From the Director: 2008-2009
This year has been challenging yet exciting thanks to an unbeatable teamwork spirit which includes the collaboration and support of faculty, graduate students, fellow administrators and the CISAH staff. After passing a review conducted by the College of Arts and Letters, I was offered the position of Director of CISAH until 2014, which I gladly accepted. Once again I am grateful to the College of Arts and Letters for their vote of confidence.
I would like to update you on this year’s activities and initiatives that set the ground for future directions in Integrative Studies in the Arts and Humanities. I am fortunate to count with Kirk Kidwell as Assistant Director of CISAH and happy to report that he has accepted to continue serving the Center and MSU.
IAH online courses and Digital Learners
Thanks to McGraw-Hill-IAH royalties, we have been able to invite faculty to design and implement new IAH courses under a fully online format or to reformulate existing courses in a digital platform. In this way we are being able to offer up to twelve sections of fully online IAH sections in summer 2009. This initiative is not only a matter of convenience, but also seeks to address teaching options for those students that are being shaped as digital learners.
Language Across the Curriculum IAH Sections
In line with the university-wide emphasis on internationalizing the student experience and college’s own global studies focus, CISAH expanded its language across the curriculum offerings in 2000-2009 with IAH sections led in Spanish (IAH 203 and IAH 211C) and Arab (IAH 210 and IAH 211D).
IAH in Study Abroad Programs
The CISAH Advisory Committee discussed and approved systematic Guidelines for IAH Courses in Study Abroad Programs that can be found in our page: http://www.cisah.msu.edu/iah_study_abroad.php .
All IAH courses offered abroad from summer 2009 thereafter shall abide by these guidelines.
Temple of the moon (Trujillo, Peru)
IAH Faculty Initiatives
Among the multiple and diverse initiatives led by IAH faculty and supported by CISAH, I would like to point out the experiential field trips conducted by IAH 211C students (Stereotypes about Native Americans,taught by professor Joel Geffen) to the Ruthven Museum (Ann Arbor) and the Nokomis Learning Center (Okemos); the “Discovering Creativity” workshop held in professor Nancy Bunge’s IAH 241E; and the students’ introduction to Zen meditation in IAH 211B taught by professor Haeja Chung, with the visit of a yoga and meditation expert, Ms. Donna Minock.
Other individual engagements
In the past year I have maintained an active research agenda which includes articles published in peer reviewed journals of Hispanic/Latin American studies and one book of creative writing, Sleeping under water , that was formally presented in the 2008 International Book Fair in Lima (Perú) and has received already very welcoming reviews. My research has been supported through several travel grants (CAL, SFTF, CLACS), and thanks to the Think Tank in Global Studies grant, I organized –with my colleagues, Mindy Morgan and Eduardo Guizar—the Symposium “The Global Script of Indigenous Languages/Identities.” We invited nine speakers from various institutions and disciplines to discuss how indigenous communities have used global networks to advance their own ideas regarding cultural maintenance and preservation. In addition, I have been elected to the Division of Colonial Latin American Literatures (Modern Languages Association) until 2012 and to the Executive Committee of the Peru Section (LASA). I have been also asked to continue serving in the American/International Fellowship Panels of the AAUW until 2010.
