About

The IGC connects…

Students through civic leadership programs; social entrepreneurship grants; discussions about multiculturalism, internationalism, and community engagement; opportunities for reflection in personal discernment of values and vocation; and programs for students interested in doing research and learning about graduate school and careers as professors. We offer opportunities for reciprocal engagement with the community, community-based learning and research opportunities. We invite students to create sessions for the annual International Roundtable. Options abroad include study away programs, internships, research collaborations and civic engagement.

Faculty and Staff by supporting community-based learning courses; hosting the Urban Faculty Colloquium; hosting faculty reading groups and faculty learning communities; organizing Faculty Development International Seminars; managing an Urban Resource library; providing curriculum and pedagogical development opportunities around internationalism, multiculturalism, and community-based learning; and building cohorts to develop new understandings and practices for more equitable and just academic spaces.

Community by connecting organizations with college partners for mutual goals, bringing guests to campus for public events, and meeting community-defined needs through course integrated community-based learning, research, and service.

How we work

The Annan IGC strives to be a collaborative space for reimagining what a world that is focused on equity and justice could look like. In order to move towards such a vision, we work with students, staff, faculty, and members of communities beyond the campus to consider the complexity of contexts within local, national, and international systems and histories of power and inequality. The spaces we cultivate require us to critically reflect on our positionalities in these contexts and then work with others across differences to impact social change. We build on individual and collective strengths, values, and commitments as we engage this critical reflection and self-exploration. We foster opportunities to develop skills and knowledge via experiential learning and by nurturing meaningful collaborative relationships across campus and in communities. As we learn and build collaboratively with community partners, we recognize community knowledges that expand traditional notions of scholarship and expertise and honor long histories of work for social change. In this way, the Annan IGC and its partners explore the confluence of multiculturalism, internationalism, and community engagement through the lens of equity and justice to co-create spaces of mutuality, agency, and transformative change.

Offices of the IGC

• The Dean’s Office creates opportunities to build collaborative relationships across campus to engage with themes and issues related to the cornerstones of Macalester’s educational mission. The Dean’s Office sponsors the annual International Roundtable and the Global Citizenship Student Award, as well as academic cohort programs for students, staff, and faculty.
• The Community Engagement Center connects members of the Macalester community with community-based initiatives, sponsors the Davis Projects for Peace, supports student civic leadership programs, and offers programs which encourage and teach deep reflection on one’s commitments and actions.
• The Center for Study Away oversees all aspects of the study away experience for interested students. This includes providing advising on program selection, facilitating application for approval, and preparing students for the experience. In addition, the staff provides support for students while they are away and upon their return to campus. The Center for Study Away also manages Macalester faculty-led and exchange programs.
• The IGC works in intentional partnership with the Internship Program, the Lealtad-Suzuki Center for Social Justice (formerly known as Department of Multicultural Life), and the Serie Center for Scholarship and Teaching, and a number of Academic Departments.