Glocal citizenship’ in the humanities and social sciences
The Faculty of Arts, in collaboration with the Faculty of Social Sciences, is organising several inspirational events as part of its 2025 Global Minds Open Faculty Project, entitled "'Glocal citizenship’ in the humanities and social sciences: re-calibrating programs and partnerships (GLOCIT)."
KU Leuven
The main objectives of this Global Minds project are to help policymakers, scholars and students from the North and South reflect more critically on issues of local and global citizenship and to translate these reflections into a set of best practices and policy recommendations.
It will do so through three approaches:
Historical: a critical look will be shed at processes of globalization in the field of science and higher education, with specific attention to the impact of (neo)colonial hierarchies of power on international collaborative work. Can a longue durée approach provide us with useful insights into on-going trends in international education and academic collaboration?
Conceptual: there is an intense debate on interculturality and citizenship in higher education systems across the globe; in which forms and by which means are these concepts and the intertwining competences currently embedded and actualized in under/graduate curricula within the humanities and in international policy frameworks?
- Policy-oriented: practical recommendations will be formulated to identify and implement specific and more general changes in terms of curriculum enrichment and international partnership building.
On March 4, from 14:00 to 16:30, Segato will deliver a public lecture titled “Envisioning the University from a Latin American Perspective.” She will critically examine knowledge systems, explore the lingering impact of colonial legacies on global thought, and present alternative feminist and anti-racist frameworks.
On March 5, from 19:00 to 21:00, the evening will feature a screening of My Imaginary Country, a documentary capturing the pivotal role of women in Chile’s recent social uprising. Afterward, Segato will join a moderated discussion on the significance of women and indigenous voices in political movements across Latin America.
On March 19, we will discuss citizenship education and service learning in higher education in Colombia and Belgium. Colombia, with its long history of civil conflict, is a leading country in research on intercultural competencies as a powerful tool for promoting sustainable peace. Guest speakers Dr. Andrés Mejía (Universidad de los Andes) and Dr. Daniel Eduardo Garcia Suárez (Pontificia Universidad Javeriana) will explore the role of citizenship education and service learning in (higher) education. How can these forms of social education contribute to addressing urgent societal challenges? How do we shape students who actively participate in democracy in today’s globalized society?