In Celebration of Women's History Month
A Symposium: Women Making New Worlds
March 19, 2003, 3:00-5:00 at the Graham Gallery
Click Here to see basic information for the event.
Participants
Abstracts
Susan BluckDr. Susan Bluck has a joint appointment in the Center for Gerontological Studies and Department of Psychology. Her efforts to help UF internationalize are in the area of psychological research on adult development and aging. Susan is currently involved in two international research projects. The first is in Germany, where she is working with Dr. Tilmann Habermas, University of Frankfurt, on a cross-cultural exploration of the functions of autobiographical memory. The second is an ongoing program of research that she has developed with Dr. Judith Glueck, University of Vienna, on how people of different ages express wisdom in autobiographical narratives. As part of this latter work, Susan has recently become a consultant to the Austrian component of a Europe-wide representative survey, the European Study of Adult Well-being. Products of these endeavors have, and continue to be, presented at national and international conferences, and appear in journals in the US and in Europe.
To learn more about Dr. Bluck's research visit her Life Story Lab website
As Assistant Director of the Tropical Conservation and Development (TCD) Program at the Center for Latin American Studies, I develop and implement programs for TCD that enhance and internationalize student training and collaborative research. In the past year and half TCD has launched several exciting new initiatives: the interdisciplinary graduate certificate and concentration in TCD, the TCD Practitioner Experience Program, and the Professional Visitors and Non-Degree Training Program. I am also working to more effectively recruit graduate students (particularly international students) and better prepare them for enrollment at UF. I have created a web site for prospective TCD students that is available in English and Spanish.
I came to UF in the Fall of 2001 with a strong interest and background in internationalization. Besides teaching in Japan and researching art educational practices in other parts of the world, I also wrote my dissertation about how art teachers bring back their cross-cultural experiences to their classrooms, looking at personal and institutional factors that support or impede that process. I am active in the International Society for Education through Art, and regularly present at international conferences in art education and other disciplines. My current line of research is into art educational reforms in post-colonial contexts, the reclamation of threatened visual traditions for inclusion in local schooling, intercultural processes in art and art education, and the teaching of global material culture in the art room.
Here at UF, I have begun to work toward internationalizing my area as well as the larger campus community by sponsoring a Visiting Scholar during the Spring Semester, 2003. Dr. Yakubu Seidu Peligah, Director of Art Education at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology visiting UF for a week sharing insights into art education and art therapy, as well as the impact of Islam on arts advocacy and practice in Ghana. I collaborated with colleagues in two other domestic universities and three other departments on the UF campus to make his visit possible.
I am working to recruit more international graduate students into our program, and currently work closely with a Master's student from Beijing. We will co-present at an upcoming National Art Education Association (NAEA) conference on issues facing international students in advanced degree programs of art education in US institutions. Her thesis, which I chair, explores the teaching of Chinese calligraphy in American art classrooms and offers suggestions for more authentic pedagogy.
I present often on Intercultural Art Education, which encourages us to learn about each otehr, from each other, across geographical and temporal distances and boundaries. This past year, I presented to two non-art education groups on this topic, the American Association of Colleges and Universities, and the Qualititive Studies Interest Group (QUIG.) In addition, I have contributted to the development of a new website for art teachers which provides a space for international collaborations, ArtJunction.org. I have created a Community Stories project for this site which I registered with UNESCO as a "Culture of Peace" project. I also do research on art education in Mexico and have translated and added Huichol children's artwork and writings to this website. I will be working on a curriculum development project fora Huichol school in Jalisco, Mexico this summer, with colleagues from the University of Guadalajara. I have also helped the art teachers at the PK Yonge Developmental School make contact with art teachers in other countries, particularly in Japan and Africa, for exchange projects.
Provide services through the University of Florida International Center in assisting departments and colleges in their efforts toward internationalization.
Christina H. Gladwin in the Food and Resource Economics Dept, IFAS, has done research in Latin America and Africa, and taught "Agriculture's Role in Latin America and Africa," AEB6651, for twenty years at UF. Her research has concentrated on modeling the decision-making processes of small farmers, business people, and traders in developing countries; and showing the impacts of macroeconomic policies (such as structural adjustment policies and globalization) on peasant farmers, both men and women. She has published in economic and anthropological journals, and authored or edited three books, "Ethnographic Decision Tree Modeling," "Food and Farm," and "Structural Adjustment and African Women Farmers." More recently, she started teaching an undergrad class, "International Development Policy," AEB4283, and has started a project to encourage women's microenterprises in poor countries with a hungry season by selling quilted products with indigenous textiles on the website.
Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (IFAS)
Back to TopKarelisa Hartigan (Professor/Classics) is co-founder and co-director of the Center for Greek Studies. Established in 1980, this program brings together faculty and courses related to the Greek world, ancient and modern. It offers scholarships for students to study the Greek language and culture on campus and study in Greece in the summer. The Center brings to campus scholars who specialize in the Greek world to offer lectures and other types of presentations. Hartigan herself has taught in UF affiliated programs in Greece for many summers: At the Aegean Institute in the 1980s, at the American School of Classical Studies in Athens and College Year in Athens during the 1990s/2000. During the month of May, she and her husband (Dr. Kevin McCarthy, English Department) present port lectures on cruise ships around the Mediterranean and western Atlantic. Her research has focused on how the Greek world is reinterpreted in modern America, specifically on the stage and in modern advertising. Currently she is writing on ancient Greek healing cults and arts-in-medicine programs in contemporary hospitals.
As Project Manager for the Center for International Business Education and Research (CIBER) my contributions to the “internationalization of UF” involve facilitating cross-disciplinary activities that raise the level of international business (IB) instruction for both business and non-business students and enhance IB research and outreach. Curriculum projects stress multidisciplinary degree programs, experiential learning, classes that bring the perspectives of business and non-business students into the same IB classroom and business language instruction in less commonly taught foreign languages. Research initiatives tap previously undeveloped specialized UF IB expertise and address critical IB issues of the 21st century. Outreach activities serve the IB needs of academics, government policy makers and industry representatives through study tours, publications, conferences and workshops. Management of these varied projects presents me with many opportunities to work with other UF personnel and representatives of twenty-nine other CIBERs across the country involved in “internationalization.” My counterpart’s experiences, like mine, are a mixed bag of positive and negative -- satisfying moments of success dimmed by frustrations with campus bureaucracy and an excessive federal reporting burden. While the number of frustrations exceed the number of success stories, the magnitude of success is far greater. One note of appreciation from a student or faculty member assisted by UF CIBER makes all of the hassles and reports worthwhile.
The European Union Studies Program (EUSP) is a new program within the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. The EUSP includes a multi-disciplinary certificate program (18 credit hours) and summer study abroad in Brussels program. In the future we will also have a data base/resource center on available European Union related internship opportunities in Florida, Washington DC and Brussels. The program is generously funded by the Department of Education's Undergraduate International Foreign Language Studies Program (Title VIa), CLAS and the Division of Sponsored Research. These funds have been used to develop four new courses on the EU and enhance an additional six course so that they have substantial EU related content. In addition the EUSP funds the development of four Foreign Language Across the Curriculum (FLAC) units a year related to our core and enhanced certificate courses. There is also a faculty development program that includes a seminar series open to the public (two per semester) and there will be a trip for ten affiliated faculty for one week to Brussels in May 2003 to visit the main EU institutions and help them to develop their understanding of the EU as it relates to their interests and fields of teaching and research.
The Center for Women's Studies and Gender Research mission includes focusing on international issues relevant to the lives of women and girls. To that end, it collaborates in grant proposals, offers undergraduate and graduate courses and programs, sponsors speakers and other events, and helps students and faculty network on international gender issues. My presentation will review some of our recent initiatives and plans for the future.
In 1978, after more than a year in Africa studying the fiscal and monetary policies of 9 different SubSaharan countries, I established a program of courses in African Economics for MBA, MA, and PhD. students at the University of Florida. When I became Dean of the Graduate School in 1983, I promoted and assumed the newly created position of Dean of International Studies. This raised the status of International Studies at U.F. to the same administrative level as that of the colleges, thus increasing its potential for funding and for broader participation at the graduate as well as the undergraduate level. In 1989, I encouraged multidisciplary research by instituting the possiblity for students and faculty to create special interdisciplinary doctoral programs with Graduate School approval. From 1986-1992 I served on the Board of the African American Institute, obtaining USAID funds for African students to do graduate work in U. S. universities and through yearly visits to Africa, strengthened our liason with African Universities and thus opportunities for U. F. students.
Ronnie Lovler has been director of the Office of News & Public Affairs at the University of Florida since November 2001. One of the many things that attracted her to UF was its emphasis on internationalization. Lovler is a former journalist who spent more than decade in Latin America as an on-air correspondent for CNN and, prior to that, as a radio correspondent for CBS News. The office she heads is the primary news and media relations office for the University of Florida. It is responsible for disseminating news and stories about the university and responding to media requests for information, story ideas and faculty experts. News & Public Affairs works with international news organizations, as well as local, regional, state and national media outlets.
NAPA currently is expanding its contacts with the Spanish language media. Under Lovler’s tenure, NAPA recently created a Web page in Spanish that provides partial translations of some UF news stories. The office also has an online expert guide of Spanish-speaking faculty members and welcomes the addition of others to this list. Lovler also initiated and was instrumental in organizing an exhibit of photos taken by advanced journalism students that opens in Lima, Peru, on March 12, 2003.
As Chair of Romance Languages and Literatures since 1994, I have pushed to internationalize the curriculum and our students. I was P.I. on a large three-year Department of Education Grant to develop a Foreign Languages Across the Curriculum (FLAC) program, offering one-credit courses in a foreign language to complement a three-credit course offered in English, on an international topic (for example, a FLAC course in Spanish to complement a political science course on Latin American politics). This program is now so successful than we cannot keep up with student demand, and we offer sections in Spanish, Portuguese, French and Italian. Both the CIBER program in Business and the European Studies program have incorporated our FLAC courses into their own grant proposals. And to internationalize more of our students, I have pushed our department to found four new study abroad programs over the past five years : in Provence, in Seville, in Santander (Spain), and in Guanajuato, Mexico. All have been well received and fill each year!
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My primary contributions to internationalizing UF have been through the Latin American Business Environment, directed by Terry McCoy and the Florida/Brazil Institute, under the direction of Hannah Covert. The focus has been in the areas of outreach to the Brazilian business community, advocacy for Portuguese language learning and the creation of online resources and materials specific to the study of commercial Portuguese and the Brazilian business environment. Through outreach to the business community, my goal has been to partner with businesses willing to provide support for international internships and research opportunities for students. The Florida/Brazil Institute Business Link serves as a means to provide online access to Portuguese language training and international trade information for both business and academic communities. Portuguese language advocacy efforts have been through conducting research on the status of Portuguese study in the U.S., assessment of needs in the field and discovering avenues toward the creation of more materials for use by Portuguese professors.
As Director for Program Development and Federal Relations in the International Center, I work with faculty to develop interdisciplinary programs, find funding for these programs, and support activities that highlight the strengths of UF and our faculty. One example of this is the Transnational and Global Studies Center, headed by Dr. Dennis Jett with Dr. Leann Brown and myself as associate directors. The TGSC encompasses research, teaching, and outreach on matters of global and transnational import such as global governance, global security, and identity and diaspora. Since 1981, I have worked primarily in Africa on agricultural and environmental projects, from the farmer to the policy level, with an emphasis on gender issues. I have worked for several foreign governments, bi- and multi-lateral donors, and specifically for the U.S. Agency for International Development. My recent work has focused on higher education in developing countries, primarily Africa and the Middle East. I have taught WST 3349/6348, Ecofeminism, since 1994. Dr. Rich Beilock and I are developing a curriculum on international humanitarian assistance.
I was Director of the Center for Latin American Studies at UF from l980 to l985. I continued to work in the Center to promote collaborative research, particularly with the Caribbean areas. For example, we had a three year Rockefeller Humanities Fellowship program on Afro-American Diversity and Cultural Identity, which brought scholars here from Latin America and the Caribbean, Africa, and the U.S.from l992-96. I have also been a visiting professor in Brazil, the Netherlands,and Spain and past President of the Latin American Studies Assc. from l983-85, where I continue to be active on their Cuba and Gender Sections. Most recently, the Inter-American Development Bank contracted me to do a study of Social Exclusion of Black Women in Latin America. This first week of April we are bringing Wania Sant'anna, an Afro-Brazilian woman leader to UF to speak on Human Rights, Race and Gender in Brazil.
Since 1980, I have been working with colleagues across campus to develop interdisciplinary programs focused on conservation and development in the tropics. This has been a natural part of my position in the Center for Latin American Studies. In the 1980s, there were few incentives for faculty to work internationally, especially for those in the IFAS land-grant institution whose mandate was defined as focused narrowly on Florida. Over time, however, faculty in many departments have supported one another and worked together to build strong programs in farming systems research and extension, forestry and agroforestry, and conservation and development. Graduate students have been an important focus of these efforts, and a great mechanism for involving faculty.
The Tropical Conservation and Development (TCD) program, which I direct, has 75 participating faculty in 17 departments, and since 1980 it has awarded 152 graduate fellowships and 144 research grants. Approximately half of the 200 TCD graduates and 70 current students are from Latin America. Beginning this academic year, TCD awards interdisciplinary graduate certificates and concentrations to students in 17 academic units at UF. Through its research, training and links to graduates, TCD also maintains an active learning network with institutions throughout Latin America, and provides overseas internship opportunities for graduate students.
Anita Spring, Professor of Anthropology and African Studies has carried out long- and short-terms research and development work in Africa (Botswana, Cameroon, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, South Africa, Swaziland, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe), and in the Caribbean (Jamaica, St. Lucia, Barbados, Trinidad). She has helped to internationalize UF through her Administrative work at UF as Associate Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, providing oversight to the international and interdisciplinary programs. She helped start the Women in Agricultural Development Program, now GEAP, was its first director, and put through the WID/GAD Certificate. She developed an international curriculum for all the undergraduate and graduate courses she teaches: These include courses on Gender, Development, Applied Anthropology, Culture and International Business that have materials from Africa, Latin America, Asia, the Middle East, and Europe. As well, she teaches a wide range of courses on Africa with total African content. She regularly travels internationally to carry out project design, training, assessments, and evaluations for development agencies such as USAID, FAO, and GTZ and uses these case materials in advanced courses. Her research is international, and she has taken UF students to work with her in Cameroon, Jamaica, St. Lucia, and collaborated with UF faculty in Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, South Africa, and Uganda. Her graduate students do their theses or Ph.D.s in Africa or Latin America and the Caribbean. She has trained UF students in other countries and host nationals at UF on farming systems research and extension theory and methods.
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In 1997, my background to date in "internationalization" was rather thin, consisting of an 18-month stint in Bogota after graduating from college in the late sixties, some statistical modeling of world mineral and metal markets and concern over representing international tourism in my forecasting models of the Florida economy. In this respect, I wasn’t at all a logical choice for responding to the US Department of Education RFP for a CIBER (Center for International Business Education and Research) or for directing such a Center. However, I did understand writing grant proposals, I did understand multidisciplinary and I did understand that I needed to surround myself with truly internationalized faculty. These were sufficient to be successful in the grant application process and directing CIBER for the past five years has been an exciting journey, deepening my personal internationalization, providing opportunities to meet and collaborate with fascinating and innovative faculty across campus and giving me the satisfaction of seeing new programs succeed, new attitudes toward business evolve and new funding at higher levels awarded.