Coastal professor wins teaching award for globalization
Martin, who teaches international relations, was especially cited for engaging her classroom with a group of journalists visiting a refugee camp in the Sudan through Internet links and for her use of Skype telephony to connect her students to guest lecturers around the world. She has "investigated, mastered and utilized the wizardry of modern communications technology to globalize her classroom," according to the award announcement.
The award was established by Rowman & Littlefield Publishers and the editorial board of the New Millennium Books in International Studies in honor of the late Deborah "Misty" Gerner, a University of Kansas professor of political science and internationally noted expert in Middle Eastern conflicts. She was known for her contributions to the Women's Caucus of International Studies, the International Studies Association, the discipline of international relations and the causes of peace throughout the world. The award is granted annually to a professor who has developed effective new approaches to teaching international studies, with emphasis on pedagogy that engages students with issues of war, peace and other important topics as they evolve in the 21st century.
Martin, who joined the CCU faculty in 2003, earned a Ph.D. from the University of Maryland, College Park, and has taught at La Universidad San Francisco de Quito, Ecuador. She is also the director of the international and global studies minor, as well as co-adviser to the Globalist Club.
Her most recent book, "The Globalization of Contentious Politics: The Amazonian Indigenous Rights Movement," analyzes the benefits and challenges of global processes on indigenous peoples in some of the most remote areas of the world. Currently, she is researching oil extraction and new methods to protect the South American Amazon. Her research and writing focus on globalization and its pedagogy, nongovernmental organizations, and energy and environmental policy.