In Solidarity with the people of Minneapolis

In 2022, I had the great privilege of organizing the Comparative and International Education Annual Conference (CIES) in Minneapolis, Minnesota.The CIES is the primary US organization that focuses on comparative and international education.Made up of researchers, scholars, practitioners and students, this 70-year-old organization focuses on educational issues from a variety of perspectives, often using interdisciplinary lenses to better understand educational processes and practices.While we considered all the usual trappings of an international conference, one of the central goals we had was to make the city a pivotal part of the proceedings.The city had just witnessed the death of George Floyd.Floyd had been restrained and killed by police officers in Minneapolis in 2020 which led to the awakening of the Black Lives Matter movement.We were still dealing with the effects of COVID-19.These issues were impossible to ignore and, as such, we sought to ensure that our conference would try to directly face what these matters meant to the local community.Members planned to honor George Floyd by a visit to the corner where he was murdered and through planned panels that sought to explore the influence of the Black Lives Movement on comparative and international education.We invited local education leaders to discuss the effects of the loss of learning in classrooms across the city.But we also celebrated the city, with a visit to the inimitable Paisley Park, the home and center of the artist Prince's musical legacy, a beautiful evening at the Minneapolis Institute of the Arts, and the inclusion of musical talents from students of all genres from the University of Minnesota, to the presence of a youth choir, VocalEssence Singers of this Age, whose voices sang of unity, progressive values and human rights.The choir was a family affair, where one singer included the daughter of a long-time CIES member.Their powerful music set the stage for a conference grounded in creativity, where we celebrated the place, Minneapolis, while also recognizing and honoring the challenge of the times we were living in.