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Carolina Bolsters Southeast Asian Studies and NUS Partnership through Faculty Residency

July 11, 2023

In 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, 2023

This 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


At the Royster Global Conference, Doctoral Students Focus on Mis- and Disinformation

August 8, 2022

Seven Royster Society of Fellows doctoral graduate students from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill traveled to Germany for the 2022 Royster Global Conference, an initiative of The Graduate School designed to increase awareness and understanding of graduate education across international borders. The sixth annual conference—the first held in person in two years—focused on the theme of mis- and disinformation, or how information spreads in a rapidly, increasingly global, communications landscape.   Tori Ekstrand, an associate professor in the UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media, provided structure and insight for the trip. She is the Dr. Caroline H. and Thomas S. Royster Distinguished … Read more


Carolina Secures $900,000 Grant to Advance the Study of Southeast Asia

June 30, 2022

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has won a $900,000 grant from the Henry Luce Foundation through its Luce Initiative on Southeast Asia, for the project “Bringing Southeast Asia Home.”   Through efforts coordinated by the Carolina Asia Center, this multi-year grant will grow UNC-Chapel Hill’s work on Southeast Asia and enhance the University’s ability to serve as the hub for Asian studies in the Southeast region of the U.S.   “Southeast Asian studies can and should play a significant role in making lasting changes to our public university, especially because it serves a diverse and changing U.S. South,” … Read more


New Funding Boosts Support of Building Integrated Communities Program

June 29, 2022

The Institute for the Study of the Americas at UNC-Chapel Hill was awarded $1.55 million from the Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina Foundation. The funding will support Building Integrated Communities, a planning and leadership initiative of the Latino Migration Project that partners with North Carolina local governments to create inclusive practices and policies for immigrant residents from Latin America and other underrepresented world regions. An additional $2 million from the Blue Cross NC Foundation will go directly to the program’s community-based and local government partners to support their work. Through the program, local governments and community stakeholders work together to improve communication, … Read more


Sixteen Undergraduates Selected as UNC Phillips Ambassadors for Study in Asia

June 23, 2022

Sixteen undergraduates from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill were selected as Phillips Ambassadors for Summer and Fall 2022 study abroad programs in Japan, Singapore, South Korea, and Taiwan. One Ph.D. student was also selected as the 2022 Graduate Phillips Ambassador. The students were honored at a reception in April featuring Kaiser Kuo as the keynote speaker. The Phillips Ambassadors Program is a program of UNC’s Carolina Asia Center, in association with the Study Abroad Office. Phillips Ambassadors are selected twice a year and each receive a $6,000 scholarship. Selection is based on strong communication skills, intellectual curiosity … Read more


Maymester in Singapore

June 1, 2022

In a world where ideas and work jump continents and oceans over the internet in a matter of seconds, the UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media provides a number of opportunities for globally minded students. “MEJO 490: Media in Asia” is one of them. The Maymester course, taught by Associate Professor Joseph Czabovsky, visited Singapore May 15–26, 2022, where 15 students learned about the Asian country’s media markets, visited a range of media professionals, met with alumni and took in the country’s history and culture. Located in Southeast Asia, near the tip of the Malay Peninsula, Singapore is a multiethnic … Read more


UNC-Chapel Hill and USFQ Reaffirm Commitment to Strategic Partnership

May 9, 2022

Diego Quiroga, president of Carolina’s long-time strategic partner Universidad San Francisco de Quito (USFQ) in Ecuador, recently visited the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to join Chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz and other UNC-Chapel Hill leaders in reaffirming their commitment to the UNC-USFQ partnership and to the institutions’ joint activities in the Galápagos Islands. At an April 4 ceremony, which the chancellor attended virtually, Quiroga and UNC-Chapel Hill Provost Chris Clemens and Vice Provost for Global Affairs Barbara Stephenson signed an agreement to renew the strategic partnership between the institutions. The partnership began in 2006 with collaboration between Stephen Walsh, … Read more


‘Go abroad. Say yes.’

May 3, 2022

Senior Alaina Plauche has heeded her own advice to future Tar Heels about studying abroad. This Carolina Covenant Scholar never could have imagined that her academic journey would take her to Bhutan, Spain, Uganda and Washington, D.C. In fall 2019, public policy major Alaina Plauche became the first Phillips Ambassador and UNC student to study in Bhutan, a landlocked country in the Eastern Himalayas. She had first learned about Bhutan because of its Gross National Happiness Index (think of a broader economic measurement tool than the GNP). Plauche in Bhutan. She has this advice for incoming Tar Heels: “Go abroad. … Read more


How Eleanor Murray Connects Daydreaming to Diplomacy

April 14, 2022

Ever since she was young, Eleanor Murray has been a daydreamer, and it’s what led her to become so fascinated with the world. “These expansive daydreams are fueled by an interest in the world that was instilled in me through my education,” said Murray. “I chose global studies because my curiosity about the world is relentless.” Eleanor Murray ’22 is a global studies and American studies double major from Chapel Hill, NC. In high school, she read “The Kite Runner,” a New York Times bestselling novel about a young boy from the Wazir Akbar Khan district of Kabul, Afghanistan during … Read more