World Cinema Day 2026
Friday, April 10, 2026 | 11:30 AM
Barrymore Theatre, 2090 Atwood Avenue, Madison, WI 53704
Since 2004 World Cinema Day, a collaboration between UW-Madison’s Institute for Regional and International Studies area studies centers and the Wisconsin Film Festival, brings schoolchildren and teachers to Madison for the screening of high-quality, international cinema with additional content provided by UW faculty or staff.
2026′ event line up:
- Little Rebel’s Cinema Club (Indonesia)
- The Strange Case of the Human Cannonball (Ecuador)
- Riding Time (UK)
- Son (Russia)
- The Thief (Greenland)
- America (Peru)
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Design and Consumption: Mechanisms of Conveying Information: A Community College Workshop
July 26, 2025
This interdisciplinary workshop for K-12 and community college educators explored the historical roots of artistic expression and its influence on today’s digital information landscape. Featuring Gabrielle Cornish, Kevin Nute, Blue Rachapradit.
Click here for an article about this workshop.
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Teaching about the Holocaust through “White Bird”
April 30, 2025
This was a special book club event commemorating Genocide Awareness Month, featuring White Bird by R. J. Palacio. Deepen your knowledge on Holocaust education through the story of White Bird, an unforgettable graphic novel now adapted into a major motion picture starring Helen Mirren and Gillian Anderson. The story powerfully illustrates how kindness can change hearts, build bridges, and even save lives during the darkest of times.
Dr. Irene Ann Resenly lead a discussion on White Bird and how to incorporate its themes into K-12 classrooms. An award-winning educator with two decades of social studies teaching experience, Dr. Resenly currently teaches eighth grade in Middleton, Wisconsin, and was named the 2024 Middle School Teacher of the Year by the Wisconsin Council for the Social Studies. Her work focuses on Holocaust memory, memorial site pedagogy, and making difficult histories accessible to students.
About White Bird: Sara Blum lives an idyllic life with her adoring parents in Vichy France. But her world comes crashing down when the Nazi occupation separates the family and forces the young Jewish girl into hiding. Her classmate Julien and his family will risk everything to ensure her survival, and, together, Sara and Julien manage to find beauty in a secret world of their creation.
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International Children’s Literature Event: Stories of Separation and Belonging (Exploring Migration, Partition and Displacement)
Saturday, December 7, 2024
Madison Concourse Hotel
This was an in-person, daylong workshop for K-12 pre-service and current educators, librarians, and children’s literature enthusiasts. More information is available here, including resources.
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Climate Optimism: Finding Creative Solutions and Making Positive Impacts
June 28, 2024
This K-12 workshop was designed to provide educators with new ideas and approaches to teaching topics around climate change, enabling more optimistic approaches in the classroom. Featured speakers brought international, regional, and local expertise to our exchange, with the goal of providing attendees with practical classroom activities, tangible examples of success, ideas to expand your toolkit for climate-based activities, ideas for community efforts and building local networks, and suggestions for incorporating climate optimism outside of the science classroom. Video recordings from this workshop and other related resources are available here.
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Global Learning Summit: Engaged Learning to Lead for Change
Saturday, April 13, 2024
9 am – 3:30 pm CDT
Virtual event
The summit began with Lori DiPrete Brown, Director of Global Health and Human Ecology (UW-Madison) who shared her journey of learning and leading for change. The following panelists will offered diverse experiences with service, inquiry, and civic engagement:
- Ella Zelena – Current Peace Corps volunteer in Indonesia
- Nada Elmikashifi – WI Legislative Staffer, Grassroots Organizer, and Political Activist
- Audrey Thibert – Award-Winning Student Jounralist (UW-Madison)
International Children’s Literature Celebration: Folk and Fairytales
Saturday, December 2, 2023 from 9 am-4 pm
Madison Concourse Hotel
This was a workshop for preservice and current educators, librarians, and children’s literature enthusiasts. The daylong event featured an expert from UW-Madison and three award-winning children’s literature or YA authors. Authors gave presentations on their work, engaged in a roundtable discussion, and signed copies of their books for attendees. Lunch and refreshments were provided. Click here for more information.
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The Good Life: Global Perspectives on Wellbeing and Happiness
July 24, 2023
Thank you to those who joined us for this virtual workshop on July 24th, 2023. The workshop’s theme was “the good life” and explored related concepts from around the world. Visit our original event page to access the recorded sessions. These resources demonstrate how different cultures define concepts such as “the good life,” wellbeing, or happiness, and how world events, appropriation, and the passage of time have shaped these shared definitions and practices. This workshop was designed for community college educators, and open to the public.
Global Learning Summit 2022: Global Learning Inside-Out
April 9, 2022 (Virtual Event)
THEMES: Global Competence and Global Learning for Global Action
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Empowering Educators to Teach on Genocide
January 15-16, 2022
This virtual event empowered Wisconsin’s K-12 educators to teach on genocide and fulfill the mandates of Act 30, the new law passed by the Wisconsin legislature and Governor Evers in April 2021. It offered participants the chance to hear presentations by top experts and acquire free book sets and other practical materials for teaching on the subject of genocide and five specific cases: the Holocaust, Cambodia, Rwanda, Argentina, and the Uyghurs in China. For more information on the speakers, program, and educator resources, click here.