Global Engagement Portal
Connect with people around the world through conversation, music, art, food, and more.
November 28 - December 9, 2022
February 1 - June 1, 2023
The Portal is Back!
Drop by the Portal during its final week!
Monday 12/05
Barbados (12-1pm and 2-3pm)
Talk with conservationists about climate action. What makes us feel empowered to enact change?
Tuesday 12/06
Kigali, Rwanda (12-2 pm)
Meet community members in Kigali, Rwanda to discuss daily life.
Mexico City, Mexico (2-4 pm)
Enjoy the music of Maya Burns, a feminist Mexican folk singer who takes challenges the Ranchero style of music by injecting a feminist edge to this traditionally “machismo” musical genre.
Thursday 12/08
Kigali, Rwanda (8-9am)
Talk with youth climate activists from East Africa to learn how to collaborate with those in the global south, understand how the climate crisis is impacting communities similarly and differently, and gain strategies for taking action on climate in your own community.
Friday 12/09
Barbados (11 am - 1 pm)
Learn how the Walkers Institute for Regenerative Research and Design moves from activism to adaptation, applying design principles to create nature-based solutions to build habitat, increase biodiversity, and sequester carbon while reconnecting the community to nature through both agrotourism and other educational experiences
The BC Portal
We are delighted to announce that the Global Engagement Portal returns late in the Fall semester to O'Neil Plaza, from November 28 to December 9, 2022. Then it will move to the McMullen Museum for the Spring semester (February 1 - June 1, 2023), as part of its exhibition of video art from the Middle East entitled "Landscape of Memory."
Fall 2022 sessions will connect with Portals in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh; Gaza City, Palestine; Nakivale, Uganda; Erbil, Iraqi Kurdistan; Mexico City, Mexico; Bridgetown, Barbados; and Bamako, Mali. Portal sessions for BC classes are already full, but we have many open "walk-in" sessions when students, faculty, or staff can pop in for a few minutes or an hour to talk. See the list at left for details.
Faculty and student groups interested in organizing Portal sessions for your class or student group for the Spring 2023 engagement should contactcontact Prof. Kathy Bailey (kathleen.bailey@bc.edu), who is curating the "Lanscape of Memory" exhibition and the portal engagement.
What is the Global Engagement Portal?
The Global Engagement Portal is an immersive, high-definition internet video connection that joins two small rooms across the world to provide a sense of spatial continuity, allowing participants to engage with one another naturally, at real-life size, making eye contact. BC's portal is housed in a climate-controlled shipping container at the edge of O'Neil Plaza.
Created by Shared_Studios, Portals have been used for educational, cultural and artistic exchanges, conferences, shared meals, and much more.
Each session can accommodate 4-8 participants in the Portal. Multiple sessions can be booked, back-to-back or on different dates. Note that session times and lengths vary, to approximate the BC class schedule, but are 50 minutes at minimum. Groups can rotate through a longer reserved block in 45- or 50-minute sessions.
Where do they connect?
During the Spring 2022 installationm, the BC Global Engagement Portal will connect with portals in:
- Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh [just outside the Kutupalong Rohingya refugee camp -- one of the world's largest refugee settlements]
- Bamako, Mali [the innovative Kabakoo Academy, bridging high-tech and indigeneous knowledge]
- Erbil, Iraqi Kurdistan [inside the Harsham IDP camp]
- Gaza City, Palestine [in the GazaSkyGeeks tech hub/ startup accelerator]
- Kigali, Rwanda [at the Impact Hub public arts/social enterprise]
- Mexico City, Mexico [outside the CCD digital culture musem]
- Nakivale, Uganda [just outside another of the world's largest refugee settlements]
- Bridgetown, Barbados
