The quarterly College of International Studies newsletter is your source for CIS updates and stories, events and news related to international education at OU. If there's something you'd like to see included in our next newsletter, email Maura McAndrew at mmcandrew@ou.edu. |
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Dear OU Community,
This installment of the newsletter will not feature a "Dean's Corner," as our dean, Scott Fritzen, is enjoying paternity leave after he and his wife, Janny, welcomed a baby boy. Congratulations to the Fritzens!
In lieu of a Dean's blog this quarter, we invite you to browse our newly updated College of International Studies website, which has been reorganized and redesigned for what we hope is easier access to information on our programs and initiatives.
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April 8, 3-4:30 p.m. (Zoom)
April 8, 6 p.m., Lloyd Noble Center
50th Eve of Nations, one of the largest annual multicultural shows in Oklahoma. Organized by the International Advisory Committee, its purpose is to celebrate the diverse array of cultures, traditions, and heritage of countries all over the world.
April 11, 10:30-11:30 a.m., Bizzell Memorial Library LL118
April 11, 3:30-4:30 p.m., Bizzell Memorial Library LL118
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April 11, 3-4:15 p.m., Zarrow Hall 145
April 13, 4:30 p.m., Farzaneh Hall 145
Persian Idioms and Proverbs, a presentation by OU students. Sponsored by the Farzaneh Family Center for Iranian and Persian Gulf Studies.
April 21, 1-2 p.m. (Zoom)
Rethinking Internationalism, a talk with Simon Reid-Henry, professor of historical and political geography, Queen Mary University of London. Sponsored by the OU Center for Peace and Development, Security in Context, and the Review of Social Economy.
May 6, 1-2 p.m. (Zoom)
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Mark your calendar — #OUGivingDay is coming
April 14, 2022.
This 24-hour fundraising event honors the generosity of the OU community and raises awareness of the impact of giving and giving back. It brings together the entire OU family — faculty, staff, students, retirees, alumni, corporations, foundations and friends — to ensure our university lives on for generations to come.
Help us raise awareness and funds for OU Giving Day by donating April 14 to support our international student community and study abroad opportunities at GiveSooner.org.
Thanks for all that you make possible!
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International and Area Studies |
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Assistant Professor John Emery recently published an article, Algorithms, AI, and Ethics of War, in Peace Review and an essay with a former student, Hadley Biggs, in Political Psychology, Human, All Too Human: Drones, Ethics, and the Psychology of Military Technologies. He also presented his research on a panel about the history of wargaming at the Hoover Institution, co-sponsored by Brown University’s Watson Institute and MIT’s Security Studies Program.
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International Student Services |
International Student Services has had a busy semester, welcoming new international students and finding new ways to support and bring together OU's international community. Prior to the spring semester, ISS worked with other units on campus to facilitate winter break programming, and collaborated with the OU Food Pantry to provide over 200 bags of food to international students. At the beginning of the semester, the office welcomed over 200 new international students with the New International Student Orientation Connection event (see photo) and a resource fair to help students get involved and feel at home. ISS staff and international students are also excited for the return this Friday of the international student community's biggest annual event, Eve of Nations, which celebrates its 50th anniversary this semester and returns after pandemic cancellations. (Read more on Eve of Nations in the "News" section below.)
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Center for English as a Second Language (CESL) |
The Center for English as a Second Language is looking ahead as deadlines approach for summer programs. CESL is currently accepting applications for the Summer 1 session (deadline April 11), Summer 2 session (deadline May 30), and Fall 1 intake (deadline July 18). CESL's academic English Program is perfect for those wishing to meet English proficiency requirements in order to become an OU student. However, CESL also offers part-time options for community members who are here on visas other than F-1 student and wish to develop English skills for daily life. For more information on CESL programs and application requirements, visit the website, call (405) 325-2351 or email esl@ou.edu.
The CESL team has also recently added a new member, instructor Lauren Clark. Lauren is a graduate of Oklahoma Baptist University and a current M.A. TESOL student at OU. Welcome, Lauren, to CIS!
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The Education Abroad office has had a busy spring full of recruiting, advising and more! In early February, EA hosted its Spring Study Abroad Fair along with faculty leaders, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and returned study abroad student ambassadors. The EA team also co-hosted an Instagram live with the team from OU in Arezzo — our Italian study center — and joined our faculty-led program leaders in visiting MANY classes. The study abroad deadline for summer/fall exchange and affiliate programs was Feb. 21, and the deadline for summer faculty-led programs and fall study center programs was March 4, so next comes the exciting part: sending students abroad! Education Abroad staff look forward to sending many students abroad this summer who had previous programs delayed or deferred due to the pandemic, and this season should see something of a return to pre-pandemic study abroad activity. Lastly, EA is hiring! The team is adding several new faces over the coming weeks, and we look forward to welcoming and introducing our new colleagues.
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Study Center Snapshot: Spring at OU in Arezzo |
This semester, OU in Arezzo, our study center in Arezzo, Italy, welcomed its first spring cohort since 2020, and the students have been enjoying the experience of a lifetime! So far, the group has visited the cities of Venice (see photo below left), Rome, Siena, Florence, Lucca and Pisa, in addition to getting to know their home base of Arezzo. The group has also engaged in activities at OUA's Rooney Family Center for Residential Learning, including pasta making and a Valentine's Day party. On April 2, OUA students participated in the Big Event, an annual tradition for OUA. This year's service project is a series of murals relating to Arezzo cultural identity for the Arezzo Municipality and the Association MURo (see photo below right).
To keep up with OU in Arezzo's spring happenings, be sure to follow @ouinarezzo on Instagram and also check out the OUA blog.
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Student Spotlight: Brandy Le
Asian Studies major Brandy Le was awarded this year's Glenda Laws Undergraduate Paper Award from the Urban Geography Specialty Group of the American Association of Geographers. Her winning paper, titled "Can Urbanization and Sustainability Co-Exist? Restructuring the American Dream in Hồ Chí Minh City," was written as part of the spring 2021 course Environmental Justice and Global Cities with IAS Assistant Professor Emma Colven. A senior, Brandy was also recently accepted with full funding into Purdue University's master's program in anthropology. Congratulations to Brandy on her impressive achievements!
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Student Spotlight: Julia Weatherford
Julia Weatherford, a junior International Studies/Economics major and German minor (and risk management intern in CIS), was just named recipient of the 2021-22 OU Libraries Undergraduate Research Award, for which she received a $1,000 scholarship! Julia's project, titled "Seoul: A Dilemma of Modernity or Affordability," originated in IAS Assistant Professor Emma Colven's spring 2021 course Environment and Land in Asia. While studying abroad the following semester in Seoul, South Korea, Julia also had the opportunity to share her research in one of her courses. Congratulations to Julia on her excellent work!
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Staff Spotlight: Meet Our New Dean's Staff Members
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Jennifer Grover
Executive Assistant to the Deans' Office and Program Coordinator, Master of Arts in International Relations
Jennifer comes to us with over 10 years of experience in a range of international education positions, including teaching English at a Ukrainian university, interning at the Dept. of State and the German Marshall Fund, multiple positions at the Institute of International Education, and working at CIS (2014-2017) as front office coordinator, study abroad advisor and diplomacy lab liaison/MAIR coordinator.
Laura Hamblin
Assistant Director of Finance
Laura is moving over from the OU Bursar Accounting and Finance unit, where she was a financial associate and account and budget representative for several years. Before that, she served for five years as accounting and budget representative for OU Health Services, and as a human resource specialist with Dungarvin Oklahoma, LLC.
Cindy Ray
Chief of Staff and Director for Strategic Initiatives
Cindy joins us with over 20 years of experience as a public-sector management consultant, policy advisor and researcher in Washington, D.C., including with Andersen (now Accenture) Consulting, Booz Allen Hamilton, and LMI. For several years, she led teams of consultants providing support to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. Recently, she served as Executive-in-Residence at the Geneva Centre for Security Policy, where she conducted primary research and analysis on the role and characteristics of partnerships in international security.
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Eve of Nations Returns April 8, Celebrates 50th Anniversary |
On Friday, April 8, Eve of Nations — one of Oklahoma's largest cultural showcases featuring an international meal, fashion show and performances by student organizations — will return after two years of pandemic cancellations. The theme for this year’s showcase is the Golden Renaissance, a nod to a milestone: the Eve of Nations and its parent organization, the International Advisory Committee, are both celebrating their 50th year of operation at the University of Oklahoma. “I’m really, really excited for it and to see a lot of organizations come to life," explains senior, IAC president and event organizer Peace Mojekwu. "It is going to be a very refreshing moment for everyone to celebrate how far we’ve come and where we are going.”
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CIS Paper Prizes for Students Now Open to Submissions |
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CIS faculty and experts from OU, other universities contextualize Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in two virtual webinars |
On March 4, the Department of International & Area Studies co-sponsored a teach-in series on Russia's invasion of Ukraine in collaboration with the OU Department of History and the OU Department of Modern Languages, Literatures and Linguistics. Panelists included IAS faculty Rebecca Cruise, John Emery, Rob Andrew and Chris Sartorius as well as a number of experts from OU and other institutions. The webinars attracted a large number of participants from the OU community and beyond.
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CIS Dean Scott Fritzen and IAS Adjunct Instructor Rob Andrew publish op-ed on Ukraine in The Oklahoman
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Dean Scott Fritzen and IAS instructor Rob Andrew published an opinion piece in the Feb. 26 edition of The Oklahoman titled "Viewpoint: OU professors explain why Oklahomans should care about attack on Ukraine." In the article, Fritzen and Andrew outline three central reasons why Russia's invasion of Ukraine matters to all of us — the suffering of innocent civilians, the threat to our international order and our duty to act against injustice.
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OU Alum Remembers Ambassador Edward J. Perkins, Beginnings of the College of International Studies |
In 1999, Bruce F. Hendrickson enrolled at OU-Tulsa as a graduate student in political science, with research interests in international relations, U.S. foreign policy and political economy. Though Hendrickson was not technically an IAS student, he took courses with IAS professors Mitchell Smith, Suzette Grillot and, most memorably, Ambassador Edward J. Perkins, the first director of OU’s International Programs Center (now CIS) and former U.S. Ambassador to Liberia, South Africa, the UN and Australia, who passed away in November 2020. Perkins’s passing brought back fond memories for Hendrickson, who recently reached out to us to share an experience he had while enrolled in one of the Ambassador’s courses.
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Announcing the 2022 Jafar and Shokoh Farzaneh Prize for Best Article on Persian Literature |
This $2,000 prize will be awarded to the best published article on any topic relating to Persian literature. The winner will also be invited to present a public lecture at the University of Oklahoma and to serve on the award selection committee for the following year. To be eligible for consideration, articles or book chapters must have been published in English or Persian in scholarly, peer-reviewed journals or edited volumes between Jan. 1, 2021 and Dec. 31, 2021. Publications must be on Persian literature specifically and not other related fields.
Submissions should be emailed to Marjan Seirafi-Pour (marjan@ou.edu) by May 31, 2022.
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Assistant Professor John Emery's panel, Wargames as Historical Data, from the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, (co-sponsored MIT's Security Studies Program, and Brown University's Watson Institute), was featured on C-SPAN2 on March 26.
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The CIS Newsletter is a publication of the David L. Boren College of International Studies at the University of Oklahoma.
The University of Oklahoma is an equal opportunity institution. ou.edu/eoo
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