KSU Joins AGREC, a Global Education and Research Collaborative of Metro Atlanta Colleges and Universities

Posted February 26, 2021

The Atlanta Global Research and Education Collaborative (AGREC) is delighted to announce that Kennesaw State University is now a member of our collaborative.

AGREC, launched in Fall 2020, aims to connect the region's international assets through an emphasis on supporting "global at home" projects that serve students, faculty, and community partners and define the metropolitan area as a hub for global education and research.

The Atlanta Global Studies Center (AGSC) — a partnership of Georgia Institute of Technology and Georgia State University — houses the collaborative, which includes Emory University’s Office of Global Strategy and Initiatives, Spelman College and Agnes Scott College. KSU now also becomes an AGREC member.

"We are delighted to have joined AGREC, which affords our faculty and their students new opportunities to actively engage in and contribute to globally-related research and education projects through its collaborative networks in the region,” said Dr. Binbin Jiang, Executive Director of the Division of Global Affairs and Professor of International Education, Leadership & Research a Kennesaw State University.

Grant Program Funds Global Engagement Research and Education Projects including KSU faculty

As part of its programs, AGREC offers grants to support collaborative, interdisciplinary, and cross-university research and education projects with a focus on global engagement. The 2020-2021 grant program, “Connecting Globally While Grounded at Home,” placed significant focus on programs’ potential to develop new and sustainable relationships among partners such as universities, businesses, non-governmental organizations, and community groups, as well as their impact on Atlanta communities.

Six projects funded under the current grant program will explore a wide range of global issues and also provide training to the Greater Atlanta region students:

• Savings Lives in the Refugee Community: A Cultural and Linguistic Adaptation of Stop the Bleed
• Water quality monitoring network for highly impacted urban headwaters in metro Atlanta
• Advancing a Community-Based Participatory Research Model for Metropolitan Regional Immigrant Integration and Receptivity through the One Region Initiative
• The Global Communities Internship Program
• Atlanta-area migrant communities and climate change: characterizing drivers of migration, exposure risks, and health vulnerabilities
• Growing Intercultural Competence for Peace and Mediation: Piloting an Atlanta-Based Global Community of Practice for Hyperlocal Case Studies and Education

Project teams consist of faculty from the five AGREC member institutions who are also joined by colleagues from Kennesaw State University, Atlanta Metropolitan State College, Morehouse College, and Georgia Piedmont Technical College.

Two of the funded projects, “Advancing a Community-Based Participatory Research Model for Metropolitan Regional Immigrant Integration and Receptivity through the One Region Initiative” and “Growing Intercultural Competence for Peace and Mediation” also include KSU faculty as team members.

The project teams are also collaborating with a variety of organizations and community partners, including the Grady Emergency Medical Services, Somali American Community Center, South River Watershed Alliance, West Atlanta Watershed Alliance, Welcoming America, Clarkston Community Center Foundation Inc., Cosmo Health Center, Re'Generation Movement, and TRENDS Global.

“AGREC seeks to raise the profile of Atlanta region, making greater Atlanta a hub for global education and research. A key goal is to build and strengthen collaborative networks of multi-institutional scholars and practitioners to support global research and education initiatives in the region. The project teams currently funded through AGREC are already collaborating with KSU faculty and we are delighted to welcome KSU as a formal member of the Collaborative. We plan to further grow AGREC and invite other universities to join this initiative,” said Anna Westerstahl Stenport, AGSC founding co- and chair of Georgia Tech’s School of Modern Languages.
 

More information about currently funded projects and the Academic Year 2021-22 grant program, including the call for proposals and online application form is available on the AGREC website.