Award for Global Engagement

Dr. Dan Nolan has the remarkable ability to build bridges across people and cultures. Most notably, he develops and oversees Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) programs at the University of Minnesota, Duluth, which helps faculty develop international learning experiences that connect students with peers around the world. Partnering countries in this initiative include Ghana, Finland, Uganda, Morocco, Canada, Germany, England, South Africa, Spain, Czech Republic, China, Russia, Mexico, and New Zealand.

Dr. Nolan advances teaching and collaborative work in the fields of German Studies, Russian Studies, Comparative Literary Studies, and Language Learning, and has championed mobile app-based language learning projects. He helped found the Mobile Language Learning group at UMD, which develops applications that assist in second-language acquisition.

Nolan also works to integrate sustainability initiatives into language courses. He serves as a key liaison in a formal international partnership between Germany and Minnesota — the Climate Smart Municipalities (CSM) — that advances climate and energy transition efforts in six German and six Minnesota cities.

He also co-organized discussions that ultimately led to the creation of the website Environment and Engagement in German Studies, hosted at Carleton College, which is now a vital hub for teaching, research, and civic engagement pedagogies. He has been invited to present to the European Aurora Alliance, focused on advancing innovation for society’s largest challenges.