Tom Hinch's new job as Associate Dean, Community and International Engagement is no long-shot for the sport tourism and leisure professor.
In many ways it's one he's been 'training' for all his life, having been bitten by the travel bug as a child exploring Canada on family vacations, visiting Quebec and the East Coast playing hockey at university, experiencing Moscow as an exchange student, and studying geography for his doctoral degree.
"This job combines a lot of my interests," he says. "As a full-time researcher and professor my research and teaching responsibilities were aligned with sport tourism and indigenous tourism, but the international side has always been a professional interest of mine - and a personal one."
The Faculty's academic plan with a focus on internationalizing students' learning experiences and professors' research opportunities, has been the impetus for the creation of this role in which Hinch hopes to bring more international and community-related initiatives to life to enrich both the classroom and the laboratory.
"The work I'll be doing will tie directly into our academic plan and into the ideas in the University's guiding documents, Dare to Discover and Dare to Deliver, which are directing U of A's path," he says. Internationalizing the teaching and research environments is a top priority for the University - and for the faculties.
To Hinch the key advantages of internationalization are the broadening of perspectives, greater understanding of how other cultures approach research and a more diverse teaching and learning environment. He envisions a much more diverse Faculty that is attractive to both domestic and international students from around the world.
At present Hinch is meeting with faculty members and coaches to determine their past and present international activities, as well as what they'd like to do in the future with the goal of developing a strategic plan for international and community engagement. What he's found has amazed him. "I'm finding that our faculty has been doing a lot internationally that we haven't profiled. There have been visiting scholars, faculty members have been presenting their research at the top international conferences - often without any of us realising this. One of my tasks is to document our existing international activities and increase the profile of these activities."
"I think we want to build on that so that people who have an interest can take advantage of the opportunities that international connections can offer. I want to do this on the local side in terms of community groups as well."
And it's not meant to add to faculty members' existing workloads, Hinch insists. "What I'm trying to do is to facilitate the achievement of their teaching and research goals in relation to international and community."
Two examples of successful international and community engagement the faculty is already engaged in, says Hinch, are the long-standing, student-led play programs for underserved populations in Thailand shepherded by professor Jane Vallentyne, and professor Karen Fox's ground-breaking art-related project work in the local Aboriginal community on which Fox is collaborating with researchers from Hawaii and the US mainland. Hinch notes that numerous other faculty members collaborate with colleagues across the world, working at the cutting edges of their field and impacting places and people in many different parts of the world.
"This is the kind of thing we want to foster - but in a more focused, strategic way," he says.
Some of the ways to increase exposure to the international perspective, says Hinch, include bringing more international visiting scholars to the faculty and having members of the professoriate visit other countries in a similar capacity; increasing student exchange opportunities at foreign universities for students; using technology to bring international scholars into the classroom virtually and promoting the faculty's degrees to a wider global community.
Hinch says he'll be drawing primarily on the resources and advice of UAI (University of Alberta International), as well as University Affairs and the International Centre as he fleshes out a workable international and community engagement plan.
"We are going to have to ensure that we have a focus," Hinch says of the plan. "We need to pick some priorities. It will also be important to balance university/faculty and individual/coach aspirations."
With all the opportunities in the world, Hinch concedes, internationalization has to make sense for the student or researcher. "People must see how these opportunities could impact them in a positive way. It cannot be mandated in a top down fashion," he says.
Into the future, Hinch says, "I would like to take the current memoranda of understandings we have with institutions such as Beijing Sport University and Srinaharinwirot University in Thailand and look at specific initiatives than we can carry out so the agreements can be active and tangible."
On the community engagement side, Hinch says connections in the local communities have never been more important, and must be fostered. "Our faculty has a tradition of connection to the community and our research programs are often connected to the community. We need to continue to foster those relationships if we're going to be successful in our research."
Hinch is clearly excited about the possibilities and opportunities this job will enable. "But they must tie in to our teaching and research, coaching and athletic functions," he cautions.