Global Programs

Chrystal George Mwangi to present talk on equity in internationalization efforts

Penn State Global, University Libraries and Office of Educational Equity will co-sponsor public lecture on June 8

Chrystal George Mwangi Credit: Chrystal George MwangiAll Rights Reserved.

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Penn State Global, the Office of Educational Equity, and the University Libraries will co-sponsor a guest lecture by Chrystal George Mwangi of George Mason University at 5:30 p.m. June 8 in Foster Auditorium on the University Park campus. The lecture is titled “Keeping Pace and Pushing Forward: (Re)imagining Campus Internationalization Through an Equity-Driven Lens."

The entire University community — faculty, staff and students — is invited to join. Light refreshments will be served at the event for those who attend in-person.

For those who wish to join remotely, they should register for the Zoom webinar. Registering will also give access to a recording of the lecture for those who cannot make the lecture.

“The Penn State Libraries is so happy to have the opportunity to host this important and timely lecture,” said Mark Mattson, head of Global Engagement and international partnerships librarian. “The event focuses on principles which the Libraries are passionate about advancing within our institution: internationalization, global engagement, diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging.”

George Mwangi is a renowned scholar in the field of international education. She is an associate professor in the Higher Education program at George Mason University. Her scholarship centers on structures of opportunity and inequity impacting the trajectories of racially minoritized students into and through college; (in)equity in higher education internationalization and the use of higher education as a tool for international mobility/migration; and African and African Diaspora populations in higher education, emphasizing the impact of race, racism and coloniality.

She is a recipient of NAFSA’s Innovative Research in International Education Award and has also received a Comparative & International Education Society (CIES) Study Abroad and International Student SIG Best Article Award. Her work has been published in such journals as Harvard Educational Review, Higher Education, Research in Higher Education, Review of Higher Education, and Teachers College Record.

“I'm very excited to invite Dr. George Mwangi to Penn State,” said Roger Brindley, vice provost for Global. “She is a dynamic and engaging speaker who has remarkable expertise and personal experience, and who effortlessly helps people think about diversity in a global context. I'm pleased to cosponsor with the Penn State Libraries and with the Office of Educational Equity, as our whole community seeks to build a sense of welcoming, inclusion and belonging.”

Framed by an emergent equity-driven internationalization lens, George Mwangi will share an approach for foregrounding (in)equity in internationalization strategies, international student mobility, international higher education partnerships/research, and education abroad. This research talk will highlight how the process, concept, and construction of internationalization can center or silence the ways universities engage globally.

“Dr. George Mwangi’s scholarly work in Global Education and diversity is critically important and it illustrates key aspects of intersectionality,” said Vice Provost for Educational Equity Marcus Whitehurst.  “This is a great opportunity to learn more about diversity and inclusion from a Global perspective and apply it to our efforts at Penn State.”

For more information, contact Nate Rufo at ner17@psu.edu.

Last Updated June 1, 2022

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