The community offers a transdisciplinary approach to learning through an innovative and research-led discussion format that encourages students to share insights as co-collaborators. We offer a range of activities that deal with topics such as migration, the environment, etc. which can be approached from different perspectives and pose transdisciplinary challenges. Seminars, workshops, and practical activities guide the learning experience, and are facilitated by specialists from a range of subject areas who are engaged in globally oriented projects. Students are encouraged to integrate their own disciplinary knowledge, personal experiences, and reflections as they examine the complexities of global connections.
Learning Community Activities
Upcoming events
Stay tuned for our next event in Autumn 2024!
What students have said about our previous activities:
"The freedom to create whatever artefact we wanted allowed us to both demonstrate our viewpoint in our recordings but also through the meanings of the artefact itself. Furthermore, the topic/question was not restricted and being quite broad allowed us to focus on a topic we found interesting." (Cross-University Migration Project 2023)
"The experience was absolutely amazing and people I was working with were also amazing. I would definitely recommend this to my fellow student friends." (Cross-University Migration Project 2022)
"Very interesting to exchange ideas with students from other universities and fields." (Project Week 2022)
Past Events
'From Local to Global: A Future for the Environment' (12 February-11 March 2024, online)
From 10 February to 11 March, 40 EUTOPIA students (CY, UW, UPF, UL, TUD) participated in an online project month organised by the Global Connections Connected Learning Community. Students worked in small cross-university, cross-disciplinary teams on the topic ‘From Local to Global: A Future for the Environment’ to produce an artefact in the medium of their choice. They were asked to critically explore how different nations/regions of the world tackle contemporary environmental issues, and to investigate the extent to which these strategies ‘translate’ across borders and academic disciplines. The student groups produced some impressive projects including a website, several social media accounts as well as magazines and collages. In the concluding online session, teams got the opportunity to discuss and celebrate their work with CLC members and their peers.
Cross-University Migration Project (9-30 November 2023)
In November, 76 students from CY, UPF, UL and UW participated in the 2023 Global Connections Cross-university Migration Project. After an online session to introduce the concept to students, they worked in cross-university, cross-level and cross-disciplinary teams to reflect on an aspect of migration and produce an artefact in the medium of their choice. (This approach is inspired by IATL’s Student-Devised Assessment at the University of Warwick). Teams also had to present their artefact in a pre-recorded 10-min video presentation before taking part in an online Q&A with an academic discussant and their peers from other groups. Students produced a variety of research-informed artefacts such as zines, comics, toolkits, posters, social media accounts, poems, maps, etc. The CLC members were impressed by the quality of the work and the creativity deployed. This activity was embedded in the students’ curriculum for CY, UPF and UW, which means that their mark for this EUTOPIA project will count, to some capacity, in their overall mark for their home module. Overall, students really enjoyed working with peers from different countries and disciplines, as well as the creativity afforded by this activity.
Cross-University Migration Project (10-24 November 2022)
The Migration Project saw 48 students work in cross-university, multidisciplinary teams on a project centred on the theme of ‘migration’. After watching three videos about various aspects of migration, students had 2 weeks to work together on their project and create an artefact in the medium of their choice. On Thursday, 24. November, the community came together to watch the students present their artefact. The community was very impressed by the quality of the projects and the creativity displayed by the students. Groups respectively created letters, a video, a collage, an Instagram account, a Padlet, poems, a leaflet, and a book, all discussing various aspects of migration.Students valued working with peers coming from different countries and disciplines, and enjoyed having free reign over their artefact:
"This was a highly insightful activity providing me with the ability to learn about global connections and the impacts on migratory patterns which I had not learnt about before. The creative freedoms provided to us also made the activity even more enjoyable."
Project Week 2022
This activity ran from 7 to 14 March 2022 and saw 18 students from UoL, CY, UPF, UoW, and VUB come together to reflect on environmental issues in a transdisciplinary way. In inter-university and cross-disciplinary teams, students were asked to choose a topic related to the environment and to produce an artefact of their choice to reflect their views on the topic. On the last day, students presented their project to the community. Most teams chose to focus on ecotourism or sustainability. Participants were free to choose the medium they wanted for their project. This resulted in some very creative and interactive artefacts: a mini theatre scene, a yearly planner, a crossword puzzle, and a poster.
Cross-University Migration Discussion
On Thursday 28 October 2021, this pilot online event brought together 40 students from the University of Ljubljana, University Pompeu Fabra, Cergy University, and the University of Warwick to discuss video prompts on the theme of migration through the lens of their different disciplines.
How to get involved?
Students and Educators:
If you wish to get involved, please contact Dr Heather Meyer (heather.meyer@warwick.ac.uk) and Dr Mélina Delmas (melina.delmas@warwick.ac.uk).
Dr Heather Meyer is a Teaching Fellow at the University of Warwick’s Institute for Advanced Teaching and Learning (IATL). In this role, she promotes innovative pedagogies and approaches to assessment that are interdisciplinary/transdisciplinary in nature. Her research interests are situated across the fields of Global Studies, International Education and Migration Studies, and they significantly inform her teaching. She has experience working across a range of educational levels and sectors including K-12, Further Education (FE) and Higher Education (HE) in the U.K., Austria, Kuwait, and the U.S. (Dr Heather Meyer – Teaching Fellow (warwick.ac.uk))
Sílvia Morgades-Gil is a Senior Lecturer (Serra Hunter Fellow) in Public International Law, at the Department of Law, Pompeu Fabra University (http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1255-9285). She is member of the Research Group on Public International Law and International Relations <www.upf.edu/orbis> and the Interdisciplinary Research Group on Immigration (GRITIM-UPF) <www.upf.edu/gritim>. She teaches EU Law; Asylum and Refugee Law; and International Migrations Law at PompeuFabra University, Universitat de Barcelona and CEI-International Affairs. She obtained the Extraordinary Doctoral Award for her Doctoral Thesis and the1st Award Research in Human Rights for the work Elsdrets humans com a motor de l’evolució del règiminternacional de protecciódelsrefugiats (Human rights as an engine for the evolution of the international regime of refugee protection, Barcelona, Generalitat de Catalunya, 2008). She has worked as visiting post-doctoral researcher at the Université Paris 1-Sorbonne; and the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies-IHEID, Geneva. SílviaMorgades-Gil retains a research interest in the interaction between Public International Law and European Law as regards the legal status of refugees and people in need of protection. Her publications include book chapters and articles in scientific journals such as European Papers, Revue Générale de Droit International Public, International Journal of Refugee Law or European Journal of Migration and Law.
Marie-Pierre Arrizabalaga is currently full professor in American Studies at the Institute of International Studies and Modern Languages (UFR LEI), CY Cergy Paris Université. Marie-Pierre does research in Family and Migration History. She is the co-director of a Master's Program in European and International Studies (Master EEI), and teaches US history in a historical, political, social, and economic perspective at the BA and MA levels, and research seminars on migration studies at the MA level.
Andreja Žgajnar Gotvajn obtained her PhD in the field of Chemical Engineering. She is Professor of Environmental Engineering at Faculty of Chemistry and Chemical Technology of University of Ljubljana, Slovenia and head of the Programme Council of doctoral study on Environmental Protection at University of Ljubljana. Her research work is focused on management of solid wastes, biodegradability and ecotoxicity studies with chemicals and wastewaters in aquatic compartments, risk assessment and hazard identification of chemicals as well as different aspects of wastewater treatment, recycling and reuse. She participated in 6 national research projects, she was a leader of 5 bilateral international projects and she is currently involved in national research program Chemical Engineering. https://www.fkkt.uni-lj.si/sl/oddelki-in-katedre/oddelek-za-kemijsko-inzenirstvo-in-tehnisko-varnost/katedra-za-kemijsko-procesno-okoljsko-in-biokemijsko-inzenirstvo/zaposleni/prof-dr-andreja-zgajnar-gotvajn/
Mélina Delmas Mélina Delmas holds a PhD in Translation Studies from the University of Birmingham (UK). Since 2021, she works as a Research Assistant at the University of Warwick where she collaborates closely with Professor Jo Angouri on various projects relating to multilingualism, linguistic landscapes, and pedagogy. Mélina assists two EUTOPIA Learning Communities: Global Connections and Multilingualism & Diversity. Since 2023, Mélina is also the EUTOPIA Local Facilitator for Warwick.
From 10 February to 11 March, 40 EUTOPIA students (CY, UW, UPF, UL, TUD) participated in an online project month organised by the Global Connections Connected Learning Community. Students worked in small cross-university, cross-disciplinary teams on the topic ‘From Local to Global: A Future for the Environment’ to produce an artefact in the medium of their choice. They were asked to critically explore how different nations/regions of the world tackle contemporary environmental issues, and to investigate the extent to which these strategies ‘translate’ across borders and academic disciplines. The student groups produced some impressive projects including a website, several social media accounts as well as magazines and collages. In the concluding online session, teams got the opportunity to discuss and celebrate their work with CLC members and their peers.
In November, 76 students from CY, UPF, UL and UW participated in the 2023 Global Connections Cross-university Migration Project. After an online session to introduce the concept to students, they worked in cross-university, cross-level and cross-disciplinary teams to reflect on an aspect of migration and produce an artefact in the medium of their choice. (This approach is inspired by IATL’s Student-Devised Assessment at the University of Warwick). Teams also had to present their artefact in a pre-recorded 10-min video presentation before taking part in an online Q&A with an academic discussant and their peers from other groups. Students produced a variety of research-informed artefacts such as zines, comics, toolkits, posters, social media accounts, poems, maps, etc. The CLC members were impressed by the quality of the work and the creativity deployed. This activity was embedded in the students’ curriculum for CY, UPF and UW, which means that their mark for this EUTOPIA project will count, to some capacity, in their overall mark for their home module. Overall, students really enjoyed working with peers from different countries and disciplines, as well as the creativity afforded by this activity.
The Migration Project saw 48 students work in cross-university, multidisciplinary teams on a project centred on the theme of ‘migration’. After watching three videos about various aspects of migration, students had 2 weeks to work together on their project and create an artefact in the medium of their choice. On Thursday, 24. November, the community came together to watch the students present their artefact. The community was very impressed by the quality of the projects and the creativity displayed by the students. Groups respectively created letters, a video, a collage, an Instagram account, a Padlet, poems, a leaflet, and a book, all discussing various aspects of migration.Students valued working with peers coming from different countries and disciplines, and enjoyed having free reign over their artefact:
This activity ran from 7 to 14 March 2022 and saw 18 students from UoL, CY, UPF, UoW, and VUB come together to reflect on environmental issues in a transdisciplinary way. In inter-university and cross-disciplinary teams, students were asked to choose a topic related to the environment and to produce an artefact of their choice to reflect their views on the topic. On the last day, students presented their project to the community. Most teams chose to focus on ecotourism or sustainability. Participants were free to choose the medium they wanted for their project. This resulted in some very creative and interactive artefacts: a mini theatre scene, a yearly planner, a crossword puzzle, and a poster.
Dr Heather Meyer is a Teaching Fellow at the University of Warwick’s Institute for Advanced Teaching and Learning (IATL). In this role, she promotes innovative pedagogies and approaches to assessment that are interdisciplinary/transdisciplinary in nature. Her research interests are situated across the fields of Global Studies, International Education and Migration Studies, and they significantly inform her teaching. She has experience working across a range of educational levels and sectors including K-12, Further Education (FE) and Higher Education (HE) in the U.K., Austria, Kuwait, and the U.S. (Dr Heather Meyer – Teaching Fellow (warwick.ac.uk))
Sílvia Morgades-Gil is a Senior Lecturer (Serra Hunter Fellow) in Public International Law, at the Department of Law, Pompeu Fabra University (http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1255-9285). She is member of the Research Group on Public International Law and International Relations <www.upf.edu/orbis> and the Interdisciplinary Research Group on Immigration (GRITIM-UPF) <www.upf.edu/gritim>. She teaches EU Law; Asylum and Refugee Law; and International Migrations Law at PompeuFabra University, Universitat de Barcelona and CEI-International Affairs. She obtained the Extraordinary Doctoral Award for her Doctoral Thesis and the1st Award Research in Human Rights for the work Elsdrets humans com a motor de l’evolució del règiminternacional de protecciódelsrefugiats (Human rights as an engine for the evolution of the international regime of refugee protection, Barcelona, Generalitat de Catalunya, 2008). She has worked as visiting post-doctoral researcher at the Université Paris 1-Sorbonne; and the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies-IHEID, Geneva. SílviaMorgades-Gil retains a research interest in the interaction between Public International Law and European Law as regards the legal status of refugees and people in need of protection. Her publications include book chapters and articles in scientific journals such as European Papers, Revue Générale de Droit International Public, International Journal of Refugee Law or European Journal of Migration and Law.
Marie-Pierre Arrizabalaga is currently full professor in American Studies at the Institute of International Studies and Modern Languages (UFR LEI), CY Cergy Paris Université. Marie-Pierre does research in Family and Migration History. She is the co-director of a Master's Program in European and International Studies (Master EEI), and teaches US history in a historical, political, social, and economic perspective at the BA and MA levels, and research seminars on migration studies at the MA level.
Andreja Žgajnar Gotvajn obtained her PhD in the field of Chemical Engineering. She is Professor of Environmental Engineering at Faculty of Chemistry and Chemical Technology of University of Ljubljana, Slovenia and head of the Programme Council of doctoral study on Environmental Protection at University of Ljubljana. Her research work is focused on management of solid wastes, biodegradability and ecotoxicity studies with chemicals and wastewaters in aquatic compartments, risk assessment and hazard identification of chemicals as well as different aspects of wastewater treatment, recycling and reuse. She participated in 6 national research projects, she was a leader of 5 bilateral international projects and she is currently involved in national research program Chemical Engineering.
