Global Café is kicking off the year by welcoming Blair Rose Zaid for an informal talk, “The Community Classroom: Engaging Global Connections within a Local Setting,” from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Feb. 3 in Oldfather, Room 827.

Zaid will present a community classroom approach as a method for introducing students to the global entanglements of local settings. Through illustrating how this approach has been used in Nicaragua, Democratic Republic of Congo and Michigan, she will highlight the impact of teaching inside a community on student outcomes as well as community support for academic research.

Global Cafe: The Community Classroom: Engaging Global Connections within a Local Setting

Zaid holds doctorate degrees in African American and African Studies and in Anthropology from Michigan State University. Her dissertation research identified the proto-African Diaspora of Early Iron Age Central Africa from roughly 3,000 years ago. She has over 10 years of ethnographic, archaeological and historic fieldwork and teaching on the African Diaspora. Zaid is currently a lecturer at the University of Michigan and investigates 19 century freedom seekers in south central Michigan.

Lunch and refreshments will be served.