UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — The Center for Global Studies (CGS) recently awarded $241,500 in fellowships and support to Penn State faculty and students whose work advances projects, research, and studies focused on global issues.
CGS's core mission is to create a cross-disciplinary center for the creative, impactful, and innovative study of the many complex facets of a globalized world. The center's awards are intended to encourage Penn State faculty and students to engage in cross-disciplinary outreach, research and teaching that will allow for engaged and sustained dialogues on studies of vital importance to understanding key global issues facing all regions across the world.
Sophia McClennen, CGS director and professor of comparative literature and international affairs, said she was glad to see that the center was able to pivot quickly to help faculty and students continue their valuable global studies work amidst the travel restrictions imposed by the pandemic.
“It was a challenge to be creative with funding that typically includes international travel,” McClennen said.
2020 Center for Global Studies Research Award
This year, CGS sponsored the Center for Global Studies Research Award (previously the International Research Travel Award), providing up to $4,000 in funding to tenured and tenure-track faculty members at Penn State. After receiving numerous applications, funding requirements have been extended to accommodate for the uncertainty surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic. Due to current travel restrictions, this year's award recipients will use the funding to conduct alternative research that can aid their projects in the interim. CGS also selected several strong applicants to receive awards for the following academic year.
CGS awarded $14,500 to faculty research related to the center’s mission for global cultural and educational initiatives. The 2020 Center for Global Studies Research Award recipients include Matthew Carlson, associate professor of Spanish and linguistics; Emmanuel Bruno Jean-François, professor of French and Francophone studies and comparative literature; Prakash Kumar, associate professor of history and Asian studies; and Katharina Schuhmann, assistant professor of German and linguistics.
Additionally, the center distributed five additional awards totaling $20,000, which were deferred to be spent during the 2020–21 academic year. These awardees required international travel to successfully complete their work; thus, CGS decided to offer them support for the following year, contingent on their ability to complete travel by then. The following faculty received those awards: Eliyana Adler, associate professor in history and Jewish studies; Martha Few, professor of Latin American history and women's, gender, and sexuality studies; Scott Gartner, professor of international affairs and director of the Penn State School of International Affairs; Tracy Rutler, assistant professor of French and women's studies; and Ran Zwigenberg, assistant professor of Asian studies and Jewish studies.
Funding a variety of research areas, CGS continues to support the intellectual community at Penn State during the global COVID-19 pandemic. In fact, faculty funding spanned 10 different academic units this year.
Summer 2020 Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowships
Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) fellowships support undergraduate and graduate students engaged in research and language learning.
This year's eight undergraduate FLAS recipients were all high achieving students in their third, fourth, or fifth years of study. Joel Balzer, Arabic; Matthew Cavadas, supply chain and information systems; Lauren Davis, supply chain and information systems and Korean; Nicholas Gabrovsek, Korean; Amber Hahn, Chinese; Madison Heffelfinger, Arabic; Carita Reid, Korean; and Kenneth Roupe, Russian; each received $15,000 to support them during the academic year.
Four graduate students were also supported through the FLAS fellowship. Jennifer Cockerill, Arabic; Erick Jenkins, Korean; Gustavo Diaz, Portuguese; and Jonathan Correa, Arabic; each received $33,000 to support them during the academic year.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, some students had to make alternative travel arrangements and are using their stipends to support international culture and language exchange in varying capacities. However, many FLAS recipients deferred their awards due to current travel restrictions.
Additional information on these awards and other CGS funding opportunities can be found at http://cgs.la.psu.edu/funding.