There is a strong tendency in social and political sciences to simplify the academic use of the concept of populism. This is what populists do when they dichotomise reality into friends and enemies. The goal of this talk is to highlight and discuss why scholars have to develop an adaptive and multifaceted perspective, and how changing realities across Europe and the United States, including the experience of Covid-19 pandemic, might contribute to strengthen this perspective.

Speaker
Oscar Mazzoleni, Professor of Political Science and Political Sociology, University of Lausanne

Register for the session here.

Presented by the Institute for European Studies

Evidence in Governance and Politics (EGAP) in collaboration with the Reppy Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies, the Institute of Politics and Global Affairs, the Gender and the Security Sector Lab, Department of Government, and the Brooks School of Public Policy will be hosting a two-day meeting at Cornell University on October 28th and 29th. Sabrina M. Karim, Hardis Assistant Professor in the Department of Government and member of the EGAP network, will head the organization of the event, which will focus on two thematic areas:

Crime Reduction & Police AccountabilityDemocracy, Conflict, & Polarization

This closed event will bring together invited scholars and practitioners from the EGAP network, along with other experts in these two thematic areas, to showcase findings, identify research questions and promising interventions, and provide opportunities for matchmaking between researchers and practitioners.

For more information, please contact Sabrina Karim at smk349@cornell.edu or Ayuko Picot, Administrative Assistant, EGAP at ayukopicot@berkeley.edu.

"Antiracist Critical Literacy: Methodologies of the Oppressed for Language Education"
Claudia Holguín Mendoza
Associate Professor of Spanish Linguistics, University of California, Riverside

In this presentation, Dr. Holguín Mendoza describes the design and implementation of a comprehensive critical literacy and Critical Language Awareness (CLA)-oriented Spanish Heritage Language (SHL) program that deconstructs and questions sociopolitical hierarchies, challenges the subordination of SHL students' linguistic practices, and elevates students' voices and agency. She underscores the importance of building critical SHL programs on three interrelated foundations: stakeholder engagement, curriculum, and assessment. A truly comprehensive critical literacy and CLA-oriented program must integrate critical teacher training with a wide stakeholder engagement that serves to build on strengths from across the institution and to position the SHL program as a promoter of Latinx student success. Sociolinguistic justice and antiracist transformation through literacy occur when we critically understand how language and sociocultural access and expertise are socially constructed. Finally, Dr. Holguín Mendoza describes assessment tools that have demonstrated how comprehensive critical literacy programs have proven to be a valuable model for language education and student empowerment.

Bio: Dr. Claudia Holguín Mendoza is an Associate Professor of Spanish linguistics at the University of California, Riverside. She specializes in the sociolinguistics of race in the Mexican borderlands and Greater Mexico as well as critical pedagogies for the teaching of Spanish as a heritage language. She publishes in both English and Spanish and her work has appeared in journals such as International Multilingual Research Journal, Hispania, Studies in Hispanic & Lusophone Linguistics, Identities, and Frontera Norte.

This event will be held in person on campus (Goldwin Smith Hall G76) and will also be streamed live over Zoom (see link for registration details).

The talk is part of the 2022 Consortium for Language Teaching and Learning Fall Workshop titled Connecting Language Teaching and Social Justice: A Call for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. The event is free and open to the public. Registration is required. Campus visitors and members of the public must adhere to Cornell's public health requirements for events.

"Problem-Based Models for Language and Culture Instruction"
Stacey Margarita Johnson
Assistant Director at the Center for Teaching and Senior Lecturer of Spanish, Vanderbilt University

A problem-based approach to language instruction infuses the communicative classroom with current events, critical thinking, and interdisciplinary connections. Through a process of identifying a problem, gathering resources to understand the problem, and then working with a group to process and report on what they have learned, students acquire language as they learn about the world around them and engage deeply with others' perspectives. Although problem-based language learning can be used as the foundation of an entire course or program of study, this talk will emphasize how and why instructors can implement problem-based language learning right away through intentional, research-informed modifications to their existing plans.

Bio: Dr. Stacey M Johnson is a teacher of Spanish as well as language teaching methods and second language acquisition. Stacey is also a researcher, technology administrator, editor of the journal Spanish and Portuguese Review, and producer of the podcast We Teach Languages. Her academic interests include postsecondary language classroom practices, hybrid/blended instruction, professional development, and adult learning including transformative learning and critical pedagogy. Her first book, Hybrid Language Teaching in Practice: Perceptions, Reactions, and Results, co-authored with Berta Carrasco, was published in March 2015, and her second book, Adult Learning in the Language Classroom, came out later that same year. Stacey’s recent publications include a book chapter and a magazine article about collecting authentic resources and an article about social justice in the language classroom. Currently she is working on projects including: 1) her third book, co-authored with Claire Knowles with expected publication in 2022, about the potential of a problem-based model for language and culture instruction, and 2) an edited collection co-edited with Kelly Davidson and LJ Randolph titled How We Take Action: Social Justice in K-16 Language Classrooms. At Vanderbilt University, in addition to her role as the Assistant Director for Educational Technology in the Center for Teaching, Stacey also holds appointments as a Senior Lecturer of Spanish in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese and as adjunct faculty in the English Language Learners program in Peabody College, and is Affiliated Faculty in the Center for Second Language Studies.

This event will be held in person in G25 Stimson and will also be streamed live over Zoom. Join us at the LRC or on Zoom.

The event is free and open to the public. Campus visitors and members of the public must adhere to Cornell's public health requirements for events.