The CES Gazette Volume 2 Issue 1 Fall 2004
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The CES Gazette Volume 2 Issue 1 Fall 2004 The Center for European Studies Gains Recognition from the European Union This summer, the Center for European Studies (CES) was awarded two grants by the European Union, gaining international recognition for its efforts to develop European Studies and Europe- related programs both at UF and throughout the state. The CES and UF are now formally recognized as EU funded institutions, which will facilitate our pursuit of future EU grant opportunities. The first grant, The New Face of Europe: The European Union in the 21st Century, comes from the European Commission Delegation in the US. Catering to Floridians, this outreach grant is meant to facilitate learning and better understanding of the unprecedented events currently taking place in Europe. The grant covers four different workshops targeting such varied audiences as the Florida state political leaders and scholars, small and medium businesses, elementary and high school teachers and students, and the general public. The first of these workshops introduces Florida’s political leaders and policy makers to the European Union. The next two workshops build on existing programs that were successfully implemented during the first year of CES activities. Thus, Doing Business in the New Europe workshop aims to increase awareness about the European Union among the Florida business community. In turn, Teaching about the European Union introduces Florida’s elementary and high school teachers to recent developments in the European Union and encourages them to incorporate related topics in their lesson plans and classroom activities. The final workshop/festival is a new one-day event designed to highlight the cultural diversity of the enlarged European Union. Taking place in August 2005, this festival celebrates diversity in art, music, languages, and food; it also solicits participation by the general public, devising activities that appeal to a broad range of interests. The second grant was awarded the CES by the Jean Table of Contents Monnet Programme of the European Commission. This grant funds the development of a new European module, European From the Director . 2 Union and Eastern Europe: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow, a Events . 3 standard semester-long course designed to provide students Grants . 4 with a unique perspective on the process of EU enlargement. Faculty News . 5-6 Broadly, this course is meant to encourage and facilitate the Study Abroad . .7 study of Europe at UF. More specifically, it links two areas: Contact Info . .8 the history and development of the European Union and that of Eastern Europe, a link that has been missing from similar classes offered at UF. This course also involves The CES Gazette participation by faculty and students from three Volume 2, Issue 1 universities in Europe, the American University in Bulgaria, the Central European University in Dr. Amie Kreppel, Director Hungary and the Vesalius University in Belgium, Natasa Kovacevic, Editor fostering a useful student and faculty cooperation Brano Kovalcik, Contributor across the Atlantic. The course will be offered for The CES Gazette is published each a minimum of five years, beginning in Spring semester to provide information to 2005. faculty, students, and supporters of European Studies about the activities and programs of the CES. For further infor- From the Director mation, please visit the CES website at www.ces.ufl.edu. The upcoming year will be a busy one as we work to expand our outreach activities with the support of new funding from the European Union, develop new course and academic pro- grams and organize visiting speakers and a follow up conference on the New Face of Europe in Paris at the University of Florida’s new Paris Research Center (PRC). We have initiated a new opportunity for the UF community to suggest speakers by submitting an online form and will once again be offering faculty and graduate student research and travel grants as well as course development and enhancement grants for UF faculty. All of us at the CES are extremely pleased to be able start the 2004-2005 academic year by welcoming our six new faculty members (see pages 5 & 6 for additional information). These new hires will add to our existing core and affiliate faculty and foster continued growth of European Studies across campus. This year we look forward to developing our European Studies Minor (in addition to the current European Union specific minor degree), expanding our study abroad offerings and collaborating with the Department of Germanic and Slavic Studies (GSS) on the development of a Polish Studies program. In addition we are excited by the opportunity to offer, for the first time in a public university in Florida, Hungarian language courses. We look forward to adding to these strengths through additional hires in the coming year. We are also very pleased to welcome our first two CES Graduate Fellows, Christopher Olberding in Political Science and William Greer in History. This new program offers the CES and UF an opportunity to recruit the brightest new graduate students pursuing doctoral research re- lated to modern Europe. We will be expanding this European Union Studies Program program in the future and hope to welcome up to 330 Anderson Hall four new CES graduate fellows in 2005-2006. We are University of Florida also hoping to increase graduate student participa- PO Box 117325 tion through increased funding opportunities for Gainesville, FL 32611- 7325 existing students (watch the web page!) and the Phone: 352-392-0262 ext. 254 Fax: 352-392-8127 development of ongoing graduate student research http://www.clas.ufl.edu/eustudies/ forum. As always, we welcome your comments and Dr. Petia Kostadinova, suggestions as we continue to work to improve EUSP Internship Coordinator European Studies at UF. If you have ideas about email: [email protected] future workshops or conferences, possible speakers or outreach opportunities please let us know. -2- Summer 2004 Outreach Highlights Summer Language Teacher Workshop The teacher workshop took place at the University of Florida over the course of two weeks, from July 19th to 30th. This event was sponsored by the Center for European Studies, in collaboration with a number of University of Florida language and literature departments, the Transnational and Global Center, and the International Center. This workshop was designed for middle school and high school language teachers to help them cultivate new ideas for creating a more exciting and interactive classroom environment. In addition to teachers, several University of Florida students majoring in education and language teaching also attended the workshop. The participants enjoyed morning sessions from 9 am to 12 pm with Dr. Roger Thompson, Associate Professor of English and Linguistics, who lectured on various topics related to applied linguistics. In a comfortable, relaxed atmosphere, Professor Thompson offered fresh ideas for language activities in the classroom, specifically addressing student goals and interests, practical uses of language in everyday life, working with multiple levels of proficiency, and evaluating performance and proficiency. A large emphasis was placed on the use of Internet as a resource for activities and homework assignments, as well as a tool for raising performance standards. In addition, Professor Thompson showed the participants how to successfully instruct beginners in the target language by engaging them in regular mini-courses in Hungarian. Afternoon sessions, taking place from 1 pm to 3 pm, were conducted by Dr. Franz Futterknecht, Professor of German, and Dr. Gillian Lord, Assistant Professor of Spanish and Linguistics. The participants met in a computer lab to learn how to use technology as a vehicle “The Melting Pot” to maximize language input in the classroom. An International Food Worskhop The daily progression of practical assignments corresponded to topics covered in the morning On June 16, 2004, the CES and the Global and sessions. The participants were introduced to Transnational Studies Center held an using Internet search engines, selecting international food workshop for local K-12 websites appropriate for a particular language teachers. Presenters included Ellie Kang (South activity, and locating and evaluating websites Korean cuisine), Cynthia Puranik (Indian that explore different cultures and help raise cuisine), and Nadia Abdullhaq (Middle Eastern cultural awareness. This portion of the cuisine). The CES’ own Petia Kostadinova and Natasa Kovacevic also took part in the workshop, workshop revolved around creating and with a joint presentation on the social and maintaining personal web pages, culminating in cultural dimensions of Balkan cuisine. Finally, Dr. group projects which used the web to design Susan deFrance, Assistant Professor in activities appropriate for a specific language or Anthropology, gave a presentation on the language proficiency level. Finally, the “Anthropology of Food: Pets to Fast Food” and workshop considered advantages and Dr. Glenda L. Warren, Associate Professor in the disadvantages of online testing, as well as Department of Family, Youth, and Community various types of computer-mediated Sciences, lectured on the cultural aspects of food. communication. - 3 - Center for European Studies Grants Course Enhancement / Development Grants For Faculty These grants are offered annually and distributed as salary for the summer semester immediately following the grant competition. Grantees