Category: Featured News
COIL Enriches Language Learning with Cross-Cultural Connections
September 15, 2023Hundreds of Tar Heels are sharpening their language skills on campus by connecting with students abroad through Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) courses. UNC-Chapel Hill offered 30 COIL courses in the 2022-2023 academic year, including eight language courses. “The COIL pedagogy is particularly effective for language learning, with students improving both their speaking and comprehension skills and their cultural understanding by collaborating with students at the global partner university,” Sharmila Udyavar, associate director for global education, said. Yi Zhou, advanced Chinese I professor, received a Curriculum Development Award for COIL from the Office of the Vice Provost for Global Affairs (OVPGA) to … Read more
Renewed Leadership Commitments Open Doors for Expanded Collaboration with University of Tübingen
August 20, 2023Leaders at UNC-Chapel Hill and its longtime strategic partner Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen in Germany are finding new pathways for interdisciplinary collaborations. A Carolina leadership delegation including Chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz, Vice Chancellor for Research Penny Gordon-Larsen, Vice Provost for Global Affairs Barbara Stephenson, and Hussman School of Journalism & Media Dean Raul Reis, recently traveled to Tübingen to continue discussions on the universities’ shared interests and collaborations with Tübingen’s new president and other leaders. “The visit, which included a substantive meeting with Tübingen’s new president, Karla Pollmann, affirmed the strength of the UNC- Tübingen partnership,” Stephenson said. “Not only do … Read more
Carolina Selected for Norwegian COIL Partnerships Initiative
August 7, 2023UNC-Chapel Hill is one of 19 higher education institutions in the U.S., Norway and Japan selected to participate in the American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) Norwegian Panorama VE/COIL Partnerships Initiative. Five Carolina faculty and staff recently traveled to Norway to collaborate with the international partners. The Initiative, sponsored by the government of Norway, is designed to strengthen higher education ties with the United States and Japan. It offers professional development and resources that support sustained international partnerships for Virtual Exchange (VE) and Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL). All of the participating institutions will develop new VE collaborations as … Read more
Carolina Bolsters Southeast Asian Studies and NUS Partnership through Faculty Residency
July 11, 2023In the 20 years since UNC-Chapel Hill’s relationship with the National University of Singapore (NUS) began, it has grown into a strategic partnership opening new paths for collaboration in Southeast Asian studies. To explore new collaborations, Christian Lentz, associate professor in the geography department and adjunct associate professor in the history department, spent the spring 2023 semester at NUS with support from the Office of the Vice Provost for Global Affairs. Lentz is the principal investigator of UNC-Chapel Hill’s “Bringing Southeast Asia Home” (BSEAH), a five-year project funded by a $900,000 grant from the Henry Luce Foundation. BSEAH will further … Read more
Graduate Students Develop Academic Careers with Partners at King’s College London
July 11, 2023This May and June, more than 30 UNC-Chapel Hill graduate students advanced their research and gained valuable career skills by organizing and participating in academic workshops with graduate students at Carolina’s strategic partner, King’s College London (KCL). Participating UNC-Chapel Hill departments included geography, global studies, history, music, philosophy and religious studies, and 14 Carolina faculty members joined the students for the workshops in London. Since 2010, hundreds of UNC-Chapel Hill graduate students have organized annual workshops with KCL through numerous departments in the College of Arts & Sciences. Students from each institution work together to organize the workshops and contribute … Read more
Four UNC-Chapel Hill Faculty Members Receive Fulbright Scholar Award
June 19, 2023Four UNC-Chapel Hill faculty members have received Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program awards for the 2023-2024 academic year from the U.S. Department of State and the Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board. Patrick Davison, Anthony Hackney, Carissa Hessick and Pamela Lothspeich are among more than 800 U.S. citizens who will teach or conduct research abroad in this cycle. Fulbright scholars engage in cutting-edge research and expand their professional networks, often initiating research collaborations abroad and laying the groundwork for partnerships between institutions. “The Fulbright Scholars Program provides an invaluable opportunity for UNC faculty to expand their horizons and to present their scholarship on … Read more
US Department of State Awards UNC-Chapel Hill Grant to Build Study Abroad Capacity
June 19, 2023UNC-Chapel Hill has been awarded a grant from the U.S. Department of State’s Increase and Diversify Education Abroad for U.S. Students (IDEAS) Program to develop and expand international education. The 34 U.S. colleges and universities that received grants this year will develop new international partnerships, train faculty and staff, internationalize curriculum, engage diverse students in study abroad, broaden the destinations where U.S. students study, and create virtual and hybrid exchanges. With the IDEAS funding, UNC-Chapel Hill and Durham Technical Community College will implement a Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) course in partnership with Mohammed VI Polytechnic University (UM6P) in Morocco … Read more
Center for Slavic, Eastern European & Eurasian Studies Receives $600,000 with National Resource Center Designation from US Department of Education
June 19, 2023The Center for Slavic, Eastern European & Eurasian Studies (CSEEES) at UNC-Chapel Hill has been designated as a National Resource Center (NRC) for language and area studies by the U.S. Department of Education’s International and Foreign Language Education office. With this designation, all six of UNC-Chapel Hill’s area studies centers are NRCs, more than any other university in the U.S. Southeast. The Center will receive $642,000 in funding over the next three years to support language and area studies coursework, programming and events, and outreach across North Carolina and institutions beyond the state, including minority-serving institutions (MSIs) and community colleges. … Read more
A Record-Breaking Nine UNC-Chapel Hill Students Win Boren Awards
June 8, 2023Nine Tar Heels have received scholarships and fellowships from the federal Boren Awards, breaking UNC-Chapel Hill’s previous record of five finalists in 2003. Carolina is now positioned as a 2023 top-performing institution for combined total Boren Awards and for Boren Scholarships. Boren Awards provide U.S. undergraduates scholarships of up to $25,000 and graduate students fellowships of up to $30,000 to study less commonly taught languages in areas of the world that are deemed critical to U.S. interests. As part of their awards, Boren recipients agree to work in qualifying national security positions in the U.S. federal government. “The high number … Read more
21 Students Win Gilman International Scholarship, New UNC-Chapel Hill Record
May 31, 2023Twenty-one UNC-Chapel Hill students received the U.S. Department of State’s Gilman International Scholarship for study abroad this summer and fall. The number of awardees is a new record for Carolina, three times higher than the usual count of recipients in an award cycle compared to pre-pandemic numbers. The Gilman program enables students with financial need to study or intern abroad, gaining skills the State Department deems critical to national security and economic competitiveness. The Carolina recipients will study abroad in 16 countries, and more than half will study languages including Arabic, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Russian and Spanish. Collectively, the … Read more