Session 2B
Title: Engaging with difference: Disruptive becomings

Abstract:
Our globalizing world comes with increasing differences. And with more differences come more conflicts. In their daily lives various international students in Australia may encounter or experience or be exposed to racism, sexism, homophobia or religious intolerance.

How prepared are they to deal with such experiences?
In this workshop ways to harness student creativity in the classroom to address the issues that arise from conflict will be explored. Practical classroom activities will be shared that better equip international students with knowledge, skills and strategies to deal with potentially damaging and difficult instances where they are subject to discrimination and or racism By encouraging students to be ethnographers, opportunities are opened up for problem-posing, interpretation and critical transformation.

Bio Mark Gillespie (M. Phil. Ed., B.Ed., B.A. Hons., Grad Dip TEFL)
Mark teaches international students at the University of Sydney. He is an anthropologist, teacher and trainer in intercultural communication and a human rights advocate. He has lived and worked in Southern Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, the Pacific and the Middle East. His most recent overseas assignment was in 2012 when he taught at the University of Humanities in Ulan Bator in Mongolia.