2009 Call for Nominations

Deadline:

• January 16, 2009 for deans to nominate Summer Seminar Participants

The MU Council on International Initiatives (CII) is pleased to announce the eleventh year of the Global Scholars program. This nationally recognized program is designed to support MU faculty members who seek to internationalize their teaching and scholarship. Since its inception, over 100 faculty members across Colleges and Schools have participated. As a result, dozens of courses have been modified - enhancing the learning experience of thousands of MU students each year. The Global Scholars Program received the Andrew Heiskell award in 2002 from the Institute of International Education.

This year, CII is collaborating with the Council on International Educational Exchange (CIEE) to offer MU faculty the option of two summer seminars: Vietnam (June 1-12); or Turkey (June 16-27).

Global Scholars 2009 Summer Seminars.

• The New Vietnam: Transformations in Historical Memory and Cultural Identity (June 1-12, 2009). Vietnam's accession as the 150th member of the World Trade Organization in January 2007 is the latest milestone in the nation's twenty-year effort at doi moi, or economic renovation following the collapse of the Soviet Union. This seminar will explore how Vietnam's policies of global economic integration and capitalist development are transforming its people's sense of their national past as well as their personal and collective plans for the future.
  
  The seminar will begin in Saigon, former capital of the Republic of Vietnam, travel through Hoi An, Danang and Quang Ngai province to conclude in the modern capital of Hanoi. Along the way, participants will have the opportunity to see the diverse ways in which those who lived through the Vietnam War as well as the booming postwar generation now reflect on the conflict; Along with faculty and students from the HCMIU School of Business, learn how international investment are shaping education and professional aspirations; study how international tourism is causing Vietnamese to rethink their own national identity and the issue of multiculturalism within their country; and explore the prospects and challenges for Vietnam's continued economic development in the context of recessionary pressures in the West and rapid inflation among neighboring countries.
• Identity, Community, and Culture in Contemporary Turkey (June 16-27, 2009). While Turkey's unique position at the crossroads of East and West has endowed this country with a long and rich history and strategic importance in the region, the nation still struggles to define itself and its citizens. Established from the multi-ethnic, multi-religious and largely rural Ottoman Empire, the modern Republic of Turkey has become a mostly urban, secular society in which individual and national identity is tied to the notion of Turkish ethnicity. However, fueled by the accession process to the European Union, regional and domestic conflict, and the impacts of globalization, notions and expressions of identity, community and culture are being challenged and redefined. Through lectures, site visits, study tours and hands-on experiences of local expressions of culture, participants will gain insight into shifting notions of identity, community and culture in contemporary Turkey.

Deans are authorized to select the participants based on curriculum considerations in their respective colleges and schools. The Provost requests that funding not be awarded to persons who have received GSP funding in previous years. The colleges/schools with teaching responsibilities and curriculum development priorities are invited to participate: Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources; Arts and Science; Business; Education; Engineering; Health Professions; Public Affairs; Human Environmental Sciences; Journalism; Law; Medicine; Nursing; Veterinary Medicine; and the Libraries.

I. Suggested Criteria for Selecting Global Scholars Participants:

• The faculty member’s role in teaching essential courses in the undergraduate and/or graduate curriculum in department/division.
• Openness to internationalize a course or courses – e.g., to blend a global component into the focus of a course, to systematically involve international students into the classroom discussion.
• Willingness to become part of a mentoring corps for expanding the internationalization of courses at MU – e.g., mentoring other faculty, raising the global awareness of students by encouraging study abroad and foreign language study.

II. Performance Criteria for Global Scholars Faculty:

• Submit a revised undergraduate or graduate course with new international content and analysis. The revised course syllabus will be submitted to CII as a model for future participants.
• Participate in Global Scholars activities, such as pre-departure orientation for the summer seminars and in the teaching workshops. Become involved in developing international opportunities for students (study abroad, international programming, support for foreign student exchange, foreign language study).
• Be involved in expanding the international knowledge base of academic advising in support of study abroad, foreign language study, international residential living (Pangaea, foreign language floors, Freshman Interest Groups, etc.)
• All participants must agree to participate in follow-up workshops on campus to share good practices in internationalizing undergraduate courses.

Space in these seminars is limited. To ensure fullest consideration, deans should submit nominations no later than January 16, 2009 to: