IU Expands Agreements with German Universities

More than 60 years after its legendary 11th president, Herman B Wells (pictured), helped establish a "free university" in post-World War II Berlin, Indiana University announced today that it has renewed and expanded cooperative agreements with that institution as well as another of Germany's leading research universities.

While leading a university delegation to Germany, IU President Michael A. McRobbie signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Free University of Berlin, renewing a half-century of relations with that city's largest research university and expanding the partnership into new areas of cooperation -- including faculty exchanges, joint workshops and enhanced academic collaborations.

IU's partnership with the Free University of Berlin, which Wells helped found in 1948, is the university's longest-running exchange partnership, delivering German students to Bloomington and IU students to Berlin for graduate study and research.

McRobbie also signed an MOU with the University of Freiburg, one of Germany's oldest and most prestigious universities, founded in 1457.

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Hans Wagemaker to Discuss International Education Assessments

The head of the organization that administers two of the world's largest education assessment exams will speak on the the challenges of designing an accurate test to understand how students learn across the globe during a presentation Wednesday (1 December) at Indiana University Bloomington.

Hans Wagemaker (pictured), executive director of the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA), will talk about international education assessments during an Education Policy Chat presented by the Center for Evaluation & Education Policy (CEEP). His presentation, titled "IEA's Assessment Strategy: Measuring Change and Changing Measures," starts at 2 p.m. in the Dogwood Room at the Indiana Memorial Union.

Following Wagemaker's presentation, audience members will be able to ask questions. The CEEP Policy Chat is free and open to the public.

The IEA created and administers the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) and Trends in International Math and Science Survey (TIMSS), which collect data from more than 60 countries to assess student learning. Education researchers formed the IEA in the late 1950s in an effort to gather information about which countries performed best so that educators could adopt best practices across the globe.

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Immigrant Success

Your Ethnic Hoosier usually avoids policy, but this comment from Thomas Friedman's column in today's New York Times needs to be shared. As we in the Nationalities Council of Indiana know, the United States is constantly renewed --and improved -- by its immigrants. This says it all:

"Last week, the 32 winners of Rhodes Scholarships for 2011 were announced — America’s top college grads. Here are half the names on that list: Mark Jia, Aakash Shah, Zujaja Tauqeer, Tracy Yang, William Zeng, Daniel Lage, Ye Jin Kang, Baltazar Zavala, Esther Uduehi, Prerna Nadathur, Priya Sury, Anna Alekeyeva, Fatima Sabar, Renugan Raidoo, Jennifer Lai, Varun Sivaram."

Yes, Indiana's winner is Esther O. Uduehi (pictured, at left) of Evansville. Her parents emigrated from Nigeria. A senior at Indiana University, Bloomington, she majors in biochemistry and mathematics. She was also a visiting student at Oxford. A Wells Scholar, Presidential Intern and Senator Richard Lugar Scholar, and a member of Phi Beta Kappa, she is president of the IU Minority Association of Pre-Medical Students. She has won several awards for her research in organic chemistry, and has participated in a U.S.-Russia global health care study program and done research at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. Esther plans to do the D.Phil. in chemistry at Oxford.

(Photo courtesy of Indiana University Bloomington)

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IU Projects Receive Funding to Study Water Use

The National Science Foundation has allotted an Indiana University-led research project in Zambia, according to the IU News Bureau.

IU Bloomington geographers Tom Evans and Scott Robeson will be studying farmers' interactions with their local environments and how they survive periods of drought through different types of coping strategies. Their work is being conducted in Zambia, where drought frequently causes food shortages and future climate variability may have dramatic impacts on human welfare. The title of the project is "Spatial Resilience of Agriculturalists to Coupled Ecological and Hydrological Variability in Rural Zambia."

According to the NSF, the foundation is funding seven awards under its Environment, Society and Economics (ESE) umbrella to foster collaboration among geoscientists and social scientists to address crucial issues for the environment, society and the economy -- and how the three affect each other. The awards will factor valuation of "ecosystem services" into economic activities in a way that provides critically important information about land and water use.

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Charles Beeker Recognized by Armenian Scientists

Charles Beeker, director of the Office of Underwater Science at the School of Health, Physical Education and Recreation at Indiana University Bloomington, has been honored by the National Academy of Sciences for the Republic of Armenia (NASRA) for his archaeological work with the Armenian-owned 1699 Quedagh Merchant, Captain Kidd's shipwreck discovered in the Dominican Republic.

Indiana University research on the Quedagh Merchant is funded in part by the United States Agency for International Development, under the Living Museums in the Sea project, which will establish the Captain Kidd shipwreck as an Underwater Preserve, protecting the archaeological and associated biological resources as a sustainable tourism destination.

(Image of certificate courtesy of Indiana University)

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What's Next in Global Fashion?

David Wolfe (pictured), global trend forecaster, will present a free, open-to-the-public lecture from 7-9 p.m. 2 November in the Frangipani Room of the Indiana Memorial Union on the campus of Indiana University in Bloomington.

The event is sponsored by the 250-member Retail Studies Organization, a student group in IU's Department of Apparel Merchandising and Interior Design. Wolfe is creative director of The Doneger Group in New York City.

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New ISO Music Director from Poland

Conductor Krzysztof Urbański (pictured) becomes the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra’s seventh Music Director effective 1 September 2011, according to an announcement today by the ISO. At age 28, he is the youngest music director among major orchestras in the United States. Urbański will return to Indianapolis to conduct in concerts on 20 and 21 May, and will lead the ISO in its Opening Night Gala in September 2011.

In April of 2010, Urbański made his U.S. debut with the Indianapolis Symphony and returned for a second visit during Marsh Symphony on the Prairie in June. In September, the ISO’s search committee unanimously voted to appoint Mr. Urbański to the post, and the ISO musicians overwhelmingly supported the recommendation.

Urbański graduated from the Chopin Music Academy in Warsaw in 2007, and in the same year, was the unanimous First Prize Winner of the Prague Spring International Conducting Competition. He works regularly with all the major Polish orchestras, including Sinfonia Varsovia, the National Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra and Poznan Philharmonic Orchestra and served as Assistant Conductor to the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra from 2007-2009.

Urbański, who was born in Pabianice, Poland, and his wife Joanna currently reside just outside Warsaw. He will become an Adjunct Professor of Music (Orchestral Conducting) at Indiana University Jacobs School of Music when his tenure with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra begins in 2011.

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IU Professor Studies Justice System in India

Jayanth Krishnan (pictured) will serve as project director for an intensive study on the lower judiciary in India, according to the Indiana University Maurer School of Law. Krishnan is professor of law, Charles L. Whistler Faculty Fellow and head of the India Initiative at the Maurer School's Center on the Global Legal Profession.

The research Krishnan is overseeing is being supported by a $261,000 grant from the Ford Foundation to the National Centre for Advocacy Studies (NCAS), a non-governmental association based in the state of Maharashtra. Partnering with Krishnan and NCAS will be the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) and Jagori Grameen, located in the northern state of Himachal Pradesh.

Krishnan and his colleagues will conduct a pilot study of district courts in Maharashtra, Gujarat, and Himachal Pradesh in order to arrive at a preliminary understanding of what is happening in these forums. The study will also include an analysis of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) forums in India.

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IU Professor Heads to South Africa

The U.S. State Department and the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board have selected an Indiana University professor for a Fulbright Specialists project in South Africa, reports the IU News Bureau.

Victor M.H. Borden (pictured), professor of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies at the Indiana University School of Education, Bloomington, will conduct a program at the University of KwaZulu Natal in September. Borden will deliver the keynote address at the university's fourth annual teaching and learning conference and then deliver a series of workshops and seminars to develop capacity amongst academics to plan, implement, evaluate and improve projects and programs that enhance the effectiveness of teaching and learning and promote student success.

Borden leaves in mid-September for South Africa. His work concludes in the first week of October.

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Tokihiro Sato to speak at IU Bloomington

Tokihiro Sato, one of Japan's best-known artists working in contemporary photography, will deliver an artist lecture at Indiana University Bloomington at 5 p.m. 3 September in Room 102 of the Fine Arts Building on campus. room 102.

The visit is co-sponsored by IU's Center for Integrative Photographic Studies, the College Arts & Humanities Institute and the School of Fine Arts.

In Sato's ongoing photo respiration series, tiny points of light or illuminated lines from a flashlight or mirror record his movements through space. The resulting photographs capture exquisitely detailed scenes punctuated by pinpoints or linear patterns of light that depict the artist's presence, but not his image.

At IU, Sato will discuss his new work, featuring images of a peach tree in the forest surrounded by light. The lecture is free and open to the public.

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USA International Harp Competition

After 10 days of fierce competition amongst 39 harpists representing 15 nations, a gold-medal winner was chosen in the 2010 USA International Harp Competition 17 July at the Musical Arts Center (MAC) of the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music in Bloomington, reports the IU news bureau.

Agnès Clément (pictured, left) of Lyon, France, won the gold over two other finalists in front of a crowd of more than 1,400 people. The 20-year-old Clément led a field that included Rino Kageyama of Japan, 20, who won the silver medal, and Russian harpist Vasilisa Lushchevskaya, 21, who took the bronze. Susann McDonald, competition founder and artistic director, is pictured, at right.

The eighth triennial contest, which opened 7 July, featured an all-female field. After traveling thousands of miles and memorizing over two hours of required repertoire, competitors vied for more than $100,000 in cash and career assistance.

The fourth- through eighth-prize recipients were:

* 4th Prize: Coline-Marie Orliac, France
* 5th Prize: Jimin Lee, United Kingdom/South Korea
* 6th Prize: Ruriko Yamamiya, Japan
* 7th Prize: Gwenllian Llyr, United Kingdom (Wales)
* 8th Prize: Marta Marinelli, Italy

Special Prizes went to:

* Jan Jennings Prize for Best Performance of "Awakening Stillnesses" by Michael Maganuco: Coline-Marie Orliac, France
* Mario Falcao Prize for Best Performance of Concerto for Harp and Orchestra by Reinhold Glière: Rino Kageyama, Japan

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IU's HPER Students Off to Dominican Republic

The Indiana University (Bloomington) School of Health, Physical Education and Recreation's (HPER) Office of Underwater Science is partnering with fifth-grade teachers from Edgewood Intermediate School in Ellettsville to develop a curriculum based on actual IU research taking place in the Dominican Republic and involving some of the West's earliest explorers, reports the IU News Bureau.

The 11 teachers and IU researchers will travel on 4 July to the Dominican Republic, where they will walk on the streets and follow the paths of explorers such as Christopher Columbus, Ponce de Leon, Hernando Cortes, and others. In preparation for the trip, the teachers have been attending lectures at the IU Underwater Science lab, which is under the direction of archeologist Charles Beeker, and have been learning to snorkel so they can view ruins of sunken ships and other underwater discoveries.

The purpose of the curriculum is to expand the view and understanding of the age of exploration and the first contacts between the indigenous groups and European explorers, ultimately encouraging students to broaden their world view and increase tolerance and acceptance.

As a result, this unit intends to develop a practical curriculum that they hope will be available to all fifth-grade teachers in Indiana and contain a variety of artifacts for students to be able to manipulate.

With the proposed curriculum, students will:

* Travel through history by simulation from 1492-1783
* Experience life as a captain of a fleet
* Plan for voyage (food, supplies, placement in ship, etc.)
* Log daily journal entries by keeping a captain's log
* Encounter explorers traveling to the New World

Currently, the plan is for eight classrooms at Edgewood Intermediate School to pilot the model curriculum in the fall of 2010.

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Rieseberg Elected Fellow of the Royal Society

Loren Rieseberg (pictured), an evolutionary biologist at Indiana University in Bloomingtonhas been elected a 2010 fellow of the Royal Society, the United Kingdom's largest and most important academy of sciences, reports the IU News Bureau.

The projects Rieseberg supervises integrate high-throughput genomic methods, bioinformatics, ecological experiments, and evolutionary theory to study the origin and evolution of species, domesticated plants, and weeds. He is primarily interested how new plant species arise -- speciation being one of biology's most fundamental questions. Rieseberg has examined a number of different plant species, but most of his work has focused on members of the genus Helianthus, which includes wild and domesticated sunflowers.

Rieseberg has joint appointments in Indiana University Bloomington's Department of Biology and the University of British Columbia's Department of Botany.

Vietnamese Students to Enroll in SPEA

Fifteen students from Vietnam will enroll this fall in the Master of Public Affairs program at Indiana University Bloomington through a new program co-sponsored by the IU School of Public and Environmental Affairs and the Vietnamese Ministry of Education and Training, reports the IU News Bureau

The program, called Vietnam Young Leader Awards, will provide full scholarships for outstanding Vietnamese government employees. This marks the first time that Vietnam has taken part in a specific program to send young people to the United States for training in public policy.

SPEA will support the program by charging Indiana resident tuition rates for the Vietnam Young Leader Awards students. The Vietnamese Ministry of Education and Training will pay tuition and other expenses.

The first class of Vietnam Young Leader Awards recipients will be selected this summer and will travel to Bloomington for an academic preparation program at IU. The students will enroll this fall in the two-year M.P.A. program, on schedule to graduate and return to Vietnam in May 2012.

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Magic Lantern Society Meets in Bloomington

America's only "magic lanternist" will be among the performers, scholars, artists and collectors at the 14th annual convention of the Magic Lantern Society of the USA and Canada, reports the Indiana University News Bureau.

David Francis and Joss Marsh (pictured) are helping to host the annual convention of the Magic Lantern Society of the U.S.A. and Canada. This is the first time the event is taking place in Indiana.

Indiana University Bloomington will host the 20-23 May convention, which is sponsored by the IU Department of English and the Department of Communication and Culture in conjunction with the Magic Lantern Society of the USA and Canada.

The Magic Lantern Society collects, preserves and shares information on the early lantern devices that were invented in 1659 and were used to entertain and educate audiences prior to the advent of film. Lantern slides were hand-painted in vivid colors on glass and projected on walls and cloth screens. By the mid-19th century, black-and-white lantern slides were produced photographically; popular images included travel scenes, dramatic story slides, moral tales, song slides, religious and patriotic themes and comic pictures.

In its 19th-century heyday, there was a lantern in every public institution, and most middle-class households had at least a "toy" lantern. The magic lantern has been referenced by writers such as Charles Dickens and Mary Shelley, as well as revered by pioneers and masters of the cinema screen such as Georges Méliès and Ingmar Bergman.

Because of the scarcity of lantern materials in universities, museums, archives or libraries in the United States, the devices have largely passed out of public memory, but private collectors have ensured that the lanterns are still remembered and celebrated.

Members of the public are invited to attend the public sessions of the Bloomington conference, which includes an exhibit at the Lilly Library, two shows at the Fine Arts Auditorium, a silent film screening with live piano in Whittenberger Auditorium and a "Magic Lantern Spectacular" at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater. Terry Borton, a fourth-generation lanternist and the only professional lanternist in America, will take part in the performances.

To register for the conference and to view a complete schedule, go online.

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IU professor receives NSF grant

Joseph Chen (pictured), associate professor in Indiana University's School of Health, Physical Education and Recreation, will take his tourism marketing expertise to the Arctic with a $275,000 grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to study the social impact of tourism in Norway, reports the IU News Bureau.

The study will focus on Alta, Kirkenes, Karasjok, North Cape, Hammerfest, Honningsvag, and Båtsfjord. North Cape is considered the most visited Arctic destination in the European continent as well as one of the most popular and established arctic destinations in the world.

Chen is associate professor in the School of HPER's Department of Recreation, Park and Tourism Studies.

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British Ambassador to Speak at IU Bloomington

Sir Nigel Sheinwald, the United Kingdom's ambassador to the United States, will visit Indiana University Bloomington Thursday (15 April) to give a lecture and meet with students, faculty members and university officials, reports the I.U. News Bureau.

Sheinwald, the British ambassador to the U.S. since October 2007, will speak on "The 21st Century World: Europe's Role" at 6 p.m. Thursday in the Tudor Room of the Indiana Memorial Union. The lecture is free and open to the public.

Indiana University has numerous connections with institutions in the United Kingdom, especially Oxford and Cambridge universities, including programs in information technology, life sciences, philosophy, optometry, anthropology and library and information sciences. The U.K. has been the No. 2 destination for Indiana University students in study-abroad programs.
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I.U. Law Students Head to India

Six students at the Indiana University Maurer School of Law at IU Bloomington have been selected for summer internships in India as Milton Stewart Fellows in the law school's Center on the Global Legal Profession. This program offers students experiences in a variety of settings, including law firms; rights-based, non-governmental organizations, and the Indian Solicitor General's Office, reports the IU News Bureau.

All of the Stewart Fellows (pictured, left) will be second-year students at the Maurer School of Law in the fall of 2010. Following an intensive acculturation session in May during which they will be introduced to India's legal system, they will spend a good portion of the summer working in New Delhi.

The 2010 Stewart Fellows are:
* Nicholas Dau-Schmidt, who will serve as an intern at the law firm of J. Sagar Associates
* Zachary Holladay, who will intern at Jagori, an NGO focused on empowering the rights of women in India
* Erin Mihalik, who will spend her internship at the Self Employed Women's Association-Bharat, an NGO focused on empowering the rights of women in India
* Erica Oppenheimer, who will work for Amarchand & Mangaldas & Suresh A. Suroff & Company, India's largest law firm, followed by an internship at the Indian Solicitor General's Office
* Jillian Rountree, who will be employed by the Clarus Law Firm
* Renee Turner, who will serve as an intern at The Dalit Foundation, an NGO focused on empowering the rights of the lowest castes in India, followed by an internship at the law firm of Lalit Bhasin & Company.

The NGO internships have been made possible through a partnership with the Unitarian Universalist Holdeen India Program; the NGO interns will also be designated as Holdeen Scholars.

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Alexis de Tocquevillle and Bloomington

Scholars from North America, Europe and Asia were at Indiana University Bloomington last week for a conference that examined the work of 19th century French political thinker and author Alexis de Tocqueville in light of recent scholarly publications.

"Alexis de Tocquevillle: New Perspectives on His Works" took place last Friday (5 March). It was organized by the Tocqueville Program at IU Bloomington in collaboration with the Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis, the Department of Political Science and Liberty Fund Inc.

On 23 April, the Tocqueville Program will co-sponsor a lecture on the IU Bloomington campus by Jonathan Israel of the School of Historical Studies, Institute for Advanced Studies, Princeton, on "Creating Revolutionary Awareness: 'Philosophy' as a main cause of the French Revolution (1770-90)."

Jonathan Israel’s work is concerned with European and European colonial history from the Renaissance to the eighteenth century, with particular emphasis on the history of ideas, the Dutch Golden Age (1590–1713), including the Dutch global trade system, seventeenth-century Dutch Jewry and Spinoza, the "Glorious Revolution" of 1688–91 in Britain, and Spanish imperial strategy especially in Mexico, the Caribbean and the Low Countries.

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Indiana Latino Conference

More than 250 high school and college students are expected to attend the Indiana Latino Leadership Conference next month in Valparaiso, reports Inside INdiana Business. La Casa, the Latino Culture Center at Indiana University in Bloomington and Ivy Tech Community College are co-sponsoring the event, which is designed to cultivate leadership among Latino students.

The 11th annual conference take place from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. 27 February at Ivy Tech's Valparaiso Campus (3100 Ivy Tech Drive, Valparaiso). For more information about the conference go online. The fee for students is $10.

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