Six Community Engaged Learning education projects awarded grants

In the multidisciplinary elective course 'Pain', students study the concept of pain from five different perspectives: biomedical, philosophical, artistic, psychological and anthropological. Together with partners and patients, students investigate what pain is and what remedies other than painkillers can offer to relieve pain and the experience of pain. Concrete end products, such as knowledge clips, are developed on the basis of the research.

In the Global Health Practice course, Utrecht University College students work with research consortia in the field of global health, such as a consortium that aims to improve the health of pregnant women in Ghana. Through this, students learn and experience what does and does not work in international global health projects and what contribution they can make to equity in healthcare.

Working with peace organization PAX, students explore the impact of remote warfare, such as through air strikes, through military partners and private organizations. The fieldwork in Iraq is conducted by PAX, the students work on discourse analysis of social media. The goal is to generate publicity for the consequences that are indeed present in Iraq, but remain invisible in Western media and politics.

In the course 'Migrazioni al plurale' students will work as a pilot with the Associazioni Cristiane Lavoratori Italiani (ACLI). The aim is to reduce the isolation of older Italian migrants in Utrecht caused by Corona. Based on interviews, short videos are made about memories of Italy and Italian cuisine. The interviews in the videos also serve as a source for linguistic research.

The project 'Turn on the stars' focuses on the issue of light pollution. Students develop public activities for visitors of Sonneborgh Museum and Observatory to raise awareness about the negative effects of light pollution on, among others, biodiversity in the city and its surroundings. The public activities will be developed further on the basis of questions from visitors.

The bachelor Sociale Geografie & Planologie will be renewed as of the coming academic year: students will choose from four different tracks and follow a Community Engaged Learning course in the third year. The grant received will be spent on scaling up and further developing the already existing, experiential course to four new courses (one per track) in which a total of about 300 students participate.