Three Honors students are getting a rare experience in their Junior level Honors seminar this semester. In the HON 3515: Global Diversity Project seminar, students are proposing their own peacebuilding projects targeting issues of inequality and conflict in our local region. Dr. Martin Schoenhals created and is teaching this course cross-listed in Sustainable Development and the Honors College. Dr. Shoenahals, a cultural anthropologist and former U.N. globalization specialist, led the original U.N. Diversity Contest conducted in 2015-16. That project awarded funding (20,000 euros) to 10 college students across the world to implement their own proposals for peacebuilding. With the Global Peacebuilding Project (GPP), Dr. Shoenhals has brought this grassroots platform for social justice to Appalachian. The Honors College enthusiastically opened this course to our students because it directly aligns with the interdisciplinary and international focus as well as social consciousness of Honors.
To learn more, click here for the story by Linda Coutant in AppalachianToday, or here for the story by Tory N. Parrish in Diverse: Issues in Higher Education.
Top photo: Appalachian students Kylie Holloway, Devyn Barron (center) and Tatum Jennings (in back) videoconference with one of the winners of the U.N. Diversity Contest while Dr. Shoenhals observes. Photo by Marie Freeman
