Pune, India
For students in Professor Coralynn Davis’ Gender, Power and Global Development course, Zoom became more than a means to attend class remotely — it became a door to another world. Taught this spring in partnership with the Institute for Study Abroad, the course connected Bucknellians with students in India to gain insight into gender and social equity issues in the developing nation.

What They Did
Throughout the semester, Bucknell student groups met virtually with five students from the city of Pune in Maharashtra, India. Together, they studied the on-the-ground efforts of local women and youth development organizations tackling challenges such as sex education, child care and financial literacy. The Bucknell students then analyzed similar issues in developing countries around the globe, comparing and contrasting women’s roles and the effects of globalization on gender equity.

What They Learned
“Westernized ideas of development are often presented as the ultimate good for nations that haven’t ‘progressed’ as far as countries like the U.S., without considering how those ideas impact the specific dynamics of a nation,” says managing for sustainability major Anna Cristini ’23, whose group studied a rural development initiative. Considering how Western approaches like industrializing agriculture may disrupt women’s livelihoods and social status “helped me understand how modernization and globalization may not always be beneficial.”

For Isobel Lloyd ’21, a psychology and economics double major, the course “not only showed how technology has brought world communities together, but also how deeply the ideals of those communities affect each other.”
— Brooke Thames