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This has been a banner year for the university's international centers.
In the spring, the university was awarded $6.2 million in grants from the federal government for the next three-year cycle under Title VI of the National Resources and Fellowships Program.
"This is an endorsement from the federal government of the long-standing tradition of our international programs," said IU President Myles Brand.
IU's funding supports eight centers, six of them designated as National Resource Centers (NRC). They are:
The Russian &;East European Institute, which has retained its NRC designation since the inception of Title VI funding, and remains strong in the areas of history and political science and in the breadth of its offerings in Slavic languages and literatures.
The African Studies Program, which has similarly maintained its NRC status for years. Its faculty, from almost every humanities and social science discipline, conduct research in countries all across the African continent.
East Asian Studies, which is an NRC for one of the world's most dominant economic regions. The center coordinates a program of courses in advanced levels language instruction, the arts, humanities and social sciences. Outreach is an important component; the center has programs of professional workshops for teachers, regional business and government leaders, and the general public. It also works closely with IU's professional schools to develop relevant international curricula.
The Inner Asian &;Uralic NRC, which is unique among the nation's area centers. Its vast geographic area includes countries such as Mongolia and Tibet; the former Soviet Central Asian states, such as Azerbaijan and Kazakstan; and Turkey, Hungary and Finland. The political shifts of the past few years have not only opened up these countries to the outside, but have made them important globally in political and economical terms.
The West European Studies NRC, which is concerned with a world region that is moving increasingly toward unification. This center has excellent resources in the humanities and social sciences and provides strong support for the university's language and culture programs abroad. An important innovation is its pioneering efforts to teach foreign languages across the curriculum, especially in the social sciences.
The Center for the Study of Global Change, which was awarded NRC status this year. During the next three years, the center will create an undergraduate and a graduate minor in international studies; offer curriculum development grants to promote closer collaboration among academic departments, area studies centers and professional schools; and build an "interactive global network" of scholars utilizing advances in communications technology.
The Center for Latin American &;Caribbean Studies, which, in a highly competitive environment, received Title VI support for graduate fellowships for the first time in several years.
The India Studies Program, which broke new ground by creating an Indiana-based consortium consisting of IU, Indiana State University, the University of Indianapolis and DePauw University, to develop undergraduate curricular materials and share resources on Indian history and culture.