The Office of the Chancellor regularly provides funding for special projects that help promote the Ready for the World initiative. Below are descriptions of a number of such projects that have received funding.
This joint exhibition project between UT and Universidad Simon Bolivar includes photographs, video, and narrative gathered from communities of African descent living in Ecuador. The exhibit features the little known African diaspora in the regions of Esmeraldas and the Chota Valley. Fifty photographs taken over a 30-year period are matched with oral testimonies; the video component documents the Afro-Ecuadorian Festival of the Kings (Epiphany). The exhibit was to debut in Quito in spring 2006 and move to Knoxville in fall 2006. A cultural and educational event in its own right, the exhibit is also a resource for other activities such as existing UT courses and an interdisciplinary conference.
William Dewey, associate professor of art history, College of Arts and Sciences and Raymond Hall, lecturer in Africana Studies, College of Arts and Sciences
Author, cultural critic, and educator bell hooks will visit campus in April 2006 to give a public presentation and book-signing and to meet informally with students and faculty. bell hooks has written more than 20 books on issues of race, class, and gender in American society and has taught at Yale, Oberlin, and City College. In 1992, Publishers Weekly named her first book, Ain’t I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism, one of the most influential women’s books of the preceding twenty years.
Marilyn Kallet, Hodges Chair for Distinguished Teaching in English, College of Arts and Sciences
A workshop will help faculty from the social sciences and the professional colleges learn about culturally relevant international practice with children and adolescents at risk, as well as forging international working relationships. Emphasis will be on developing countries that have significant social problems associated with children and adolescents. The workshop will bring successful internationalists in the area of child welfare to work with faculty who want to enhance their own abilities and those of their students.
Karen Sowers, Dean, College of Social Work; Mick Nordquist, professor and head, Child and Family Studies, College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences; Brian Barber, professor, Child and Family Studies, College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences
Faculty from the University of Tennessee will visit Hue University to observe agricultural practices and discuss potential collaborative research and education. UT has a memorandum of understanding with Hue University. The long term goal is to establish regular faculty exchanges, collaborative research and education, and student tours. In addition to the experiences gained by faculty and students, the collaboration will result in increased internationalization of the agriculture curriculum.
Kelly Robbins, professor of animal science, College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources
A multidisciplinary conference will focus on the Hispanic immigration to Tennessee. Our state’s Latino population is forecast to double within the next 20 years. With this increase come academic and policy questions as well as challenges to professionals such as nurses, educators, journalists, social workers, and lawyers. The session will include scholarly presentations on contemporary migration and its impact and will also offer continuing education for local professionals. The conference will improve faculty understanding and engagement as well as infuse international and intercultural perspectives into the curriculum.
Jon Shefner, associate professor of sociology, College of Arts and Sciences; Fran Ansley, professor, College of Law
Faculty members from the College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences visited United Arab Emirates University and selected social service agencies to better understand human services and counseling in a predominantly Muslim country. The professors are using what they learned to develop enhanced UT course materials, broaden the world view of UT students, and create awareness of the place of social services in Muslim culture. The faculty members also are laying the groundwork for a Fulbright-Hays Group Projects Abroad proposal.
Marianne Woodside and Tricia McClam, professors, educational psychology and counseling, College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences
This program will train faculty from health-related academic units in cultural competency; they in turn will deliver workshops to undergraduate students in health and other helping areas of study. Students will increasingly be working with a culturally diverse population, and an understanding of cultural diversity will help them be better prepared. Professor Betsy Haughton will base the program on her curriculum guide for health personnel, Meaningful Exchange: Enhancing Cultural Competence of Public Health Personnel. Students from nutrition, nursing, social work, educational counseling and psychology, child and family studies, exercise science, and other fields will benefit.
Betsy Haughton, professor of nutrition, College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences
The workshop, to be held July 26-28, 2006, will expose 32 East Tennessee high school minority students to the field of journalism, both print and electronic. A noted editor and UT alumnus from the New York Times will lead the print workshop, and UT faculty will lead the electronic media sessions. There will be no charge to the participants. This opportunity will help attract more minority student interest to the profession and to the University of Tennessee. If the initial offering is successful, the program would be expanded statewide.
Sam Swan, professor and interim director, School of Journalism and Electronic Media, College of Communication and Information
A faculty member from the School of Art traveled to Shanghai to plan with faculty from Shanghai University for a mini-term exchange course entitled Shanghai Video Art. Each UT student enrolled in the class will work at Shanghai University with a Shanghai student to produce a video art project. The course will allow UT students the opportunity to study with Chinese university students and be immersed in the city of Shanghai and its culture. Faculty from Shanghai University plan to offer a similar course to be held in Knoxville in 2007. The UT professors teaching the course are Norman Magden and David Wilson.
Paul Lee, director, School of Art, College of Arts and Sciences
To help meet the university’s goals for increasing enrollment of undergraduate international students, an admissions staff member was funded to attend the conference Effective Strategies for Recruiting International Students. Program content will help the university develop a communication plan to increase its visibility and reputation as a favorable destination for undergraduate international degree-seeking students. UT’s goal is to expand undergraduate international enrollments by 10 percent by July 2010.
Thomas W. Broadhead, professor and director, Enrollment Services
This exhibit at UT’s Frank H. McClung Museum follows the chronological development of the banjo with examples of antique instruments and period photographs, concert posters, toys, video, audio, and other artifacts. Although the banjo is widely perceived as a “white man” mountain instrument, it actually was created centuries ago by Africans and African American slaves in the North American and Caribbean colonies. The exhibition (January-April 2006) is the largest public display of 19th and 20th century banjos ever assembled in the Southeast. The exhibition included four live performances.
Jefferson Chapman, director, Frank H. McClung Museum
The UT Agricultural and Extension Education program seeks to increase international opportunities for its students. Through this initiative, three agricultural education students would do their student teaching internships in Australia. The experience would expand their understanding of the global food system and provide a broadened perspective they could incorporate into their teaching. Dr. Carrie Fritz of the Agricultural and Extension Education program collaborated with a faculty member at Charles Sturt University in Wagga Wagga, NSW, Australia, to initiate the international exchange program. One UT student already has completed a portion of her student teaching in a rural Australian high school.
Carrie Ann Fritz, assistant professor, Department of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Extension Education
A symposium will explore the context for promoting international and intercultural awareness in the School of Information Sciences (SIS) at UT Knoxville. International students and faculty will present at a half-day event focused on cultural and social issues. A related one-day program will elicit feedback from SIS faculty about the potential of promoting international and intercultural awareness in SIS. Revision of the school’s mission, vision, and goals and objectives will be done in terms of specific outcomes and actions in a SIS International Plan for the next three to five years. The exercise will identify strategies, models, best practices and story narratives that may apply to other units on campus. Findings will help faculty build international and intercultural focus.
Bharat Mehra, assistant professor, and Jinx Watson, associate professor, School of Information Sciences, College of Communication and Information
Two students from UT’s Child and Family Studies program attended “Involving Child and Family Studies Students in Research Symposium on Immigrant Fathers” at Syracuse University in October 2005. Researchers shared data on immigrant fathers and child development in the context of the changing ethnic composition of the U.S. population. The students—one graduate and one undergraduate—were among the top scholars enrolled in family diversity courses in Child and Family Studies.
Greer Litton Fox, professor, Child and Family Studies, College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences
A special program seeks to increase the number of minority UT students who study abroad. Goals include developing awareness of the need to recruit more minority students—particularly African Americans—in study abroad programs; identifying obstacles that deter minority students from studying abroad; providing information to those who advise these students; and suggesting processes to assure students of color are advised about the opportunities and financial resources available. The program will educate staff and faculty who are advisors and mentors to minority students.
Malaika Marable Serrano, programs abroad advisor, Center for International Education, and Annette Vitale-Salajanu, assistant director, Global Business Institute, College of Business Administration
