Programs, this list of books representing NYU’s global locations promises to broaden your perspective and enrich your knowledge.

NYU Abu Dhabi

Temporary People
By Deepak Unnikrishnan

The skylines of Abu Dhabi and Dubai are recognizable around the world by their resplendent glittering towers—but how did they get there? Deepak Unnikrishnan, an Indian-born writer raised in the United Arab Emirates and associate arts professor of literature and creative writing at NYU Abu Dhabi, knows the answer: a foreign labor force was brought in to construct them. Using a series of clever and surreal linked stories, Unnikrishnan gives voice to a humanitarian crisis that doesn’t get the attention it deserves.

NYU Accra

The Hundred Wells of Salaga
By Ayesha Harruna Attah

Based on a true story, The Hundred Wells of Salaga tells the tale of two women from very different backgrounds whose lives converge in an unexpected way. It’s a novel that will entangle you emotionally, while offering you crucial insight into precolonial Ghana, particularly the slave trade and its impact on a people.

NYU Berlin

No Photos on the Dance Floor! Berlin 1989–Today
Edited by Heiko Hoffmann and Felix Hoffmann

History books offer what we think is a full story, but this photography book provides a peek into the city’s after-hours culture through the club scene that blossomed in 1989 after the fall of the Berlin Wall. It’s not only a delightful visual romp but also a history book in its own right, telling the story of a city in transformation, one party at a time.

NYU Buenos Aires

The Aleph and Other Stories
By Jorge Luis Borges

Jorge Luis Borges might seem like an obvious choice for Argentina—for a country that produced so many famous writers, he is arguably the most famous. Still, who can deny this selection? The brilliant, inventive tales of The Aleph and Other Stories will surprise and stimulate, and they are must-reads for diving into Argentine culture. Borges, after all, makes magic happen in the most unexpected ways.

NYU Florence

The Monster of Florence book cover featuring a close-up image of Giambologna's The Rape of the Sabine sculpture

The Monster of Florence: A True Story
By Douglas Preston and Mario Spezi

The Monster of Florence has developed a bit of a cult following in recent years, and for good reason—it’s a wild ride. American Douglas Preston moved to Florence with his family and quickly discovered that their olive grove was the site of one of Italy’s most infamous double murders. As he works with investigative journalist Mario Spezi, a Florentine, to get closer to the truth, things really begin to spiral. The Monster of Florence is a propulsive thriller that offers valuable, and often shocking, insight into the Italian justice system.

NYU London

White Teeth
By Zadie Smith

White Teeth is a rare novel that is entertaining while simultaneously layered with so much richness, one might want to read it all over again as soon as it’s over. Starting with two unlikely friends whose stories blossom into a poignant yet funny family saga, Zadie Smith’s debut novel keenly witnesses the immigrant experience in London, traveling to other continents as well while navigating the relationship between tradition and change.

NYU Los Angeles

Slow Days, Fast Company book cover featuring a distorted image of a woman

Slow Days, Fast Company: The World, the Flesh, and L.A.
By Eve Babitz

This slim book offers stories as wild and wanton as Los Angeles itself. Unapologetically hedonistic, Slow Days, Fast Company is also a clever, windy ride through the Los Angeles of the 1960s and 1970s. It has all the usual Angeleno archetypes, but Eve Babitz elevates them with her incisive and acerbic insights into life in Hollywood. Isn’t it funny that, decades later, so much has changed but so much remains the same?

NYU Madrid

Ghosts of Spain book cover featuring images of Spain

Ghosts of Spain: Travels Through Spain and Its Silent Past
By Giles Tremlett

Worth a read to understand a post-Franco Spain, Ghosts of Spain is a well-rounded, curious, and admittedly fun romp through the country, albeit prompted by the author’s questions about its devastating civil war. British author Giles Tremlett combines keen cultural reporting with memoir and quirky sidebars that add levity to what begins as a serious interrogation. While it’s intellectually critical, it’s also a love letter to Spain. After all, there’s a reason Spain is Tremlett’s adopted country.

NYU Paris

The Years book cover featuring an image of a woman looking at the viewer with the silhouette of a person looking down a hallway

The Years
By Annie Ernaux

Annie Ernaux’s whole oeuvre is masterful, but many critics cite The Years, first published in 2008, as her magnum opus. In this brilliant collage of a memoir, Nobel Prize winner Ernaux examines her life and the generation that she grew up in, favoring “we” over “I.” The result is a personal history tied to the collective experience of a generation in France during the 20th century. Ernaux weaves her memories into a story that offers cultural notes on topics from consumerism and immigration to unemployment and the threat of nuclear war.

NYU Prague

Havel: A Life book cover featuring an image of Václev Havel with his hand atop his head

Havel: A Life
By Michael Žantovský

In many ways, Václav Havel’s life mirrors the zeitgeist of Prague: it’s political, literary, antiauthoritarian, surreal, and somehow, even at its most serious moments, darkly humorous. If that sounds like a lot, it’s because Havel, like the city itself, was a complex figure. Michael Žantovský was a trusted friend, so this biography reads as an intimate and true portrait (faults and all) of a man loyal to his people, his values, and his art. Žantovský succeeds in showing the many dimensions of the iconoclast—playwright, political dissident, prisoner, president—who, in the end, was just as human as the rest of us.

NYU Shanghai

Shanghai Future: Modernity Remade
By Anna Greenspan

This brilliant book contextualizes China’s largest and most cosmopolitan city through the lens of modernity. Author Anna Greenspan, an associate professor of contemporary global media at NYU Shanghai, reexamines the changing landscape of the city as it steps well into the 21st century and takes its place on the world stage.

NYU Sydney

Mirror Sydney: An Atlas of Reflections
By Vanessa Berry

A fun and unexpected romp, Mirror Sydney takes us on a tour of the harborside city via engaging essays and clever hand-illustrated maps. Based on a blog Vanessa Berry started more than a decade ago, Mirror Sydney is clearly more than a mere guidebook—it’s too much fun to be that typical. Moreover, it tends to direct the reader to the kinds of places the average tourist wouldn’t care to know about or explore anyway.

NYU Tel Aviv

The Bibliomaniacs: Tales from a Tel Aviv Bookseller
By J.C. Halper

On Allenby Street in Tel Aviv, J.C. Halper—originally from New Jersey but now an Israeli for four-plus decades—runs the city’s most popular secondhand bookshop, containing a dazzling 60,000 books. And in 2022 he published this book of clever, often funny short stories from the point of view of a shop owner. While the stories are allegedly fiction, one can’t help but wonder if we’re learning more about real locals than the author lets on.

NYU Washington, DC

Lost in the City
By Edward P. Jones

It’s a joy to read anything by Edward P. Jones, the gifted, Pulitzer Prize–winning writer. His debut collection of short stories, Lost in the City, is no exception and first cemented his literary reputation. These 14 tales tell the everyday encounters and struggles of Black citizens in Washington, DC. But Jones has a gift for making even the most mundane situation meaningful, and his rich, textured stories give weight to life’s most quotidian moments as viewed through the lens of the Black experience in the nation’s capital.

Written by Marti Trgovich

The Global Liberal Studies Course Taught Around the World

Posted on April 1, 2024, modified on April 1, 2024 by Maxine P

A group of students smile at the camera on a city sidewalk

Students in Cecilia Palmeiro’s “City as Text” class in Buenos Aires’ La Boca neighborhood. The class studies its traditional tenements—painted in different colors—in reading the history of Buenos Aires through its architecture. Photo credit: Daniel Espinoza

Global Liberal Studies (GLS) majors have the unique opportunity to take the course City As Text during the fall semester at most locations in NYU’s global network. The course, part of the GLS junior-year learning sequence, selects location-specific texts to immerse students in the setting where they’re living and learning. “Across all City As Text courses, emphasis is placed on the importance of primary sources. Students academically investigate their present geographic setting but also experience its profound intricacies on-site. The classroom work, alongside the field trips, is designed to facilitate the framing and contextualization of the study away experience,” says Philip Kain, the director of academic engagement and experiential learning and a clinical professor at Liberal Studies.

For example, at NYU Buenos Aires, readings and lectures are enhanced with visits from local government officials and activists. And, of course, excursions throughout the city to places like the Palace of the Argentine National Congress, Plaza de Mayo, and La Boca neighborhood, an artists’ haven that many 19th- and 20th-century European immigrants called home, provide further insight for students. “We produce a kind of knowledge that fosters reflection and analysis that exceeds the singularity of Buenos Aires and inspires their approach to other places,” says NYU Buenos Aires course instructor Cecelia Palmeiro, an expert on Argentine and Brazilian literature and gender issues, a researcher at the National Scientific and Technical Research Council, and the coordinator of the Interdisciplinary Center for Gender Studies and Policies at the National University of Tres de Febrero.

A group of students stand in front of a street mural featuring Argentinian soccer player Diego Maradona

Students in Cecilia Palmeiro’s “City as Text” in front of a mural of Argentinian soccer star Diego Maradona in Buenos Aries’ La Boca neighborhood. Photo credit: Daniel Espinoza.

This fall in Palmeiro’s class, students considered the past and present of Buenos Aires through the lenses of immigration, environmental concerns, art and its role in political protest, and reproductive health. “In order to obtain the critical tools necessary to make sense and produce academic knowledge out of this experience, students read ‘Neoliberal Reform and Landscape Change in Buenos Aires, Argentina’ by David Keeling and the classic ‘The Right to the City’ by David Harvey,” explains Palmeiro.

This approach is not singular to NYU Buenos Aires, however, as students at NYU London traveled to the city’s Brixton district to learn about the area’s musical history and shifting racial makeup. And at NYU Accra, students focused on how migration and religion shaped the Ghanaian capital, visiting places of worship to learn in context.

Architect Cecilia Alvis points to a colorful mural

Architect Cecilia Alvis with “City as Text” students in front of a mural on the Nicolás Avellaneda Bridge. Photo credit: Daniel Espinoza

NYU Paris students studied the potential impacts of the 2024 Summer Olympics, learning about the social and environmental impacts of the upcoming event, and in NYU Berlin, students contextualized their learning with the history and landmarks of the Weimar Republic, the Third Reich, and the Cold War. “City As Text has played a significant role in the GLS curriculum since its inception. Our aim was to create a course centered on active engagement at the study away locations with a global perspective as its foundation,” concludes Kain.

Repurposed from NYU News

Homestays as Language Immersion

Posted on November 20, 2023, modified on November 20, 2023 by Maxine P

One of the many benefits students gain from homestays is the opportunity to fully immerse themselves in the local language. Here, a few students share their experiences learning, growing, and perfecting their language skills with their host families.

Fiona sitting on a music box in front of a microphone

Fiona practicing with her host family’s music ensemble

Fiona Cantorna, an Environmental Studies and Spanish dual major at the College of Arts and Science (CAS), chose to live in a homestay because she “wanted to connect more to the Porteño (Buenos Aires, Argentina) community.” That’s exactly what she did: her host family was a part of a weekly music ensemble, and Fiona had the chance to join them in making music. “My homestay was instrumental in improving my Spanish,” she says. “It provided a casual environment to practice my listening and speaking skills, in which I learned lunfardo (Argentine vocabulary) and even picked up the local Rioplatense accent!”

Chloe Bouquet Brown, an NYU Gallatin School of Individualized Study student, lived with host Mina and her son, Xach, in Paris’ 10th Arrondissement during her time studying away. “My French transformed enormously throughout my year with Mina and Xach,” Chloe recalls. “They pushed me to practice French around the house. It was difficult at times, being tired from classes and yearning for home, but in the end, my confidence grew with their positive encouragement in the sanctity of the homestay. I interned at a local art gallery and could ask them about professional terminology and French work customs.”

Justin Strong takes a selfie in front of a boat

Justin visiting Venice while studying at NYU Florence

Justin Strong, a Business major at NYU Stern concentrating in marketing and management, chose to live in a homestay at NYU Florence because he knew the impact it would have on his Italian. “The homestay experience was phenomenal for my Italian,” Justin shares. “I told my host mother that I didn’t know any Italian, but I wanted to speak and learn as much as possible. Throughout the semester, we persisted in Italian, and it really paid off. Soon enough, we were having full conversations. I was really grateful for the homestay experience. By the end of the term, I was chatting with numerous locals without needing to switch to English.”

Sam Husemann-Erickson, a CAS Politics major, says he decided to live in a homestay “not only because of the lower cost, but also because it was an excellent way to improve my Spanish and get to know Argentine cuisine and culture in depth.” His hosts were a retired couple who helped him navigate Buenos Aires and loved to cook.“My host parents were more than happy to teach me Argentine expressions and more natural ways to express myself, and our discussions over dinner and breakfast were a great way to practice my Spanish throughout my stay.” His host mother even kept track of the recipes he liked and, at the end of the semester, wrote them down so he could take them home.

Two students sitting at a table with their host family for dinner

Sam eating dinner with his housemate and host family

Devyn Costello-Henderson, a Vocal Performance major concentrating in classical voice at NYU Steinhardt, had studied French for years before deciding to study away at NYU Paris. She couldn’t pass up the chance a homestay gave her to improve her language skills. “Staying in a homestay forced me to become comfortable speaking the language,” Devyn continues. “I didn’t feel the need to speak perfectly, but I could communicate well with the family. My host family loved to chat with me, and it was very helpful to listen to their everyday conversations in French. I found I could quickly understand almost everything they said, even if my own vocabulary was not as complete. I had fluid conversations in French without needing to pause often to search for words. I still made mistakes, but I had a higher comfort and confidence level speaking the language.”

Student Reporting in Buenos Aires

Posted on November 13, 2023 by Katie L

Maureen Zeufack

When Maureen Zeufack, Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development Class of 2023, researched options for studying away, she wanted to explore somewhere new and was immediately drawn to NYU Buenos Aires. A Media, Culture, and Communication major, Maureen found the opportunity to immerse herself in Argentina’s unfamiliar yet vibrant and multicultural lifestyle too good to pass up. “I wanted to go somewhere I didn’t have a connection to, somewhere completely out of my wheelhouse,” Maureen explains. “Academically, I wanted to improve my Spanish. Plus, the media classes aligned with my major, so it really was the perfect fit.”

The daughter of Cameroonian immigrants, Maureen has family in Africa and Europe, and she lived in Asia as a child. What she didn’t expect while studying in Buenos Aires? Finding a slice of home in a place she’d never been.

Maureen was intentional about her class selection, especially when it came to choosing Santiago O’Donnell’s course Reporting Buenos Aires. “I took the class because I knew the semester would go by quickly, and I wanted to have an excuse to explore the city, get more familiar with the culture and the people, and dive into everything,” says Maureen. O’Donnell, a former staff writer at both the Los Angeles Times and the Washington Post, assigns students stories that require them to engage with the surrounding city. This way they learn more about the city’s culture by putting themselves in new situations, observing their Argentine neighbors, and meeting people they may not otherwise encounter. “Since I’m Cameroonian American, I was interested in seeing what the African diaspora is like in Buenos Aires and, if there are Africans in the city, what’s going on in their communities,” says Maureen.

Maureen poses for the camera in El Buen Sabor Africano restaurant

Maureen inside El Buen Sabor Africano restaurant

For one of the class assignments, Maureen was tasked with writing a restaurant review. She was surprised to find there was only one African restaurant in all of Buenos Aires. Even more surprising? The owner and head chef, Maxime Tankouo, is also from Cameroon. And not only that—he and Maureen are from the same tribe.

“I thought, ‘What are the odds that in this country, where there aren’t many Black people or Africans in general, that not only is he Cameroonian, but he is also from the exact same tribe and the same part of the country as me?’” Maureen says with a laugh. “That was something we really bonded over.”

While sitting inside the walls of Tankouo’s restaurant, El Buen Sabor Africano, Maureen says she “immediately felt at home.” Although she was far from her familial home, there were pieces of it right there in Buenos Aires, from the music Tankouo played to the decor that filled his restaurant’s walls. She enjoyed a full meal—grilled corvina fish bathed in orange and red African spices, perfectly cooked sweet plantains, and a dish of spicy sautéed red beans and vegetables—all under the gaze of a large, painted lion, Cameroon’s national symbol, on the restaurant’s wall.

A plated meal of fish, plantains, onion, sauteed beans and vegetables

A filling meal of African flavors at El Buen Sabor Africano

Maureen gained more than just a good story for her class. “I know now that I’m especially interested in exploring the African diaspora experience in Argentina,” she says, which is what she focused her final class project on. She adds, “I realized the world is a lot smaller than you think. For something like this to happen while I was there, in a place where sometimes you don’t see a lot of people who look like you, it was necessary and refreshing. It was nice to see a familiar face and know that someone there had a similar background as me.”

Written by Kelly Stewart

NYU Buenos Aires: A Day in the Life

Posted on October 9, 2023, modified on October 10, 2023 by Maxine P

Jida, a College of Arts and Science sophomore, shares what a typical day is like for her at NYU Buenos Aires, offering insights on her experiences volunteering, living with her host mother, and soaking up the opportunity to live and study at the NYU global network’s southernmost site.

Accessibility Abroad

Posted on December 5, 2022, modified on December 5, 2022 by Kristin Law

Deciding to study in a new place and culture can be intimidating. And even though there are many resources available to NYU students while abroad, sometimes the most meaningful support and advocacy comes from their peers. The NYU Global Equity Fellowship is designed to do just that, by having students empower their classmates to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion while studying away.

Johileny Meran poses in front of the Tower Bridge

Johileny Meran in front of the Tower Bridge in London

Johileny Meran, College of Arts and Science (CAS) Class of 2019, was NYU London’s inaugural Global Equity Fellow. As a student who is also a manual wheelchair user, she took her time researching accessibility in London and seeking insight from other students who had studied abroad there. A Global Public Health and Sociology major with a minor in Disabilities Studies, Johileny ultimately decided to study abroad during her senior year.

Despite her thorough preparation, Johileny experienced unforeseen challenges as she adjusted. “I struggled my first few weeks in London because most local businesses had a step or two in front, and I thought I couldn’t go in,” says Johileny. It was hard for her to think she couldn’t go out with friends or browse in shops and experience the city, especially after all of her careful preparation. “Then I learned that many places have a doorbell by their main entrances for you to request assistance. They bring out a temporary ramp to put over the step,” she adds. “London is a very old city with old buildings, so they provide accessibility differently, but it does exist.”

While abroad as a Global Equity Fellow, Johileny developed the NYU London Access Culture Guide. “It’s a booklet with general information about studying in London as a student with a disability. It is very much centered on my perspective as a student with a physical disability who uses a manual wheelchair,” explains Johileny, “but I made it with the intention that it would be a living document.” She compiled information on accessible transportation, how ramp culture functions in London, and how to travel to other cities and countries from London. She also conferred with International Relations major Emely Recinos, CAS Class of 2020, to include her input.

Emely Recinos holds her white can and poses in front of a body of water

Emely Recinos during her time at NYU Buenos Aires

Emely, who is blind, saw NYU Buenos Aires as a great academic fit but wasn’t certain about navigating the city or the academic center itself. So she conducted her own research to determine what studying at NYU Buenos Aires would be like. “I looked into the culture of disability in Argentina to understand how people view it there,” she says. She also visited the Moses Center for Student Accessibility for resources and support. In turn, the Moses Center sent guidelines to NYU Buenos Aires, who then contacted relevant local resources. For example, they recruited a teacher in Buenos Aires who knew braille and had access to an embosser for braille printing to work with Emely on mobility instruction (that is, how to get around the city).

When planning for study away, both Johileny and Emely encourage students with disabilities to reach out to other students with disabilities who have studied abroad. “Talk to students about what it was like for them,” says Johileny. And most importantly? “Don’t get discouraged if you don’t find the information you want on the first try. And once you’re there, embrace it. There are a lot of ups and downs, and that’s completely normal.”

Repurposed with permission from NYU Global Notebook

At NYU Buenos Aires and NYU Madrid, Students Learn Spanish in Context

Posted on November 21, 2022 by Katie L

Foreign languages can provide a gateway to new cultures, new relationships, and new opportunities. And, of course, an organic environment where students engage with native users is one of the best ways for students to hone language skills. At NYU Buenos Aires and NYU Madrid, the University’s two Spanish-using locations, students can learn Spanish in and out of the classroom through language exchange programs, field trips, and everyday conversation.

“A language is never easy to learn, and it’s even harder to learn it by yourself,” explains Haiam Husain Lara, cultural program coordinator at NYU Madrid. “Ultimately, language is used for communication. So studying a language in context is crucial because you’re learning the language in the same circumstances you’ll use it: for conversation. There is just no other better way to acquire knowledge in something so distant yet so close to us.”

Argentina Hoy/Argentina Today at NYU Buenos Aires

A smiling student dances in a dance class

NYU Buenos Aires students join a local dance class with Buenos Aires residents

In the NYU Buenos Aires class Argentina Hoy/Argentina Today, taught by Language Coordinator and Professor Silvia Luppino, students explore current issues in Argentine society as they practice their Spanish language skills. The class visits sites like the Parque de la Memoria, a riverside park, and the Museo Etnográfico Juan B. Ambrosetti, the University of Buenos Aires’ ethnographic museum, as well as attends a cultural workshop about the Guaraní, one of the Indigenous peoples in Argentina and South America. Additionally, students participate in regular language exchanges with Argentine students through the Asociación de Centros de Idiomas, a local association of language centers. “Students can engage in a lively and relaxed atmosphere and share how they live and study, where they travel, and what they expect,” explains Luppino.

Each semester, Luppino changes the syllabus to reflect the latest trends and topics. Recently, the class attended a screening of the film Argentina, 1985, an Argentine movie about the civil trial of the last dictatorship’s military juntas. “It made a big impact on the students,” says Luppino. “They saw the audience’s emotional reaction, and they could appreciate that this didn’t feel like a ‘past’ event for Argentinians. Rather, it is a central part of the social experience.” That emotional connection to “the real language,” in Luppino’s words, is why immersive learning is so vital. “I always tell students that the journey is not only to cross the equator. Here, their cultural values and certainties will be put to the test, and that includes the Spanish language they learned from textbooks.”

NYU Madrid’s Language Exchange Program

NYU Madrid students participate in a language exchange bike ride at Rio Park.

“At NYU Madrid, we aim to ensure each student feels comfortable exploring the city and the Spanish language through activities that require participation and collaboration with native speakers. And we make sure they have fun while doing it,” says Husain Lara. Each semester, NYU students pair up with local university students to participate in weekly language exchanges. Since every student already takes intensive Spanish, the program emphasizes getting out of the classroom. Recent excursions included bowling, museums, and even miniature golf. During each outing, students learn terminology related to the activity in action. For example, during a recent salsa and bachata class, NYU students received cards with dance moves in Spanish while Spanish users received them in English. Then they had to communicate in their non-native languages to coordinate their dances.

“Studying a language in context breathes life into that language,” says Alejandro Pérez Pardo, assistant director for student life and housing at NYU Madrid. “Spanish can be very difficult, and in class, it sometimes doesn’t make sense because you’re not experiencing how it’s actually used. But when you go out, you start to understand why and how to use it—and why it’s important. By actually talking to Spanish people, students bond with one another and develop a real love of the language.” Husain Lara adds, “The idea we want to spread is that a language is never a barrier. Rather, it’s a bridge that helps us cross to another land we haven’t explored yet.”

Written by Dana Guterman

Global Equity Fellows Serve as Diversity Ambassadors Around the World

Posted on October 17, 2022, modified on November 11, 2022 by Katie L

NYU has 12 academic centers and programs around the world, each in a region with unique customs, traditions, and beliefs that may be unfamiliar to students studying abroad for the first time. Luckily, each site also hosts Global Equity Fellows (GEFs), specially trained upper-level students tasked with advancing inclusion, diversity, belonging, equity, and accessibility (IDBEA) at study away sites while simultaneously supporting meaningful cultural transition.

The Global Equity Fellowship is a competitive semester-long fellowship created by the NYU Office of Global Programs in partnership with NYU’s Office of Global Inclusion, Diversity, and Strategic Innovation, the NYU Changemaker Center, and the NYU Division of Student Affairs. Before leaving home, GEFs participate in the Global IDBEA Leadership Institute training to master leadership, crisis management, and community-building skills. Once abroad, they step into their new roles, working closely with site staff to develop a research project that focuses on IDBEA and listen to and advise students who are navigating challenges in their host cities.

Meaningful Collaboration

Ruben Mayorga with Jerusalem in the background

Ruben Mayorga on a trip to Jerusalem during his time at NYU Tel Aviv

NYU Shanghai graduate Ruben Mayorga had already spent a semester at NYU Tel Aviv when he returned there as a GEF in fall 2021. This time he was equipped with new tools shared by NYU global staff. “In training I worked with all the GEFs who were heading to diverse places, and this diversity enriched the conversations by allowing me to see potential problems that might arise at the site and come up with more diverse solutions,” Ruben explains. “It allowed me to take a step back and absorb different perspectives in similar topics. It was a really enriching experience.”

During his fellowship, Ruben worked closely with Eran Rotshenker, NYU Tel Aviv’s manager of student life and housing. Rotshenker guided Ruben as he navigated more sensitive topics like the Israeli–Palestinian conflict and the intersection of LGBTQ+ identity and religion in Israel. “Global Equity Fellows should be passionate about what they want to promote—and should also be tuned in to the community they are serving,” Rotshenker says. “Having stayed in Tel Aviv before that fall, Ruben already knew what was essential to share with the NYU Tel Aviv community. I truly enjoyed seeing how he took the opportunity to share his knowledge and experience with the new group of students and witnessing his transformation into the social leader he is today.”

A Safe Space for Growth

Mi-Kaisha Masella

At NYU Berlin, Tisch School of the Arts senior Mi-kaisha Masella found ways to prioritize listening and create safe spaces for students—and herself—to learn and grow. She developed a close mentor relationship with former staff member Linn Friedrichs, who is now the deputy head of college at Mahindra United World College in India, and she soon felt comfortable sharing ideas and brainstorming solutions for various challenges. Mi-kaisha also spent time meeting with students and talking through their concerns together. “I wanted my peers to be open and honest about their experiences, both positive and negative, at NYU Berlin as well as in the city at large,” she explains. For her research project, Mi-kaisha developed a training module for faculty and staff at NYU Berlin on trauma-informed teaching practices. “I was proud to develop a resource for the NYU Berlin community to use that will support the creation of a safer, more inclusive, and more informed learning community in the future,” she says.

Diving Into Research

For his research project, NYU Buenos Aires GEF and College of Arts and Science senior Ivan Brea turned his attention to the local LGBTQ+ community and dance. “Out of all Argentina’s cultural intricacies, perhaps no dance form is more heavily linked with Argentina’s history than the tango,” Ivan explains. “And in recent years, Argentine tango has undergone a cultural transformation initiated by the LGBTQ+ community.” Now it’s more common to see two men, two women, or people of any gender dancing the tango together in addition to the traditional form featuring a man and a woman. “Queer tango has become a tool for the LGBTQ+ community to maintain their own cultural identity while serving as an expression of their queerness,” he argues in his research project.

Ivan Brea on a visit to Iguazú Falls during his time at NYU Buenos Aires

During his fellowship, Ivan also organized a number of other initiatives for the NYU Buenos Aires community. Under the guidance of Assistant Director of Student Life Paula Di Marzo and other faculty, he held weekly Breathing Room sessions, where students could discuss IDBEA issues they experienced both in and out of the classroom. He hosted events like Ni Una Menos and the Global Feminist Tide with Professor Cecilia Palmeiro and Queer Cultures in Context with Professor Mariano López Seoane. Ivan also took care to prioritize everyday things that would make Argentina feel more like home, such as finding restaurants that serve traditional food or salons that cut non-Argentine hair. “Because heavy topics such as race, sexuality, and gender can look very different in a new cultural context, I really wanted to make people feel more comfortable,” Ivan says. “The fellowship was an amazing way to be there for my fellow students.”

Wherever they are in the world, GEFs are one of many resources available to help NYU students make the most of their time in an unfamiliar place. “Inclusion, diversity, belonging, equity, and accessibility are big topics and key pillars of our communities as well as our personal lives,” says Mi-kaisha. And as ambassadors of these topics, GEFs are an integral part of helping NYU students feel at home abroad—while challenging them to expand their definitions of community and culture.

Written by Sarah Bender

In Conversation with Lecturer Anna Kazumi Stahl: Finding Your Voice Abroad

Posted on February 22, 2022 by Katie L

Growing up in a Japanese German American family, Anna Kazumi Stahl enjoyed playing word games, savoring the subtle but culturally precise differences in meaning across languages. It’s no surprise then that writing came to play a significant role in her life.

Anna Kazumi Stahl

When Stahl decided to study abroad in Argentina as a college student, she’d never visited the country before. But there, she discovered an unexpected creative energy in its literary culture—and she found it inspiring. “Studying abroad can open up more opportunities than you can rationally know beforehand,” Stahl reflects. “Especially when you are traveling to a culture that is new, unfamiliar, and potentially full of revelations.” Today, Stahl has lived in Argentina for 20 years, where she serves as NYU Buenos Aires’ program director and teaches the course Creative Writing: Argentina.

NYU: In your view, what can studying creative writing teach us about ourselves and the world?

Stahl: Words are a very special instrument for transmitting experience. They can communicate a message clearly to a broad, diverse audience and yet also preserve and highlight the individual voice, mood, and moment. Moreover, communicating effectively with your words and your storytelling is a key skill today, more relevant than ever in this fast-paced, multimedia, and multicultural age. In my class students work on expanding their knowledge about styles and techniques for writing. In the process they become more empowered to apply those tools to their own purposes.

NYU: What is unique about studying creative writing in Buenos Aires?

Stahl: Being in a foreign environment heightens your perceptions; you are exploring and adapting to new local realities. At the same time, because reflection and inner processing are also part of writing as an art, you hone your self-awareness. You strengthen your own voice and its range; you stretch it to be able to encompass the new experiences you’re having abroad.

My course provides a structure for each student to begin and sustain a personal writing practice and find their own style and interests. In general, everyone is putting words to the experience of living abroad. So everyone is creating stories or poetic pieces and sometimes even multimedia narratives around what they are seeing, hearing, tasting, and experiencing every day. Whether going about their new routines or heading out to travel, writing becomes part of completing any given experience: it captures the moment, delves below the surface, and makes more sense of the ephemeral first impressions.

Plus, there’s another dimension in the course: I want my students to meet people who can connect them to the profession of being a writer. So we meet with published authors, publishers, and agents. They demythologize some aspects and also give their personal perspectives and advice. Every spring is special because our Creative Writing: Argentina course often gets a slot at the International Book Fair of Buenos Aires, where students read a piece of their own original work to a local audience.

NYU: When it comes to studying away, what one piece of advice would you give students?

Stahl: Be open-minded.

NYU: As a lecturer, what goal do you hope all your students achieve as a result of studying with you?

Stahl: My core goal is for all students to find and strengthen their voice—and to do so in an environment that values difference and respects spaces of dialogue and exchange.

NYU: What three things do you encourage your students to do to deepen their understanding of Buenos Aires?

Stahl: Try the shared ritual of drinking maté. Learn to recognize the terms from Indigenous languages that are woven into the Spanish of Argentina—maybe even take up one of the 15 Indigenous languages still spoken here. Ride a bus, any bus, on its whole route, and let the city as it rolls by show you its incredible diversity, contrasting neighborhoods, wide-ranging socioeconomic realities, and vibrantly unique cultural enclaves, all flowing together as you ride end-to-end through this massive, major Latin American megacity.

Content repurposed with permission from NYU Global Notebook

NYU Buenos Aires Students Combat Stereotypes in Argentine Football

Posted on June 10, 2020, modified on June 7, 2020 by Martha J Bekink

In 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.

Passion 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.

Al 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.