global currents spring 2008

IN THIS ISSUE:— CIE 2008 Conference, “World Making: Art and

Politics in Global Media”

— Global Studies Student Visits Rwanda

— UWM Librarian Works to Digitize Collections

— International Graduate Students Make Impact at UWM

Global CurrentsA Biannual Bulletin by the Center for International Education Volume 4 Issue 2 Spring 2008

CENTER FOR INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION

The Center for International Education (CIE) is enjoying another productive and engaging academic year. We are working steadily to promote internationalization across

the university. Our public outreach programs remain a unique and valuable resource to the local community. Many students are taking part in study abroad programs and overseas internships. CIE also works hard to bring the world to UWM, servicing and supporting the international student body that contributes so much to our university.

In this issue of Global Currents, I am pleased to announce the 2008 CIE conference, “World Making: Art and Politics in Global Media.” Continuing our tradition of innovative, interdisciplinary conferences, “World Making” will feature a diverse group of academics, artists, and activists. It promises attendees a stimulating and engaging series of lectures and presentations, and features several outstanding artists and intellectuals, both from UWM and abroad.

We are also pleased to feature an article on the immense contributions of international graduate students at UWM. Statistics show that international students earn roughly one-third of all Ph.D. degrees conferred by UWM. In some fi elds, such as engineering and business, the percentage is much higher. As UWM pursues its mission to become a center of the knowledge economy in Wisconsin, we should remember the important role that international students play in achieving that goal.

Global Currents is proud to offer a platform to two UWM researchers, Buasawan Simmala and Christine Lowery. Their contributions to this issue illustrate the breadth and depth of international research at the university. We are always delighted to showcase the high level of talent that exists at our university.

This issue also includes a fascinating article by Global Studies student, Laura Hetland. For her required overseas internship, Laura worked with a peacebuilding non-governmental organization in Rwanda. Her harrowing account of a visit to a genocide memorial in Rwanda is so moving that we decided to include it as a special feature. Several years ago, when the university took the bold step of establishing the Global Studies program, it was hoped that students would gain this type of transformative experience. As an educator, it is rewarding to witness a talented student such as Laura fi nding inspiration and success from our academic programs. It is also a credit to the study abroad and Global Studies advisors at CIE, who work hard every day to provide students with the best possible academic experiences.

As always, Global Currents profi les some of the individuals who are making strong contributions to campus life. This issue features Atsuko Sakurai, a Japanese librarian who is visiting UWM on a professional exchange; Lucy Mkandawire-Valhmu, Assistant Professor of Nursing who recently led a study abroad program in Malawi; and Krystyna Matusiak, the digital librarian at the UWM Libraries. We are also fortunate to feature several rare images from the American Geographical Society Library’s digitized collections.

Finally, please don’t forget to check the Events section to learn of the many exciting activities at CIE this semester. Everyone is encouraged to attend, and everyone is always welcome!

Patrice PetroProfessor of English and Film StudiesDirector, Center for International Education

Cover image: “World Making” by Lane Hall and Lisa Moline

LETTER FROM THE SENIOR DIRECTOR OF CIE

SPRING 2008

ResearchThe Sami Joik: Expressing the Richness of the Collective Being ....................................2

Social and Cultural Adjustment of Asian International Graduate Students in the United States .......................................................................................5

CIE Conference Announcement ...............................................................................7

Profi lesLibrarian Krystyna Matusiak Takes UWM Global .......................................................9

Lucy Mkandawire-Valhmu: Going Back and Giving Back to Malawi ..........................10

Japanese Librarian Enjoys Administrative Exchange at UWM ..................................12

Special FeatureBraving the Path to Peace: Global Studies Student Visits Rwanda ............................. 14

CIE WorldCIE’s Institute of World Affairs Extends Commitment to Public Service ........................16

Global Studies Student Wins Prestigious Study Abroad Scholarship ..........................17

International Graduate Students Make Impact at UWM ............................................18

Ningbo University Delegation Visits UWM ..............................................................19

Study Abroad in Summer 2008 ..............................................................................20

Events .............................................................................................................23

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Published by:

Center for International EducationUniversity of Wisconsin–MilwaukeeGarland Hall 138P.O. Box 413, Milwaukee, WI 53201www.international.uwm.edu

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The Sami Joik: Expressing the richness of the collective beingBy Christine Lowery, (Laguna/Hopi) Ph.D., MSW

CHRISTINE LOWERY teaches social work practice and cultural diversity courses in the Helen Bader School of Social Welfare, Social Work Department, where she is the under graduate coordinator. Her ethnographic research is on the Pueblo of Laguna in New Mexico where the elders (80-99) are teaching her about cultural change and aging. Her interest in yoik, stems from internet research and a week in Oslo, Norway in September, 2007.

“When you yoik, you recall to heart, your experience of something. You are associated emotionally, often strongly and intensively to what you yoik about.”

— Arnberg, Ruong, Unsgaard, 1969, p. 39)

Indigenous peoples span the globe with their own cultures, languages, art forms, and similar struggles with oppression. As

with indigenous peoples in this country, the Sami (Lapps) of Scandinavia—Finland, Norway, Sweden—and Russia, face oppressions that dig at the roots of their culture. Consequences include the loss of language and cultural practices because of forced assimilation, condemnation of ancient ways in light of Christianity, and proximity to the dominant culture resulting in assimilation or biculturation. Yet, like the Lakota and the buffalo (Plains), the Gwich’in and the caribou (Alaska), the cultural ties among the Sami, the reindeer, the bear, and the landscape have enriched the collective memory and nurtured their being for centuries. The joik (Sami) or yoik (Norwegian) expresses this richness of collective being.

Swedish music ethnologist, Ernst Ernsheimer claimed, “Without doubt, the Lapp yoik represents the most ancient and original form of music that exists within the boundaries of Europe” (Arnberg, Ruong, & Unsgarrd, 1969, p. 43). Motifs of the yoik

2CENTER FOR INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION

range from reindeer (herds, migrations, seasonal pastures, mating and calving) to landscapes (mountains, lakes, and villages) and human beings (legends, traditions). The yoik has a narrow tonal range, but in the north a whole octave can be heard. A strong yoik is begun low and may sound gutteral; the melody (wuolle) ends abruptly. The voice is compressed, coarse and resonant and to yoik can be strenuous, both physically and mentally (Arnberg et al.).

The content is layered and echoing words and phrases create a meaningful expression of journey, love, hunting, weather, or work. While joiks are personal, they can be learned by others and claimed by all; such yoiks are memories of the moment, and may be about particular clergymen, police superintendents, Lapps, churches, or dogs (Arnberg et al., 1969). Common to the yoik are the intensely personal feelings and memory—powerful when expressed in natural surroundings—and the relationships among the one who yoiks, the subject, and the collective (Arnberg et al., 1969).

Some yoiks are dialogues between the men and women regarding gendered activities in hunting, killing, or cooking the bear, revered as The Man of the Forest, The Wise Man, The Holy Animal, and God’s Dog (Wersland, 2006). Because the bear is closely related to humans—one story tells of a bear/woman, male offspring with a human hand on one arm and a bear paw on the other—the bear is thought to have a conscience (Wersland). Bear yoiks (bjornijoiker) may precede the hunt for bear, and also occur during the hunt and the return to camp. Petrus Halmberg (1775) collected the following bear hunting yoik, used in the 1600s (Wersland, p. 50-51):

Most cherished one of the forest conquered.Give us good health/The prey to the larder.Bear: Glad I came, glad I went /Through valleys, hills and heights.

In the 1950s, the Swedish national radio team of Arnberg, Ruong, and Unsgaard (1969) recorded yoiks in Sami (Sapmi) regions in Sweden. One of the most famous recordings is “The Reindeer on Oulavuolie” yoiked by Nils Mattias Andersson (b. 1882), a reindeer herder from Tärnaby. According to Sami scholar Harold Gaski (1996), Andersson spontaneously created “one of the most beautiful epic poetic pieces we know with Sami impressionistic

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poetry” (para. 2). Gaski, a professor of Sami literature at the University of Tromsø, Norway weaves interpretation through the recitation of Andersson’s yoik (para. 2-5).

First, Andersson focuses on his wife Anna as she sits in the Sami tent (lávvu) and blows into the embers to light the fi re. As his thoughts move to the large mountain, Oulavuolie—distinctive because of a deep fi ssure—Andersson’s reindeer enter his memories:

“the reindeer run around, run around, run around.”

Children appear in his memory and he tells of a fi shing trip when they catch a fi sh, so big, it frightens them and he is drawn back to the reindeer:

“Oulavuolie’s beautiful reindeer are fi ner/Oulavuolie’s tall reindeer are fi ner.”

Andersson uses the specialized language of the Sami to “differentiate the animals according to age, gender, and appearance. The reindeer are beautiful, but Oulavuolie with its glacier is dangerous” (para. 3).

Oulavuolie’s huge ice fi ssure/ice fi ssure/huge ice fi ssure has sucked up my beautiful tall ones/my beautiful slender reindeer.

Andersson leaves his reminiscence and returns to the present.

But now I have grown old/grown old, grown oldand my tall ones have changed/changed, changedThey are no, are no, are no longer.

He remembers the reindeer with the swaying antlers, the beautiful ones who stood pridefully aloof,

When I was the man on Oulavuolie/the man on Oulavuolie (para. 4).

Closing his journey, Andersson approaches the tent again. His wife blows into the embers, trying to ignite the fl ames. He ends the poem with a dual image: age and vanishing memory.

And it is the two of us/Our memory, memory of us/vanishes, vanishes.

We remember and we have forgotten/We are both old (para. 4)

As a reminiscing, reindeer yoik, this epic poem also refl ects the attitudes toward the Sami in the 1950s and 1960s, Gaski (1996) summarizes. The Sami life was disappearing with the disappearing herd. There is a vulnerability about that which no longer exists, “one which expresses a greater sorrow for ‘the tall ones’ which…are no longer vital, than for the fact that ‘the memory of us/vanishes’” (para. 5). Gaski contends that because Andersson’s yoik was recorded and continues to be recited and interpreted, this yoik becomes part of the Sami consciousness, transformed from ‘the defeatist abandonment of culture’s distinctiveness’ (Gaski, para. 5).

Women and yoiks. Among the Tarnä yoiks collected by the Swedish national radio team are women’s expressions of “pathos and resignation” (p. 131), the loss of the reindeer herds and along with this, the loss of an old culture amid the changes brought by a new age. Arnberg et al. labeled these as protest songs, “songs of social indignation” (p. 131 ). One woman from Arvidsjuaer, where there was greater contact with the Swedes, lamented, “It is so diffi cult to force oneself to sing when one knows what everything was like before” (p. 133).

By 1990, Sami joik as protest was integrated with compact disc tech nology and contemporary world music in Gula, Gula or Hear the Voices of the Foremothers. Sami music artist Mari Boine (b. 1956) tells a bitter story of colonization and the protest voice is strong, particularly in Recipe for a Masterrace (translated into English):

Use Bible and booze/and bayonet/break promises and agreements

Be a diplomat/use articles of law/against ancient rights

create prejudice /discrimination and hate

Let no one question your authority/that’s how you suppress a minority

(continued on next page)

CENTER FOR INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION 4

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The Sami Joik(continued from previous page)

Change is constant, and cultural response to change is telling. Gaski (1996) laments the cultural changes in the “function, meaning, and content” of the traditional yoik: “Today so little yoik poetry is created which is as rich in short statements that hit the mark and unsurpassed metaphoric certainty as…[found] in the old personal yoiks…” (para. 29). In another time, Bengt Larsson (1828-1893) lived during the height of the Swedish Lutheran or Laestadian movement when a Bible-based Christianity challenged his culture and his worldview. His yoik tribute includes both the Virgin Mary and Sarakka, the Sami god worshipped above all gods by women. He integrates Sami life with new religious icons and demonstrates Sami cultural integrity and personal certainty in the midst of change (Werland, 2006, p. 79).

Sara (Sarakka) and Maria (the Virgin Mary)

The only son of the Virgin Mary shall not throw outAn old Sami, when fi nally I come.I know nothing, but what I know,Is that the Virgin Mary’s only sonWill not throw me out.

References

Arnberg, M., Ruong, I., and Unsgaard, H. (1969). Jojke. Stockholm: SR fölag.

Gaski, H. (1996). The secretive text: Yoik lyrics as literature and tradition. Nordlit (5). http:// www.hum.uit.no/nordlit/5/gaski.html Retrieved September 22, 2007.

Wersland, E. M. (2006). Yoik in the old Sami religion. (Translated by V. L. Szepecsy). Nesbru: Forlaget Vett & Viten AS.

The following websites offer background material and samples of yoik:

http://www.utexas.edu/courses/sami/diehtu/giella/music/yoiksunna.htm

http://www.dat.musiconline.no/shop/displayAlbumExtended.asp?id=15980

http://arran2.blogspot.com/2006/02/sami-yoik-and-music.html

New issues of Global-e (www.global-ejournal.org), an innovative online journal of Global Studies, are now released on a quarterly basis. The journal is jointly sponsored by: the Center for International Education at the University

of Wisconsin–Milwaukee; the Global Studies program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison; the Center for Global Studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; and the Center for Global Initiatives at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

This online journal features short-form articles (roughly 1000 words) on a variety of topics and welcomes viewer comments. With this innovative “blog” style, unique among academic journals, Global-e offers current, cutting-edge perspectives on the emerging fi eld of global studies. According to the Global-e précis, “commentaries focus on public issues, theoretical debates, methodological challenges, and curricular concerns.” The journal also aims to build connections among university programs in global studies.

New Issues of Online Global Studies Journal Released

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BUASAWAN SIMMALA is an international student from Laos. She served as the Commercial Specialist at the Embassy of the United States to Laos. In March 2000 she received a Fulbright Scholarship to study in the United States, and subsequently received her Master’s Degree in International Commerce and Policy from George Mason University. She is currently a Ph.D. candidate in Urban Education with focus on Adult and Continuing Education Leadership at the School of Education, University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee. Her dissertation topic is “Cross-Cultural Adjustment of Lao and Vietnamese International Graduate Students in the United States.” Although her doctoral program focuses primarily on adult education, her research interest is more in the comparative overview of international higher education between that of the United States and those in Southeast Asian countries, such as Laos, Vietnam and Thailand. She is also interested in how historical, cultural and former educational backgrounds of people from Southeast Asian countries affect their adjustment process and educational attainment as they come to study or settle down in the United States. She also taught Lao language at the Department of Foreign Language and Linguistics during the Summer 2005 and Spring 2006 semesters.

Pursuing higher education, especially in graduate school, is considered to be a diffi cult adjustment process for all

students. However, it is especially diffi cult for international students who come from Asian countries (Hull, 1978). As a result, their academic achievement is likely to be infl uenced by their socio-cultural adjustment patterns rather than by

Social and Cultural Adjustment of Asian International Graduate Students in the United StatesBy Buasawan Simmala

their scholastic ability (Church, 1982; cited in Klomegah, 2006). Social factors, such as the frequency of their contacts with host students, age, gender, level of education (graduate versus undergraduate), marital status, duration of residence in the U.S., native language and culture, have a great impact on their adjustment process to the campus environment (Klineberg & Hull, 1979; cited in Klomegah, 2006; Barratt & Huba, 1994). International students who are in more frequent contacts with American students; come from English speaking countries and western cultures; are male; are undergraduate students; are single (Kagan & Cohen, 1990; Hull, 1978, Poyrazli & Kavanaugh, 2006); and have lived in the U.S. longer, are likely to adjust better than others (Young, Harlow, Maddux & Smaby, 2006; Hechanova-Alampay, Beehr, Christiansen, & Van Horn, 2002; Yeh & Inose, 2003). In addition, international students who are from rural areas and married women, in general, face even more complex adjustment patterns (McLaughlin, 1985, cited in Poyrazli & Kavanaugh, 2006; Klomegah, 2006).

Asian graduate students also have limited, if any, “access to welfare benefi ts, loans, and scholarships, and have the awesome responsibility of paying out of state tuition” (Lin & Yi, 1997, p. 2), while being prohibited by the U.S. immigration regulations from receiving employment and reducing their credit load to accommodate their needs. These issues combined together make their adjustment stress to U.S. graduate studies considerably high. Also, as students who come to the U.S. with strong goals and ambitions, academic dismissal to them means signifi cantly more than money and/or time concerns. This makes Asian international graduate students believe that they must make appropriate socio-cultural adjustments at all costs (Young et al., 2006). As the result of these issues, their adjust-ment experiences are more stressful than those of other students.

The number of international graduate students in the U.S. has increased steadily in the last several years. With a population of



RESEARCH

224,820 people, international graduate students’ enrollments accounted for approximately 12% of the annual total graduate student population in the U.S. in 2004 (Heiser, 2005). The 7% increase from 2006 to 2007 is the highest since the 2003-2004 academic year (Redd, 2007). As a result, the U.S. hosted the largest number of the international doctoral students in the world. For example, in the academic year of 2002-03 (IIE, 2005), nearly 60% of the total international doctoral student population studied in the United States. This is chiefl y due to the participation of international students from Asian countries. Accounting for 53% of the total international graduate student population, China, India and South Korea were three of the world’s largest contributors in 2007 (Redd, 2007).

Their increasing preference for U.S. advanced degrees demonstrates that U.S. graduate programs, especially at the doctoral level, are attractive to the majority of the world’s best and brightest students (Albacht, 2004). It has increasingly strengthened the U.S. universities’ role as the global higher education institutions and as the key contributors to enriching the world’s research enterprise (American Council on Education, 2006). Their presence in U.S. campuses helps develop global understanding, which is important for the enrichment of American universities’ internationalization process. Also, as the largest group of international students in the U.S., Asian students have contributed to increasing sources of income for the U.S.’s economy in many ways. As explained in Opendoors (2005), during the 2003-04 school year, nearly 74% of educational funds of international students came from outside the United States, such as their personal funds, family support, home country governments, and their current employers. As non-resident students, international students must pay full-tuition fees to the host universities. As a result, with expenses of over $13 billion annually, international students have contributed signifi cantly to the U.S.’s economy since 2004 (NAFSA: Association of International Educators, 2004 & 2007). By representing the largest group of international students, Asian students have been the key components making U.S. higher education the tenth largest service export sector in the past several years. Despite these diffi culties, their unique socio-cultural, academic, and fi nancial needs are seldom addressed.

Implication for Adult Education, Internationalization of American universities, and International Student Services

Understanding the nature of Asian international students’ social and cultural adjustment experiences is important in various aspects. It might enable the American educators and universities to respond effectively to their needs. The institutions could use it as a framework for curricula development and program design. Based on insights into their adjustment diffi culties, university administrators could develop short courses, such as training on writing thesis papers and dissertations, presentation skills, as well as scholarship sources targeted specifi cally at international students, especially those coming from Asia.

Also, as suggested by Klomegah, (2006), the international student services’ administrators and student affairs offi ces may work together to organize social and cultural activities and opportunities, such as orientations and cross-cultural lectures, designed not only for international students, but also American students and academic service program developers (Scott, 1997). Doing so would help these individuals to better understand the unique needs of Asian international students. Such services would help to increase Asian international students’ sense of belonging, which will help to lessen their burden, thereby enabling better adjustment to their new learning environment and the requirements of American graduate programs.

Addressing socio-cultural needs of Asian international graduate students is important for U.S. universities, not only for economic reasons, but also academically and politically. First, it will further the continuation of activities within the higher education sector. Second, it will demonstrate that U.S. universities are committed to providing their multicultural student population with a quality education and friendly learning environment, which are both ethical and politically necessary. Finally, it will help these students to experience less social adjustment stress. Consequently, it will contribute to the ongoing improvement of inter-governmental relations between the U.S. and countries who contribute their students to the U.S. educational system. Thus, it is important for those who serve and educate these students to understand Asian international graduate students’ social and cultural adjustment experiences.

Asian International Graduate Students (continued from previous page)

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ReferencesAmerican Council on Education: Issue Brief (2006). Students on the move: The future of international students in the United States. Retrieved on October 30, 2007, from http://www.acenet.edu/AM/Template.cfm?Section=InfoCenter&CONTENTID=18573&TEMPLATE=/CM/ContentDisplay.cfm

Altbach, P. (2004). Higher education crosses borders: can the United States remain the top destination for foreign students? Change, 36(2),18-24.

Barratt, M. F., & Huba, M.E. (1994). Factors related to international graduate student adjustment in an American community. College Student Journal, 39, 422-435.

Church, A. T. (1982). Sojourner adjustment. Psychological Bulletin, 91, 540-572.

Hechanova-Alampay, R., Beehr, T. A., Christiansen, N. D., & Van Horn, K. R. (2002). Adjustment and strain among domestic and international student sojourners: A longitudinal study. School Psychology International, 23, 458-474.

Heiser, S. (2005). Increase in graduate enrollment fueled by rise in minority student participation competition for top international students persists. Press Release of Council of Graduate School. Retrieved on November 1, 2005, from http://www.cgsnet.org/pdf/GED2004IntlAdmisII_Rel.pdf

Hull, W.F. (1978). Foreign students in the United States of America: Coping behavior within the educational environment. New York: Praeger.

Kagan, H. & Cohen, J. (1990). Cultural adjustment of international students. Psychological sciences, 1, 133-137.

Klomegah, R. (2006). Social factors relating to alienation experienced by international student in the United States. College Student Journal, 40(2), 303-315.

Lin, J.C., & Yi, J.K. (1997). Asian international students’ adjustment: Issues and program suggestions. College Student Journal, 31(4), 473-479.

NAFSA: Association of International Educators (2004). Economic Impact Statements: 2003-2004 Academic Year. Retrieved on January, 30, 2006.

NAFSA: Association of International Educators (2007). Economic Impact Statements: 2003-2004 Academic Year. Retrieved on September 20, 2007.

Open Doors (2005). Report on international education exchange. IIE Network. Retrieved on October, 20, 2006, from http://opendoors.iienetwork.org/?p=69693

Poyrazli, S. & Kavanaugh, P. (2006). Marital status, ethnicity, academic achievement, and adjustment strains: The case of graduate international students. College Student Journal, 40(4), 767-780.

Redd, K. E. (2007). Finding from the 2007 CGS international graduate admissions survey Phase III: Final offers of admission and enrollment. Council of Graduate Schools: Research Report. Retrieved on December 03, 2007, http://www.cgsnet.org/portals/0/pdf/r_intlenrl07_III.pdf

Scott, N. (1997). Student Success: Serving International Students in an Age of Technology. Reports – Descriptive (141) – Speeches/Meeting Papers, 150, 187-192.

Yang, H., Harlow, S., Maddux, C., & Smaby, M. (2006). The impact of cross-cultural experiences on worldviews of Chinese international students. Counseling and Values, 51, 21-38.

Yeh, C. J., & Inose, M. (2003). International students’ reported English fl uency, social support satisfaction, and social connectedness as predictors of acculturative stress. Counseling Psychology Quarterly, 16(1), 15-28.


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The Center for International Education will hold its annual academic

conference on April 18-19, 2008. The conference theme—World Making: Art and Politics in Global Media—promises to generate meaningful scholarship and fruitful dialogue. This event continues CIE’s tradition as the premier center of innovative, interdisciplinary thinking on UWM’s campus. The conference will include the following presentations:

CIE Conference AnnouncementWorld Making: Art and Politics in Global Media, April 18-19

A. Aneesh – Imperial Neutrality: Rethinking Embeddedness in the Global Age

Gilberto M. Blasini – Itinerant Cinematic Narratives: Latin AmericanRoad Movies

Wendy Chun – Imagining Networks

Thomas Elsaesser – Cinema’s New Ontologies: World-Making or World-Losing?

Anne Friedberg – The Metaverse vs. Google Earth, or Get a Life: Second™ and First

Daoud Kuttab – The Role of New Media in Middle East Democratic Reform

Christopher Lane – Redemption or Extinction: Psychoanalysis and the Art of Destruction

Thomas Malaby – Making a World that Makes Itself: Art and New Institutions for a Digital Age

Mark Poster – Global Culture, Global Media

Mat Rappaport – States of Distraction – Media Art Strategies Within Public Conditions

Arijit Sen – Imagining Homeland in Diaspora: Geographic Imaginations among South Asian Immigrants

Manu Sobti – Political Machinations and Re-defi ned History in the Global Context – Examining the Case for an ‘Indigenous’ India

Ramesh Srinivasan – Reconciling Transnational and Local: Possibilities for New Media

Carol Stabile – Pwning, Buffi ng, Grinding, and Creep Jacking: World-Building in World of Warcraft

Greg Steltenpohl – Business for Social Change

Sara Velas – International Panoramic Phenomena

Cristina Venegas – Hyphenated Film Production: Defi ning Region Across the “Latin” Americas

Amy Villarejo – Cities of Gods and Men: Urban Megacities and Global Media

David Wilson – Of Dogs in Space and Steel Fleas: A dozen years in collaboration with the otherworld.

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PROFILES

When KRYSTYNA MATUSIAK started

working at the UWM Libraries, she did not expect to help defi ne a cutting edge fi eld. Seven years later, through her work on the library’s digital collections, she has worked to make the university’s unique resources available to the world.

Krystyna is currently pursuing an interdisciplinary Ph.D. in information organization and design. She also holds a Masters degree from the School of Information Studies at UWM. Hailing from Poland, Krystyna has taught Polish language at UWM in the Department of Foreign Languages and Linguistics. She also has teaching experience at Alverno College and the UWM School of Continuing Education.

When the opportunity to work on the university’s digital collections was fi rst presented to her, Krystyna knew that it

Librarian Krystyna Matusiak Takes UWM Globalwould be a challenge. In a short period of time, the fi eld has developed and evolved tremendously.

UWM Libraries is fortunate to house the American Geograph-ical Society Library (AGSL). This unique resource is one of the true gems of the university, and a world renowned resource in the fi eld. The bulk of Krystyna’s work deals with AGSL materials, as part of an ambitious project to digitize and catalogue the full collection of over 200,000 images. Unlike the mass library digitization project undertaken by Google, which is mostly automated, the AGSL and other UWM Libraries projects are done in-house, requiring research, cataloguing, and description for each item.

One of the fi rst digitization projects undertaken at the UWM Libraries focused on a collection of images illustrating daily life in Afghanistan in the 1960s. This project was initiated shortly after 9/11 to show the history of the country before it was ravaged by war in recent decades. This award-winning and nationally-recognized project is one of the most popular

From the American Geographical Society Library,University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee Libraries.

(continued on page 11)


PROFILES

Lucy Mkandawire-Valhmu:Going Back and Giving Back to Malawi

Students in the College of Nursing are often

unable to engage in study abroad due to the extensive course requirements of their professional degree. Recently, thanks to the UWM summer and UWinteriM study abroad options, offered through the Center for International Education, Nursing students are now venturing overseas to enrich their academic experience. During the UWinteriM 2008 term, Assistant Professors of Nursing LUCY MKANDAWIRE-VALHMU and JENNIFER RUNQUIST led a cohort of 20 College of Nursing and two Global Studies students on a program in Dr. Mkandawire-Valhmu’s home country of Malawi.

Malawi is located in southeastern Africa and bordered by Tanzania, Mozambique, and Zambia. It suffers from many of the poverty and public health crises that plague this region of the world. According to Professor Mkandawire-Valhmu, the mission of this trip was to go beyond the idea of “cultural sensitivity”—knowing or understanding another culture—to achieve “cultural safety”—the ability to truly care for someone from a different background. The program focused particularly on community health. It included visits to local hospitals and required a clinical teaching project from all participants.

Dr. Mkandawire-Valhmu feels that international study is important for nursing students because it offers unparalleled immersion experiences outside of the students’ normal comfort zone. As practicing nurses in Milwaukee, these students will have to effectively interact and care for immigrant and refugee populations from various parts of the world, particularly the large Hmong and Somali communities. Study abroad provides an excellent means to prepare for interaction with diverse


Dr. Mkandawire-Valhmu translates a student’steaching project.

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populations. Students also gained greater insight into pressing issues of global health, such as the causes of poverty, and the impact of socio-economic conditions on health.

The program participants also provided Dr. Mkandawire-Valhmu insights into her homeland that would otherwise remain inaccessible. She explains that some of the topics covered during the trip—particularly violence against women—are taboo to discuss in Malawi. Even with her professional credentials, she cannot address these issues easily as a Malawian. Foreign students, however, were more easily able to raise these issues and speak about them freely. They did not face the same cultural pressures on expression.

Dr. Mkandawire-Valhmu also credits the co-leader of the trip, Assistant Professor of Nursing Jennifer Runquist; Director of the Center for Cultural Diversity and Global Health, Dr. ANNE BANDA; and Study Abroad Advisor RACHEL MCGRAW, with helping to make this program a success.

in the collection, drawing visitors and viewers from all corners of the globe.

Another interesting collection is “Cities of the World”, which includes roughly 6000 images. An interesting aspect of this project is that feedback from viewers around the world has helped to refi ne the descriptions and details of individual photos. This type of global interaction with library users is quite unprecedented, and truly illustrates the incredible potential of digitization.

AGSL also boasts a unique collection of images from Tibet dated 1900-1. They are considered to be the fi rst Western images of Lhasa, the capital city of Tibet. In addition to the photos, Krystyna has also worked to digitize a 1903 report on the photos, produced by the Russian Imperial Geographical Society. In this respect, Krystyna notes that digitization is not just a process of

format conversion. It also allows the library to collect and integrate related resources, thereby enhancing the experience of the researcher.

The digital library includes many other resources and is expanding daily. The library is accessible online at: http://www.uwm.edu/Library/digilib/

CIE commends Krystyna and the American Geographical Society Library for this impressive work. In addition to visiting the website, readers are also encouraged to attend the diverse programs and collection tours offered by AGSL.

Librarian Takes UWM Global(continued from page 9)

UWM Malawi group in Ntcheu.


PROFILES

Japanese Librarian Enjoys AdministrativeExchange at UWM

ATSUKO SAKURAI is a librarian from Chiba University in Japan. Through UWM’s institutional partnership with Chiba University, she is spending the current academic year as an employee in the Center for International Education. The Center hopes that Atsuko will set a precedent for future academic staff exchange opportunities. Global Currents is pleased to present this interview with Atsuko.

Q: Please describe your position at Chiba University?

A: I am a librarian in the library of health sciences. The library serves faculty in the fi elds of medicine, pharmacology and nursing. My job is to order, purchase and process materials for the library collection. I also work as a member of the institutional repository working group in the library. Institutional repository is a kind of online database for collecting, preserving, and disseminating research results in the institution through the internet. The Chiba University library built Japan’s fi rst institutional repository in higher education. I recently gave a presentation on this topic at a meeting in Texas.

Q: Why did you decide to come to UWM?

A: Chiba University has had an inter-institutional partnership agreement with UWM since 2006 and the administration decided to send one trainee to UWM this year. It is a great opportunity for me to learn and broaden my horizons, especially since most employees of national universities in Japan do not leave their jobs, in any capacity, until the compulsory retirement age of 60. There is no sabbatical for administrative staff, so this is almost the only chance to temporarily leave my position and concentrate on study. In addition, libraries in Japan view U.S. libraries as models and

SPRING 200813

Atsuko (center) and friends make America-shaped cookies.

follow their example. And universities in the U.S. also attract many brilliant students from all over the world. I wanted to witness real American universities and libraries and learn how they maintain such high levels of performance.

Q: How did you end up working at the Center for International Education?

A: The purpose of this training is to gain a global point of view and to know how universities in the U.S. handle administrative processes about international affairs.

So CIE is the best place to send an employee. In Japan, there is a personnel rotation practice where a worker is transferred to another position or department in-house every 3 or 4 years. Usually, librarians are not transferred out of libraries, but if I were to be transferred to the international student division, I can certainly take advantage of this experience to know my own university better. Librarians do not have many chances to interact with other administrative staff and tend to be isolated. Stepping out of the role of librarian and working with others could also contribute to better communication across the university. In addition, since it is not common to transfer from one company to another in Japan, I think we should experience various types of jobs through a rotation system, in order to gain a different point of view.

Q: How are you enjoying your stay in Milwaukee?

A: Director of International Student and Scholar Services, JENNIFER GRUENEWALD, invited me to Thanksgiving dinner. I learned that people appreciate the many blessings on Thanksgiving Day… and I ate turkey for the fi rst time! I was also invited to a Christmas cookie party and baby shower by my colleagues. I was surprised that people hold so many gatherings and pour a great deal of energies into interior decoration. Interior space in American houses is very nice.

CENTER FOR INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION 12CENTER FOR INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION 14CENTER FOR INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION

SPECIAL FEATURE

Global Studies major LAURA HETLAND spent the summer of 2007 in Rwanda to fulfi ll the internship abroad requirement of her degree. Also a Peace Studies Certifi cate student, Laura was eager to investigate the recent history of extreme violence and miraculous healing that has occurred in Rwanda. The following account deals with one moment of her amazing experience.

For my overseas internship I was very fortunate to spend the summer of 2007 working for a peacebuilding NGO in Kigali,

Rwanda, at the heart of Africa. Fourteen years after the genocide where the Hutu majority slaughtered approximately one million Tutsi minority and Hutu moderates in one hundred days, the country is still working to heal. I faced incredible challenges daily, from food and language to transportation and toilets (or lack thereof ), though it was the most rewarding experience of my life so far. Peace is my passion, but with that comes a deep under-standing of the violence and destruction humans are capable of. I write this article to give a personal glimpse of the murderous evil the people of Rwanda experienced, with strong hopes that it will encourage you all to educate yourselves more about this world and the many possibilities for the pursuit of peace.

Rwanda, like other countries that have experienced genocide, has memorial sites to remind the world of the horrible crimes that occurred there, and to remind themselves so it will never happen again. Here is the account of my fi rst genocide memorial visit.

Saturday, July 7th 2007It was a last minute decision to go to Butare, the second largest city in Rwanda located in the Southern Province, for a Darfur Peace Rally. When my friend and coworker Kyle and I arrived in downtown Kigali early that morning, it was a ghost town due to the mandatory community service for all Rwandans on the fi rst Saturday of every month. It was incredibly eerie, and like out of a movie, a huge wind stirred up this perfect dust funnel right in front

of us as we got off the matatu (an 18 passenger van). We looked at each other in disbelief. It was going to be an interesting day.

When we got off the bus in Butare I turned to Kyle and said, “Okay, now what?” Just then our friend Pascy, a Rwandan from our Human Rights workshop a few weeks back, walked up to us. He was there with the rest of the 13 American delegates from the same workshop and they had just sat down for lunch. “Would we like to join them?” …heck yeah! Everything was working out perfectly.

All of the Americans were thrilled to see us! They invited us to join them in visiting a genocide memorial site called Murambi. With nothing else planned until the Peace Rally that evening, we were up for anything. Neither Kyle nor I had visited a memorial site yet, and we were cautioned that this one was supposed to be the most “intense.” That word did not do it justice. No word could.

We all crammed into another matatu for a 45-minute ride to the site. I sat in the front seat next to a girl named Sam, who I had befriended within the fi rst couple days after arriving in Rwanda. We sat in awe at the gorgeous landscape surrounding us on our trip. I explained to her that I hadn’t been to a memorial site yet. She not so subtly stated, “You know you are going to see human corpses, right?” I had no idea.

We winded through narrow roads; a whole matatu full of mzungus (white people). People stared and children cheered. Traveling in that large of a group made me uncomfortable, because it felt really touristy. I am not here as a tourist, but they don’t know that. We got closer to the site and I was trying to quiet my thoughts to prepare for what I was about to see. It didn’t work.

We ascended a hill to a white iron gate. Sam explained to me that in 1994 all the Tutsis in the area sought refuge upon this hill at the secondary school there. 50,000 innocent men, women, and children with no food or water, only fear and hope. I could not even imagine. We drove up the driveway past the remains of a building. Someone sitting behind me said something about grenades. The matatu parked near a more modern building that

Braving the Path to Peace:Global Studies Student Visits RwandaBy Laura Hetland

SPRING 200815

supposedly would be a museum in September. Fifteen Americans were about to come face to face with everything we had only read about in books.

It was a gloomy day, the coldest one I had experienced thus far in Africa, with a dark overcast sky. The weather fi t the mood. Behind the museum, the school started to appear. We waited for the grounds keeper. A taller, skinny man, with a dent in his skull the size of a golf ball, walked with a limp towards us. His face told a million stories, but the most apparent one was that he was a survivor. His whole family was killed in the buildings he was about to lead us to. Later, when we asked him why he stays, he stated simply, “I can’t leave.”

We made our way behind him down a gravel path. There were long rows of brick buildings with metal doors that would soon be opened for us. Our guide restated what Sam had told me on the way there: 50,000… massacred. The fi rst door opened, and I was standing right there. I stepped inside and my eyes saw the bodies, but my brain did not. I shut down completely. I couldn’t react, but I couldn’t look away. Over 30 human skeletons, some with patches of hair and blood-stained clothes, were within inches of me, laid out in rows next to each other. Even in writing this, I am in shock.

The next room was the same, and the next room, and the next room. We slowly made our way past over a dozen rooms. Each of us taking the time and space that we needed. Some wept painfully and openly. I hugged my arms around my chest as my mind felt dizzy and my body shuddered to the core. To explain the emotion is not possible. Anger, confusion, sorrow, guilt, disbelief. Each room brought a deeper pain than I have ever experienced. There were babies, no bigger than my arm. That’s all I can say.

Next we walked through a large building. Inside, the walls were marked with dark desperate hand prints. In front of the broken windows stood tall bookshelves, each one stacked with the clothing of the deceased. We walked under ropes that were strung in rows ahead of us spanning the large room, upon which hung heaps of more clothing. Filthy, torn, burnt. No one said a word. Nothing could be said.

Exiting this building of suffocating death, the contrast was unbelievable. The view was astonishing, as green hills full of life and beauty surrounded us. How could this heavenly paradise have been absolute Hell on earth 14 years ago?!

As we all spread out to think and refl ect, the skies began to part and the sun managed to poke through for the fi rst time all day.I took a few pictures, though I will remember every detail of this day for the rest of my life.

The ride back to town was much quieter.

I want to leave the reader with this quote: “True compassion does not come from wanting to help out those less fortunate than ourselves, but from realizing our kinship with all beings.” –Pema Chodron. Please take a moment today to be grateful for what you have, and kind to someone you don’t know. Thank you.

Daily life marches on in the street markets of Rwanda.


CIE WORLD


The Institute of World Affairs (IWA) at UWM

provides a wide variety of public programs that help to connect the campus and wider community. As the outreach arm of the Center for International Education, IWA helps to fulfi ll the university’s mission of public service and access.

IWA’s record of quality programming is impressive—from its banner annual event, the Kennan Forum, to its lecture and discussion series throughout the academic year; from the annual Model United Nations simulation to the Global Studies Summer Institute for K-12 teachers; IWA is a campus leader in community education and outreach.

Looking to the future, IWA seeks to refi ne its high standards of professional practice. To this end, IWA Assistant Director, SUSAN YELICH-BINIECKI is undertaking research focusing on IWA program participants to help inform planning for future events. Her work examines how past experiences with learning about world affairs contribute to perceptions of IWA programs, how culture infl uences meaning-making around program content and delivery, and how learners feel they learn best about world affairs.

Through discussions with IWA program participants, Susan has identifi ed many reasons that motivate interest in world affairs. For some, family, cultural, or class backgrounds always included an emphasis on international awareness and education, so IWA programs are a perfect fi t to meet that ongoing interest. Others were motivated to investigate world

CIE’s Institute of World Affairs ExtendsCommitment to Public ServiceBy Thomas E.R. Maguire

affairs due to a cultural event or media controversy. Some individuals credited their religious background, and its commitment to global awareness and service, for their interest in world affairs. Evidently, IWA serves diverse constituencies within the campus and wider community.

Susan also hopes to identify the most effective program types in attracting diverse participants. IWA has already made great strides in developing innovative programming. Through the International Focus television program and public radio and internet broadcasts, programming reaches the entire state and beyond. The GlobaLocal Dialogues series each fall allows community members to interact directly with (rather than just listen to) expert speakers. In 2008, IWA will launch Global Commons, an online resource that will connect with a global audience. Susan’s research identifi es some important considerations to guide this ongoing process. Some participants fi nd IWA effective in giving balanced, concise information on otherwise confusing and complicated topics. This is counterintuitive for many, since information on these topics is so ubiquitous online. However, many suffer from “information overload”, and prefer an informed, balanced presentation of issues by experts. Susan also determined that some participants enjoy the “grandness” of high profi le IWA events, while others enjoy listening to the informal discussions and debates. These participant descriptions are indicative of the different types of learners and various community constituents—e.g. business, teachers, students—with vastly different needs and expectations.

As a Ph.D. student in urban education at UWM, Susan plans to continue her research on IWA programming. Her work helps to ensure that the Institute of World Affairs maintains its high level of excellence in public programming and outreach.

Susan Yelich-Biniecki

SPRING 200817

Global Studies Student Wins PrestigiousStudy Abroad Scholarship

Katherine C. Lyall Scholarship Application EssayBy Alison Szarzynski

ALISON SZARZYNSKI, a Global Studies major (Global Security track) at UWM, was recently awarded the $1,000 Katherine C. Lyall Scholarship. Alison will spend the spring semester at the University of Ghana in Legon, Ghana. Two $1,000 Lyall scholarships awards are rotated among UW system campuses each year. This is the fi rst year UWM has been asked to identify one of its students to receive the award. Applicants were required to submit a one-page essay addressing the importance of challenges of studying abroad. A panel of three Center for International Educator directors reviewed the essays and unanimously chose Alison’s as the top submission. CIE is pleased to publish Alison’s full essay in this issue of Global Currents.

If, fi ve years ago, someone had told me I would be going to Legon, Ghana to study abroad, I would have thought they

were crazy. When fi rst beginning college, I was fresh out of high school and without a clue as to who I was or what my future would hold. Having chosen the college based solely on my desire to play soccer, I had little academic direction. After two years spent struggling through college and two more trying other opportunities, I had come to two very important decisions: I wanted my college degree, but, more importantly, I wanted to have a career where I could make a difference both locally and globally. Though I have had to overcome a few obstacles to get to this point, I am now well on my way to attaining both of those objectives.

As my education is my top priority, I take pride in what I learn and my ability to convey my knowledge. In Legon, I will take courses in African, development and environmental studies, which will utilize material from previous coursework while generating a greater comprehension of these disciplines. Studying in a different culture will broaden my perspective and offer a new academic insight to my major. For example, a course in Ghanaian culture, being taught in its native environment creates a unique viewpoint that I could not fi nd anywhere else.

As a global studies major with a peace studies certifi cate, I plan to pursue a career in sustainable development involving both the environment and culture. The development studies program and internship in Legon will allow me to acquire work experience, while adhering to my academic objectives. By combining fi eld-based training and the in-class analysis, I will explore Ghanaian perspectives. Working with the local community, I will further my understanding of critical global issues, including that of economic and social growth in a native community. Through both these opportunities I will develop essential skills and cultivate my capability for a position within the fi eld of sustainable development.

I have always been one to create my own path. I found my way back into college and now, studying abroad through discovering my own dreams, not because someone else told me that this was where I needed to be. The most diffi cult challenges I’ve faced in my decision to study abroad in Legon are rooted in being a non-traditional student. I felt the same insecurities I’d had when returning to school, like whether or not I belonged or had the ability to be successful. In turn, working almost full-time in order to attend college, I was unsure of whether I could even afford to study abroad.


CENTER FOR INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION 18CENTER FOR INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION

CIE WORLD

However, by working out a plan to do so, I have developed organizational skills, along with strong commitment ideals. Furthermore, overcoming insecurities through academic dedication and a commitment to my future goals has created inner-strength and self-confi dence that will persist in Legon and is at the forefront of my potential.

Another challenge arose from my destination of choice for studying abroad. Prior to returning to school I had spent time working for non-profi t organizations and researching humanitarian efforts. Evoking a feeling of immense empathy, I learned of the disproportionate hardships many Africans

face. Ultimately, I concluded that I was to make a career out of that empathy and I knew I wanted to work in and for Africa. In turn, that was where I wanted to study abroad, but program options are limited at UWM. Refusing to give up, I searched on my own to fi nd the Legon, Ghana program through CIEE. While it took time and energy and the program is signifi cantly more expensive, this is the ideal place and opportunity for me to pursue my goals. My efforts to be able to study abroad provide an even greater motivation for my ambitions while there. I approach this opportunity with both humility and gratitude.

International students contribute more than cultural diversity and richness to the UWM campus. They also constitute a

major portion of graduate students, and thereby signifi cantly further UWM’s research profi le. As UWM positions itself to serve as a regional hub for the 21st century knowledge economy, international students will play a signifi cant role in the intellectual life and economic prosperity of southeastern Wisconsin.

UWM has witnessed a steady increase of international students in the past six years, up from 659 students in 2002 to 743 in 2007, a 13% increase. Of those students, 73% were enrolled at the graduate level in 2007. During the 2006-2007 academic year, UWM granted 124 Masters degrees to international students, 11% of the total awarded. During the same time period, international students earned 36 doctoral degrees, an impressive 35% of the total. Long-term data tells the same story. Within the last ten years, 29% of all doctoral degrees were awarded to international students, and 36% within the past three years.

Within certain schools and colleges, a majority of doctoral degrees were awarded to international students in 2007:67% in the School of Architecture and Urban Planning,

75% in the College of Engineering and Applied Science, and 80% in the Lubar School of Business.

The Center for International Education is actively recruiting students from all corners of the globe, and will continue to work closely with UWM colleges and schools to enhance the mutually benefi cial relationship between international students and the university.

International Graduate Students Make Impact at UWM

UWM Top Ten Countries of Origin

India 122China 113Korea 65Germany 57Taiwan 37Canada 29Saudi Arabia 27Japan 23Thailand 21Iran 18

Scholarship Application Essay(continued from previous page)

SPRING 200819

Ningbo University Delegation Visits UWM

In October 2007, UWM hosted a delegation of faculty and administrators from Ningbo University in China. As

economic development transforms Chinese society, institutions of higher education are looking to their American counterparts as a model for research, teaching, and innovation.

In a program coordinated by CIE administrative director SARA TULLY, the delegation visited a wide variety of units across the UWM campus and interacted with scholars, researchers, administrators, and community organizations.

The week-long program included lectures on organizational structure, mission and planning; fi nance and administrative affairs; meeting information needs in a growing university; curriculum design, quality control and assessment; personnel management: recruitment, hiring and promotion; U.S. research: challenges and opportunities; student admissions, credential evaluations and transfer of credit; and UWM’s urban commitment. Highlights of the week included a

The Ningbo delegation visits Milwaukee’s lakefront.

luncheon hosted by Chancellor CARLOS SANTIAGO, city tour sponsored by the Mayor’s offi ce, and visits to the 16th Street Community Health Center and Walnut Way Conservation Corps. The program also featured visits to UWM classes, the American Geographical Society Library, Center for 21st Century Studies, UWM School of Information Studies, Neurophysiology and Behavior Laboratory, Center for Mathematics Science and Research, Great Lakes WATER Institute, and Milwaukee Art Museum.

The visit culminated with the delegation’s attendance at the CIE Annual Fall Welcome Reception, an event that celebrates the center’s wide variety of international programming—study abroad, international student services, research support, public outreach, and multiple academic programs. CIE Director PATRICE PETRO welcomed the delegation to campus and expressed her optimism that the relationship and collaboration with Ningbo University will continue to develop.


CIE WORLD

The Center for International Education is pleased to offer the following study abroad programs during summer 2008. Programs offered for the fi rst time are described at the end in greater detail.

Brazil - Brazilian Popular Dances and Music in the NortheastIn Milwaukee: June 11 - 13, 2008In Brazil: June 17 - 30, 2008Faculty Director: SIMONE FERRO, Dance

Brazil - A Cross-Cultural Experience Between Brazil and the U.S.July 21 - August 10, 2008Faculty Director: MARY K. MADSEN, Health Sciences

Canada - Vancouver: Sustainable Urban EnvironmentsIn Milwaukee: May 21 - 23, 2008In Vancouver: May 24 - June 1, 2008Faculty Director: CHRIS DE SOUSA, Geography

England - Bristol: Social Work and Criminal JusticeJuly 3 - 17, 2008Faculty Director: SUSAN ROSE, Social Work

England - East Sussex, Various courses at Herstmonceux CastleJune 16 - July 17, 2008

France - Breizh: An Immersion Course in Breton CultureMay 26 - June 16, 2008Faculty Directors: NANCY WALCZYK, English, and BRETT LIPSHUTZ, French, Italian & Comparative Literature

France - Paris: Architecture and Urban PlanningIn Milwaukee: June 9 - 14, 2008In Europe: June 15 - July 27, 2008Faculty Directors: GIL SNYDER and BRIAN WISHNE, SARUP

Study Abroad in Summer 2008France - Paris: Immersion in European BusinessMay 17 - 31, 2008Faculty Director: JIM KASUM, Lubar School of Business

France - Paris: Language and CultureJuly 1 - August 1, 2008Faculty Director: MARIE FOSSIER, Carroll College

Germany- Seminars at Various Hessen Campuses

Germany - Berlin: Portrait of a Great MetropolisIn Milwaukee: June 9 - 13, 2008In Berlin: June 17 - 30, 2008 Faculty Director: JENNY WATSON, Foreign Languages & Linguistics

Germany - Fulda: Sustainable Development Internship

Germany - Giessen: Europe and Global FinanceLubar School of Business

Ireland - Gleann Cholm Cille: Irish Culture and LanguageJuly 5 - 26, 2008Faculty Director: JOHN GLEESON, Celtic Studies

Italy - Florence: Santa Reparata Arts ProgramJuly 8 - August 7, 2008Faculty Director: ALLISON COOKE, Visual Art

Italy - San Gemini: Historic Preservation StudiesSession A: May 24 - June 29, 2008Session B: May 24 - June 16, 2008Session C: July 5 - August 10, 2008Faculty Director: MAX CARDILLO, Architecture

Japan - McKendry Cultural Exchange, Sophia UniversityJuly 28 - August 16, 2008

SPRING 200821

Korea - Various courses at Ajou University

Mexico - Oaxaca: Service Learning and SpanishIn Milwaukee: June 23 - 24 and July 14 - 19, 2008In Oaxaca: June 25 - July 12, 2008Faculty Director: ESTRELLA SOTOMAYOR, Spanish & Portuguese

Mexico - Various courses at Tecnologico de Monterrey campuses

Mexico - Health, Culture and WellnessMay 2008Faculty Director: ELIZABETH RICE, Nursing

Peru - Peru Past and Present: Art, Literature and CultureMay 21 - June 14, 2008Optional program extension: June 14-28, 2008Faculty Directors: CESAR FERREIRA, Spanish & Portuguese, CHRIS DAVIS-BENAVIDES, Art, and Karen Gunderman, Art

Poland - Language and CultureJuly 6 - August 11, 2008Faculty Director: MICHAEL MIKOS, Foreign Languages & Linguistics

Romania - Sustainable DevelopmentFaculty Director: TIM EHLINGER, Biological Sciences

Spain - Galician Culture Through the Eyes of Santiago de CompostelaJuly 14 - August 9, 2008Faculty Directors: GABRIEL REI-DOVAL and ISABEL MENDEZ-SANTALLA, Spanish & Portuguese

Spain, Madrid, - Language and CultureMay 29 - June 27, 2008Faculty Director: NANCY BIRD SOTO, Spanish & Portuguese

USA - New York: United Nations Summer SeminarIn Milwaukee: May 27-30, 2008In New York: June 1-28, 2008Faculty Director: SHALE HOROWITZ, Political Science

New Programs:

Brazil - Brazilian Popular Dances and Music in the NortheastIn Milwaukee: June 11 - 13, 2008In Brazil: June 17 - 30, 2008Faculty Director: SIMONE FERRO, Dance

This interdisciplinary program, conducted in northeastern Brazil, will cover topics of particular relevance to students in the Depart-ments of Dance, Africology, Anthropology, Film, Latin American/Brazilian Studies, Music, Portuguese, and Religion. Students will start the trip in Salvador, the largest port of entry of African slaves during the slavery period in Brazil, where they will not only have access to the historical and cultural resources of the country, but also to traditional cultural/artistic practices such as drumming, dance with local folk dance companies and capoeira classes (a distinctive martial art based in the African-Brazilian culture) from local experts. Students will experience the richness of Salvador’s historical sites and museums, will have access to local cuisine (with its strong African heritage) and will participate in religious rituals as part of the overall experience of the multi-racial infl uences present in the country. The course culminates in the participation in and documentation of the most pervasive Brazilian folguedo, Bumba-Meu-Boi in São Luis, traditionally held in late June each year. This festival features various groups representing different musical and cultural traditions, each with a different blend of indigenous, African, and European infl uences. Participation and documentation of these groups will provide a basis for the examination of religious syncretism, racial/ethnic relations, and popular folk culture.


CENTER FOR INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION 22CENTER FOR INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION

CIE WORLD

Brazil - A Cross-Cultural Experience Between Brazil and the U.S.July 21 - August 10, 2008Faculty Director: MARY K. MADSEN, Health Sciences

Contact the Center for International Education for program details.

France - Breizh: An Immersion Course in Breton CultureMay 26 - June 16, 2008Faculty Directors: NANCY WALCZYK, English, and BRETT LIPSHUTZ, French, Italian & Comparative Literature

This course will focus on the culture of Brittany, and in particular on the efforts to maintain and promote Breton language, music, and dance. It is designed to draw students from Global Studies, the Celtic Studies certifi cate program, and the French department. The purpose of this program is to immerse students in an integrated folk culture, then to have them consider the modern pressures on that culture, such as attitudes of the dominant culture toward the folk culture and the trends toward national and global assimilation that discount “folk” cultures. Through readings and on-site lectures, students will explore the history of Brittany, its culture, and its rela-tionship with France and with other Celtic regions. Students will also discuss with guest speakers such contemporary issues

as youth emigration, impact on the folk culture of new residents who don’t share the culture, and tourism as both an incentive for and a divisive force in maintaining a folk culture.

Peru - Peru Past and Present: Art, Literature and CultureMay 21 - June 14, 2008Optional program extension: June 14 - 28, 2008Faculty Directors: CESAR FERREIRA, Spanish & Portuguese, CHRIS DAVIS-BENAVIDES, Art, and KAREN GUNDERMAN, Art

Peru Past & Present will introduce students to the complex facets of Peruvian culture and society. Travel and study will take place in three geographically distinct regions of Peru (Lima, the capital located in the coastal desert; Cusco, the Andean center of pre-Columbian Inca civilization; and the Tambopata region in the Amazon basin). The course will explore interdisciplinary issues of Peru’s art, literature, history and culture. These issues will be examined through an introduction to its art and architecture; an introduction to the cultural and ethnic groups that make up Peruvian society; and the geographic, economic and political issues that have shaped Peru as an emerging democracy in the Andean region. The class will include readings from Peruvian writers that illustrate the many cultural differences that make up contemporary Peruvian society.

Study Abroad(continued from previous page)

SPRING 200823

Institute of World Affairs (IWA) Winter/Spring Programs

EVENTS

GREAT DECISIONS 2008:

Great Decisions for the Next American PresidentThe Institute of World Affairs is pleased to announce an eight-part lecture series: Great Decisions for the Next American President. This series is based on the 2008 Great Decisions series organized nationally by the Foreign Policy Association in New York, but with a twist. As the US enters an election year, we felt it was important to tie the series to specifi c policy decisions facing the next occupant of the Oval Offi ce. The new hybrid series will contain topics chosen both by the Foreign Policy Association and the Institute of World Affairs.

Great Decisions is the longest-running and largest grassroots world affairs educational program of its kind. It has been an annual part of the Institute of World Affairs outreach efforts since 1962. Each year, Great Decisions provides timely and insightful analysis on key foreign policy issues through a lecture series on the UW–Milwaukee campus. In addition to the live speaker presentations, IWA now distributes the lectures digitally in real time and asynchronously to classes and discussion groups around the state.

IWA also partners with area media. For more on the Great Decisions for the Next American President:Read: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Crossroads Section, Sundays, January 20 - March 9, 2008.Listen: Wisconsin Public Radio, Conversations with Ben Merens, 5:00 p.m. (see www.wpr.org for program schedule)Watch: WMVT-TV, Channel 36, “International Focus,” 5:00 p.m. Sundays.

JANUARY 22:US IMAGE ABROAD: How can we improve America’s standing in the world?Dr. Steven Kull, Director, Program on International Policy Attitudes

JANUARY 29:NATIONAL SECURITY: Is the war on terror the right framework for US security policy David Shorr, Program Director, The Stanley Foundation

FEBRUARY 5:US-CHINA RELATIONS: Rivalry or partnership? Dr. David Lampton, Director of Chinese Studies, The Nixon Center

FEBRUARY 12:DEALING WITH OUR ENEMIES: Should the US engage or isolate “rogue regimes”?Ambassor David Mack, Vice President, Middle East Institute

FEBRUARY 19: IRAQ: What is the US role going forward? Huda Ahmed, Award-winning Iraqi journalist

FEBRUARY 26:LATIN AMERICA: How should the US engage with the new left?The Honorable Jamil Mahuad, Former President, Republic of Ecuador

MARCH 4:ENERGY POLICY: How to balance economic interests, national security and environmental concerns?Jason Grument, Executive Director, National Commission on Energy Policy

MARCH 12: (Note: This is a Wednesday program. All others are Tuesdays.) THE NUCLEAR THREAT: How can the US counter nuclear proliferation? Joseph Cirincione, Director for Nuclear Policy, Center for American Progress

All programs: 7:00-8:30 pm, UWM Student Ballroom, 2200 Kenwood Blvd.Eight-Part Lecture Series: $75 General Public (Includes Great Decisions Book, $18 value); $40 IWA Basic Members (Includes Great Decisions book, $18 value); Individual Programs: $8 General Public, $4 IWA Basic Members and UWM Community;Free for Students and IWA Premium Members! Registration: www.iwa.uwm.edu; 414 229-3220; on-site also available.


George F. Kennan Forum on International IssuesELECTION 2008:

Foreign Policy and the MediaTHURSDAY, APRIL 17, 20084 - 6 pmThis major world affairs event held annually at the Pabst Theater will explore the role of the media in framing foreign policy issues prior to the 2008 US Presidential Election. Two guest experts will be featureed in this Wisconsin Public Radio live broadcast.

GEORGE F. KENNAN FORUM ACADEMY An interactive program for high school students and their teachers held the afternoon of the forum. For more information, please contact Nicole Palasz at [email protected].

For more information and registration, please visit www.uwm.edu.

EVENTS

The Global Student Association is proud to present the spring 2008 schedule for Culture Café. The time and location for all events are 2 - 3:30 pm in Garland Hall 104:

JANUARY 31 (Pakistan)FEBRUARY 14 (Scotland)FEBRUARY 28 (Tanzania)MARCH 13 (Argentina)

Spring 2008 Culture Café

Study Abroad FairWednesday, February 20, 20089 am - 2 pm Union ConcourseThis event highlights summer, fall semester, and academic year study abroad programs.

MARCH 27 (Rwanda)APRIL 10 (Croatia)APRIL 24 (Mexico)MAY 1 (India)

SPRING 200825

Giving to the Center for International Education

The mission of the Center for International Education is to foster international education at UWM. The Center offers a wealth of international, global and area studies programs, activities, and resources for educators, students and the public.

CIE is committed to promoting and sustaining exciting international education initiatives across the UWM campus, Wisconsin, and the nation.

If you are interested in sponsoring a particular program, activity or event, or you wish to provide funding for a current or new scholarship or research project in international education at UWM, please feel free to contact Sara Tully, CIE’s Administrative Director, at 414-229-3767 or [email protected]. All donations are tax deductible.

Your generosity in supporting such programs will help to strengthen international education at UWM in the years to come, to underscore the quality of International Studies and Global Studies at UWM, and to recognize the best of our best in a manner that will assist them signifi cantly in their intellectual and professional development.

www.international.uwm.edu

University of Wisconsin–MilwaukeeP.O. Box 413Milwaukee, WI 53201

The Center for International Education (CIE) fosters new areas of scholarly inquiry into internationalism and globalization by strengthening the connections between research, teaching and outreach programs on the UWM campus. CIE is deeply engaged in on-campus and overseas curriculum development, research conferences and scholarly publication, public programming, and professional development for teachers. CIE is home to Wisconsin’s only World Affairs Council, the Institute of World Affairs, which provides high quality public programs featuring international experts. Because the insights and perspectives offered by students and scholars from other countries greatly enhance our campus, CIE also provides advising services for international admissions and immigration.

global currents spring 2008

Documents

international students

issue of global currents

international education

international student

global studies program

global studies advisors

uwm researchers

global currents profi