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The #GlobalPOV Project
"And all this time, I thought the world was round. The world is not round. It has edges we can fall from and faces staring in entirely different directions.
And I thought the world was huge, but it is not — it’s in our hands. We can hold it, change it, turn it, shake it. We can solve it, but not by sheer luck or chance. We must be taught the way."
Abby VanMuijen
Story Artist, The #GlobalPOV Project
The #GlobalPOV Project combines critical social theory, improvised art and digital media to explore innovative ways of thinking about poverty, inequality and undertaking poverty action.
The #GlobalPOV Project is an innovation in the field of higher education. A mixed-media approach to curriculum and pedagogy, it combines traditional teaching components, such as in-class instruction and independent reading, with online video micro-lectures and social media discussions to capture and maintain the interest of young people who crave intelligent content — content that challenges them to think flexibly, grapple with issues of practice and theory, and question the assumptions of past development efforts.
With intent to shape global poverty and practice action into a field of inquiry, The #GlobalPOV Project converts academic knowledge into formats that are accessible and interesting to the wider public. In particular, the mixed-media strategy is designed to reach a generation of socially conscious “millennials” growing up in a world of online connectivity, engagement and innovation.
There are three components to The #GlobalPOV Project:
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The #GlobalPOV Video Series
A free web video series consisting of 10 micro-lectures, each organized around a compelling and provocative question, introduce a new genre for communicating important debates regarding issues of global poverty, development and foreign aid. The videos combine social science theory with improvised art and live-action sketch to communicate complex dilemmas and frameworks of thought to the wider public, especially to young Americans eager to take up the cause of poverty action.
Encountering Poverty
The Point-of-View (POV) book, Encountering Poverty, by Ananya Roy, Genevieve Negrón-Gonzales, Kweku Opoku-Agyemang, and Clare Talwalker consolidates a new field of inquiry: global poverty studies. The book outlines and shares the core concepts and case studies of the path-breaking undergraduate curriculum of the Global Poverty and Practice (GPP) Minor at UC Berkeley. It also links to the #GlobalPOV video series by way of Quick Response (QR) codes. Moreover, students have the opportunity to discuss the content of the book in the #GlobalPOV Twitter feed.
#GlobalPOV on Twitter
An intervention in the relationship between youth, social media and the public sphere, the #GlobalPOV (short for “global poverty” and “global point of view”) feed marks the dramatic democratization of the classroom. The feed is an open forum in which students, teachers, practitioners and interested members of the public can ask questions, share resources and engage in public debates about society, economy and politics.
Meet the Team
Abby VanMuijen
Story Artist, The #GlobalPOV Project
Abby VanMuijen is the Story Artist for The #GlobalPOV Project. A former student of Prof. Roy, she produced the “Global Poverty Coloring Book” while sitting/doodling/not sleeping in class one semester — and that was just the beginning. In addition to working as #GlobalPOV’s on-camera talent extraordinaire, she teaches an undergraduate course on visual note-taking.
Genevieve Negrón-Gonzales
Assistant Professor of Education, University of San Francisco
Genevieve Negrón-Gonzales is an Assistant Professor of Education at the University of San Francisco. Genevieve’s interests include political activism among undocumented migrant students, immigrant students and higher education, and California racial politics and Latino immigrant communities.
Khalid Kadir
Faculty
Khalid Kadir is a Lecturer at UC Berkeley, teaching in the International and Area Studies Teaching Program as well as the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. As a faculty member in the Global Poverty and Practice Minor, Khalid teaches sections of GPP 105 and GPP 196. In addition to his technical work as an engineer, Khalid studies the broader implications of water and wastewater treatment and how these relate to international development and poverty alleviation. In this vein his work focuses on the role of expertise in water related development projects and how “expert” knowledge plays a role in the politics of development.
Ananya Roy
Director of the Institute on Inequality & Democracy at UCLA
Formerly the Education Director at the Blum Center, Ananya Roy is now Professor of Urban Planning and Social Welfare and Director of the Institute on Inequality and Democracy at UCLA.
Clare Talwalker
Faculty
Clare Talwalker is a Lecturer in the International & Area Studies Teaching Program. She teaches courses on qualitative methods, global poverty action, human rights, South Asia and economic anthropology. She has advised student groups including Haath Mein Sehat (water and sanitation in India) and Bare Abundance (food justice in the Bay Area).