Academic Think Tank
Academic Think Tank: Refugee Resettlement in the Triad
Call for 2012-2013 Student Applications: During the 2012-2013 academic year a select group of UNCG students will join Dr. Alexandra Schultheis Moore, Dr. Stephen Sills, and local refugee resettlement agencies to create an innovative Think Tank engaging in significant scholarly and community engaged research with Bhutanese and Burmese refugees who have resettled in the Triad.
Students will have the opportunity to explore a dynamic and complicated facet of our community through working directly with local resettlement experts and refugee populations. By learning about the wider historical, legal, political, and cultural contexts that both produce refugees and govern their movements and representations, students will develop a broader knowledge of relevant human rights and humanitarian discourses and policies. What are the conditions in Bhutan and Burma that have produced such large numbers of refugees? What are the needs of those refugees in our area? We will meet once a week in the fall on Wednesdays from 2:00 to 3:15pm to study the problem and to learn about local service providers. In the second half of the course, students will focus their engagement in particular service-learning projects related to their own academic majors and/or interests (e.g., legal aid, health care, culture and customs, English as a Foreign Language, computer training, entrepreneurship, citizenship, etc.). In this way students will develop applied skills and learn how they may address global issues on the local level. This Think Tank will give students the opportunity to apply their insights in shaping the strategic plan for the new Immigrant and refugee referral and information center in Greensboro.
Think Tanks bring students, faculty, and community partners together in a year-long collaborative research project that focuses on a pressing community issue. Think Tank members explore complex issues and design and execute a research project in collaboration with the community.
Think Tanks have several pedagogical and practical objectives. By involving faculty from more than one academic discipline, they enable students to appreciate the linkages among different intellectual fields. The connection with a community partner assists with developing practical leadership skills to develop innovative approaches to "real" social issues. Engagement with the community also helps clarify the ways campuses and communities can work mutually to address pressing challenges and create opportunities. The research component allows students to create original intellectual contributions that demonstrate the application of academic study to matters of public concern.
Admission to the Think Tank is by competitive selection, and all rising UNCG sophomores, juniors, and seniors with a 3.3 GPA or higher at the time of application are welcome to apply. The Think Tank is a year-long undertaking for which student participants will receive 3 credit hours of Honors credit during the spring semester. Additional cross-listed credits may be possible, if approved by those departments and programs. Please see Drs. Moore or Sills to discuss individual plan of study needs.
To obtain an application, please click the PDF below or go to the website for MERGE: www.uncg.edu/aas/merge. Completed applications, including the essay and confidential letter of recommendation, must be submitted to the Honors College office in 205 Foust Building by April 13, 2012.
Think Tank Student Application 2012-2013 (*PDF)
Please note: most forms require the Adobe Acrobat PDF Reader, which can be downloaded from the Adobe web site.