Operationalising the research in Dr. Unkule’s book “Internationalising the University: A Spiritual Approach” for on ground training and impact

Dr. Kalyani Unkule, Associate Professor, JGLS, received the Commonwealth Peace and Reconciliation Challenge Grant 2020. Aimed at academic and professional staff, the grant supported collaborative work focused on either of the two main strategic priorities of the Commonwealth Peace and Reconciliation Network: (i) Historical memory and trauma or (ii) institutional reform/indigenous knowledge.

Professor Unkule’s project aimed to transform the study abroad officer into an agent of peace and reconciliation, building on her monograph, ‘Internationalising the University: A Spiritual Approach’ published in 2019. Through consultations and training workshops, the project empowered study abroad officers to wield their influence over student decision-making in a way that was supportive of the self-discovery and the immersive, integrative and unifying aspects of the study abroad experience rather than merely defining the end goal in terms of a shallow and hegemonic conception of intercultural competence. Other outcomes of this project include a shift in the discourse surrounding aims of study abroad and development of new parameters for assessing the success of internationalisation efforts of universities.