Undergraduate International Studies and Foreign Language Program

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FY 2005 Awards

Grantee: Asia Society
Abstract Title: Integrating Asian Studies into the Education Curriculum

Asia Society, a private, non-partisan, non-profit educational and cultural organization with headquarters in New York City, requests $368,935 over three years from the Undergraduate International Studies and Foreign Language Program to fund teacher preparation through the Integrating Asian Studies Into the Education Curriculum program. Integrating Asian Studies has been designed as a three-year multi-tiered professional development program that connects education faculty with the Asia Society.

Through the Integrating Asian Studies program, Asia Society will service interested faculty at three diverse schools or departments of education: William Paterson University in Paterson, New Jersey; Queens College of the City University of New York; and Iona College in New Rochelle, New York. These three institutions were selected based on geographic location, variety of education offerings, diversity and size of student body, and academic reach. Their administrators and faculty are all committed to this educational opportunity, and to participating in this project.

Education faculty members who have little or no professional training in Asian Studies, but who teach a substantial number of students who become certified as teachers in the K-12 educational arena every year, will be invited to apply to participate in the Integrating Asian Studies program. The goal of the program is to enable participants to modify their courses and develop new courses that include a significantly stronger international focus in the curriculum they teach. This, ultimately, will result in their students attaining a firm grounding in international studies.

The formal annual program consists of six day-long workshops held at Asia Society over the course of each academic year. Each workshop will be divided into three sessions: academic content, pedagogy, and discussion. Asia Society content experts and external consultants will teach the academic content sessions. Faculty members participating in the program will lead the pedagogy sessions in rotation. A facilitator will lead all discussion sections.

By building a professional partnership with these institutions, Asia Society will contribute to strengthening individual faculty members and also to improving undergraduate instruction in international studies in the three participating institutions. The Integrating Asian Studies program will expand the scope of international studies in the curriculum of each participating institution, while, at the same time realizing multiple institution benefit and regional reach. Undergraduate students studying at the participating institutions will benefit from the impact of the Integrating Asian Studies program as early as the first year. All materials developed over the course of the grant period will be disseminated nationally.

Founded in 1956 by John D. Rockefeller 3rd, Asia Society is a national nonprofit, nonpartisan educational organization headquartered in New York whose mission is to foster awareness and understanding of Asian cultures and peoples among Americans. Asia Society realizes this mission by developing educational materials and programs for students and teachers in the K-12 field, as well as through exhibitions, performances, films, lectures, seminars, conferences, publications, and assistance to the media. Asia Society's staff expertise, track record in training educators and developing materials, and its strong relationship with academic specialists, educational institutions, and international organizations uniquely qualify Asia Society to undertake and successfully complete this project.

Grantee: Cleveland State University
Abstract Title: Development of Middle East Studies Program

The United States requires a critical mass of professionals proficient in Middle Eastern languages and culture to promote international understanding and diplomacy, and to support security and military requirements. Cleveland State University (CSU) has responded to this need by creating a Middle Eastern Studies Program. This Undergraduate International Studies and Foreign Language Program Grant funded by the U.S. Department of Education will support the following Middle East program objectives at CSU for academic years 2005-07:

  • Introduction of a minor in Middle Eastern Studies.
  • Design and implement a general studies course in Middle Eastern Culture.
  • Establish eight baccalaureate courses in Middle Eastern studies.
  • Provide a two-semester second-year sequence in Arabic.
  • Recruit and hire a tenure-track faculty member in Arabic.
  • Expand library resources in Middle Eastern and Arabic studies.
  • Recruit students to the program through media and community organizations.

The program will be broadly defined, emphasizing cultural and religious pluralism in the Middle East and relevance to students majoring in a variety of disciplines. Outputs of the program by the end of the grant period will include: 30 students working on the Middle Eastern minor with intermediate knowledge of Arabic or Hebrew, 100 to 200 students taking the Middle Eastern general studies course every year, six to ten co-curricular programs involving students and community organizations; and a doubling of the number of students of Middle Eastern origin on CSU campus.

CSU is in a favorable position to recruit students for such a program. There are no other programs in Middle Eastern Studies in northeast Ohio. At CSU itself, interest in the subject is high, with 30 students enrolled in first-year Arabic and an average of 30 students attending a monthly co-curricular film and discussion group. Also, the Arabic population of Ohio is expanding. The state ranks fourth in the United States in numbers of Arabic speakers (185,000). The largest concentration is in Greater Cleveland, which has an estimated Arab-American population of 70,000. CSU's downtown location assures a transportation advantage in attracting students of Middle Eastern descent from all parts of the city.

This proposal signals expansion of CSU's global curriculum to include the Middle East. The University already has substantial concentrations in Asia, Latin America and Europe. The International Programs Center is expanding study abroad and various scholar exchanges. Last year the College of Liberal Arts and Social Studies hired three tenure-track faculty with Middle East specialties and obtained Fulbright Foreign Language Teaching Assistantships for two visiting students from Arabic-language countries. The College has a formal collaboration with Siegal College of Judaic Studies that allows students to transfer course credits in Hebrew language, Judaism, and Israeli studies. A host of relevant co-curricular activities also exist including two or more lectures and cultural programs of Middle Eastern interest each semester and a monthly film discussion group. In the next five years, the College expects to offer two new BA majors in Arabic and in Middle Eastern Studies.

Grantee: College of Santa Fe
Abstract Title: Internationalizing Conservation Science in the Americas

The College of Santa Fe (CSF) located in Santa Fe, New Mexico, proposes Project I.C.S.I.A. (Internationalizing Conservation Science in the Americas). As colleges grapple with study abroad issues in a post 9/11 world, it is important that they also create experiences that involve applied knowledge, experiential learning and results-oriented development. Project I.C.S.I.A. builds on CSF's strong commitment to internationalizing its curriculum by: 1) creating an International Conservation science major within the Department of Sciences and Conservation Studies; 2) developing a field-based experiential component for conservation science students at the Instituto Terra in Aimores, Brazil, where CSF has a strong partnership through its Documentary Studies major; and 3) providing Portuguese language courses and immersion training for faculty and students traveling to Brazil. By their very nature, conservation issues transcend national boundaries. Acknowledging this, Project I.C.S.I.A. will establish curricular and international fieldwork opportunities in Latin America that will foster students' understanding of the interdisciplinary and global scope of conservation concerns.

During year one of the grant, an interdisciplinary group of faculty (sciences, social sciences, documentary studies) will work on curricular development for the new major in International Conservation. Courses will be developed for delivery on CSF's campus and, in partnership with staff and faculty at Instituto Terra, for delivery on-site in Brazil. In addition, language training for faculty and a small pilot group of students will also take place. In year two, International Conservation Science students and faculty will take part in a Portuguese immersion program prior to traveling to Brazil for a full semester abroad program. In Brazil, students will do field research on the restoration of the Atlantic Forest Biome, and will present their findings to the CSF community upon their return in the second semester of their senior year. CSF proposes that this program be a model for internationalizing other majors at the college and that it provide a model for experiential learning in an international context.

Grantee: Goucher College
Abstract Title: Transcending Boundaries of Content and Language

Goucher College of Baltimore, Maryland, was founded in 1885 as a degree-granting institution whose purpose is to prepare students to engage, improve, and participate in the world they will inherit. In today's post 9/11 world, a mission that embraces local, national, and international experiential learning as a significant principle remains relevant to the intellectual growth of the 1,381 undergraduate students enrolled in this co-educational, liberal arts college. Our strategic plan (adopted in 2002) reaffirms our commitment to present a truly global kind of liberal arts education, one that is infused with an awareness of international and intercultural dimensions. We continue to require all students to complete 12 credit hours in a foreign language (Elements of the Language I (110), Elements of the Language II (120), and Intermediate Study in the Language l (130)).

Faculty members of Goucher College have identified a need to improve the integration of our disciplinary, interdisciplinary, and international curriculum with foreign language programs, and with study abroad experiences. Faculty seek to create courses that are truly interdisciplinary, and fully incorporate cross-cultural immersion experiences and language study with the topic of study. This will be accomplished by developing the Integrated Intensive Course Abroad (IICA). The IICA is a cohesive, three-part sequence of study (fall semester course on campus, January three-week international experience, and a spring semester course on campus) that awards eight credits upon completion of all three parts. The three parts of the IICA are to be team-taught by a content expert and a language expert, each of whom has studied the partner's discipline.

This project will assist 12 faculty members as they study a partner's discipline, and then co-design and co-teach an IICA. The 12 faculty participating in this pilot project teach eight disciplines, and represent departments in each of the college's academic divisions (the humanities, the social sciences, the natural sciences, and the arts). Assessment and international pedagogy consultants will participate, as well as a final evaluator. The content and language pairs are physics and Spanish, theatre and French, sociology and German, religion and Spanish, women's studies and French, and sociology and Spanish.

The IICA will help students better understand the skills and perspectives that enable people to interpret, and thrive in, cultural settings other than their own. Our project has seven objectives. 1. Give a group of 12 faculty skills that will help them to develop and teach a more effective interdisciplinary, comparative curriculum. 2. Design and offer six IICA courses. 3. Offer students six additional study abroad opportunities, presented in a design that helps fulfill the institutional goal that every student who enrolls at Goucher will have a firsthand experience with the international and intercultural aspects of his or her course of study. 4. Increase the number of students studying intermediate or advanced French, German, or Spanish. 5. Design and use formative and summative assessment instruments to measure the efficacy of the IICA concept for faculty, and for students. 6. Create a framework to sustain energy beyond the time of this project. 7. Share our work in content and language with public teachers from middle and high schools in Baltimore City and County.

It is estimated that each IICA will enroll 15-18 students. Each student participating in an IICA is required to have completed the college-wide requirement of 12 credits of study in a modern language before enrolling, and, therefore, it is anticipated that most students will be in their third year of study at Goucher. Both majors and minors in content and in language should enroll.

Grantee: Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis
Abstract Title: Internationalizing the Professional Undergraduate Curriculum

This project institutes a collaborative model for strengthening international studies and language education in the undergraduate programs of professional schools at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI). The project infuses international perspectives across the curricula of these schools by introducing professionally oriented courses and course modules that build a cumulative, comprehensive knowledge of the language, history, culture, and present circumstances of one particular nation: Indonesia. This model is predicated on the belief that repeated and intensive study of a specific area results in deep understanding and conceptual transformations in how students approach the world beyond the United States. Such intensive study is, however, normally pursued only by liberal arts majors whose curriculum accommodates multiple courses on a particular region. By embedding modules and courses on Indonesia across the highly structured undergraduate curricula of three professional schools at IUPUI--Engineering, Education, and Social Work--this project equips professional undergraduates with a similar depth of understanding that advances their international thinking and improves their professional practice in an increasingly interdependent world.

Methodologically this project rests on four principles. First, professional school faculty are directly involved in the process of curriculum development, through fellowships, workshops, and study trips. Second, the project establishes both foundational, professionally-relevant courses on Indonesia and the Bahasa language, and, of equal importance, shorter modules to be incorporated into a range of existing courses, exposing students to Indonesia throughout their undergraduate education. Third, advanced communications technology, especially videoconferencing, is used to bring outside expertise and international dialogue directly into the classroom. And fourth, the curriculum is developed in close collaboration with an Indonesian institution, a strategy that reflects the need for dialogue and interaction in understanding the globalized basis of much professional knowledge and practice today.

Gadjah Mada University (GMU) in Yogyakarta is the partner in this project, which employs a novel form of exchange: collaborative curricular development. The resources of IUPUI and GMU are used to enhance the curricular offerings of the other, in a manner that is economically sustainable and illustrates how even institutions with small faculties and few resources might develop international studies and language curricula. Such curricular collaboration brings students and faculty into direct contact with their counterparts at the other institution, inserts international interaction directly into home-based offerings, and builds global competencies, all within the context of professional education. The project proceeds through five mutually reinforcing activities accomplished in a two-year time frame.

  • Development of a cadre of professional school faculty who will nurture effective international education for students in their fields
  • Creation of a network of faculty partners that cross-cut IUPUI and GMU in order to share perspectives, expertise, and curricular innovations.
  • Presentation of faculty development workshops and two summer institutes, to increase the international expertise of IUPUI professional school faculty.
  • Creation of modules on Indonesia to be used in many courses, thus infusing international perspectives across the undergraduate curriculum.
  • Creation of a set of courses on Indonesia and Bahasa tailored to professional concerns.

Grantee: Skidmore College
Abstract Title: The Building Blocks of a New International Affairs Major

Skidmore College is a national institution with an international vocation. Ten years ago, Skidmore introduced a minor in International Affairs and received an Undergraduate International Studies and Foreign Language (UISFL) program grant to develop the new curriculum. Following the faculty's contagious interest in international education and the students' enthusiastic participation in the minor program, a new major was approved in 2004. Just as in 1995 when the college required help to deliver the new minor curriculum, so too in 2005 does it require an additional UISFL grant to deliver the new major. The three overarching project objectives in support of the new program are to develop the three IA required core courses; introduce twelve new courses in international studies to fill gaps in the curriculum; and create six new advanced language-across-the-curriculum (LAC) courses and four internship abroad programs to cultivate usage of foreign languages in content-specific areas.

The first project objective is to insure that the three core courses form a coherent program. Faculty will revise the program cornerstone (the existing Freshman core course in IA, introduced a decade ago) to reflect changes brought about by the new major as well as global systemic changes; introduce the program steppingstone, a new theory and methods course in IA for sophomores, to equip them with the tools to conduct research and to prepare them for junior study abroad; and develop the program capstone, a seminar in IA, which integrates study abroad experience and methods into an independent research project for seniors.

The second project objective is to introduce twelve new IA-designated courses needed to strengthen the major: Human Rights in International Affairs; Arabic Language and Culture; HIV/AIDS: A Global Perspective; Islamic Religious Sciences; Global Feminisms; Maghreb in International Affairs; International Law; Franco-Québécois Identity in History and Literature; International Migration; Dynamics of Caribbean Political Economy; Comparative Constitutional Systems; and Confucian Values and the Rise of East Asia.

The IA Program requires high-intermediate foreign language competency and advanced LAC training for all majors. To deliver the new foreign language requirements, the college will: introduce advanced LAC courses in Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, and Spanish; establish summer internships in China, Germany, Italy, and Japan so that students will reach high-intermediate to advanced competency in a shorter period of time; and provide faculty with advanced foreign language training.

The mortar that holds the project together is the faculty workshop conceived in four parts. The assessment workshop evaluates the mission, delivery, and performance of the program and its curriculum. The teaching workshop brings together faculty to present their curricular development projects. The theory and methods workshop focuses on the development of the steppingstone course. The faculty development workshop in the Maghreb introduces IA core faculty to foreign cultures not well represented in the curriculum but of vital interest to the United States. The Maghreb workshop prepares faculty to infuse non-Western perspectives across the IA curriculum and cultivates a deeper sense of community in and commitment to the new IA major program for participants who teach the three required IA core courses.

With the support of a UISFL grant, the Skidmore IA Program will demonstrate how an international education in the liberal arts best prepares students to engage in responsible global citizenship and undertake the intellectual and ethical challenges posed by a changing world.

Grantee: State Center Community College District
Abstract Title: Strengthening Latin American Studies

State Center Community College District, located in the San Joaquin Valley in Central California, is one of seventy-two California Community College Districts. Its two colleges and three satellite centers are federally designated Hispanic Serving Institutions, which serve over 33,000 students. State Center Community College District seeks to better prepare students and faculty for effective participation in global, multicultural settings with an emphasis on Latin America.

On a nationwide basis there are a limited number of formalized Latin American Studies programs at the community college level for faculty and student participation. State Center Community College District, because of its large Hispanic student population, is uniquely positioned to equip its faculty to provide students with an enhanced perspective of Latin American languages, culture and history, contributing to their preparation and readiness for transition to four-year academic institutions and future careers.

This grant program will ultimately lead to a Latin American Studies Associate in Arts Degree. The two main goals of this project are (1) to provide students with the skills, knowledge and attitudes needed for future academic and professional opportunities related to Latin America, and (2) to expand and enrich faculty expertise, understanding and appreciation of Latin America.

In order to achieve these goals, the following objectives have been identified:

  • Infuse Latin American perspectives in eight existing courses in Spanish, film, and political science.
  • Develop seven new courses: four accelerated Portuguese language and culture courses and three new courses in Latin American studies, enrolling 210 students
  • Provide three intensive workshops to enhance the Latin American expertise of forty faculty members and two administrators.
  • Enhance faculty expertise by sending six faculty to six national and/or international workshops, seminars or conferences focusing on foreign languages, business Spanish or Portuguese, and Latin American issues.
  • Expand the Latin American Film Series offered by Reedley College in two ways: add three additional films to the series and create a discussion session to follow each film, increasing student and faculty participation by ten percent.
  • Invite four guest speakers (one for each semester of the grant) to present their unique Latin American perspectives and experiences.
  • Expand the existing Summer Spanish Study Abroad Program in two ways: offer the Spanish Summer Program in either Mexico or Costa Rica in alternate years and offer one Latin American studies course as part of this program.

This grant program will prepare students to enter a degree program in Latin American Studies, International Business, and/or International Studies at four year institutions, thus strengthening ties to such institutions as California State University, Fresno, and San Diego State University, a leader in International Business and Latin American Studies, where a number of students from State Center Community College District are already enrolled.

Furthermore, this grant program will supplement the District's commitment to international education and Latin American Studies. Offering Latin American Studies courses, and eventually an Associate in Arts Degree program, will transform the District - its faculty, students and administrators - into an international education model for an urban, multiethnic, and diverse student body.

Grantee: University of Oregon
Abstract Title: Enhancing African Studies at the University of Oregon

The overarching goal of the program is to increase the University of Oregon's capacity to stimulate students' understanding of and appreciation for the richness and diversity of Africa and its peoples. With grant support a detailed program to enhance and institutionalize the systematic study of Africa on the University of Oregon (UO) campus will be implemented. The four key pillars of the program are: 1) curriculum building (including a new certificate in African Studies); 2) language development; 3) establishment of new study abroad and internship opportunities in Africa; and 4) development of an African Studies intellectual community. For each pillar of the program there has been identification of major activities, responsible parties, grant costs and UO matches, intended outcomes in each of the funding years, and plans for continuation of program activities beyond the funding period. The four-fold program will build on the university's existing African Studies foundations, draw on the campus community's commitment to expanding avenues for the study of Africa, and respond to students' enthusiastic interest in Africa. The University of Oregon is fortunate to have outstanding institutional resources that already support vibrant international studies activities in other world regions and have nourished the nascent focus on Africa.

Global awareness and international understanding are central to the state's education objectives, the university's mission statement, the university president's vision for educating well-informed global citizens, and to the faculty's guiding mission. It should go without saying that those who teach about global processes of economic justice, political freedom and sustainable livelihoods stand to gain considerably by engaging the historical and contemporary dynamics of the immense and diverse world region of Africa. In spite of all of this, Africa has historically been under-represented at the University of Oregon. Moreover, the study of Africa is largely absent throughout the Pacific Northwest region, the university's primary area of student recruitment.

The initiative responds to a groundswell of interest expressed by students and echoed by a broad range of administrators, faculty, and members of the wider community. It addresses critical gaps in the area of undergraduate curriculum and language training in international studies. It fulfills students' desire for more, improved and less expensive study abroad and internship opportunities in Africa. The focus on building intellectual community acknowledges the importance of integrating eager students into meaningful dialogues on issues pertaining to the continent. Moreover, the systematic study of Africa will expose young academics to real-world problem-solving, increase their appreciation for diversity and culture, and offer them enlightenment through an enhanced global perspective.

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Last Modified: 10/27/2005