College of Liberal Arts and Sciences

Phone: (626) 815-6000, Ext. 3713
Fax: (626) 815-3871
Email: rslimbach@apu.edu
Office Location: Ronald Building, Room 104
Office Hours: Tuesday and Thursday, 9-11 a.m.

Richard Slimbach, Ph.D., is devoted to understanding the world, and leading collegians into ethical applications of their own curiosity and world knowledge. Following graduation from Humboldt State University, he served in a number of community-based organizations working with migrant farmers, homeless men, border communities, and Vietnamese refugees. The tutoring connection led to graduate studies in TESOL and eventually to two years dedicated to occupational literacy program development among Muslim cycle rickshaw drivers in Hyderabad, India. Upon returning to the U.S., Slimbach enrolled in UCLA’s doctoral program in comparative and international education to research non-formal educational development among Muslim populations throughout South Asia. After completing his Ph.D., Slimbach sought a place to develop as an urban, multicultural, and international educator within Christian higher education. Since 1991, his professional energies at APU have been dedicated to creating, teaching in, and managing academic programs aimed at preparing students to learn in socio-cultural settings radically different from their own. He is the coordinator of the global studies major with teaching specialties in urban sociology, applied anthropology, global issues, and international education program design. Silimbach supervises the Global Learning Term — a self-directed, full-immersion study and service abroad program that has enabled global studies students to conduct small-scale community research and academic service-learning projects in over 50 non-western countries.

Ph.D. - University of California, Los Angeles
M.A. - William Carey International University
B.A. - Humboldt State University

Presentations
Slimbach, Richard. The Community as Educator: The “Engaged Campus” at Home and Abroad, paper presented at Presidential Symposium on Intercultural Competencies, Calvin College, Grand Rapids, 2003.

Slimbach, Richard. New Self, New Society, paper presented at the Leadership Seminar for Advancing Intercultural Competencies, Azusa Pacific University, Azusa, 2003.

Slimbach, Richard. Internationalization in the Service of Shalom, paper presented at Presidential Symposium on Intercultural Competencies, Union College, 2004.

Slimbach, Richard. Connecting"Home"to "Abroad" in Global Education, paper presented at NAFSA Regional Conference, Los Angeles, 2003.

Slimbach, Richard. Activist art in the city of angels, paper presented at the Forum on Art and Social Change, Azusa Pacific University, 2005.

Publications
Slimbach, Richard. "The Transcultural Journey," Frontiers: the Interdisciplinary Journal of Study Abroad. Vol. 11, (2005).

View All Professional/Scholarly Presentations

Reviewer, Forum on Education Abroad, Certified as Quality Improvement Program, 2007

Primary designer of the field-based Master of Arts in Transformational Urban Leadership (MATUL) Program, co-sponsored by entrepreneurial training institutions on four continents (Asia, Africa, Latin America, and North America), and focused upon developing leaders to catalyze transformational movements within the world's burgeoning slums and shantytowns.

Self-Directed Language Learning (GLBL 300)
Anthropology for Everyday Life (GLBL 301)
Peoples and Places (GLBL 305)
Intercultural Communication (GLBL 310)
Urban Explorations (GLBL 315)
Family Organization (GLBL 325)
Community Organization and Social Change (GLBL 330)
International Internship (GLBL 335)
Community Life (GLBL 340)
Urban Religious Movements (GLBL 345)
Global Study Project (GLBL 350)
Senior Seminar: Global Issues and Prospects (GLBL 496)
Immigrant L.A. (SOC 359)