Friday, November 21, 2025

submitted by devries@augsburg.edu

HIS 440: Black Migrations to the United States (Prerequisite: ENL 111)
Spring 2026

Tuesday / Thursday 10:10 11:40AM (on campus)
Taught by Prof. Ibrahim Hirsi

Course Description

An estimated 48 million people in the United States identify as Black. Their migrations—forced and voluntary—began in 1619 and continue to the present day. They came from Africa, Europe, the Caribbean, and South and Central America. Many are descendants of enslaved people; others have emerged from places like Somalia and Ethiopia and Ghana and Jamaica. This course provides an overview of the journeys and experiences of African Americans and Black migrants and examines their unbroken ties—imagined and real—to the African continent. The course draws from a wide range of interdisciplinary sources, exposing students to major historical themes and significant Black figures. Through lectures, discussions, and thesis-driven writing assignments, students gain a substantive understanding of the African diaspora’s historical formation and develop critical reading and writing skills essential to successful careers.

Prof. Ibrahim Hirsi is completing his Ph.D. in Immigration History at the University of Minnesota, after working as a journalist for the Sahan Journal, MinnPost, and Minnesota Public Radio. In addition to English, he speaks Somali, Arabic, and Swahili.

submitted by finka2@augsburg.edu

Youth Studies 220 (YST 220) will provide students with practical perspectives and experiences in work with children and youth from interdisciplinary perspectives. We will cover both theoretical frameworks for liberatory and culturally grounded work with youth and focused examinations of different types of youth work. Throughout the course, we will consider how our own positionality and experiences affect our engagements in work with youth and children.

The course is offered in Spring 2026 from 3:40-5:10PM on Tuesdays/Thursdays and is taught by Professor Kao Nou Moua.

Why a Youth Studies Minor?

This minor prepares you to work with and advocate for youth more effectively. You will develop knowledge and skills for working with young people from a variety of professions, including:

Teacher
Social Worker
Therapist
Nurse
Religious Leader
Scientist
Youth Program Coordinator

This minor can enrich many majors! This includes:

Social Work
Education
Psychology
Nursing
Sociology
Communications
Environmental Studies
Theater
Urban Studies
Critical Race and Ethnic Studies
Religion

Youth Studies Minor

submitted by musto@augsburg.edu

The Strommen Center is launching a fellowship for faculty members! This three-day fellowship workshop will help faculty members identify the role they play in fusing career development in the Augsburg experience through curriculum development integration and, in doing so, provide equitable career development for all students. This fellowship will help develop skills in articulating how curricula aligns with the world of work and ensures that all students have access to the tools and resources necessary for post-graduation success.

Upon completion of all fellowship requirements, participating faculty will receive a $300 stipend for workshop participation and $200 for completion of career-integrated assignment or activity that the faculty members plan to implement either in the Spring 2026 semester or throughout the 2026-2027 academic year. We will celebrate their work at the end of the semester during Days in May.

The workshops run from January 13th through the 15th from 9am – 11:30am each day.

We are seeking nominations from colleagues, department chairs, and/or school directors for this opportunity. The Strommen Center will share with both the nominator and the nominee if they have been selected for the fellowship. We hope to have one faculty member for each of the five schools for this initial cohort and will be accepting nominations through November 26th.

Nominate your colleagues for the Strommen Faculty Fellowship!

submitted by mader@augsburg.edu

On behalf of the Batalden Fellows of Applied Ethics, I would like to invite you to participate in a survey about ethics at Augsburg. This survey will ask you about your experiences with and hopes for conversations on ethics in your courses and around the institution.

We would request that you complete the survey by Wednesday Nov. 26th.

Please note there is also an option to indicate your interest in participating in upcoming focus groups where we can delve deeper into key areas identified by the survey. If you do not wish to include your email with the survey but would like to participate in the focus groups, please send an email to any of the fellows or reply to this email.

Thanks so much for your time; we look forward to learning from you!!!

Best wishes during this busy time of the semester,
The Batalden Fellows
(Jacqui deVries, Soebin Jang, and Tara Mader)

Survey Link

submitted by yoon@augsburg.edu

Are you teaching in SoNS or HSS and wondering how to set a clear AI policy for one assignment without redesigning your whole course?

This year Augsburg is piloting an AI-Informed Assignment project in the School of Natural Sciences (SoNS) and Humanities and Social Sciences (HSS). The pilot focuses on one concrete task: updating a single existing assignment so that your AI policy is transparent, students can briefly provide evidence of any AI use (if allowed), and compliance with that policy is gradable – all without the use of AI-detectors.

The first CTL Quick-start workshop for this pilot will be held:
Monday, December 8, 3:30–4:30 p.m.
Marshall Room

Please bring one existing assignment that could benefit from a clearer AI policy. By the end of the hour, you should have a solid draft of an “AI-informed assignment update,” plus a plan to finalize it in January or to apply the approach to another assignment. For this initial pilot round, there is a modest stipend for each completed assignment update (up to two per faculty member).

To learn more or indicate interest, visit the pilot page at http://go.augsburg.edu/aipilot
The site links to a brief Overview and Starter Kit, and to a single Intake & Submission Form you can use to sign up for the workshop, request a consult, or request an optional pre-paid BoodleBox seat (a faculty-only AI tool). Participation in this round is limited to SoNS and HSS faculty.

AI-Informed Assignment Pilot overview and sign-up