Dr. Araceli Alonso, Distinguished Senior Lecturer and Co-Director of UNESCO Chair on Gender, Wellbeing and Culture of Peace, has been teaching a study abroad course to UW-Madison students as part of the UW’s Circle of Care for Global Health and Human Rights study abroad program.
This past summer was the sixth year of this program. However, due to COVID-19, Dr. Alonso and her students were not able to travel, so they held the course virtually.
Of studying abroad, Dr. Alonso says, “Sometimes we understand better our own challenges when we confront challenges outside…This is very normal in our study abroad courses that students come home and say ‘because I went out and came back I was able to make sense of these circumstances in my own life, my own community.’ Sometimes we have to go through experiences outside, and put ourselves in the shoes of others, to come back home and understand these issues.”
Students had the opportunity to connect with and hear the stories of individual women from Spain, Morocco, and Nigeria. Even though Dr. Alonso’s students were not physically in these locations, they were able to be there virtually and bring their deeper knowledge and understanding home with them to better understand their own communities.
Read the full piece, written by the UW-Madison International Division, here.