March 19, 2021 @ 1pm EST
Mary Mendenhall is an Associate Professor of Practice in the International and Comparative Education Program at Teachers College, Columbia University. Her research is situated at the intersection of education in emergencies, humanitarian and refugee policies, and teacher preparation and support across camp, urban, and resettlement contexts. Her current research focuses on teacher identity, teacher support, and professional development of both refugee and host community teachers in forced displacement settings, primarily in Sub-Saharan Africa. She is an active member of the Inter-agency Network for Education in Emergencies (INEE), serving as a long-standing representative on the Standards and Practice Working Group and leading the research and learning workstream for the network’s Teachers in Crisis Contexts Collaborative.
Mary will speak about teaching courses related to refugees and the right to education through different pedagogical, project-based, and interactive approaches. She will also share examples of ways to integrate refugees’ voices and experiences in the classroom and beyond.
Katherine Kaufka Walts, JD is the Director of the Center for the Human Rights of Children at Loyola University Chicago. The Center represents, coordinates, and stimulates efforts of the Loyola University community to understand and protect the human rights of children utilizing an interdisciplinary approach. Prior to joining Loyola, Ms. Kaufka Walts served as the Executive Director of the International Organization for Adolescents (IOFA). At IOFA she developed several projects in the US and abroad advancing the rights of children and youth, including a program to develop the capacity of child welfare system to better respond to child trafficking and exploitation cases. Prior to IOFA, Ms. Kaufka Walts managed the Counter-Human Trafficking project at the National Immigrant Justice Center, where she worked with several local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies on single and multiple-victim sex and labor trafficking cases. She successfully represented dozens of victims of human trafficking in the United States within immigration and criminal justice proceedings under the Trafficking Victims Protection Act.
Katherine will speak about how to reimagine immersive/experiential learning experiences for students under Covid-19, using our Immigration Detention Project as a case study.
