NAFSA TLS Award for Innovative Research and Scholarship in Internationalization

In case you didn’t catch word of this new and exciting award coming out of NAFSA’s Teaching, Learning, and Scholarship (TLS) Knowledge Community in the various discussion forums and listservs that my colleague Bryan McAllister-Grande, Research/Scholarship Network Leader of TLS, posted to I have reposted here with Bryan’s permission:

NAFSA’s Teaching, Learning, and Scholarship (TLS) Knowledge Community is very excited to announce the creation of a new award honoring research excellence.

The *Award for Innovative Research and Scholarship in Internationalization* will be given for the first time by TLS at the 2010 Annual Conference in Kansas City. The inaugural award winner will be Prof. Josef A. Mestenhauser, distinguished international professor emeritus at the University of Minnesota and former NAFSA President (1987-88).

Prof. Mestenhauser will be giving a short talk on the "state of research innovation” in international education. The talk and award presentation will take place during the TLS Knowledge Community Update, Tuesday, June 1, from 1:15 – 2:15 p.m. in the Kansas City Convention Center. All conference participants are welcome to attend. A flyer for the event can be accessed at http://issuu.com/globalaffairs/docs/tlsawardflyer

*About Prof. Mestenhauser*

Prof. Mestenhauser is the author of over 120 publications on international education spanning over six decades, including recent work on the relationship between internationalization, the academic disciplines, and critical thinking. At the University of Minnesota, he served in numerous positions, including as professor and mentor of graduate students in the Department of Educational Policy and Administration, College of Human Development. He has been honored with many previous awards including NAFSA’s Marita Houlihan Award for Distinguished Contributions to the Field of International Education. In 2009, Prof. Mestenhauser delivered several new lectures, including the inaugural “Josef A. Mestenhauser Lecture on Internationalizing Higher Education” at the University of Minnesota http://www.international.umn.edu/news/events/mestenhauser.php

*About the new award*

The Award for Innovative Research & Scholarship in Internationalization is the first award given by the TLS Knowledge Community (http://www.nafsa.org/knowledge_community_network.sec/teaching_learning_and/), the creation of which Prof. Mestenhauser was a driving force within NAFSA. TLS helps NAFSA members gain the knowledge, research, and skills they need to infuse international, intercultural, and global knowledge into the ethos and outcomes of their own work, and more broadly, the work of their organizations.

The new award will honor those who have made contributions on research and scholarship questions that could apply across the content areas of several Knowledge Communities. The primary criteria points will be individuals (or research teams) who have done path-breaking, innovative work that asked the hard questions or have “broken the frame;” and/or individuals (or research teams) who have investigated how international education transforms the core teaching and learning activities of higher education.