Thursday, September 18, 2014

Black to share experience in Nairobi at faculty lunch


The Faculty Development Committee will host the first of its lunches today, Friday, Sept. 19, in the faculty dining room. Dr. Kyle Black, Modern and Classical Languages, will  share “Contemporary Kenyan Culture in Context: The MIASMU Experience and Beyond” from 12:30 to 1:15 p.m. Lunch is available to faculty and academic staff in the cafeteria beginning at noon. (Note at the front that you are attending the FDC lunch).

In this session of “Sharing Faculty Development Over Lunch,” Dr. Black will share his experience with the Maryknoll Institute of African Studies’ immersion program from this summer in Nairobi, Kenya. Complemented by photographs taken on the trip, he will share some of the reasons why he chose to participate in the MIASMU program, along with how the experience was central to his professional development as a member of the Saint Mary’s community and his role as an educator.

For example, Dr. Black hopes to develop a course that will explore Kenyan/African culture through literature, film, and anthropological texts acquired on the trip. He also will describe the class in which he was enrolled (“African Cultures: An Overview”) and the ethnographic study carried out on the concept of work, identity, and labor roles in Kenya.