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Global Classroom welcomes a new cohort of Fellows for fall 2022

Posted on by Lexi Baker

Indiana University is proud to announce the Global Classroom Fellows for fall 2022. The five faculty members selected for the Fall 2022 semester are currently teaching courses across a wide range of disciplines, encouraging engagement with international partners, and connecting students across the world.

The Global Classroom initiative promotes global competency and international engagement from home. The program utilizes classes that are already being taught at IU and pairs faculty members with a parallel course taught at a foreign partner institution; The faculty members work together to design a project that students from both universities collaborate on virtually. The initiative aims to widen students’ breadth of knowledge regarding different cultures, norms, and points of view, and to foster global connections and understanding.

The Fellows worked closely with their international counterparts on collaborative lesson planning before the semester began, designing a project that required their students to work together then reflect on course outcomes when the semester concludes.

“The Global Classroom program provides enriching experiences for our own IU students, the students from the partner institutions, and for the Global Classroom fellows who teach those courses,” says Vesna Dimitrieska, director of the initiative. “In today’s interconnected world, being globally aware and internationally connected is no longer a matter of choice, but rather an imperative for all of us.”

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Indiana University is proud to announce the Global Classroom Fellows for fall 2022. The five faculty members selected for the Fall 2022 semester are currently teaching courses across a wide range of disciplines, encouraging engagement with international partners, and connecting students across the world.

The Global Classroom initiative promotes global competency and international engagement from home. The program utilizes classes that are already being taught at IU and pairs faculty members with a parallel course taught at a foreign partner institution; The faculty members work together to design a project that students from both universities collaborate on virtually. The initiative aims to widen students’ breadth of knowledge regarding different cultures, norms, and points of view, and to foster global connections and understanding.

The Fellows worked closely with their international counterparts on collaborative lesson planning before the semester began, designing a project that required their students to work together then reflect on course outcomes when the semester concludes.

“The Global Classroom program provides enriching experiences for our own IU students, the students from the partner institutions, and for the Global Classroom fellows who teach those courses,” says Vesna Dimitrieska, director of the initiative. “In today’s interconnected world, being globally aware and internationally connected is no longer a matter of choice, but rather an imperative for all of us.”

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Interdisciplinary conference at the IU Europe Gateway explores the history of women, religion, and emotions in modern Germany

Posted on by Annabell Türk

A group of 23 people are posing in front of a colorful mural outside
Workshop participants posing for a group picture at the IU Europe Gateway

An IU-organized “Workshop on the History of Women, Religion, and Emotions in Modern Germany” brought together 27 scholars from ten different countries at the IU Europe Gateway this summer to explore the diverse aspects of women’s religious experiences in 19th and 20th century Germany.

The idea for the conference was born out of a seminar on women and religion offered by the German Studies Association in 2018 that both conference organizers Lisa Fetheringill Zwicker, professor of history at IU South Bend’s School of Liberal Arts and Sciences, and Martina Cucchiara, associate professor of history at Bluffton University, had attended. The two history scholars subsequently kept in touch and continued to meet on Zoom to collaborate and share their work.

“In this conference, we aimed to explore the intersections of women’s religion, women’s emotions, and history,” explained Zwicker. “Martina and I wanted to bring these issues to the forefront as too often the religious dimensions of women’s lives have been ignored.” They were also hoping to create new conversations around these questions by bringing together different religion scholars, including those studying Jewish, Catholic, and Protestant religious experiences.

Lisa Zwicker and Martina Cucchiara are standing behind a lectern while Lisa is speaking
Co-organizers Lisa Zwicker and Martina Cucchiara
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Overseas Study celebrates 50 years and honors Kathleen Sideli

Posted on by Caleb Gardner

This year marks the 50-year anniversary of IU’s Office of Overseas Study. The university celebrated this milestone at a reception that also honored Associate Vice President Kathleen Sideli for her distinguished career and 40 years of dedicated service to the university as well as her contributions and leadership more broadly in the field of international education.

While Indiana University’s rich history of study abroad dates back to 1879, the administration of such programs was under the purview of individual faculty and departments, primarily within the College of Arts and Sciences. In the fall of 1972, with Walter T. K. Nugent as its director, the Office of Overseas Study was established as a university-wide office to facilitate study abroad for students of any major, IU school, or campus. In total, about 70,000 IU students have studied abroad in dozens of countries on almost every continent. Most recently, before the pandemic, IU Bloomington was ranked fifth in the nation for the absolute number of students studying abroad and third for those completing semester-long programs. Most notably, thirty percent of IUB seniors graduating in 2020-21 had at least one credit-bearing study abroad experience while at IU.

A tribute to the major milestones of IU’s study abroad programs dating back to 1879.
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Mandela Washington Fellowship returns to Indiana University in summer 2022

Posted on by Brittaney Hartzer

The 2022 Mandela Washington Fellows pose for a group picture at IU Bloomington’s Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies

Indiana University is proud to announce its selection as an Institute Partner for the 2022 Mandela Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders. On June 8, Indiana University welcomed 24 of Africa’s bright, emerging civic engagement leaders and is hosting a six-week Leadership Institute, sponsored by the U.S. Department of State.

The Mandela Washington Fellowship, the flagship program of the Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI), empowers young African leaders through academic coursework, leadership training, mentoring, networking, professional opportunities, and local community engagement. YALI was created in 2010 and supports young Africans as they spur economic growth and prosperity, strengthen democratic governance, and enhance peace and security across Africa. Since 2014, the U.S. Department of State has supported nearly 5,100 Mandela Washington Fellows from across Sub-Saharan Africa to develop their leadership skills and foster connections and collaboration with U.S. professionals. The cohort of Fellows hosted by Indiana University will be part of a group of 700 Mandela Washington Fellows hosted at 27 educational institutions across the United States.

After their Leadership Institutes, Fellows will participate in the Mandela Washington Fellowship Summit, where they will take part in networking and panel discussions with each other and with U.S. leaders from the public, private, and non-profit sectors. Following the Summit, up to 100 competitively-selected Fellows will participate in four weeks of professional development with U.S. non-governmental organizations, private companies, and government agencies.

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IU names new associate vice president for Overseas Study

Posted on by Brittaney Hartzer

Indiana University has named Jennifer Engel, Ph.D. as its new associate vice president for the Office of Overseas Study, effective July 1. She will provide leadership and a university-wide vision to enhance international awareness and understanding, enrich curricula on every campus, and expand educational opportunities abroad for students from diverse backgrounds.

Engel is taking the helm of an office that has become a nationally recognized leader in overseas study under the forty-year leadership of Kathleen Sideli, who will retire in June. Building on a history of faculty-initiated study abroad programs dating back to the 19th century, it now supervises more than 380 administered, co-sponsored, and unit-based programs across all IU campuses. IU Bloomington is ranked sixth in the nation for total number of students studying abroad and second for semester-long programs, according to the most recent Institute for International Education Open Doors Report.

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Student researchers across the globe join forces to address climate action 

Posted on by Lexi Baker

A lake in the shape of the world’s continents in the middle of untouched nature.

In the face of disasters like North America’s record-breaking heat waves, fatal flooding in China and Germany, and Australian wildfires, climate change has quickly become our deadly reality. Recent years have seen individuals bear the weight of advocacy against environmental emergency. Their action takes many forms, from metal straws to climate protests — but citizens are not alone in their fight to save our planet. The United Nations adopted a set of goals to address the most dire, worldwide crises of our time. The UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) cover a wide range of issues, promoting awareness and research on 17 different environmental and humanitarian challenges. Among ambitions like clean water, gender equality, and responsible consumption, the SDGs emphasize the necessity of global collaboration in solving urgent sustainability issues.  

That is why IU became a founding member of the U.S. chapter of the Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) in 2018 and launched the UN SDG Poster Competition in 2019. After its initial success, IU invited international partner universities to join the effort and formed the UN SDG Partner Network, which spans five continents and includes institutions from seven countries. Within this unique setting, students integrate multiple perspectives into collective learning and problem solving, transcending boundaries, and acting in local and global contexts.

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Indiana University and Associate Vice President Kathleen Sideli receive CIEE Bridge Builder Awards

Posted on by Brittaney Hartzer

Kathleen Sideli (second from the right) in Madrid, Spain as a graduate assistant for the IU-Purdue-Wisconsin program in 1980-1981

The Council on International Educational Exchange (CIEE) was founded in 1947, in the wake of World War II, to advance peace through people-to-people exchange. To celebrate 75 years of building bridges of respect and mutual understanding across cultures, CIEE presented 75 CIEE Bridge Builder Awards to those individuals and institutions – from host families to study abroad advisors, from politicians to employers – whose efforts and influence over the last 75 years have strengthened international education and exchange.

Indiana University and Kathleen Sideli were both honored to be chosen as recipients for advancing peace by strengthening intercultural exchange programs.

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