The winter term trip in Hong Kong focused on three main themes; community-based learning, environment and public health, and “ecologies of comparison,” or NGOS, philanthropy, culture, and history in environmental contexts. Professors and students on the trip were able to learn more about the field of Service Learning from leading liberal arts institutions in Hong Kong and their students, knowledge which they now have brought back to campus. “Through our site visits I have adopted practices and tools to use in my own service here in Oberlin,” said Darian, an Oberlin student and Bonner Scholar who went on the trip this winter term 2019.
Community-Based Environmental Studies: Hong Kong-US Transnational Partnership & Exchange
APPLICATION CLOSED
Please read the trip description thoroughly before you apply. Application form is HERE.
Deadline-Sept 23 Sunday 12 Midnight.
Sponsor & Director: Tania Boster, Director of Bonner Center Curricular Initiatives & Assistant Professor of History
Co-Sponsor: Gavin Tritt, Executive Director, Oberlin Shansi
Additional Faculty Facilitators: Harrod Suarez, Associate Professor of English and Comparative American Studies; Jordan Price, Assistant Professor of Biology & TBA; Jody Kerchner, Professor of Music Education; Director, Division of Pedagogy, Advocacy, and Community Engagement
Number of participants: 4 faculty, 8 students
Trip Length: approx. 12 days in Hong Kong, 2 days of travel. Tentative dates: Jan 11-25 2019
Project Fee: Max. $1500 (airfare included). Financial aid is available (demonstrated financial need)
The trip will involve considerable walking through dense urban and sometimes rough natural terrain.
Brief Description
This winter term 2019 trip focuses on transnational comparisons of ways in which liberal arts colleges, the communities that surround them, and NGOs can collaborate to address local and global environmental and socio-economic challenges. In partnership with Lingnan University and The Education University of Hong Kong (EUHK), both located in Hong Kong’s New Territories, participants in this trip will engage first-hand through Community-Based Learning with environmental groups, policy experts, and community members tackling pressing issues throughout greater Hong Kong. The trip will feature visits to non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and conservation sites, including designated wetlands, historic monasteries, geoparks, and other sites of environmental and cultural significance. We will also focus on campus-community partnerships that address local and global challenges through the field of Service Learning (or Community-Based Learning, as it is known at Oberlin), a field in which Lingnan University and EUHK are leading liberal arts institutions.Oberlin students will participate in Service-Learning classes and workshops at both institutions and learn how students, faculty, and staff partner with local NGOs and schools on projects defined by community-expressed needs. Participants in this trip will be required to register for and attend a Fall 2019 second module course that will include historical, linguistic, cultural, and other essential preparatory contexts.
Themes
The three themes identified will be explored in comparative local (Tuen Mun:Oberlin) and national (Hong Kong/China:United States) contexts and will include:
Theme 1: Community-Based Learning/Service Learning
-How do members of a university campus community practice ethical engagement with the surrounding community and partner on inititatives to promote environmental, social, and cultural preservation or improvement?
-How do issues related to gentrification, immigration, local history, and campus-community partnerships manifest comparatively at Oberlin and at Lingnan and EUHK?
Theme 2: “Ecologies of Comparison” — NGOs, philanthropy, culture, and history in environmental contexts
-How does environmental history manifest in public memory and cultural heritage?
-How do environmental and socio-economic challenges interrelate in Hong Kong & the U.S., and in the New Territories & Oberlin, Ohio?
-What role does the state play in providing a social safety net and environmental protections in Hong Kong and the U.S?
-How do campus-community partnerships strive to address environmental and social concerns such as hunger or pollution?
-How do NGOs/non-profit organizations operate to address pressing environmental and socio-economic challenges in Hong Kong and the U.S.?
Primary text: Timothy Choy, Ecologies of Comparison: An Ethnography of Endangerment in Hong Kong, (Duke University Press, 2011)
Theme 3: Environment and Public Health
-How do environmental factors and public health interrelate in Hong Kong & the U.S., and in The New Territories & Oberlin, Ohio?
-What infrastructure exists to support public health?
-How do socioeconomic and environmental issues intersect with public health?
-What are some of the most pressing public health issues in each locality?