Yes indeed, it's that time of the year again when I write one of my twice-yearly blog posts about my progress as a doctoral student at the Centre for Higher Education Internationalisation (CHEI) at Universita Cattolica del Sacro Cuore!

In my last post, I marveled at being halfway through my first year. As you might expect, I'm now wrapping up that first year entirely and moving into my second year. I'm told that this is the year that things really start to heat up! I'll try to keep this post brief, both for your sake and mine :)​

The "CHEI Autumn 2024 Seminar" was amazing, as always. A great group of newcomers joined us, along with the esteemed members of the Academic Board. If logistics would allow it, I'd love for these seminars to be two weeks long. The sheer volume of excellent conversations, challenging feedback, and deep connections that CHEI can pack into five days is remarkable, and I always come away from these seminars feeling a sense of gratitude...sprinkled with exhaustion. But hey, it's a PhD program, not a day at the beach.

I'm continuing to move forward with all of the prep for launching my study in earnest - firming up my methodology and plans, building out my surveys and data analysis tools, and still doing LOTS of reading. That's probably never going to stop, I suppose. My supervisors are both very supportive, and now is when I'll really start leaning on their support as I get into the thick of things. 

I submitted my ethics clearance request during the seminar week, so a few months and rounds of revisions from now, I should have the greenlight to launch my study. I won't go into too much detail on that since a few things are still up in the air, but suffice it to say that I'm hoping to get a big chunk of data that I can tear apart all sorts of interesting ways. 

COIL and virtual exchange are still babies. Realistically, we're all still in the start-up phase with these things, and I'm hoping that I can push the needle slightly forward with my research and the findings that come out of it - whatever those findings may be. The future is extremely bright for web-enabled intercultural engagement, and I'm honored to be playing a small part in getting us to the next step in my own small way.

That's all for now - back to reading.

​Ciao.

​Well here we are once again on the back end of a doctoral seminar with the Centre for Higher Education Internationalisation (CHEI) at Universita Cattolica del Sacro Cuore. As has become tradition, I'm putting together my thoughts here for whoever may be interested in what it's like to pursue a doctorate part-time in the Italian system while working a full-time job.

For those of you keeping score at home, I am now about halfway through my first year as a doctoral candidate. At this stage, I'm gearing up to submit my ethics review documentation for my research study and will be spending most of the time between now and September polishing my literature review and writing a methodology chapter draft. Consequently, I'm going to be diving deep into my methodology, so I'll probably cover that in a standalone post sometime this summer. 

First, let's talk about the seminar. The spring seminars are held in Brescia, a gorgeous Italian city not far from Milan. In stark contrast to the fall seminars in Milan, the Brescia seminars in the spring tend to feel more laid back, more collegial, and personally, I prefer the small city atmosphere to the bustling metropolis of Milan. 

As CHEI grows, the wonderful people who organize the program take great care to improve each seminar and tailor it to be super effective in creating a fantastic atmosphere for learning. This seminar was structured differently in that the first two days of the week were spent in coaching sessions with members of the academic team and visiting scholars from abroad. We were blessed with the presence of two fantastic scholars - Gerardo Blanco and Miguel Lim. These first two days were certainly intense and involved some pre-reading and critical thinking, but it's a great opportunity to verbalize the thinking that we've been doing since we last met in September and to be challenged to go even deeper. 

The remainder of the seminar was split between listening to presentations from other folks in the program and having many spur-of-the-moment discussions about the direction of our topics with anyone and everyone willing to spare five minutes. For me, these seminars feel like a perfect blend of academic intensive and spiritual retreat, where we are both challenged to be our best scholarly selves and given the space to voice our questions, doubts, and even fears. This is not a competitive environment, but rather something like that support group for those of us ill advised enough to pursue independent research of internationalization globally. 

I also had the great pleasure of meeting one of my supervisors during the seminar. Francesca Helm, who for those interested in virtual exchange and COIL needs no introduction, very graciously offered to attend the seminar specifically on the day of my presentation. I cannot express how much it meant to me for her to be there and how wonderful it's been up until this point to work with her and Robert O'Dowd, who serves as my second supervisor. I am in very good hands on the supervisor front. That being said, it's also a bit unnerving to have such world-class scholars guiding me through the next three years of my research!

The week was a resounding success, and great gratitude must be given to Fiona Hunter and the members of the CHEI staff and academic team for organizing what I feel is the best seminar yet that I've attended in the last three years. 

Now, let's talk a little bit about my topic and what I'm going to be up to between now and the September seminar in Milan.

My pursuit of a values-based framework for understanding Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) marches on, and has continued to take form as I read, question, and seek the overflowing wisdom of my colleagues across the world. Very soon after the seminar last fall, I stumbled across a methodology that genuinely fits my topic and my style of inquiry perfectly - Q methodology. I won't go into detail in this post, but this is a great video if you're interested in a easily-digestible overview of how Q methodology approaches studying subjectivity and perception. 

As tends to happen to just about everyone in the CHEI program, I've been continuing to refine my research questions and scope of inquiry. I'm now preparing to look at how coil practitioners understand coil itself and look at it through an existing values framework which I believe will reveal interesting insights regarding similarities and differences across contexts. COIL is still a new and unfamiliar endeavor for many across the world, and there are disparate understandings of the approach which can simultaneously make COIL both challenging to undertake and very exciting to research. 

I'll end the hinting here and leave the rest for a full-fledged post on my methodology this summer, but stay tuned for a deep dive sometime in the next few months. 

I think that it's important here to say that when I started my journey with CHEI, I felt uncomfortable with the idea of being a researcher. I've never done a full-fledged research project, and things like methodology and theoretical frameworks caused me a lot of anxiety in the first two years of the program. But now as I sit halfway through my first year as a "real" doctoral candidate, I find myself with a shifting identity. I can occasionally envision a future where I am more scholar than practitioner. It's a very interesting feeling to experience a draw towards research and perhaps a way from the day-to-day running of programs that I do now. It's not a change that will happen quickly if at all, but it doesn't scare me anymore to imagine it.

As a matter of fact, I was able to support a COIL initiative at another university by presenting on values-forward approaches to COIL collaboration. It's a weird feeling to be asked to talk about your research to a group of established academics because they want to hear what you have to say.

Outside of the PhD journey, I'm leaving on Friday for a month in Europe, where I'll be accompanying a group of students to Dublin and meeting with partners in Amsterdam and London. It's going to be a very full month, and I am both excited and nervous to be traveling for so long. But, I'm looking forward to meeting up with many colleagues in Europe and taking a deep breath after what has been a roller coaster of an academic year. 

I think I'll leave this post here for now with more to come sometime later this summer as promised.

​Thanks for following along, and for reaching out with questions about the CHEI program and what it might mean for you to pursue such an opportunity. It certainly isn't for everyone, and that's fine. For those who do find themselves intrigued by this type of doctoral program, I'm always here to answer your questions honestly and to help you think through your journey.

In my post from September last year, I laid out the next steps for me in my program and I hinted at soon being able to share who my supervisors would be once I was officially accepted as a PhD student at Cattolica. Happily, I can spill the beans on everything that's been happening over the past handful of months and bring you up to speed before I head back to Italy in early April for our spring seminar.

During the fall seminar in Milan, my cohort was given the low-down on how the last pieces of the application process would play out. Basically, once we turned in the various documents that were required, the last step would be an interview via Zoom with the CHEI Director and two members of the faculty from Cattolica. I had my interview in early October and don't actually know how much I'm allowed to say about that process, so I'll just note that it was a lovely experience that mostly boiled down to answering questions about my proposed research, including timeline and methods.

Not long after the interview, I was notified that I'd been officially recommended for admission, and within a few weeks, I became official! Woohoo! 

With that, I was formally introduced to my two supervisors and immediately started panicking. Not really, but a little. 

irstly, I have to shout out Ravi Ammigan, PhD. He served as my tutor for a year during my time as an "Applicant" (read a previous post on what that means), and he was genuinely instrumental in helping me narrow my focus into solid research questions that I'm now pushing ahead with. Huge thanks to him!

The process of being matched with supervisors must be stressful for the CHEI staff, but from my end of things, it was a breeze! I had been given a chance to suggest a few names, so I naturally shot for the stars and named the researchers that I read most often in the virtual exchange space. Believe it or not, they both agreed!

I'm still amazed and a little starstruck if I'm honest, but I'm happy to share that my supervisors are Francesca Helm (University of Padova) and Robert O'Dowd (University of León). They've already proven to be excellent sources of tough but fair feedback, and I'm excited to have them on my side for the journey ahead.

Since the Milan seminar last September, I've focused much of my time selecting and diving deep on my survey method (Q Methodology), which I'll talk more about in my post-seminar blog post in April. Like many in the CHEI program, I don't have a deep research background, and so I've needed to spend a lot of time learning.

My research seeks to understand viewpoints and practices among COIL practitioners, but to get to a stage where I can ask questions, I need to have clearly-defined terms to use as a foundation for the survey prompts. To that end, I've been working to create contextual definitions for the values that I propose exist within/emerge from COIL literature and discourse. This is a different kind of work - much more about theorizing than I'm used to. It feels a bit like sailing to me: I have a general sense of where I want to go, but I need to follow the stronger winds to get there. Where I choose to guide the boat (point the argument) either results in a joyous frenzy of typing or puts me in the doldrums - stuck until I feel another breeze.

It's been slow going, but I'm hoping that this first one is the longest and that I can take lessons from it that will speed things up for the next....6-7 terms that I need to propose definitions for.

My hope at the moment is to spend the summer finishing up this bit of the work enough that I can start building out survey prompts for the study. Hopefully, that study will launch sometime early in 2025. That's the plan, anyway.

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All of this is to say:
I'm still at it, I'm still loving the journey, and I'm still not sure that I belong in a PhD program with amazing, talented, brilliant people. Until it all crashes and burns, I'm going to keep pushing forward.
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Thanks for reading!​

Here we are again - a few weeks back at home after being away for another week-long seminar with the CHEI (Centre for Higher Education Internationalisation) community in late September. As is now my tradition after these things, I'm sat down here at my computer to try synthesizing my thoughts both for my own benefit and for anyone out there in the void interested about what it's like to do a Ph.D. in the field of Internationalization.

I've written a bit about the structure of the program in the past, but here's the broad overview. With CHEI, everyone starts off as a Newcomer, and you're not really expected to know or do much other than think deeply about what your research topic might be. Newcomers are the babies that aren't even really sure if they want to do a Ph.D. The next step is Prospective - this is when you need to start narrowing your focus (good luck!) and start reading and writing in earnest. This is the phase where you'll read more than you've ever read before and when you'll likely start feeling the ever-dreaded imposter syndrome tickling your brain. Following Prospective is Applicant. Applicants' main goal is to write a decently-significant research proposal and prep for the application process to Universita Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, the university where CHEI is housed. I've been an Applicant for the past year along with three cohort-mates, and boy howdy has it been stressful! CHEI does a great job of lighting the path, but there's also the appropriate amount of self-reliance required. Firming up your topic and doing lots of reading (and probably some formal literature review) is important.

Prior to September's seminar, I submitted my full research proposal (which you can read on ResearchGate if you're so inclined) along with various other supplementary documents. Once that was approved, I had an oral interview with CHEI's Director and two faculty from Cattolica. Thankfully, it went well! As of writing this, I have my official acceptance to Universita Cattolica del Sacro Cuore as a Ph.D. candidate! Three years from now and I'll be done, Lord willing. I also have to say a HUGE congratulations to my cohort-mates who all are continuing on as well! Great job, friends :)

I do know unofficially who my supervisors will be for the duration, and to say that I'm both over-the-moon excited and positively intimidated would be understatements. Until it's 100% official though, I'm afraid that you'll have to wait. Stay tuned!
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My research is still focused on COIL and the people who think about/plan/implement it. I've really leaned into exploring the values that drive the approach and the discourse around it, and I'm fairly certain that my research will culminate in proposing new ways of researching and facilitating COIL. We'll see - it might all be an embarrassing failure!

My approach is wrapped up in sociotechnical system theory, constructivism, decolonizing education, digital equity, and value-based paradigms. It's actually a ton of fun to dig through these things using COIL as my shovel, and if I uncover half of what I'm hoping, there will be quite a few interesting things to share.

Quite a lot of my presentation this seminar focused on constructing a survey that I hope will reveal interesting insights from the field - but mum's the word on that for the time being. No spoilers :) Suffice it to say that this was the first presentation in which I asked for specific feedback and got exactly what I needed. Great questions and valid concerns from the Academic Board, but I wrapped things up with a smile on my face.

For anyone interested in a sneak peek of my future research, I'll be at the NAFSA Region V Conference in Grand Rapids, MI later this month talking about COIL/VE and what I think the field needs to work on.

If I'm honest, I really don't identify as an academic. I know that the whole Ph.D. journey thing seems contrary to that, but I've felt a fair amount of discomfort in the doctoral space up to this point. Not because I feel like I don't belong, but because I have some frankly well-founded ideas about what Ph.D.s in higher education are like.

CHEI is the perfect place to be an academic while not entirely feeling like one, because there are so many people in the room who are practitioners first. Many, if not most, of us came to the Ph.D. because we have questions that we don't want to wait for somebody else to answer. It's not about sitting in white towers in tweed jackets quoting Coleridge; it really is about being a part of a community with big ideas about where our field can go in 5, 10, 15, 20 years.

Anyway, I'll end this post here for now. I'll probably be posting here more regularly once I really get going after the new year. There are a few other things that I'm eager to share that just aren't quite ready yet. Stay tuned!

I've had a few days to shake off my jet lag, and so I thought that I'd write up a debrief of last week's spring seminar at CHEI (Centre for Higher Education Internationalisation) while it's still fresh in my mind.
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​If you've been following along, you'll know that as a part of the doctoral program at CHEI, there are two required seminars each year - one in the spring in Brescia and one in the autumn in Milan. For various reasons that aren't worth going into, including the fact that I started the program during the pandemic, this is only my second in-person seminar. My last was a year ago...but it certainly didn't feel like it had been a year.

Shortly after returning from my extended partner visit trip across Europe in February, my feedback came in. To my surprise, the feedback was actually fairly positive! Like so many others, I suffer from the dreaded imposter syndrome, and so to have three academic readers give me feedback that didn't completely rip my work to shreds was a much-needed boost. They rightly pointed out that my APA formatting was atrocious and that I made some obvious blunders in defining the scope of my research. But at the end of the day, I'm pleased with what I got back.

From that point on, I spent much of my time working on organizing my brain for the main "deliverable" that we all have for the seminar - a 10-minute presentation followed by live feedback. Thanks to my past life as a study abroad road warrior, I generally feel comfortable giving presentations, but these PhD presentations make a conference session feel like a breeze. I've seen extremely competent and well-prepared researchers shake in their boots over these things.

I gave my presentation of Thursday morning, and so I had a few days to prep. I have to admit to you that I made the rookie mistake of making changes to my core ideas in the run up to my presentation. I changed a few words and tinkered with my research questions a bit, and I think that it probably broke up the flow of my thinking when it came to talk it through in front of the group. It wasn't a terrible mistake, but some of the feedback that I got was directly related to the changes that I had made...whoops! Still, those few minutes of feedback aren't the time to get defensive, and so I took it in stride and made my mental notes to fix what I had broken.

Again, the feedback from my peers was fairly positive, which felt nice. I have the benefit of presenting in my native language during these seminars - a privilege that isn't shared by everyone. If I had to give this in Italian, for example... well, let's not even go there. It wouldn't be good. The folks in the program who are presenting in their second, third, or fourth language....amazing.

I always love seeing what other folks are working on - the massive breadth and depth of knowledge in the CHEI community is always impressive to me, and it keeps getting better as more people join us. From work on university alliances to national-level internationalization policy to hybrid/blended mobility program models, you can find just about every corner of the field represented. Half of the fun of the presentation sessions is realizing how little you know about internationalization.

​If you had told my undergraduate self that I'd be traveling to Italy twice a year to talk about my doctoral research, I'd probably do a spit take. And yet, here I am. Frankly, I'm as surprised as anyone. 

My plan is to continue to chronicle this weird journey here via blog posts, but I'm also increasingly active on Twitter, so if you really want to see the ups and downs, follow me over there as well. 

Until next time - read more papers, take lots of notes, and remember that in the end, AI might take your job anyway, so have that second negroni.

​Ta.

Welcome back!

The past 6 weeks or so have been a whirlwind and now that I'm almost out of it, I can come up for a bit of air. There won't be a ton of PhD stuff in this post - I'm heading to Italy in a week or so to the spring seminar and will plan to debrief that and my next steps some time in April. Instead, I want to write out my thoughts on something that has been bouncing around my brain for quite a number of years. It's not new, it's not unknown, and it's still a conundrum. It's....the ProDev Paradox! 

​Not that kind of paradox.

To get things started, I'll lay out the paradox as clearly as possible:

1. International Ed experiences a medium-to-high level of staff turnover, particularly among "Coordinator" and "Advisor" positions
2. Institutions and organizations regularly state commitments to professional development and their desire/need to increase retention
3. Early career professionals are infrequently given opportunities to attend conference, certification programs, and site visits (though I DO NOT consider site visits as a "professional development opportunity" for many international ed professionals)
4. The lack of these opportunities is often cited as one of many factors which influence new professionals to leave the field

So, plainly put: The field values professional development and champions its value while also gatekeeping (intentionally or otherwise) those opportunities from early career professionals.

Okay sure - there's definitely a valid argument about funding and the value to the institution/organization in terms of allocating resources to folks that may not work for you beyond 18-24 months. BUT, that's a real chicken and egg scenario. The 2023 LinkedIn Workplace Learning Report highlights that "Job-seeking motivation varies across age groups. The youngest workers (age 18 to 34) are most likely to value opportunities for career growth, learning, and skill building."
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If we accept that job seekers ages 18-34 value these things as they look for a new job, we have to also accept that they probably don't just stop valuing these things once they're hired. For young professionals, there are going to be ample opportunities for growth just in the day-to-day work, and ask just about anyone working in international ed - they'll tell you that they are always learning new things. Once they get through their first year though, many folks will start wanting a little bit more.

We're spoiled in terms of prodev opportunities these days. More online courses and certificates that you can count, and in-person conferences are back! Shoutout to anyone attending Forum this week!  State-level conferences, NAFSA regionals and the national conference, Forum, EAIE, etc... the list goes on and on. 

Now, back to the money question. It's true that many of the national-level conferences come with a big price tag. It can easily cost a few thousand dollars to send a single staff person to NAFSA's annual conference, and even a regional conference can be pricey, especially for small or single-person offices. While online options are often affordable (though not always) and more convenient, relationships are the beating heart of our field. Just as virtual exchange won't ever be able to replace mobility, we can't expect online prodev to meet the entire need. I humbly submit to you...state-level conferences. 

I've just wrapped up a couple of days at my state-level conference here in Michigan, and it was great! While it may not have all the glitz and glamour of a national conference, the Michigan Association of International Educators team puts on one heck of a little conference.

Over a hundred international ed professionals converged at Hope College, attending sessions, networking, learning new things, and having that ever-critical face time with their colleagues. It was a fantastic time, and as with past years, the keynote presentation was fantastic - this year, it was delivered by Latitudes writer Karin Fischer.

And yet, in a state with a robust population of people working in our field, there were some notable gaps. Most discouraging for me in particular was the lack of education abroad folks. In a state with such a strong education abroad culture, only a handful of folks were in attendance. Michigan isn't an outlier - we've seen broad turnover, especially in early-to-mid-level positions. What better way to develop a sense of belonging as a new hire or seasoned veteran than to attend a conference entirely full of peers within your state? Even more enticing is the price tag - full registration is under $150 and hotel rooms can be had for even less. 

Regardless, we struggled to find ed abroad presenters. No sessions, no draw for attendees. Bupkis.

​I guess my question is: 

I suppose that, to bring this one home, what I'm trying to say is:

1. Employers, your early career folks want prodev opportunities. Encourage them to attend and/or propose sessions at  your state-level conference if you have one
2. Fund their attendance and give them the leeway to fully participate rather than expect them to be watching their email the entire time. Give them space to learn.
3. Early career professionals of the world unite! Attend your state-level conference and fully participate!
4. These conferences exist for YOU! Build your professional network, flex your presenting muscles, and learn tons of new things.

P.S. These state associations are usually run by a small team of volunteers. It's a FANTASTIC way to get to know new people and get your name out there. Consider joining them when they have open positions!

If you've been following along in my Ph.D. journey, you might remember that in my post from July 2021, I shared a short, 300-word document outlining my very initial research idea. If that doesn't ring a bell, don't worry - I had to go looking for it.

Anyway, I'm now ready in the phase of the program where I need to present a semi-solid (like Jell-O) idea of the who, what, where, why, how, etc of my research. The deadline to submit my Jell-O draft is in about a week. But, I like to share as much as I can about the process with you all. So, I'm going to share it here for anyone interested in reading a yet-to-be-torn-apart-by-the-academic-board Jell-O draft of a doctoral research proposal in internationalization of higher education.

As you can see, things have progressed FAR beyond where I was conceptually 18 months ago. Thankfully, there have been a bunch of great papers and studies on COIL/virtual exchange in that intervening period, and I've got much better at reading scholarly work. Thank goodness for reference managers.

Zotero is the one I use, by the way.

That's all for now! I'm heading to Europe for a few weeks of partner visits, so there won't be another post in that time. The next big things ahead of me are (1) the MAIE conference in mid-March, where I'm presenting two sessions on COIL (one is a half-day practitioner workshop!), and (2) the March CHEI Seminar in Brescia, where I will present on this Jell-O draft. Lots to do, still more to read.

Cheers!

Okay, look.....writing about a Ph.D. is really hard. It's really just a lot of reading most of the time. Sometimes I have an idea and write it down, but...that's pretty much it. I haven't posted anything since October 2021.

Mea culpa.

​Now, let's get back in the swing of things.

This post is going to cover (1) updates on the past year, (2) a check-in regarding the Ph.D, and (3) some articles that I think are worth reading if you're the sort of person interested in virtual exchange, COIL, etc.

At the end of 2021, I wrapped up my time with UC Santa Cruz and after a short holiday break, started a new role at the University of Michigan School of Information (UMSI) as their Global Engagement Program Manager. I've now been there over a year (well, a year tomorrow as I write this!). I'm absolutely loving my job and the team that I'm a part of. Probably more on that at some point down the line, but let's move on for now.

​The team at the Michigan Association of International Educators (MAIE) served up a top-notch in-person conference in March 2022. Even though it was smaller than usual, there was great energy among all the attendees, and it was a blast to serve as Chair, rotating out into my current mentoring roles as Past Chair. Our 2023 conference is in March as Hope College, by the way. Be there or be square.

Lastly, not not leastly (is this a word?), my wife and I bought a house in June last year! I spent most of the summer redoing hardwood floors and painting...everything, but now it's a cozy little lakeside cottage. Most importantly, there's plenty of room for our dog to run around. He's now 90 pounds and is yet to realize it.

Yes, it's still happening!

I've moved into what is called the "Applicant" phase, where I need to work up a formal research proposal and submit it to the university for admission as a Ph.D Candidate. In fact, I met with my supervisor just today, and things are looking pretty good (according to him). 

The topic has changed a bit since my last post, so I'll have to update you all fully on that at some point, but for now, suffice it to say that there's a sizable gap in the COIL literature that I'm trying to address directly. As COIL-coiner Jon Rubin puts it in The Guide to COIL Virtual Exchange, "there is...no single, clear path to programmatic success (in COIL)".

I ship back over to Italy at the end of March to present on my research proposal. I'm also doing some presenting at conferences regarding virtual exchange, COIL, and existing research - look for me at the MAIE Conference in March and the NAFSA National Conference in Washington, D.C., assuming my proposals there are approved.

Other than writing my research proposal, I've been reading a TON of papers and books. That brings us to...

Frankly, I think people don't read enough research. So, in the hopes of sparking your interest, I'm going to shout out a few papers at the end of each blog post. Read them or don't, but don't come crying to me when you don't know what the heck is going on.

Here are my current recommendations:

Why the Digitalization of International Education Matters 
by Shanton Chang & Catherine Gomes
It's an introductory editorial for a JSIE special topics issue on the subject, and it's worthwhile reading. Take a good look at the papers in the special issue as well, but don't skip over this introduction.
DOI: 10.1177/10283153221095163

Preparing Students for Successful Online Intercultural Communication and Collaboration in Virtual Exchange
by Gutiérrez, Glimäng, Sauro, & O’Dowd
In my opinion, this should be mandatory reading for anyone directly facilitating virtual intercultural programming. Not sure how to scaffold student interactions across cultures through tech? This is a great place to start.
DOI: ​10.32674/jis.v12iS3.4630

Conceptualizing Internationalization at a Distance: A “Third Category” of University Internationalization
by Mittelmeier, Rienties, Gunter, & Raghuram
This paper lays out IaD as an emerging contexual conceptualization of internationalization that captures our moment in time perfectly. Grounding international distance education firmly within existing internationalization literature, the authors lay out a new understanding of mobility of knowledge in a way that is sure to impact future research (as it is mine!).
DOI: ​10.1177/1028315320906176

Welcome back to my monthly Ph.D. blog! If you're new here, I'm blogging my way through a Ph.D. program in Internationalization of Higher Education at Cattolica University. These posts combine academic content with personal stuff and bits of randomness to hopefully result in an engaging and informative blog.

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Look, you all know how fall is...sorry for the belated post. Back-to-school joys and an island vacation got in the way. It's still SUPER busy, but we'll get through....right?

The fall seminar for my Ph.D. program happened in September and will continue on for the next few months with various online sessions. While I was stick stateside instead of joining the crew in Italy, I was able to present my research topic to some members of the Academic Board and get their feedback. If you're interested in seeing my presentation, I recorded my own version - check that out below:

Overall, the feedback was very positive! I do need to refine the term "asymmetry" more and look at research related to partnerships. When you get feedback that your topic is "timely and exciting", it's always a good thing. Keep in mind that this is really just the starting point - the topic will evolve and be refined over the next two years before I start conducting my own research, so it's bound to change. Still, as my reviewers said, "It's an encouraging start"!

Of course, I've kept on with reading and taking in as much information as I can about COIL and how it is being adopted all over the world. It's certainly not going to go away, and so I'm eager to see what new data sources I can find over the next few years.

Not a ton to report here. I've been diving deep into wrapping up development and budgeting on our 13 Global Seminars faculty-led programs for summer 2022. Faculty-led programs are a particular passion of mine, and it's a great feeling to get back to the type of work that I did when I was just starting my career.

We're also continuing to build momentum with our own COIL initiative, called Global Classrooms. The first few are being implemented this fall, with many more on the way. We even have a shiny new faculty fellow to help us design in-house trainings and expand our capacity! Lots of exciting developments which I hope to be able to talk about here in the future.

I'm not really one for vacations - I didn't grow up going on family trips, and it's just not something that I spend much time thinking about. Buuuut I was starting to feel burnt-out and grouchy, so I took a vacation! It's amazing what a week in the Caribbean can do for the soul. St. Thomas is a wonderful place if you ever get the chance to visit!

Welcome back to my monthly Ph.D. blog! If you're new here, I'm blogging my way through a Ph.D. program in Internationalization of Higher Education at Cattolica University. These posts combine academic content with personal stuff and bits of randomness to hopefully result in an engaging and informative blog.

Let's get into it!

You'll recall from last month's post that my first real paper was due. I shared the full text of that paper in July's post, so if you're interested in diving into the current state of my research plan, check that out here. Having finally landed on a general sense of direction for my research, I'm fairly happy with how the paper turned out - certainly for something short like this 1000-word research summary. 

My feedback from the Academic Board came in in late July, and thankfully, it didn't shrivel my will to continue. It turns out that my research has an "encouraging start"! Phew, thank goodness. My reviewers did note the major places in which I still need to do substantial work (reading more widely and exploring research around power dynamics and asymmetry outside of IE), but overall, I'm thrilled with the feedback.

I'm enjoying the format of the program immensely - having a stretched-out timeframe in which to massage my research interests and ideas without worrying about tight deadlines is an excellent format for those of us working full-time in the field, which I suppose is the point! Still, it's appreciated and worth saying so!

Things are BUSY at work these days, as I'm sure it is for all of you working in global education. The start of the semester is creeping up, and deadlines for next year's programs are rolling in. My main duties revolve around processing student applications for one of our main partners and supporting our virtual and in-person faculty programs. Even with modest uncertainty about how the Delta variant will impact global travel, we're forging ahead with the development of thirteen faculty-led programs. I'm choosing to remain optimistic, but as we've seen time and again over the past year and a half, things can change in a split second. Until they do, my days are going to be filled with budgets, itineraries, partner emails, etc. You know the drill.

I know that many of you reading this are in a similar boat, and since I'm finding it challenging to maintain that ever-elusive "work-life balance", here's your reminder to take care of yourself and unplug. There are two major growing trends on professional social media:

1. Do as much as you can for as long as you can. It's a race - be first and be a winner.
2. Your work isn't you. Take care of yourself and avoid burnout or something more serious.

I'm not going to tell you which to follow, because it's a spectrum and we're all comfortable in a different place, but do regularly take stock of your mental health. An overstressed, overworked, burnt out person isn't good for anybody. Hit the brakes long before you get there.

Diversity Abroad's Global Impact Exchange released recently, and I wholeheartedly recommend that you read it in it's entirety. There is excellent work being done, and as usual, the Global Impact Exchange is full of excellent examples of that.

And finally, as you're likely aware, I'm a part of the team behind the IE Discord Server. We've got all sorts of exciting plans for the upcoming year - including ways for you to get involved! In our recent State of the Server video, I announced the launch of our free presentation library, where our community will host recorded presentations contributed by colleagues around the world.

If you have developed a conference presentation or would like to, get in touch with us and we'll go over the details with you. In most cases, it's as simple as recording yourself giving your presentation via Zoom and then sending us the video file. Our aim is to enhance the sustainability and impact of presentations and to provide an opportunity for free access to the critical knowledge of our field.

If you're interested in submitting or just in joining the Discord community, you can start here!