Doctoral Student's Research Focuses on Diversity and Inclusion in Education
Thursday, March 17, 2022
Alina Pap presented her research on Diversity and Inclusion in International Activities and Learning Outcomes at a conference in Atlanta last fall.
Alina Pap is a doctoral candidate in Seton Hall's Higher Education Leadership, Management and Policy program. Pap's research focus has been on Internationalization of Curriculum and Learning Outcomes through the lenses of Leadership, Administrators and Faculty. Pap started her Ed.D. in 2016 and has been an active member of the National Association of Foreign Student Advisors (NAFSA) and European Association of International Education (EAIE). More recently, she has been involved in two International Higher Education events in the latter part of 2021.
Pap earned her undergraduate degree in International Studies at The City College of New York before pursuing her Master's in International Education at New York University. She says that she selected Seton Hall for her Ed.D. because she found the Higher Education program to be rigorous with the right balance of academics and training her career requires.
As part of her professional development work, Pap submitted a proposal for a Deep Dive Session at the Conference about Global Diversity and Inclusion in Atlanta. Her proposal titled, Diversity and Inclusion in International Activities and Learning Outcomes, was ultimately accepted and Pap presented her research work at the conference in October 2021.
Pap explains: "I designed the session as an interactive professional development conference model which included two parts." The first part, Pap said, incorporated a PowerPoint presentation to initiate discussion on Global Engagement at Home Campuses. During the presentation she also raised questions related to the topic of Diversity and Inclusion in International Activities and Learning Outcomes. Part two of Pap's presentation included answering questions from attendees and a comparative discussion among the audience about working strategies as well as challenges for implementing diversity and inclusion at their home institutions.
Pap is also part of a pilot program called Millennium Scholars, which is run by STAR (Society of Transnational Academic Researchers). She is currently featured on the main page of the STAR Millennium Scholars of 2021 (second row, second from the right), along with other participants from countries across six different continents. The program helps to create a lifelong peer-support network with scholars from countries including South Africa, Australia, India and the United States.
According to Pap, the Millennium Scholars program "will deepen engagement between myself as an early career scholar and the mid- to senior-level scholars in the network. It also increases visibility and impact of my work as an emerging international scholar." Other goals for the program include building human-to-human relationships that foster future transnational collaborations in research and teaching and discovering connections among cross-border researchers and practitioners.
After completing her Ed.D., Pap hopes to get actively involved in International Academic Affairs. While she considers acting as a leader in the field a dream job, she does not have a specific role in mind. "I would like to be in a position that oversees the Institutionalization of Diversity and Inclusion into International Academic Activities as a benefit to all students, faculty and staff, while also building partnerships across borders through research and innovation," Pap concludes.
Categories: Education, Research
