At the intersection of entertainment and environmentalism sits the Hollywood Climate Summit. Produced by NYU Los Angeles, along with the social impact agency Young Entertainment Activists (YEA!) and Netflix, this year’s conference brought activists, performers, content creators, and young creatives together to address the entertainment community’s role in combating climate change.
Over fifteen organizations sponsored the 2021 Hollywood Climate Summit
From September 23 to 26, 2021, attendees gathered to discuss the industry’s collective responsibility to enact more sustainable practices and increase accountability in the face of the climate crisis. The summit, now in its second year, combined virtual and in-person events, examining topics such as climate storytelling, eco-influencing, and sustainability across film, music, and gaming. However, NYU Los Angeles’ Program Director Nina Sadowsky notes, “The Hollywood Climate Summit is not just for Hollywood people. It’s about how anyone can advocate anywhere. In today’s world, NYU students aren’t just hoping to succeed in the industry—they’re trying to change it.”
NYU Los Angeles, launched in the fall of 2019, is the newest NYU global site—but its students are determined to make an enduring impact. Each semester, the program welcomes advanced students interested in pursuing careers in entertainment, media, music, technology, and broadcasting. Through a combination of rigorous coursework, experiential learning opportunities, and one-on-one mentorship, NYU Los Angeles acts as a professional bridge for students launching their entertainment careers.
The program’s partnership with YEA! provides students with networking and career-building opportunities that support social justice and global transformation. The greater NYU arts community is also involved in a variety of environmental efforts, having recently joined the Green Film School Alliance, a collaboration of leading film schools dedicated to incorporating industry-level sustainable production practices into their programs. As an alliance member, the NYU Tisch School of the Arts made a commitment to take specific actions to reduce the impacts of physical production on the environment, share best practices, and further sustainable initiatives. Moreover, Tisch is set to pilot a green production program this fall.
The first Hollywood Climate Summit was an exercise in creativity. Launched mere months into the COVID-19 pandemic, it quickly shifted from an in-person event to an online one. Despite a few technical hiccups, the event was a great success. “We were only able to accommodate maybe 150 people in person,” Sadowsky explains. “But, and here’s the really beautiful thing, by doing it virtually, we actually reached over 15,000.”
This past year, summit highlights included interactive panels with filmmakers, environmentalists, and politicians as well as an outdoor screening of the documentary Youth v. Gov, directed by Christi Cooper. Small workshops, one-on-one networking with industry leaders and activists, and virtual vendors and job fairs rounded out the four-day event.
Panelists and guests included actor Rosario Dawson, Netflix sustainability officer Emma Stewart, and Democratic Senator of Massachusetts Ed Markey. The summit also featured several eco-influencers, known for their eco-friendly social media posts. These included Leah Thomas, founder of @intersectionalenvironmentalist, and Isaias Hernandez, environmental educator at @queerbrownvegan. “Storytellers have a unique power to shape the culture,” Sadowsky concludes. “You’re not powerless. Every single one of us can do something that will affect change. And art can change minds and hearts in a way that argument cannot.”
Content adapted with permission from MeetNYU by Dana Guterman.
Last fall during International Education Week, NYU hosted an array of events that explored the benefits of international study away programs. One of those programs—a virtual roundtable discussion featured four NYU site directors. NYU Tel Aviv’s Benjamin Hary, NYU Accra’s Chiké Frankie Edozien, NYU Berlin’s Gabriella Etmektsoglou, and NYU London’s Catherine Robson discussed the lessons COVID-19 taught them, how they used those lessons to reconstruct their programs, and their hopes for future study away students. NYU’s Associate Director of Study Away Student Support Alejandro Marti moderated the panel.
Site directors, Chiké Frankie Edozien (top left), Gabriella Etmektsoglou (top right), Catherine Robson (bottom right), and Benjamin Hary (bottom left)
Using the Past to Reshape the Future
When the pandemic first began in 2020, the faculty and staff at NYU’s global sites quickly adjusted. They adopted Zoom technology for virtual classes, planned online events for cultural immersion, and reimagined the scope of their curricula. Unsurprisingly, the lessons they learned in 2020 influenced the trajectory of their programs in 2021. For Chiké Frankie Edozien (NYU Accra), this meant creating new experiential learning trips and adopting new wellness guidelines for students.
“We tried a lot of things during the time of restrictions with our Go Local students who were primarily Ghanaian,” said Edozien. “We tried new excursions based on topics like climate change, taking students to the sea defense wall construction site. We weren’t able to (and we’re still not able to) do overnight trips, so we tried to think of ways we could teach students about Accra outside of the classroom—ways that allowed them to come back safely without the need for excessive travel or hotels. Sometimes we held classes outside so students and professors could be out in the sun, rather than in a confined space, and feel a bit more safe. We also encouraged our faculty to implement what we call ‘mask breaks’ so students can remove their masks for a short time before continuing their work.”
Similar to NYU Accra, Benjamin Hary and his team at NYU Tel Aviv spent the first part of the pandemic redesigning their curriculum to accommodate COVID-19 regulations. They now invite a range of guest lecturers to the classroom, and they developed a robust orientation for students who might need to quarantine upon their arrival in Israel.
“As we prepared for last semester, we created ways to connect students with one another and staff,” said Hary. “What my staff did for orientation, which was totally online because students were in quarantine, is a good example of this. We usually take the students to the famous Tel Aviv market, but since we couldn’t do that, my staff created a video of the market instead. They went to each specific ethnic food place and actually bought all the same food for the students. We delivered it to their doors so when they were watching the video, we could tell them about the food, and they could follow along. They loved it.” In addition, he noted, “With Zoom, it is very easy to invite people, such as guest lecturers and other experts, to participate in our programming, regardless of their physical location.”
Preparing Intentional Coursework for All Circumstances
During the early months of the pandemic, NYU’s global staff worked hard to create a future curriculum that could span multiple formats: in person, online, and/or hybrid. By preparing for various circumstances, NYU’s global locations worked to ensure students never missed a beat in their education.
“Without our faculty, we would not have been able to offer such a good experience for our students,” said Gabriella Etmektsoglou (NYU Berlin). “They showed adaptability and flexibility. They developed so many different options for their courses within a semester. In Berlin, for example, we had times when we were teaching in person and hybrid, and we had times when we had to lock down the site for a few weeks. If you had planned trips to museums or nongovernmental organizations during those weeks, you had to totally rethink your class. The faculty really embraced, very intentionally, the values of equity, diversity, belonging, inclusion, and accessibility when rethinking their sessions. It wasn’t simply, ‘I can’t go to this museum. What do I do now?’ It was, ‘Why was I going to this museum to begin with? Is there any way I can bring this museum to my class?’”
Eagerly Awaiting Cultural Immersion
The pandemic forced educators across the globe to rethink and reimagine the ways in which students learn. While some tactics will remain in place moving forward, such as expanded access to guest lecturers, increased collaboration between study away sites, and new experiential learning opportunities, other tactics will likely fall to the wayside, like learning a new language online or participating in a remote internship—both of which are challenging to accomplish without full-blown cultural immersion.
“In orientation we always talk about immersion in your new culture,” said Catherine Robson (NYU London). “Only by doing that do you start to think deeply about the place you come from. When you’re remote, you’re still in your usual place. You don’t have that experience of sort of turning inward, of being challenged to think about your own country, your own region, your own locality. Only by being in that different environment do you really start to reflect because it defamiliarizes what was deeply unquestioned by you before. And so that is why actually being in person in that different country is so key to what we do.”
And that’s why NYU’s global staff are eager to welcome more and more students back to their centers this year in 2022.
What’s Ahead: Embrace the Unexpected
For students preparing to study abroad in the coming semesters, all four site directors encouraged them to maintain an open mind and a positive attitude.
“Right now I think students need to be adaptable and have a little bit of trust in the future,” said Etmektsoglou. “Twelve years ago when I started at NYU Berlin, it was so much more about traveling. Now it’s about your professional career and your development as a young researcher. Yes, you might miss some traveling, but it’s not the key. Because of the pandemic and because of the way we used the time, the quality of our classes increased. They’re much more focused on addressing the career skills and needs for professional competencies. They’re about applied research; they’re about becoming entrepreneurial young professionals. Students will benefit from the diversity, the guests, and all the things we embraced during the pandemic.”
“What we saw in this period of scarcity was the emergence of creativity,” said Robert Bahar and Almudena Carracedo, Emmy-winning filmmakers and lecturers at NYU Madrid, who described their experience moving Madrid Stories, a location-based course, to an online format.
Madrid Stories is a semester-long class at NYU Madrid that encourages students to look, listen and explore Madrid with a documentarian’s gaze, to represent the city from new perspectives, and to seek out stories that explore and question pre-existing notions of Madrid (and Spain more broadly). Jim Fernandez, site director of NYU Madrid and professor of Spanish Literature and Culture, explained that the nature of the course made it challenging to adapt for remote learning. “In some ways, Madrid Stories, rooted as it is in Madrid, was the most difficult course to adapt to an online format, when the COVID-19 crisis abruptly forced us to teach and learn remotely. But Rob, Almudena and the students did an amazing job, making some delicious lemonade from the lemons they were given, as it were. Each of the thirteen films, produced in quarantine, captures the strange rhythms of confinement, and tells a story about the impossibility of returning home.”
Some students felt that the creative process of film production might be a meaningful outlet and a means for making sense of the unprecedented situation they were facing.
Robert Bahar
Bahar explained that in early March “our students had just begun work on their film projects and were offered the option to go home, and then leaving the site quickly became mandatory.” He explained that a decision had to be made about how to adapt the course curriculum, by either shifting toward an analysis of documentaries or keeping the focus on the production process. They sought input from their students, who responded with clear enthusiasm for wanting to continue creating their own films. In fact, some students felt that the creative process of film production might be a meaningful outlet and a means for making sense of the unprecedented situation they were facing.
“The students had little in terms of production equipment, but they did have iPhones and family. They created something absolutely amazing by scavenging any available resources to create a final product — all within two weeks. They had to reimagine their lives, the course, and the project. Their lives took a turn, but in the process of doing so, the class served as a mirror on themselves, and a mirror into themselves. The process of making their films was reflective of where they were in the quarantine,” explained Carracedo.
“We all learned to use digital tools to serve the production process,” noted Carracedo. “They had to learn new editing programs, and we taught them how to edit by sharing our screens and providing demonstrations.” The feedback process was also adapted to an online format. Zoom’s breakout room function allowed the students to work in small groups where they could view each other’s work and offer the critique and feedback that are essential to fine tune a film. “The difference between good and great is the last push of the editing and polishing,” said Bahar, “which is also the most difficult part of producing a film. We always push students toward great. We want to help them achieve their visions and be proud of their work.”
In addition to learning new technical tools to support the filmmaking process, students also had to develop new strategies to enable them to complete their work remotely. For Jack Seibert, a rising senior at Tisch School of the Arts, said he had to learn to remind himself “that artistic processes always encounter unforeseen bumps in the road — large or small — and it is our job as creatives to develop innovative solutions to those problems while staying on schedule. I found pursuing a creative process during this time to be incredibly beneficial to my future artistic career — whether working in theater or film — because I discovered personalized tools to recognize when I feel motivated or unmotivated, and how to either encourage myself to keep working or give myself breaks.”
Developing their film projects also helped some students cope with the sense of uncertainty brought about by the pandemic and they noted that the experience was cathartic and therapeutic. Claudia Picado, a rising senior at Steinhardt School of Education, Culture, and Human Development, explained that her film, Meires en Cuerentena, enabled her to process her experience through “self expression, while also creating something that represented my family and how we came together during quarantine.”
Colin Donahue, a visiting student at NYU Madrid from Swarthmore College, created a film entitled, In an Instant, that detailed idyllic scenes of life in Europe. It is a portrait of travel to Rome and Paris and all of the things you imagine global students doing. Donohue explained that when he first returned to the United States, he “spent the first two weeks of quarantine in my childhood bedroom reflecting on my past experiences and feeling grateful for the health and safety of my family. After looking back on the footage from my study abroad experience, I knew I wanted to use this project as an opportunity to not only remember Spain but to document how I experienced this international public health crisis.”
Donohue said that for him and many of his classmates, the creative process became “a philosophical reflection on the lockdown and quarantine, and the feeling of going back in time when one returns to their childhood home,” said Carracedo. They used the experience to produce introspective glimpses into what life was like during uncommon times.
While the final screenings of student productions are typically held in-person at a closing event at NYU Madrid, this year’s films were screened online, which allowed families and friends to participate.
As classes began on September 14 – live for students in Shanghai and online for students around the world still waiting for visas to enter China – NYU Shanghai welcomed 34 new full-time faculty members from 10 countries for the 2020-2021 academic year. The new members span 20 academic fields from Finance to Art History to Journalism, including the university’s first faculty member in the field of Global Public Health.
An additional 28 new faculty have joined the university this fall to help deliver in-person courses to the NYU and NYU Abu Dhabi students taking part in the NYU Global Network’s “Go Local” program at NYU Shanghai.
“We are thrilled that NYU Shanghai continues to attract a remarkable group of faculty across the disciplines, people whose research is stellar and whose dedication to teaching is exemplary,” says Provost and Julius Silver Professor of History Joanna Waley-Cohen. “I know they will greatly enrich our expanded academic community, and am very much looking forward to getting to know them all over the next few weeks.”
NYU Shanghai’s full-time faculty has more than doubled from just 102 members in 2014 to 226 members this year, representing 25 nationalities.
Among this year’s newcomers is Yufeng Professor of Social Science Wu Xiaogang, who will serve as the founding director of NYU Shanghai’s newest research center, the Center for Applied Social and Economic Research (CASER). Wu, whose scholarship examines inequality and social stratification in China, most recently led a team of researchers investigating how family and community ties supported individuals’ well-being under anti-coronavirus quarantine restrictions in Wuhan. “NYU Shanghai offers a perfect environment for scholars to conduct first-rate China research that can have both local reach and global impact,” Wu says.
This fall, the university also welcomes Brian J. Hall as Associate Professor of Global Public Health. Hall, who leads the Global and Community Mental Health Research Group, focuses on interdisciplinary approaches to population health challenges, particularly among migrant worker groups in the Asia-Pacific region.
“My work in China has been ongoing for more than eight years, and I view NYU Shanghai as an excellent home and platform for this work to continue and expand,” Hall says. “I am excited about the university’s intimate scholarly community, the exceptional students, and the emphasis on interdisciplinary research, which I believe is absolutely essential to address even the most protracted public health challenges.”
Hall says he is looking forward to teaching several courses for undergraduate students this academic year, including a global mental health course and a capstone seminar for seniors producing original scholarship.
Despite the unique challenges posed by the ongoing pandemic and closure of national borders, many new faculty members, including Senior Lecturer in the Writing Program Marcos Martínez, expressed enthusiasm about their students’ and colleagues’ flexibility and adaptability.
“The university’s Writing Program has been so supportive and willing to explore new modes of teaching and ways of building connections with our students,” Martinez says. “I look forward to working with my colleagues and learning from their experiences.”
Visiting Associate Professor of History Jacqueline Armijo, who will take part in NYU Shanghai’s “Go Local” program, says she appreciates the program’s ability to confront some of the problems caused by the pandemic.
“When the opportunity arose to teach students face to face in Shanghai, I could not resist,” Armijo says. “I have been very impressed with NYU Shanghai’s conscientious COVID precaution policies, and I very much appreciate the opportunity to be able to teach safely in a classroom with students face to face, or at least masked-face to masked-face.”
New faculty are also looking forward to connecting with the campus and the city’s uniquely dynamic international community. “I’ve been living in Shanghai for a few years now, and I really love the city’s cosmopolitan energy,” says Clinical Assistant Professor of Spanish Allen Young. “At NYU Shanghai, that energy is more palpable than almost anywhere else.”
Sun Wenting, who joins NYU Shanghai as Assistant Arts Professor of Dance, concurred. “I think the campus reflects the city with its international broad spectrum of nationalities and its drive towards success,” says Sun. “I was fortunate to previously guest teach at NYU Shanghai and was instantly exposed to the positive and engaging environment and the up-beat community, so I already have a really clear vision that this will be a great place to work.”
Others are eager to explore the city’s potential as a hub of research and innovation, including Instructor of Operations Management Zhang Jiding.
“Shanghai is one of the most dynamic cities around the globe, and it is a place where some of the most innovative business practices have been born. As a researcher, I am eager to learn from these practices and study the drivers of such innovations,” says Zhang. “As an educator, I am thrilled to convey what I have learned to my students, and to prepare them for their future leadership in the fast-changing world.”
Almudena Carracedo (left) and Robert Bahar (right)
Award-winning filmmakers and lecturers at NYU Madrid Robert Bahar and Almudena Carracedo’s documentary, The Silence of Others, won an Emmy for Best Documentary at the virtual awards ceremony last week. The film, executive produced by Pedro Almodovar, examines the experiences and traumas of victims of Spain’s 40-year dictatorship under General Franco and the decades-long journeys of individuals seeking justice for egregious crimes committed under the General’s rule. The Silence of Others sheds light on the amnesty law created two years after Franco’s death in 1975 that protects the perpetrators of crimes and prevents victims from pursuing justice in Spain.
Bahar and Carracedo followed several victims and survivors for a period of six years as they organized the “Argentine Lawsuit” in order to fight the amnesty law. The legal battle illuminates the country’s fascist history and how the crimes against humanity perpetrated by Franco’s regime continue to affect victims and their families.
Along with receiving the Emmy for Best Documentary, it was also awarded an Emmy for Outstanding Politics and Government Documentary.“We are incredibly happy,” wrote Bahar and Carracedo in an email. “These two awards help culminate the 2.5-year impact campaign of The Silence of Others and show that the issues we highlight in Spain resonate powerfully all over the world. We dedicate these awards to the protagonists in the film and to everyone, all over the world, who have fought and are fighting for truth, justice and redress.”
The Silence of Others premiered at the 2018 Berlinale (widely considered to be one of the top 5 festivals in the world) where it won both the Panorama Audience Award and the Berlinale Peace Film Prize. The film’s awards and prizes include being shortlisted for Best Documentary Feature for the 91st Academy Awards and it won a 2020 George Foster Peabody Award for Documentary and a 2019 Goya Award for Best Documentary Film. It has been seen by more than 1.5 million viewers and has been credited for increased dialogue about the past and the legacy of crimes. The Silence of Others has generated press across the political spectrum and has been acknowledged in op-eds, essays, books and other sources as helping to change public opinion, generate support for the victims, and reframe the debate around “historic memory” issues.
Read more about Bahar and Carracedo’s Emmy win here, and watch the film here.
When Johileny Meran went to study at NYU London in the fall of 2018, she knew the experience would change her life. But she did not anticipate that her experiences there would directly lead to a meaningful career opportunity. Meran, a global public health major who graduated in 2019, is now working with Mobility International USA (MIUSA) to support students with disabilities who are considering studying abroad or other forms of international exchange. Meran served as NYU London’s Global Equity Fellow (GEF) while there and bolstered NYU’s commitment to addressing diversity, equity, and inclusion abroad by creating an access guide for NYU London.
According to Meran, “Student life experiences on campus can differ based on disability. In the fall of 2018, as a GEF, I created a guide to London’s accessibility culture in an effort to help future students understand what to expect from a student perspective. It is all-encompassing in terms of including a diverse group of resources. I was committed to being a resource and helping improve diversity resources at NYU. Through my role, I learned that my experience informs my work rather than limits the scope to which I can do it.”
Meran not only made a lasting contribution to NYU London during her time at NYU by creating the NYU London Access Guide, but also to issues of disability awareness and accessibility abroad more generally. We had the chance to catch up with Meran and ask about her experiences at NYU London and her current work.
Can you tell me about your NYU career? How did you decide on your study plans?
One of the things that had me most excited about NYU was the fact that it was a global network and I wanted to know about the world and I thought being at NYU would offer a great start. The Arthur O. Eve Higher Education Opportunity Program also provided me with a support system from the start.
I entered NYU undecided about my major. At the time, I was still holding onto a life-long dream of becoming a doctor. During my first and second years, I realized that there was so much more that I could learn. I am a first generation college student, and college really opened doors for me in terms of learning what else was possible in the world. When I took one of my first classes in global public health, I immediately fell in love with the entire concept. I also thought it was important to think about the various influences on public health globally. Additionally, I noticed that there was not a lot of conversation around people with disabilities in public health and believed I could make a contribution there.I got hooked on global public health, and I just went for it.
Why did you decide to study abroad and why NYU London?
I knew I wanted to study abroad from my first year. I came to the United States from the Dominican Republic at a young age and I wanted to know more about what the world looked like and I thought studying abroad would be a great way to do that. I also knew that an NYU study abroad experience would provide a great environment to learn via studying rather than just traveling. I was also interested in exploring disability rights in different places and access in general.
I studied abroad very late in my NYU career compared to my peers. I traveled as a senior, rather than as a junior or sophomore. The reason for that was that, having come from a different country myself, I knew that access and disability rights are very different from one country to another. I did a lot of research because I wanted to know that not only would I be in a new place, but that I could do more than just go from my dorm to the academic center. NYU London was a great choice partly because of the accessibility of London as a city and partly because I was curious to explore the differences between British and American English. I already speak two languages so learning a new language was not a priority for me. But I knew London offered a chance to learn more about language in a different context.
You were the NYU London Global Equity Fellow in Fall 2018. Can you share what inspired you to participate in the GEF program? What were your priorities in that role?
I applied to be a Global Equity Fellow because of my experience as a student at NYU in New York. In a sense, I stumbled into disability advocacy on campus. I personally found that the best way to find community was to participate in NYU clubs and student life. Without a community, it can sometimes seem like a very big and vast place. I immediately started participating in and going to events organized by NYU clubs that aligned with my identity – the Latino Student Union LUCHA (Latinos Club), the Black Student Union, the First Generation Club. In those clubs and in those meetings, there was something missing for me because disability was never part of the conversation. So I decided to start bringing disability to the conversation and got a positive response from my peers. They wanted to know more and asked how they could help me tofounda disability community.
By the time I was studying away, I was already president of the NYU Disability Student Union. I was also one of the chairs of an accessibility committee, along with faculty and administrators at NYU. I had established a great relationship with the Moses Center – it was an important source of support for me. The GEF program was a great opportunity to continue that work while in London. It was not just about disability, but diversity and equity and inclusion in general. I was inspired to apply to be a GEF so that I could further explore these issues and discover what more I could bring to the table.
One of your many contributions as a GEF was the NYU Access Culture Guide. Can you talk about working on that and what making that lasting contribution to NYU meant to you?
In the beginning, I was very hesitant to do a disability-focused project. I considered taking a more general approach to diversity issues and not focus on disability. I had a few conversations with the GEF Student Advisor in NY about why I was holding back about bringing disability into the work and it dawned on me that this was something I could bring to the table. One of the nice things about arriving at NYU London was that there were so many pamphlets to orient students to the city. I realized that I could bring an accessibility lens to the information that is available to incoming students. One of the things that I really enjoyed about the project was that not only were the staff excited, but the students as well. When I shared that I was looking to put information together about what access was like in London, there were so many contributions. I also reached out to Emely Recinos, another student with a disability who was studying in NYU Buenos Aires at the time, to get her perspective about what access issues she wished she knew about before going to Argentina. The guide is not meant to be definitive; students are welcome to change it in later years.
I appreciated being able to give future NYU students something that I didn’t have. I relied on information from the Moses Center and the NYU London staff before I traveled, but there was still more I wish I knew in advance. So it felt good to know that I was giving future students more information to go in with. Much of the information in the guide elaborates on topics, like transportation, that were already covered in the existing student guide. I put it all together because I wanted more people to realize that the accessibility information for disability is so similar to the information that students already get. It actually does not need to be separate, but just included as an extra layer to the information already provided. After I finished the project, I felt really accomplished in the sense that another student interested in studying abroad would have this great information.
I understand that you are now working with Mobility International USA as a Program Coordinator for the National Clearinghouse on Disability and Exchange (NCDE). As I understand it, NCDE is a project focused on increasing the participation of people with disabilities in all types of travel with a purpose. What is your focus?
The National Clearinghouse on Disability and Exchange (NCDE) is a project under the organization I work for, MIUSA, and it is sponsored by the State Department’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. When I learned about this project, I was just so excited – beyond excited – because there is so much information available to anyone through the website. NCDE provides detailed information about preparing to go abroad, including creative ways to get around, and information about attitudes on disability that you may encounter during your exchange.
One of my favorite aspects of the project is also the personal stories. We collect and share personal stories from students with disabilities who have studied abroad in a range of places around the world. I love reading about their experiences. Sometimes you have moments of thinking that access is so hard in a particular country, why would someone go? But in reality it is a lot about the challenge you want to put on yourself as a student. I realized that the information shared via NCDE was a lot like the information I included in the access culture guide.
In my role, I focus on a variety of projects as part of the NCDE team of four, including the Inquiry and Referral Service. Anyone with a disability or any international exchange professional can submit a question and we do research to answer it. After receiving an inquiry, I immediately consider what the best resources are that I can offer this person – tip sheets, personal stories, etc – and then I also consider whether there are country-specific resources that I can offer. We provide meaningful support for both professionals trying to support a student with a disability or students with disability looking for information.
I also conduct interviews with students about their experiences and compile resources for the NCDE newsletter, Access to Exchange. It includes personal stories about experiences abroad, stories about disability access, and funding opportunities, among other things.
Finally, I regularly speak on panels or in other contexts to provide information about the services and opportunities we offer. The intent of this outreach is to encourage more students with disabilities to study abroad and participate in international exchange in general. Similarly, we also offer information and support to international students looking to come to the United States. We hope to see a more inclusive approach to exchange with disabled students participating along with their non-disabled peers.
How did your time at NYU London inform your decision to work with Mobility International on NCDE?
I met someone from Mobility International right after I returned from London. During the spring semester of my senior year, I was recruited by a summer camp I used to attend to come work for them for the summer. I went for my training during my last semester at NYU and it happened to be family day at the camp and one of the organizations presenting was Mobility International. I introduced myself and shared that I had just come back from London and that I wanted to learn more about their work.
After finishing my summer job, I was invited to by Mobility International USA to present with them at the 2019 Council on International Educational Exchange Conference. Actually, I later repurposed that presentation in my first blog post for Mobility International, 4 Takeaways from my Study Abroad Experience for Exchange Professionals.
While I was still looking for work, I learned that a position had opened up with MIUSA. I was in awe of the work that they have done and the NCDE project, I thought it could be a great place to start my career. I immediately saw so many connections between what I had done at NYU London and what I could do and learn at Mobility International that I just knew it was right.
What would you say to other students with disabilities, whether at NYU or elsewhere, who might be hesitant about studying abroad?
I think it is important for students with disabilities to participate in international exchanges. Doing so is a life-changing experience. To see a different part of the world and learn from a different culture, offers so much to you personally and to your career. Even though there may be challenges, it is a great opportunity to learn.
As a student with a disability, you are not just learning through the experience yourself, but you are also allowing others to learn from you through your experience – peers, future students, educators.
What would you say to administrators or coordinators of international exchange programs, whether at NYU or elsewhere, about how to encourage and ensure access for all students?
I think it is important to note that at Mobility International we have a culture and a thought process of “challenge by choice.” This is the idea that you go to a place and you know that you will be challenged there, but you know that it is a challenge you can take on. Individuals in student advising positions may have preconceived notions about accessibility issues in particular countries. MI believes that students should be prepared to make informed decisions about study abroad opportunities by understanding the realities of accessibility and knowing how they might navigate challenges while abroad.You might think that a country is too inaccessible for a student but the only person to really decide that is the student. Your job is offering and support so that they know what access challenges they might be facing and whether they are willing to navigate those challenges.
It is important to be intentional about encouraging students with disabilities. If, for example, you are recruiting students to participate in a short-term exchange program, consider including language such as“students with disabilities are encouraged to apply.” Not including disability or access information in recruitment materials creates an additional barrier for students.
Is there anything else you would like to share or add?
My time as a GEF really solidified the benefit of student engagement. I would encourage students with disabilities to take on student leadership roles to inform educators and professionals about the information students need. Disability and accessibility are part of diversity. I mean this not just in terms of reasonable accommodations, but in terms of what student life is like.
Over the summer, NYU Abu Dhabi Vice Chancellor Mariët Westermann announced the appointment of Dr. Arlie O. Petters – Benjamin Powell Distinguished Professor of Mathematics at Duke University, and former Dean of Academic Affairs for Trinity College of Arts and Sciences and Associate Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education at Duke – as the Provost of NYU Abu Dhabi, effective September 1, 2020.
The selection follows a comprehensive, wide-ranging, nine-month global search that sought input from across the NYU community to identify a strategic academic leader who would nurture and advance the educational and research mission and build on NYU Abu Dhabi’s bedrock of excellence. The University’s trajectory of academic success was established by Provost Fabio Piano, who will return to genomics research at the Center for Genomics and Systems Biology in Abu Dhabi and in New York after serving as NYU Abu Dhabi’s provost for the past decade.
According to NYU Abu Dhabi Vice Chancellor Mariët Westermann, “Arlie’s distinguished scholarly qualifications, leadership experience, knowledge of international education, research breadth, commitment to equity, diversity, inclusion, and belonging, focus on students, deep understanding of academic excellence, and integrity and energy give me great confidence that he will serve the University well in his role as Provost. He will provide outstanding academic leadership as we embark on NYUAD’s second decade of growth and accomplishment. It will be inspiring and rewarding to work with Arlie as we advance our resolutely international model of liberal arts education and address the complex challenges we face today.”
Petters’ principal research interests include mathematical physics and scientific methods in business administration, with a focus on mathematical finance and entrepreneurship and innovation in STEM fields in developing nations. He is the Benjamin Powell Professor of Mathematics and a Professor of Physics and Economics at Duke University, where he has been on the faculty since 1998.
Before joining Duke, Petters served as an Assistant Professor of Mathematics at Princeton University and an Instructor of Pure Mathematics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He received his PhD in mathematics from MIT, and has a BA and MA in mathematics and physics from Hunter College of the City University of New York.
Petters’ research explores how gravity acts on light. He pioneered the mathematical theory of weak-deflection gravitational lensing, which brought powerful methods from pure mathematics to bear on astronomy. He also advanced applications of gravitational lensing, which included predicting effects that probe the nature of spacetime around black holes and developing tests of Einstein’s general relativity and modified gravity models. He has published fifty articles in peer-reviewed journals as well as five books, including the monograph Singularity Theory and Gravitational Lensing, the textbook An Introduction to Mathematical Finance with Applications, and three problem-solving books on mathematics and scientific reasoning.
“Within a ten-year span,” says Provost Petters, “NYU Abu Dhabi has developed a world-class, innovative liberal arts and sciences undergraduate program and premier interdisciplinary research environment. It has created a collaborative culture of global citizenry among its excellent students, faculty, and staff. It has fostered diversity, inclusion, cultural competency, empathy, and openness. It has become a university in and of the city of Abu Dhabi. This gravitational pull of NYU Abu Dhabi was simply irresistible. I am delighted to serve under Mariët’s amazing leadership driving NYU Abu Dhabi onwards and upwards, to take its place among the world’s great universities.”
Among his many awards and honors are an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship, a National Science Foundation Career Award, and the first Blackwell-Tapia Prize in the Mathematical Sciences. He was selected in 2006 by the National Academy of Sciences to be part of a Portrait Collection of Outstanding African Americans in Science, Engineering, and Medicine. In addition to his research, Petters has mentored numerous students, faculty, and professionals, and has consequently received many community-service awards.
In his native Belize, he founded the Petters Research Institute to help develop human capital in STEM fields and foster national development through environmentally sustainable applications of STEM tools in entrepreneurship. In recognition of these contributions, he was made a member in the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire in 2008, and appointed in 2010 as the inaugural Chairman of the Council of Science Advisers to the Prime Minister of Belize. In 2009, his birthplace, Dangriga, Belize, honored him with a street in his name.
“The book was fueled by my rage about a post-truth society, in which facts are no longer facts, science is under attack, and behaving with honesty and integrity seems downright quaint,” said Nina Sadowsky — author, film producer, and program director of NYU Los Angeles — about the inspiration for her latest book, Convince Me.
Examining a man’s death, Convince Me reveals the deeply-held secrets that are intrinsic to the psychosis of an unrepentant pathological liar. An author of psychological thrillers, Sadowsky noted that she uses writing to process her own “fears and furies about the world.” It was the current political context that sparked her interest in exploring “what makes a sociopath in the age of untruth?”
She explained that once she began pondering the construction of sociopathy and proliferation of untruth, “the plot for the book came into my head like an arrow, right down to the final twist! Trust me, this is unusual; my normal process involves plodding along like a mule, as I outline, revise, and revise yet again and again. But with Convince Me, I felt clear with purpose and feverish with the need to write. And I did so, in explosive bursts whenever I could scratch out even a few minutes. It felt like I pulled that arrow right out of my forehead and into my computer one inch at a time. I realized that through the writing I was exorcising my rage.”
Preparing to write Convince Me involved extensive research. Sadowsky explained that “research is always one of the best parts of writing a book, because I get to take a deep dive into new arenas.” To develop the background knowledge for particular aspects of the storyline, Sadowsky examined “Virtual Reality technologies and their implications for both gaming and medicine, as that tech is important to the plot.” Creating the main character’s psychological profile required extensive study of a range of mental illnesses. Probing the symptoms and outward expressions of psychological disturbances enabled her to flesh out the “narcissistic pathological liar whose funeral opens the book. Which is not a spoiler! As soon as I created the character of Justin Childs I knew I wanted to kill him before the story began so he would be unable to deflect or defend himself as the truth about him is exposed.”
Launching Convince Me during a pandemic required Sadowsky to adapt the way she would typically publicize a new book. “Normally a book launch includes talks at bookstores (I launched The Empty Bed at the NYU bookstore in New York last February) and speaking at libraries or conferences.” While the live events she had planned in connection with Convince Me were cancelled due to COVID-19, she worked with her publisher to quickly pivot to online platforms.
“I’m doing virtual events hosted out of New York, Rhode Island, San Diego and Indiannapolis. I’m appearing on podcasts and writing articles for appropriate publications (all of which is the norm, but all of which also takes on special significance now). When the Killer Nashville conference was cancelled I recorded a special video for Nashville’s Parnassus Books, the city’s preeminent Indie bookstore. Social media has played a big role in all book sales since it came on the scene and that is truer than ever now. Book people are fierce! They love books and they love to promote them on social channels; the blogger community is key. The release of a book is much like everything else these days; we have our assumptions about how things work upended and then we try to be flexible and adapt.”
As an educator, Sadowsky said that she hopes her work will spark discussion. “I recognize that there is often not one absolute truth in any situation as perspective is always a factor, but there is absolute value in honesty, integrity, and respect for facts.”
Researchers at Global TIES for Children, an international research center based at NYU Abu Dhabi and NYU New York, examined a variety of post-migration risks faced by Syrian refugee children enrolled in Lebanese public schools and found that students being older than expected for the grade in which they were placed was most consistently and strongly associated with developmental and learning difficulties. As many schools around the world prepare to reopen in 2020 and beyond, the study provides critical insights that can help inform efforts to reintegrate children into schools after significant disruption and time away.
The findings of the study are detailed in a paper published in the Journal for Applied Developmental Psychology and corresponding policy brief released on July 1, 2020. The study collected and analyzed assessment data from 448 Syrian refugee children in November 2016 through March 2017. Researchers found that children who were older than expected for their grade level – so-called “age-for-grade” – had poorer cognitive executive functioning and behavioral regulation skills than children who were placed in a typical grade level for their age. Being overage-for-grade also forecasted decrements in literacy and math skills.
Dolan added: “As of today, over a billion children worldwide have faced numerous personal and academic adversities and disruptions. This type of research can help inform the design, implementation, and funding of evidence-based programs and policies to ensure children’s holistic learning during crisis situations.”
School closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic have left nearly 1.6 billion children and youth out of school around the world, while the cascading economic impacts are anticipated to force millions more to drop out. Recent research indicates that even short-term, 14-week school closures can have significant long-term repercussions on children’s academic outcomes.
Kim added: “Our research suggests that such cumulative experiences of adversity can have repercussions for both children’s academic performance and their social and emotional skills.”
In this study, grade level may be associated with cognitive, behavioral, and academic difficulties for several possible reasons. First, being older than expected for a grade can be a marker that a child has faced numerous and cumulative risks earlier in childhood that interrupted schooling or impaired learning. Second, studying in a classroom without same-age peers or developmentally appropriate teaching practices, routines, and learning materials may itself result in cognitive and behavioral challenges. Third, and conversely, there may be a tendency to place older children with lower cognitive, behavioral, and socio-emotional skills in lower grades.
Global TIES for Children designs, evaluates, and advises on programs and policies to improve the lives of children and youth in the most vulnerable regions across the globe. The study was recently conducted as part of a larger collaboration with the International Rescue Committee and supported by Dubai Cares, the E-Cubed Research Envelope, and NYU Abu Dhabi.
This post comes to us from NYU Abu Dhabi. You can learn more here.
“As the world is getting smaller, it’s a story about people who come to America with an idea of what could be,” said NYU Accra Director Frankie Edozien. “We may be seen by some as people who sell on the street or work in car washes, but beneath all of that there is a long line of Africans who came here as a way to get a higher education — to get that American degree.”
“You do what you need to do,” he went on to explain, “and what you have to do to get into higher education. And then you do what you have to do to stay in. When you see Africans graduating, there is a lot of jubilation. The joy is not just that you’ve gotten this wonderful degree. You’ve had to do so many things, take on so many jobs. The journey that we take to get there may have many twists, turns, and diversions, but as Africans we think it’s a journey worth taking. The end of our dreams are not the jobs that we have at the moment, those are only the beginning. We return home to build up our communities. That was cut short for Amadou.”
The recently released Netflix series, Trial by Media, focuses on six true crime stories and the role of the media in their narratives. The third Episode, 41 Shots, examines the journey of Amadou Diallo, a 23-year old young man who immigrated to the US from Guinea to pursue a college education. Instead, Diallo was tragically shot to death outside of his home by police officers who claimed Diallo drew a weapon when asked to produce his ID. Set within the context of the stop-and-frisk program that emerged under former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani,the episode looks at the case from a range of perspectives — including Kadiatou Diallo, Amadou’s mother; police officers and other city officials; and Edozien’s thoughtful narration of his experience as a reporter covering the case.
Working on the case as a reporter “took years of my life,” said Edozien, “from the day Diallo was shot, to the day his family received the settlement from New York City.” While there were many journalists covering the story, Edozien’s work on the case began right from the moment Madam Diallo arrived in New York from Guinea.“I was there when she arrived in the Bronx right after she disembarked from the plane. I remember when she came out, grabbing onto her, looking at her and saying, ‘my name is Frankie, remember me.’ I also remember reading about that moment in her book, My Heart will Cross this Ocean: My Story, My Son, Amadou. In her book, she talks about how awful the experience was and how a reporter approached her and gave her his name.” That moment of human interaction coupled with “the fact that I was constant, that I was there to tell a story, not to tell a story and move on” said Edozien, led to the development of trust.
Looking back over twenty years later, Edozien explained that seeing the story made available to a wide audience on Netflix “was a joy.” Initially, however, Edozien had no expectation that his contribution to the documentary, as an advisor to the producers, would result in his own appearance in 41 Shots. He was contacted at first because, as a reporter who had covered the case extensively, the producers frequently came across his name during the process of conducting background research for the show.
When Edozien was first contacted by the Netflix series producers about the episode, he was initially hesitant because he did not want to take part in a project that might cause Diallo’s family to relive the painful memories related to his death. However, upon talking with them, he found that the producers “wanted to do this right, to tell the truth, to create an honest portrayal of what led to Amadou’s killing.” He discovered that they wanted to provide a sense of what actually happened and to spark a conversation about the role of the media in a high profile case. Edozien notes that,“in telling viewers about the role of the media, you have to tell the story.”
When meeting with the producers to provide insight about the case, Edozien expected to serve as only an advisor, though he later agreed to appear in the show as a narrator of particular events. He was also committed to ensuring Madam Diallo’s views were included in the documentary. “Even though she had been very public and had spoken a lot about her son, she never had the opportunity to tell her story. My big goal was that one day we were going to do it, and convince Madam Diallo to do it. She is a very private person, and she’s focused on her foundation. But I made a case for why she should sit down with the producers. I knew they would talk to lawyers, and talk to everyone [in New York who had been] involved. But once they got Madam Diallo to speak, I knew this wouldn’t be a one sided thing. I thought ‘my work is done here.’ Ultimately, that was all that I wanted.”
Reflecting on his connection to the case, on a personal level, Edozien noted that he “understood Diallo’s journey, even though the police just saw him as a street peddler.” “If you are any kind of ‘other,’ explained Edozien, “you are judged by the way you look or speak. If you are somebody who is vending on the street, as he was selling hats and gloves, the assumption is that you don’t have any formal education. But that was far from the truth, he was on his way to becoming a student studying computer science. But he was also a black man studying in the vestibule of his house. And he was also a black man confronted by a police man. The gun they thought he was pulling out was actually his wallet and ID — exactly what anyone would pull out to provide to police when being stopped.”
Considering the recent shootings of George Floyd and Ahmaud Arbery, among other headlines detailing racial injustices, said Edozien, “it’s sad to see that so many years later a certain type of body provokes fear. You can have a black man simply standing, and this evokes fear.”
“What was great for me,” said Edozien about the release of the documentary, “was that people saw Diallo. The thought that he was there only to sell on the streets is not right. He had a plan — to get a degree and return to Guinea.” In fact, said Edozien, “the last words Diallo said to his mother were, ‘mom, I’m going to college.’ He was going to register, to make her proud one day, and that sentiment stays with Madam Diallo.”
The experience of living through the death of her son became the impetus for creating the Amadou Diallo Foundation. Edozien explained that while her son didn’t make it, Madam Diallo wanted someone else to be able to make it into higher education. “The Diallo family has not stopped in its commitment to tertiary education for people who might otherwise not go.”
“Ultimately,” says Edozien, “this kind of storytelling is in service of educating people. We are still trying to learn to see everybody as just people. We are still trying.”
