Dr Peter McCagg
ACE2016 Keynote Speaker
Akita International University (AIU), Japan
Dr Peter McCagg, Professor and Vice President for Academic Affairs of Akita International University (AIU), has been announced as the Keynote Speaker at The Asian Conference on Education 2016 (ACE2016) which will be held Thursday, October 20 - Sunday, October 23, 2016 at the Art Center Kobe, Japan.
As a member of the AIU board of trustees, Dr McCagg provides leadership for the faculty, who strive to make the university the best destination in Japan for international students to learn about this country, its people and language, and for Japanese students to prepare to become the global leaders that the founding president envisioned when he established AIU in 2004.
Prior to AIU, Dr McCagg worked for New York University as Clinical Professor of English and Director of The American Language Institute. He also taught for many years at International Christian University (ICU), where he served in various administrative assignments including Dean of International Affairs.
For nearly 40 years, Dr McCagg has dedicated his life to helping Japanese engage with people from outside Japan in responsible and meaningful ways, and to helping students from around the world successfully navigate life in Japan.
Keynote Presentation | International Liberal Arts: Meeting Japan’s Higher Education Needs in the Global and Digital Era
Scarcely into its second decade of existence, Akita International University (AIU) has become a model for how Japanese institutions of higher learning can better prepare students for making meaningful contributions to the wellbeing of the global community and the planet. When it comes to educational and social justice, to equality within and across borders, AIU aims to establish educational structures and incorporate learning activities that challenge not only students’ minds, but also their hearts—structures and activities designed to develop their capacity for understanding, caring about, and rising to the challenges of our complex times. In an age where human and digital networks define and facilitate ways of working together to address the world’s most pressing problems, AIU strives to use its global connections to link faculty and students with colleagues both locally and at a distance in face-to-face and digitally mediated intercultural project-based learning.
All this “aiming” and “designing” and “striving” may sound well and good, but this presentation angles less to promote AIU, than it seeks to reveal ways for all who share the lofty aspirations embodied in the conference’s 2016 theme to work toward their greater achievement. Through a critical analysis of AIU’s existing programs and curricular offerings, the speaker identifies dimensions of the university experience in Japan that can and need to be strengthened in order to create coherence and integrity in students’ intellectual experiences.
See the full list of speakers for this event.
