Coping with Anti-Americanism: A Guide to Getting the Most Out of Studying Abroad

A short time ago I received a copy of the new book Coping with Anti-Americanism: A Guide to Getting the Most Out of Studying Abroad (2011, Potomac Books) from the author Carol Madison Graham.  When I saw that this book had been published earlier this year I reached out to the author (I had already been following her blog Engage Abroad! and had interacted briefly a few times on Twitter) and asked if I could review her book on IHEC Blog.  I ended up with my own copy to include on the shelves of Bury Book International Education Library & Archive!


I really enjoyed reading Coping with Anti-Americanism and feel it is a must read for prospective U.S. study abroad students and their parents as well as for the greater international education community and other campus/organizational stakeholders.  Graham provides the reader with a clear picture of the realities American students face while abroad and she puts into perspective their place in the world outside of U.S. borders. Graham's work challenges U.S. students to take a step back and do some critical thinking on how the U.S. is viewed abroad and how they will be viewed and how they will represent the U.S. while studying abroad.  In addition to providing prospective U.S. study abroad students with valuable insight and guidance on how to cope with the anti-Americanism abroad they are bound to encounter this book is a valuable guide for study abroad program staff to inform discussions with students and their parents as well as for preparing pre-departure orientations and related meetings.


Chapters in Coping with Anti-Americanism are as follows:


1. American and Americans Through Foreign Eyes
2. The Land Without a History
3. Perceptions of Religion and the American South
4. Multiculturalism, Political Correctness, and Perceptions of a Divided America
5. "American Idiots"
6. The President of the Earth
7. Sheriff to Gunfighter: The United States and the World
8.  Superpower Diplomacy
9. Ambassador for Life


Coping with Anti-Americanism: A Guide to Getting the Most Out of Studying Abroad is published by Potomac Books and is available for purchase here.


A note about the author Carol Madison Graham: in 1981 Graham joined the U.S. Diplomatic Service and worked in France, Lebanon, Tunisia and in the United Arab Emirates.  In 2002 she was appointed to the UK Fulbright Commission as Executive Director and was the first American to ever hold this position.  She is now a board member of the Marshall Scholarships and a trustee of the Carnegie U.K. Trust.  She is available for speaking engagements and you can contact her here if you wish to further explore such an opportunity.


Graham also maintains the Engage Abroad! (which I have on my blogroll) and she is on Twitter at @engageabroad.

Young People’s Mobilities and International Education - A symposium sponsored by the Youth Study Group and the Education Study Group of the British Sociological Association

The following is a copy and paste of a random e-mail message I received:

BSA Seminar Room, Imperial Wharf, London

Friday 24th June 2011, 10.15am-3.30pm

Cost: This event is free for BSA members, with a £10 charge for non-members.

PROGRAMME

10.15-10.30 Welcome and introductions

10.30-12.30 Morning paper session

Cosmopolitan transnational mobilities? Young people and international migration in higher education

Fiona M. Smith, Allan M. Findlay, Alistair Geddes (Geography, School of the Environment, University of Dundee) Russell King, Ron Skeldon (Sussex Centre for Migration Research, University of Sussex)

Erasmus student work placement mobility: A UK perspective

Hannah Deakin (Loughborough University)

Are we all entrepreneurs now? Student mobility, agency, and individual benefits in the European Higher Education Area

Vassiliki Papatsiba (University of Sheffield)

Developing Intercultural Speakers? An Exploration of Young Peoples’ Educational Experiences at three European Schools

Nicola Savvides (De Montfort University)

12.30-13.15 Lunch

13.15-15.15 Afternoon paper session

Place and its role in international student decision making

Suzanne Beech (Queen’s University Belfast)

Outbound student mobility, self and community

David Killick (Leeds Metropolitan University)

Global citizenship or ‘gap yah’?

International voluntary service, youth transitions and the politics of differential mobility

Kristina Diprose (University of Leeds)

“...it’s more subtle things like ‘Why is your English so good?’...”: Indian students’ encounters with everyday multiculturalism in London and Toronto.

Subhadra Roy (Queen Mary, University of London)

15.15 Concluding remarks

To reserve a place, please visit here.

International Student Support in European Higher Education. Needs, Solutions, and Challenges ~ New ACA Publication

The Academic Cooperation Association (ACA) announces a new publication entitled International Student Support in European Higher Education: Needs, Solutions, and Challenges by Maria Kelo, Tim Rogers (with Laura E. Rumbley).  I learned about this new publication from Laura Rumbley, Deputy Director of the Academic Cooperation Association, and I think many IHEC Blog readers might find it of interest.  I have copied and pasted most of the press release about this new publication below:

A new publication by the Academic Cooperation Association (ACA) examines the international student services landscape in six different countries and suggests a ‘code of good practice’ for international student support within European higher education. ACA finds that appropriate support for full-degree international students make for both good policy and practice.

The Academic Cooperation Association (ACA), a Brussels-based higher education think tank, has just published a study on international student services in European higher education. This publication is an outcome of a Commission-funded project undertaken by ACA in the period 2008-2010, under the name ENATIS - Enhancing attractiveness through international student services. The study focused on six European countries—Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, United Kingdom—with regard

to support services provision to full-degree students coming from outside Europe. The role of national-level organisations and advisory bodies was examined, as were the experiences of 3-5 institutions in each country. International students were also consulted directly, through student focus group sessions as well as via a quantitative survey that garnered 1278 responses from international students studying in the six countries included in the study.

Notable findings include the fact that some 80 percent of students regard the availability of services as either “very important” or “partly important” when it comes to making a decision about where to study. Meanwhile, individual institutions and national-level organisations appear to be increasingly responsive to the needs of international students, with the study countries and institutions providing many examples of creative and effective approaches to meeting student needs. The use of information and communication technologies to connect with international students, the involvement of fellow students (domestic and international) to assist the international student population, and the proactive steps to ease the burden of administrative red tape and legal complexities are important examples of positive trends seen in a variety of contexts.

Key challenges remain, however. Among the most prominent, the study finds that information for students must be paced more appropriately, or made available in a more à la carte fashion. Careful attention must also be paid so that certain types of full-degree international students are not ‘lost through the cracks’ (for example, those who matriculate directly into degree programmes and are therefore not overtly identified as ‘international’ with distinct needs). Additionally—and quite notably—

institutions offering English-taught programmes in non-English speaking countries face a special responsibility to develop communication and support strategies that meet the needs of students who are not proficient in the host country language.

Ultimately, if Europe is to position itself as a destination of choice for large numbers of international students from around the world, the investment made by students to come to Europe needs to be matched by a meaningful response on the part of host countries and institutions to provide useful guidance for the ‘whole student’. More information on the book can be found on the ACA website here.

  

Inquiries for the authors can be addressed to:

Laura E. Rumbley

Deputy Director

Academic Cooperation Association

15 rue d’Egmont / Egmontstraat

B-1000 Brussels, Belgium

Email: laura.rumbley@aca-secretariat.be

The book can be ordered from:

Lemmens Medien GmbH

Matthias-Grünewald-Str. 1-3, D-53175 Bonn

Tel.: ++49 228 42 13 70

Fax: +49 228 42 13 729, E-Mail: info@lemmens.de

Call for Applications: Swiss Forum for Migration and Population Studies MOVE Postdoctoral Grant in Mobility Studies

I was alerted to the following opportunity from the June 29-July 3, 2009 issue of IIE.Interactive Newsletter. The Swill Forum for Migration and Population Studies has announced a call for applications for the MOVE Postdoctoral Grant in Mobility Studies. I have copied and pasted information below directly from IIE.Interactive about the MOVE Postdoctoral Grant in Mobility Studies it provides an excellent summary about this unique opportunity:

Call for applications: Post-Doctoral Grant (70%) in Mobility Studies
Deadline: August 30, 2009

MOVE is the Swiss interdisciplinary network for mobility studies, linking the universities of Neuchâtel (leading house), Berne, Lausanne, and Zürich. In addition to having created the Swiss Chair for Mobility Studies (a visiting professorship), MOVE offers four grants for post-doctoral studies on topics related to the mobility of persons, ideas, goods and institutions. Three post-doc research fellows have already been appointed and are working on issues related to the mobility of migrants (Bern), health practices (Zürich), and urban forms (Neuchâtel). The candidate who will be awarded the grant offered in the present call will be based at the University of Lausanne to conduct research on the mobility of higher education programmes and institutions, also called transnational or cross-border education.

The position starts in autumn/winter 2009-2010 (no later than January 2010).

Research area

While the mobility of students crossing national boundaries is not a new phenomenon, the globalising education industry relies today upon additional forms of cross-border education such as "programme mobility" and "institutional mobility." The mobility of educational models and institutions has indeed been fast increasing since the turn of the millennium, most notably with the opening of branch campuses of international universities in the Asia-Pacific and Middle Eastern regions. This trend, alongside the intensifying movement of students, academic staff and curricula across borders, is both a response to, and a constitutive dimension of, globalisation. Given the mounting significance that an educated human workforce has for economic development in the current knowledge economy, such tendencies are expected to continue, especially in response to the needs for enhanced educational standards in the fast-growing developing economies of Asia and the Middle East.

Candidates with an interest and experience in this or a closely related field are invited to apply. In addition to carrying out his/her own research, the successful applicant will supervise and monitor two doctoral students working on the transnationalization of academic institutions. Given the current prominence of this phenomenon in Gulf countries, some knowledge of that region would constitute an advantage.

For more information, including duties and application procedures, please contact Dr. Peter Voll at peter.voll@unine.ch or visit: www.migration-population.ch/page27832.html.

H.R. 416 To Authorize the Establishment of Educational Exchange and Development Programs for Member Countries of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM)

On January 9th, Representative Barbara Lee [D-CA] introduced H.R. 416 to the 111th Congress. The bill currently has 13 democratic co-sponsors. Related legislation can be found in the H.R. 176: Shirley A. Chisholm United States-Caribbean Educational Exchange Act which was passed with bipartisan support by the 110th Congress.

The Caribbean is one of the most underrepresented regions of the world for academic exchange and collaboration with the United States. It's good to see legislation focusing on increasing such activities between the Caribbean and the United States.

Interesting Perspective on One Million American Students Studying Abroad

I recently came across an interesting post on the Education Dynamics Academic Perspectives blog from December 17, 2008 on the Senator Paul Simon Study Abroad Foundation Act which envisions to send over one million U.S. students to study abroad each academic year. This blog post is fairly in line with my view of increasing study abroad participation in the United States to over one million students per year. You can read this blog post and my posted comments here: http://tinyurl.com/9vtox3

Mobility Barometer of the Let’s Go Campaign

Those of you conducting research on global student/scholar mobility trends may find the Mobility Barometer on the Let’s Go Campaign to be helpful. The Mobility Barometer highlights the specific mobility situation for students and higher education and research personnel in 46 countries within the European region. You can access the Mobility Barometer here: http://tinyurl.com/5pnkoe

The Lets Go Campaign was launched by Education International and the European Students’ Union (ESU). You can access the main website for the Let’s Go Campaign here: http://www.letsgocampaign.net/