2025 STUDY TOUR
UNOG
Topics (in speaking order)
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Seminar on June 17
Advancing Bilingual and Marginalized History Education in SFUSD and California
Sung Sohn
Roma--Historically Marginalized Peoples of Europe
Alison Brown
International Alliance of Women (IAW) at UNOG and UN Headquarters
Sibylle von Heyderbrand
USAID in 2025
Tania Tam
SF Hep B Free: Advancing Social Justice Through Hepatitis B Elimination in our Immigrant Communities
Stuart Fong
Sung Sohn
Roma--Historically Marginalized Peoples of Europe
Alison Brown
International Alliance of Women (IAW) at UNOG and UN Headquarters
Sibylle von Heyderbrand
USAID in 2025
Tania Tam
SF Hep B Free: Advancing Social Justice Through Hepatitis B Elimination in our Immigrant Communities
Stuart Fong
Seminar on June 18
"Comfort Women" Project
Rose Camastro-Pritchett
Remembrance and Commemoration—A Course on Highlighting the Sidelines in German Politics of Memory
Saša Martinović
Civic Imagination: A Relational Focus on "Making"
Yeni Yi
Rose Camastro-Pritchett
Remembrance and Commemoration—A Course on Highlighting the Sidelines in German Politics of Memory
Saša Martinović
Civic Imagination: A Relational Focus on "Making"
Yeni Yi
Reflections
Yeni Yi
The 2025 ESJF Study Tour at the United Nations Office at Geneva (UNOG), generously titled “Amplifying Marginalized Voices: Educators and Activists in Action” brought a fascinating array of participants to the table. The work of braiding these stories into a basket deep enough to hold all of their complexities took 3 days of shared tears, joy, and serious connection at the UNOG.
The preliminary thread was learning through storytelling. All participants wove tales of personal experiences together with evidence-based research to immerse us in the rich historicity of each presentation. From doctors, to teachers, to activists, to artists, each presenter brought their worlds within the confines of the conference room so expansively that the breaks in between were near-jarring reminders of our physical needs. We traveled to Germany, France, California, Korea, and China in ways that inspired me to connect these dots in meaningful ways for my own students as an educator.
These dots (the primary theme) I noticed were comorbidities: primarily, a lack of education working in tandem with another specific systemic barrier to reinforce the sickness propagated by colonial and/or imperial hegemony. For myself personally as a US citizen and educator, this conference was an opportunity to learn about the types of dichotomies people were grappling with in their respective professions — dichotomies of sickness, of learning and motivation, of geopolitics, of arts and art-making. The challenge was in breaking down these neat boxes of information into more nuanced, dialogical conversations, and each participant was left to connect to the stories that resonated deepest, and ruminate on these new or changing understandings.
Sharing meals, jokes, and strolling the halls of the UN and the streets of Geneva with new comrades filled all the spaces in between the heavy work of processing. I found myself wiping away a tear during the screening of My Name is Kim Bok-Dong on the last day, rounding out the ebb and flow of circulating emotions in a beautiful reminder of what brought us here in the first place: ESJF’s work in giving Korean women a platform to shout, to cry, and to engage in coalition-building. I am deeply grateful for this experience and, just as my students are waiting eagerly for me to fill them in about this wonderful trip, I am just as eager to share not just new knowledge but the depth and breadth of a global fight against the ever-changing settler-colonial violence we live through daily. Whether it’s through healthcare advocacy, international relations (and their efficacy), history and makerspace classrooms, or a documentary that touches the hearts and minds of everyone in the room, these are conversations that my students will lean into — the challenge will be for them to distill them into a form that can be shared intersubjectively. I am refreshed and excited for the work ahead. Tomorrow, our seeds will grow!
The 2025 ESJF Study Tour at the United Nations Office at Geneva (UNOG), generously titled “Amplifying Marginalized Voices: Educators and Activists in Action” brought a fascinating array of participants to the table. The work of braiding these stories into a basket deep enough to hold all of their complexities took 3 days of shared tears, joy, and serious connection at the UNOG.
The preliminary thread was learning through storytelling. All participants wove tales of personal experiences together with evidence-based research to immerse us in the rich historicity of each presentation. From doctors, to teachers, to activists, to artists, each presenter brought their worlds within the confines of the conference room so expansively that the breaks in between were near-jarring reminders of our physical needs. We traveled to Germany, France, California, Korea, and China in ways that inspired me to connect these dots in meaningful ways for my own students as an educator.
These dots (the primary theme) I noticed were comorbidities: primarily, a lack of education working in tandem with another specific systemic barrier to reinforce the sickness propagated by colonial and/or imperial hegemony. For myself personally as a US citizen and educator, this conference was an opportunity to learn about the types of dichotomies people were grappling with in their respective professions — dichotomies of sickness, of learning and motivation, of geopolitics, of arts and art-making. The challenge was in breaking down these neat boxes of information into more nuanced, dialogical conversations, and each participant was left to connect to the stories that resonated deepest, and ruminate on these new or changing understandings.
Sharing meals, jokes, and strolling the halls of the UN and the streets of Geneva with new comrades filled all the spaces in between the heavy work of processing. I found myself wiping away a tear during the screening of My Name is Kim Bok-Dong on the last day, rounding out the ebb and flow of circulating emotions in a beautiful reminder of what brought us here in the first place: ESJF’s work in giving Korean women a platform to shout, to cry, and to engage in coalition-building. I am deeply grateful for this experience and, just as my students are waiting eagerly for me to fill them in about this wonderful trip, I am just as eager to share not just new knowledge but the depth and breadth of a global fight against the ever-changing settler-colonial violence we live through daily. Whether it’s through healthcare advocacy, international relations (and their efficacy), history and makerspace classrooms, or a documentary that touches the hearts and minds of everyone in the room, these are conversations that my students will lean into — the challenge will be for them to distill them into a form that can be shared intersubjectively. I am refreshed and excited for the work ahead. Tomorrow, our seeds will grow!
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