From: glevy@PRATT.EDU
Date: Sat Mar 10 2007 - 18:13:31 EST
Perhaps some of you have students who might benefit from the following? In solidarity, Jerry ======================================================================= The Center for Global Justice and Berea College are jointly offering a five-week Summer Internship Program in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico from July 1 - August 4, 2007. It will be an intercultural learning experience for undergraduate and graduate students from the U.S., Mexico and Cuba. Under the guidance of faculty from the three countries, interns will study the realities of corporate globalization through selected readings, lectures and discussions as well as on-site field research culminating in reports to be published in the Center's website. Students will receive 4 transferable academic credits through Berea College. Intercultural interaction within the student group and with host families and communities is intended to break down common stereotypes, prejudices, and ideological barriers and to create a cooperative, mutually-supportive international educational experience. U.S. students will gain insight into the conditions that have dramatically affected Mexican life and migration, and will have the rare opportunity to work with their Cuban counterparts to learn about current conditions in Cuba (especially valuable now that it is almost impossible for them to travel there). It is hoped that this intern experience will help them make important career and life choices. Through personal observations of the consequences of U.S. policies and corporate globalization in Mexico, and comparison with the alternative Cuban model, students will collectively develop their own critical perspectives. We anticipate that the group research and study efforts will help to lay the groundwork for future collaboration among the three student groups. During the first two weeks, U.S. interns will live with Mexican families in a low-income San Miguel neighborhood settled largely by people who have recently migrated from the countryside. Through informal interaction and community surveys they will investigate the transition from rural to urban life. During this time they will also participate in study and discussions with Center faculty and visiting speakers. During the second two weeks interns will live with Mexican families in rural communities with which we have established relations. Here they will conduct supervised social investigations of the problems faced by these communities (such as water shortage, government neglect, migration, family disintegration, land privatization, etc.) as well as work in local development projects. This experience will deepen their understanding of the effects of NAFTA on the Mexican people. In the fifth week they will return to San Miguel to write up their reports while also focusing on Cuba’s social policies as an alternative to those of neo-liberal globalization. Faculty will include two Cubans -- Miguel Limia David (Presidente Consejo Ciencias Sociales) and a representative from the Yo Si Puedo adult literacy program; two Mexicans – Atahualpa Caldera and Yolanda Millan, field organizers with the Center for Global Justice; and several Research Associates of the Center – Peggy Rivage-Seul (Womens Studies, Berea College), Mike Rivage-Seul (Peace and Social Justice Studies, Berea College), Cliff DuRand (retired Philosophy professor, Morgan State University), David Stea (retired Geography professor, Texas State University), Arturo Yarish (retired History teacher, Department of Education of the City of New York: High School Division), Bob Stone (retired Philosophy professor, Long Island University). In addition there will be several visiting Mexican speakers – Gustavo Esteva (deprofessionalized intellectual and founder of the alternative university, Universidad de la Tierra in Oaxaca), Gloria Carmona (popular educator working with rural women), Enrique Dussell Peters (economist). To apply or for further information, contact mike_rivage-seul@berea.edu
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