No prior experience with writing is required to attend this workshop. The interactive session is open to all attendees, regardless of prior experience, knowledge, or confidence in writing. 

This workshop is an in-person offering of the League Lasso Writer’s Circle program hosted by the Global Leadership League prior to the International Internship Conference held in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Attendees will have an opportunity to co-create spaces of reflection and inspiration for their collective work as international educators. The cost is $25- open to anyone. For League members, event is free + members are eligible for $100 discount to the International Internship Conference

Organized around the theme of pilgrimage, participants will explore personal and professional genres of writing, develop writing skills, and expand their professional network. Participants will be led through a series of experiences to create a safe space, inspire creativity, and build new skills. Participants will design a goal around their writing for the workshop, engage in writing exercises, participate in individual writing time, and meet in a writing circle to share their work. 

Facilitators: 

This workshop is co-facilitated by a team of international educators with decades of experience in field. Their combined expertise include entrepreneurship in the field, higher education leadership, global internship management, and advisory board membership for the Global Leadership League. 

Dr. Dana Tottenham is the Director of the Lasso Writer's Circle for the Global Leadership League

Dr. Kate Moore is the Principal and Co-Founder of the Global Career Center

Dr. Maureen Manning is the Vice President of Strategy and Insight for The PIE

Dr. Martha Johnson is the Chief Academic Officer and Provost for CEA CAPA

Learning Outcomes:  

This workshop is built for practitioners to develop new skills to apply to their personal and professional work. Participants will gain experience in developing writing skills, deepening critical thinking skills, and adapting to creative, imaginative, and resourceful methods of reflection.  

Practitioner Based, Inspired by Academic Framework:  

The workshop is designed with and informed by an overarching academic framework, inclusive of the interdisciplinary intersections of creative writing, critical consciousness, and anthropology. The framework draws upon the hallmark of anthropology, ethnographic fieldwork, and the practice of autoethnography. Autoethnography arose out of anthropology as a way to include the researcher’s experiences and insights more directly into qualitative research. Autoethnography actively uses writing about the self in social and cultural contexts, drawing upon life experiences and their impact on the human condition. Similar, yet distinct from, autobiography, memoir, and creative nonfiction, autoethnography actively and reflexively uses writing as an integral part of research and as a primary method of inquiry. Critical consciousness as a theoretical framework has been used by scholars across multiple disciplines for the past five decades. At its core, this approach entails navigating the role that not only the educator plays but also emphasizing the agency of the learner. From the role critical reflection plays into inspiring critical action, this workshop embodies anthropological praxis by illuminating how practitioners should bring these principles into international education spaces.