Three MSU international centers were awarded a $1.5-million grant to be used to further international studies.
The MSU African Studies and Asian Studies centers, and the Center for Advanced Study of International Development and Women and International Development received the renewal grant in early June from the U.S. Department of Education.
"I think the people who evaluate programs ask the question 'What's the investment from the university's side?' and they're impressed with the answer when it comes from MSU," said Michael Lewis, director of the MSU Asian Studies Center.
The grant is awarded on a competitive basis each year, with 120 university centers earning the funding.
Each center submitted a proposal and qualifiers were chosen after a national peer review evaluated various areas of the center, including number and quality of faculty members.
This is the second consecutive time the MSU Asian Studies Center has received the honor. Lewis said funding - estimated to be more than $750,000 - will be used to hire additional faculty members, hold international conferences and support study abroad. The center first received the grant in 1960.
The MSU African Studies Center offers students the opportunity to study all 54 African nations, and teaches 29 African languages - more than any other university.
Plans for the African Studies Center include seminars, cultural festivals and speakers on world regions, as well as fellowships for graduate students and increased research abroad.
"We hope with this grant to deepen the quality of African studies courses and seminars available to MSU students, and to enlarge the outreach program we have to take Africa into the curriculum of Michigan schools," said David Wiley, director of the MSU African Studies Center.
Anne Ferguson, co-director of the Center for Advanced Study of International Development and Women and International Development said their portion of the grant will go toward furthering development in both undergraduate and graduate specializations and creating a series of courses related to women's studies and development.
The Women and International Development Center is one of a few gender and international development programs in the United States.
"The Department of Education recognized the quality programs that are here, and the willingness the university has as part of its education philosophy and policy to invest in international studies," Lewis said.
In addition to individual program uses, the grant money also will go toward teaching the less common languages from countries such as Africa, Asia and Latin America.
The money also will provide outreach into K-12 schooling, community colleges and four-year universities by supplying resources and people to foster an understanding of foreign countries and gender globalization in the public school system.
All three programs receiving funding are past recipients of the grant, something Dawn Pysarchik, associate dean of International Studies and Programs, says identifies MSU as a step ahead of its other peer institutions.
"It really places MSU among the leading institutions in the United States with regard to international programming," she said. "It's a validation that others recognize as MSU's prominence in the international arena."
