Hui Wilcox

Hui Wilcox, Dean of Kofi Annan Institute for Global Citizenship
In my role as the Dean of KAIGC, I engage with Macalester colleagues and students from all disciplines as well as local and global community partners, to cultivate thinking and action around critical global citizenship. What does it mean to be a global citizen in our time? How can engaging with local communities be a pathway towards nuanced understanding of the global? And how can critical global perspectives inform place-based learning and change-making? Grounded in Macalester’s long-term engagement with internationalism and multiculturalism, this interdisciplinary work opens more collaborative spaces of inquiry, creativity, joyfulness, well-being, and social justice.

As a sociologist, a dance artist, and a first-generation immigrant, I am passionate about educating global citizens who understand structural inequalities, embrace cultural differences, and dare to imagine a just world. I believe in the transformative and healing potential of education, especially when we engage in interdisciplinary, community-based learning. I adopt the decolonial framework that challenges the rigid separation between academia and community, theory and practice, global and local. Mindful of the power dynamics inherent in the construction of these dichotomies, I do research in transnational feminisms, sociology of immigration, race and ethnicity, Asian American studies, performance studies, and global health. As I traverse disciplines, institutions, and nations, I reflect on my complicated privileges and perspectives as a North-based BIPOC social scientist, educator and artist.

With eyes on the missions of Macalester and KAIGC, I prioritize collaboration, relationship building, interdisciplinarity, and embodied/experiential pedagogies. I am excited to accompany the learning journeys of the stellar KAIGC staff, Macalester students and our campus and community partners.