CIE and the International Education program at UMass were represented by nearly 50 graduates, current students, and faculty members at the national CIES conference in San Francisco in April, 2019.  In addition there were faculty members and students from the Higher Education and other programs in the UMass Amherst College of Education at the conference, reflecting the strong involvement in international education at the College of Education.

CIE and UMass Boston sponsored a reception (see article) at the conference hotel for associates and friends of CIE and UMass Boston. Graduates reconnected with each other, faculty and new students.  Ian Barron, the Director of CIE at UMass Amherst, and Joe Berger, the Dean of the UMass Boston College of Education, hosted the event, which also received support from the departments of Student Development, EPRA and TECS in the Amherst College of Education.

Faculty presentations included several panels hosted by the editors of the Comparative Education Review, chaired by Bjorn Nordtveit along with Jacqi Mosselson and current student editors Mei Lan Frame, Sahara Pradhan and Hanni Thoma. Sangeeta Kamat chaired a panel on Education, Activism and Transformative politics/pedagogy: A South-south Exchange, and Jacqi Mosselson chaired a panel (pictured right) on “Jitegemee” – Educating Vulnerable Youth in Kenya for Sustainability,

A panel on Thirteen Years of Higher Education Development in Afghanistan – the Challenge of Sustainability chronicled the history of CIE’s work in three successive higher education projects in Afghanistan. The panel (pictured left) was chaired by Joe Berger and included presentations by D. R. Evans, Shane Hammond, Javid Mussawy, and Mujtaba Hedayet.

Presentations by other faculty members included Ian Barron, the Director of CIE, who presented a paper on Efficacy of Trauma-Specific programs in Occupied Palestine.  And Cristine Smith along with CIE graduate James Macneil presented a paper on Outcomes of a Longitudinal Study of an early-grade reading program in Nepal. Ash Hartwell chaired several panels: one on the Affordable Non-state School Sector and one on Accelerated Education.

 Some of the presentations by current students included:

• The School and My Health – (Re)Centering Young Women’s Voices in Peer-Led Sexual and Reproductive Health by Nyaradzai Changamire
• Application of AEWG tools to support curriculum development in Guatemala by Kayla Boisvert
• Promoting Entrepreneurship for sustainable Development of Higher Education in Afghanistan by Hassan Aslami (right)
• Dalit Academic Experiences: Stigma, Caste Reproduction and Exclusion in Indian Higher Education by Bharat Rathod
• Connecting Learning, Culture and the Brain: A Culturally Responsive Design Framework for Digital Learning by Lina Heaster-Ekholm
• Attempts to Dismantle Free Education and the politics of Resistance in Sri Lanka by Niyanthini Kadirgamar
• Mind the Gap: Moving from Dependency to Sustainability by Verity Norman-Tichawangana

Graduates on the program included: Martina Amoth, Kefah Barham, David Bell, Nigel Brissett, Lauren Clarke, Ashley Clayton-Hertz, John Comings, Paul Frisoli, Beverly Lindsay, Mark Lynd, Jeanne Moulton, Flavia Ramos, Rebecca Paulson Stone, and Wendy Wheaton.