International Education Week at Emerson continued on Wednesday, November 15, with a keynote conversation on equitable futures in global education between campus faculty Dr. Anthony L. Pinder and Shaya Gregory Poku.
Pinder founded Emerson’s Global Pathways program and currently serves as the school’s first vice provost for internationalisation and equity. Under Pinder’s leadership, Emerson received the 2020 Senator Paul Simon Award for Campus Internationalisation. Earlier this month, Pinder was honoured at Diversity Abroad’s annual conference in Chicago, where he received the 2023 Executive Leader of the Year in International Education Award.
Poku has been vice president for equity and social justice at Emerson since May 2022.
The discussion, held in Tufte’s Greene Theatre, began with each speaker sharing insights into their backgrounds and how they have shaped their understanding of internalisation and equity.
Pinder, who joined the Peace Corps in Ecuador after graduating from college, said the experience of becoming fluent in another language and living in another culture “changed [his] life forever.”
“The skills you develop by being abroad… that ease with which you move around the world really becomes second nature to you,” Pinder said.
This perspective has guided Pinder’s efforts with Emerson’s international students and the college’s study abroad programmes. He emphasised that “internalisation has always been an equity issue” and expressed his commitment to finding effective ways to support these students.
In particular, the Kasteel Well programme is one area where Pinder is trying to ensure equity and diversity.
Kasteel Well, Pinder said, has had “small numbers of students of colour for almost 40 years,” but last semester’s class was 61 per cent students of colour.
Pinder said this demographic shift has created a need for more faculty and staff development training at Kasteel Well. He said this training would involve teaching staff how to deal with classes like this year’s that are becoming more racially diverse in a sensitive and equitable way. Students have raised concerns about a lack of diversity and equity at Kasteel Well.
Pinder wants to add equitable solutions to all Global Pathway programmes.
“We’ve created a lot of amazing programmes… but if there are students who can’t afford to do them, there’s an access issue, which equates to an equity issue,” Pinder said.
As well as looking at the demographics of people accessing these programmes, Poku wants to look at how the programmes themselves are being used.
“I know a lot of people who study abroad who come back no wiser and no more thoughtful or engaged… about what it actually means for us to be part of a global society,” Poku said. “It’s really important to me… that as a school of communication in the arts… we don’t perpetuate narratives of othering people.”
The combined internalisation and equity work of Pinder and Poku’s departments represents a more substantial focus on diversity and equity issues than most colleges have, Poku said.
Poku hopes that this will allow Emerson to be “a platform… for addressing these larger issues.
She doesn’t just want to ensure fairness and diversity at Emerson, but hopes to leave all students with an engaged international perspective and understanding.
“What we expose people to here at Emerson literally, not just figuratively, impacts the world,” Poku said. “Especially because we are an institution of storytellers.
Both Poku and Pinder, who has been with Emerson for a decade, acknowledged that a lot of work has been done in this area, and a lot still needs to be done at Emerson.
“The world is watching, and higher education has taken note of the things we’ve done,” Pinder said. “We have a house that has a really solid foundation… And now we can really get creative about the kinds of things we do.”
