Cosmopolitanism: Rethinking the Agenda of Education Abroad

Authors

  • Brian Whalen American International Recruitment Council (AIRC)
  • Michael Woolf CAPA: The Global Education Network

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.36366/frontiers.v32i3.580

Keywords:

cosmopolitanism, history and philosophy, deconstructing the agenda, nationalism, cultural history

Abstract

Cosmopolitanism is an ambiguous and inherently paradoxical notion.  Because of the complexities it raises, it generates analyses and discourses that challenge simplistic assumptions embedded in theory and practice of education abroad. Global citizenship, comprehensive internationalization, cultural relativity, immersion, cross-cultural learning, and community engagement are some of the concepts deconstructed through the lens of cosmopolitan ideas and histories. Cosmopolitan philosophies are also of particular and special relevance to student experience in international education.  In short, cosmopolitanism is not one idea but a field of meaning, a cluster of profound propositions that might collectively enrich the curriculum of education abroad.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Author Biographies

Brian Whalen, American International Recruitment Council (AIRC)

Brian Whalen, Ph.D., is the Executive Director of the American International Recruitment Council, an America's Languages Fellow at the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and an International Education Leadership Fellow at the University at Albany, and a Dean's Fellow at Dickinson College. Brian has taught psychology, literature, and international and comparative education to graduate and undergraduate students at Boston University, Brookhaven College, Dickinson College, Lesley University, University at Albany, and the University of Dallas.  A widely published scholar, Brian's publications include commentaries, essays, research articles and book chapters on a variety of topics in the fields of international education and psychology.

Michael Woolf, CAPA: The Global Education Network

Michael Woolf, Deputy President at CAPA, has spent much of his career in an international context. He taught American Literature at the universities of Hull, Middlesex, Padova, and Venice, and worked as a researcher-writer for BBC radio. Michael has held leadership roles with FIE, CIEE, and Syracuse University. Michael holds a Ph.D. in American Studies and has written widely on international education and cultural studies. You can read a sample of Michael’s short essays in his monthly column: https://capaworld.capa.org/author/dr-michael-woolf.

References

American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language. 5th Edition. (2018). Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Retrieved October 19, 2018, from: https://ahdictionary.com/word/search.html?q=cosmopolitan

Angelo, J. H. & Portnoy, G. (1982). Theme from Cheers [Lyrics]. Retrieved March 3, 2019, from: http://www.lyricsondemand.com/tvthemes/cheerslyrics.html

Appiah, K. (2006). Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a World of Strangers. New York: W. W. Norton and Co.

Beck, U., & Grande, E. (2007). Cosmopolitan Europe. Cambridge: Polity Press.

Berman, J. (2010). Cosmopolitanism. In D. McWhirter (Ed.), Henry James in Context (pp. 138-149). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Bradbury. M, (1995). Dangerous Pilgrimages: Trans-Atlantic Mythologies and the Novel. London: Secker and Warburg.

Brown, G. W., & Held, D. (2010). Introduction. In G. W. Brown, & D. Held, The Cosmopolitan Reader (p. 13). Cambridge: Polity Press.

Bush, H. K. (2009, March 30). Book Review: Cosmopolitan Twain. Retrieved February 3, 2013, from: Mark Twain Forum: http://www.twainweb.net/reviews/CosmopolitanTwain.html

Cormier, H. (1997). Jamesian Pragmatism and Jamesian Realism. The Henry James Review, 18 (3), 288–296. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1353/hjr.1997.0026

Cowley. M. (1951). Exiles Return: A Literary Odyssey of the 1920s. New York: Penguin Books.

Dictionary.com. (2018). Retrieved October 19, 2018, from: https://www.dictionary.com/browse/cosmopolitan

Elkin, L. (2016). Flâneuse: Women Walk the City in Paris, New York, Tokyo, Venice, and London, New York: Farrer Strauss and Giroux.

Emerson, R. W. (1883). Self-Reliance. In R.W. Emerson & J. E. Cabot (Ed.), The Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson (Vol. 2). Boston: Houghton, Mifflin and Company.

Erikson, E. (1978). Childhood and Society, 2nd Edition. New York: W.W. Norton & Co.

Hampfl, P. (1999). A Romantic Education. New York: W. W. Norton & Co.

Hocks, R. A. (1974). Henry James and Pragmatic Thought: A Study of the Relationship between the Philosophy of

William James and the Literary Art of Henry James. Chapel Hill, NC: The University of North Carolina Press.

Howe, I. (1967). Introduction. In H. James, The American Scene. New York: Horizon Press.

Lagos, T.G. (nd). Global Citizenship – Towards a Definition. Retrieved May 5, 2020, from: http://depts.washington.edu/gcp/pdf/globalcitizenship.pdf

Lapoujade, D. (2008). Fictions du Pragmatisme. William et Henry James. Paris : Les Édition de Minuit.

Marx, K and Engels, F, (1888), Manifesto of the Communist Party, (1848), Samuel Moores (trans). London, William Reeves.

Meskimmon, M. (2011). Contemporary Art and the Cosmopolitan Imagination. Oxford and New York: Routledge.

Miller, P. (1952). Errand into the Wilderness. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Rebellato, D. (2009). Theatre and Globalization. London: Palgrave Macmillan. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-230-36456-1

Ryan, A. (2008). Introduction: Mark Twain and the Cosmopolitan Ideal. In A. M. Ryan, & J. B. McCullough (Eds.), Cosmopolitan Twain (pp. 1-20). Columbia, MO: University of Missouri Press. p. 4.

Santayana, G. (1973). The Genteel Tradition in American Philosophy. In C. Brooks, R. W. B. Lewis, & R. P. Warren (Eds.), American Literature: The Makers and the Making (Vol. 1) (pp. 1542-1554). New York: St. Martin’s Press.

Slotkin, R. (1973). Regeneration Through Violence: The Mythology of the American Frontier, 1600 – 1860. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press.

Stoner, L., Tarrant, M. A., Perry, L., Gleason, M., Wadsworth, D., & Page, R. (2019). Global Citizenship through Global Health. Retrieved July 3, 2020 from: Frontiers: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Study Abroad, 31(1), pp. 131-147. https://doi.org/10.36366/frontiers.v31i1.446. DOI: https://doi.org/10.36366/frontiers.v31i1.446

Thoreau, H. D. (1973). Journals. In C. Brooks, R. W. B. Lewis, & R. P. Warren (Eds.), American Literature: The Makers and the Making (Vol. 1). New York: St. Martin’s Press.

Tichi, C. (1979). New World, New Earth: Environmental Reform in American Literature from the Puritans Through Whitman. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

Turner, F. (1986). Reflexivity as Evolution in Thoreau’s Walden. In V.W. Turner & E. M. Bruner (Eds.), The Anthropology of Experience. Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press.

Twain, M. (1869). The Innocents Abroad. Hartford: The American Publishing Company.

Whalen, B. (2008). Study Abroad: Measuring Learning Outcomes. U.S. Department of Education International Education Program Service Forum: Fostering Connection, Collaboration, and Creative Ideas, Washington, D.C.

Whalen, B. (2014). Where will Education Abroad be in 25 Years? Keynote Address: Institute for Study Abroad – Butler University, 25th Anniversary Gala Celebration, Indianapolis, Indiana.

Wilshire, B. (1982). Roleplaying and Identity: The Limits of Theater as Metaphor. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

Woolf, M. (2001, Fall). Not waving but drowning: Arguments against immersion in study abroad. International Educator, 10 (4), pp. 29–34.

Downloads

Published

2020-11-20

How to Cite

Whalen, B., & Woolf, M. (2020). Cosmopolitanism: Rethinking the Agenda of Education Abroad. Frontiers: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Study Abroad, 32(3), 72–98. https://doi.org/10.36366/frontiers.v32i3.580