by Connor Parks
February brought the unfortunate news that Centre Global Executive Director Adam Chen-Dedman would be stepping down from his post effective by the end of the month. By the time you’re reading this, we’ll already have lost a valuable member of our community, and the process of preparing a new director will be in the works. Here at The Cento, we send our best wishes for his PhD track at the University of Melbourne, and anything his future career may hold! He’ll be greatly missed, but I’m glad to see his departure under such exciting circumstances. Fortunately, I was recently able to sit down with soon-to-be-Dr.-Chen-Dedman and ask him about his experiences with the study abroad industry and Centre College.
How has your relationship with higher education in Kentucky developed during your role at Centre, compared to prior positions?
“I think what I’ve experienced in terms of my time at Centre, as it relates to small liberal arts colleges and study abroad, is that there’s a lot of power in cross-institutional collaboration. I think what Centre has forged with Rhodes and Sewanee through a Mellon Grant that the three institutions received is phenomenal because each institution by itself has limited resources … to be able to pool resources across multiple institutions–both in terms of financial resources and recruitment efforts–helps a lot with creating more sustainable programs. A lot of that came about through the Associated Colleges of the South (ACS), which is an institutional membership for 15 institutions across the South, and there’s a committee of international program directors that meets on a regular basis. I also frequently meet with my counterparts from Rhodes and Sewanee. I think being at Centre has really helped me understand the comparative lack of resources vis-à-vis a big R1 institution like the University of Kentucky, but at the same time it’s an opportunity for smaller institutions like Centre to collaborate more intentionally, and I think we’ve been doing a pretty great job of that.”
Has your philosophy behind study abroad changed significantly since your first time studying at a non-US institution?
“I think on one hand it’s undeniable that higher ed, writ large, is a business. It’s about the bottom line, and with no money, schools close. … Over my 20 years working in international education, one thing I’ve been concerned about is the prohibitive costs of accessing study abroad opportunities for a lot of students. I think that because of those hurdles, there’s an ethical burden on institutions who are promoting study abroad to make sure that all students have ways of accessing it. I think Centre in its own way does contribute to that: there’s endowed scholarships for students, and we have donors who regularly give to study abroad. I think one thing that Centre needs to work on more substantively is thinking about the number of students who go abroad for 3 weeks during CentreTerm, and the cost that that incurs for students, as it’s not part of the comprehensive fee. On average, a CentreTerm course abroad costs between $3,000 to $5,000 depending on the location. … It’s wonderful that Centre faculty care so much about creating these opportunities for students, especially given that, for the most part, they aren’t additionally compensated beyond a small honorarium. At the same time, what I would’ve liked to have done if I’d stayed longer is to work on ways Centre can expand more exchange programs and semester-long direct-enroll programs at universities abroad, because these are programs that Centre students can access without additional costs beyond, say, the flight. … I feel strongly that Centre should move to a funding model like Rhodes in which every student is offered one semester abroad during their 4 years that is institutionally funded, rather than the current model of allocating a specific budget amount each fiscal year that limits the overall number of spots we can offer in each semester program. I know it would be a radical departure from precedent, but I think it’s an important next step in making study abroad accessible to more students at Centre.
“Historically–and still today–studying abroad is a privilege afforded to few. Philosophically-speaking, educators must grapple with the ethics of financing and access when it comes to study abroad. There’s also plenty of other ethical issues when you’re encountering other cultures, particularly in a very truncated way, say, over a three-week period. There are ways that faculty members and students themselves can be more intentional about those sorts of encounters without being too interventionist or invasive. … International exchange is something I care a lot about as it can be the beginning for building better understanding among different peoples.”
What’s your most memorable study abroad experience/moment during your time here? Your favourite consistent program?
“Firstly, I think perhaps the most unique–and I know that’s a loaded term–but the most unique destination that Centre offers, that a lot of schools don’t, is Bhutan. Dr. Kyle Anderson, who was the director of study abroad at Centre from 2017 to 2019, deserves credit for establishing that exchange program. … Secondly, on a personal level, one of my favorite programs Centre offers would probably be Mérida. Growing up, I studied Spanish all through high school in Lexington, and we did multiple trips to Mexico over spring break so I had a fair amount of experience in Mexico, but I’d never been to Mérida, and when I went last year I was absolutely enamored with the place … it’s super safe, and the Yucatecan people are so hospitable and warm. It’s just magical, and I think having discovered Mérida during my time at Centre is something I did not expect and so I was pleasantly surprised.
“Finally, something I’m most proud of is working with Dr. Inouye and Dr. Cai to build an intensive language program in Taiwan. While we offer a program in China, it isn’t an intensive language program for Mandarin like the immersion semester programs we offer in Germany, Spain, and France. In Fall 2023, Centre’s faculty approved our proposal to partner with the International Chinese Language Program (ICLP) at National Taiwan University, and to have our first cohort of students go there this past fall was exciting. I visited Taiwan this past December and met some Centre students; it was really great to see how much they had learned. I myself am a graduate of the program the students are in–it’s a phenomenal program and I’m really glad we were able to set that up. The Taiwanese government also offers generous scholarships for language students, and all our students that went to ICLP this academic year got the scholarship, so I’m very proud of that. I would also say collaborating between Centre Global and the Office of Fellowships to help more students apply for the Gilman international scholarship, and to see a regular cohort of students successfully get the Gilman over the past year and a half, has been really rewarding.”
What led you to believe that pursuing a PhD was the right next step for your long-term career goals? How has Melbourne’s program differed from prior degrees and experiences you’ve received and had?
“I was actually a PhD student at the University of Melbourne before I came to Centre, and I put my PhD on hold after arriving. … Long story short, COVID threw a curveball in my plans of completing my PhD in a linear fashion. When I arrived at Centre in 2023, I hadn’t completed my dissertation … I thought I’d be able to finish it part-time while working, and that’s proven, unfortunately, not to be feasible, so I had to make the difficult decision last month … to focus on completing it. The University of Melbourne and other Australian universities are different from most U.S. universities. Australia only allows 3-4 years [for your PhD] … I’m coming up against a time limitation which means I have to submit by August. This is what led to me making the decision to leave Centre and to prioritize the next 5-6 months … I’m doing a PhD on something I’m passionate about (I’m working with social movements in Taiwan and how they intersect with geopolitics in the Taiwan-China conflict).
“I lived in Thailand for 14 years, and during that period I saw the democratic system in Thailand collapse in front of my eyes. For me, democratic decline was not just theoretical as I’d seen the direct impacts: people lost freedom of speech, assembly, and other rights. What happened in Thailand between 2006 and 2014 or so was a long period of back-and-forth coups, elections, democratic return and then decline again … and it made me realise that I wanted to research a situation where a country had previously been under a dictatorship and had successfully democratized, and that’s Taiwan. Taiwan faces a revanchist power and potential aggressor in the People’s Republic of China that seeks to swallow it up, and I think it’s important that the world, and Americans, understand why Taiwan and its freedoms are worth defending. … So that’s why for my PhD I decided to work on Taiwan specifically. After 15 years working in study abroad, I felt I was at an inflection point where I needed to take the next step in my career, both credential-wise and to deepen my knowledge of the part of the world I was working in.”
What aspect of daily life will you miss most from your time here?
“I’ll really miss the Centre Global team; they’re the colleagues I’ve interacted with most closely: Margaret Meadows, Vivienne Main, and Jessica Leonard. I feel like we’ve developed a strong rapport, so I’ll miss working with them … I think any time you’re in a situation where you can call your colleagues friends, it’s unique and something not to take for granted. I’ll miss partnering with faculty: Dean Goldey has been nothing but supportive and a great sounding board for me, and I really appreciate her. Dr. Robert Schalkoff from the Office of Fellowships, the Off-Campus Programs Committee members, Dr. Nisha Gupta and Dr. Matt Downen from the Center for Teaching and Learning, Nathan Whitlock from Civic & Community Engagement, Joy Jot Htet from Admissions, and Sharon Duncan from CCPD have all been fantastic campus partners. I’ll also miss working with Dr. Mei Li Inouye and Dr. Jingjing Cai from the Chinese Studies program; I’ve been pretty close to them, and there’s other faculty and staff I’ll miss as well, of course. There’s some wonderful students I’ve gotten to know (including when I visited Mérida!), although I haven’t taught at Centre like I did at other institutions simply because I’ve been more focused on administrative matters here. … I would’ve liked to teach a course at Centre, ideally on Taiwan and social movements; if I’d stayed longer, I would have, but things just didn’t shake out that way.”
Where did the scarves come from? Do you still wear them when travelling in warmer climates?
“(Laughing) Great question. The truth is, most of my scarves come from Cambodia. They’re called Kramas, which are tropical scarves– people tend to think of scarves as something you wear in a colder climate, but in Southeast Asia, where I lived for a long time, it’s very hot, and Cambodia is an extremely hot country. … Many of the scarves that I have were gifts from Cambodian students that I got to know really well … while not all of my scarves are from them, the majority–the more colourful ones–are from there. In Cambodia, they’re used for people to wipe the sweat off their face, because it’s hot all the time, but people also use them for fashion accessories or whatnot.”