The Walter Commons

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The Walter Commons

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The Otto and Fran Walter Commons for Global Study and Engagement

Our Mission

To advance dialogue and justice across disciplines, borders and boundaries

Around the world, history is being made at the grassroots. World-changing social innovations and social movements—and the people who lead them—emerge from the community level. That’s why Conn offers you a multitude of ways to get close to the day-to-day challenges, the aspirations, and the nuances of communities around the world.

The Otto and Fran Walter Commons for Global Study and Engagement is a vibrant hub for global learning providing a dynamic venue for the entire campus to engage in critical dialogues, presentations, and symposia around themes of global significance. Multidisciplinary and collaborative by design, the Commons integrates technology-enhanced learning, rich faculty resources and interdisciplinary scholarship to infuse our classrooms, campus culture, and off campus programs with diverse world perspectives on the relevant issues of our times.

The Commons houses an upgraded Global Learning Lab, the Office of Study Away, the Center for the Critical Study of Race and Ethnicity, the Center for International Studies and the Liberal Arts, and the Office of Global Initiatives. Programming in the Commons promotes understanding of social justice and facilitates deep knowledge of cultures and communities within and beyond the borders of the United States.

Key priorities of the Commons include:

Advancing world language studies as a foundation for mutual learning across cultures and communities.
Integrating global studies and the critical study of social difference.
Supporting globally networked courses that foster critical intercultural awareness through the use of state of the art web conferencing space.
Collaborating with academic departments and programs to integrate experiential learning and study away with on-campus coursework in majors and pathways.
Building mutually reciprocal institutional partnerships to create opportunities for meaningful scholarly collaborations, exchange programs, and ongoing civic projects.

The Walter Commons for Global Study and Engagement houses:

Three students sharing notes on a SATA Vietnam trip

Office of Global Initiatives

Working across departments and divisions in support of the College mission, the Office of Global Initiatives directs Walter Commons programming to facilitate and coordinate the integration of global issues and perspectives into the academic program and campus culture. The office leads efforts to enhance world languages, deepens the global-local engagement dimensions of Connections, and supports full participation of students, faculty and staff.

A wall with a lime green stripe and words written in different languages

Global Learning Lab

The Global Learning Lab is a technology-rich resource center and learning space that provides students with tools and opportunities to improve their language proficiency and to expand their intercultural knowledge. This campus hub for globally networked learning is the home of FLAC, language lunch tables, drop-in language study and the Structured Independent Language Study (SILS) program.

Office of Study Away

The Office of Study Away works to enhance the College’s mission through promoting carefully selected study away programs that encourage an understanding of international peoples, groups, cultures, languages, and global issues.

Jesse Jackson at a Hawkins Humphrey Bill rally

Center for the Critical Study of Race and Ethnicity

The Center for the Critical Study of Race and Ethnicity (CCSRE) provides the structure, resources, and expertise to initiate and sustain critical and intersectional examinations of race, ethnicity, and social justice in global contexts. It supports teaching, research, and artistic expression that underscore the importance of critical theory and practice in academic and public life in the interest of more just societies.

Vanessa Correia, Save the Children, Amman, Jordan

Toor Cummings Center for International Studies and the Liberal Arts

The Toor Cummings Center for International Studies and the Liberal Arts (CISLA) affords students the opportunity to internationalize their majors and engage global issues through distinctive courses, intensive language study, a funded international internship, and a senior research project. The Center bestows a certificate upon completion.

People You Might Work With

Amy Dooling

VP for Strategic Initiatives and Special Advisor to the President, Professor of Chinese

A scholar of modern Chinese literature, Amy Dooling has published books on 20th century women’s writing and feminist literary culture. As Associate Dean of Global Initiatives, Dooling works with offices and individuals across campus to coordinate the College’s global education efforts.

Suzuko Knott

Associate Professor of German, Director of the Toor Cummings Center for International Studies & the Liberal Arts (CISLA), Acting Chair of the Department of German

Suzuko Knott's research interests include Japanese-born German-language writer Yoko Tawada, intersections of German literary and cultural production with Japan and the United States, and sport and body culture of the 19th century. She teaches Beginning German, Imagining Amerika, Sexology and Sex Activism in the Weimar Republic and Stories from the Road.

Laura Todorov

Assistant Director, Center for the Critical Study of Race and Ethnicity

ltodorov@conncoll.edu

Laura Little

Faculty Director of the Global Learning Lab, Associate Teaching Professor of Slavic Studies

Laura Little is a cultural historian and second language educator with expertise in Russia and Eastern Europe. Before completing her Ph.D., Little worked for a refugee resettlement program at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow as a curriculum development specialist at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, California.