International Innovation Fund takes work abroad

The Faculty Committee on Education Abroad and the Harvard College Office of International Programs have announced the winners of the first funding cycle of the International Innovation Fund grant program, which supports University faculty-sponsored initiatives in education abroad for undergraduates.

Thirty-one proposals were received, and 15 Harvard University faculty and directors were awarded grants from $2,000 to $8,000, totaling $90,810, for international projects that offer undergraduates opportunities ranging from summer internships and research in South Africa, Russia, and China, to archaeology in the United Kingdom, and astrophysics in Chile. Grant recipients are listed below.

Mahzarin Banaji, Richard Clarke Cabot Professor of Social Ethics, Department of Psychology, Carol K. Pforzheimer Professor at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study; and Elizabeth Spelke, Marshall L. Berkman Professor of Psychology, for their project on undergraduate research opportunities in cross-cultural research on social categories and intergroup relations in Cape Town, South Africa.

Theodore C. Bestor, professor of anthropology and Japanese studies, for his proposal for a course development site visit to Japan.

Jacqueline Bhabha, executive director of the University Committee on Human Rights Studies, along with others from the committee, for a proposal for a Human Rights Internship Workshop and Database.

Peter Bol, Charles H. Carswell Professor of East Asian Languages and Civilizations, for his proposal for undergraduate summer fieldwork positions in China.

Sugata Bose, Gardiner Professor of Oceanic History and Affairs, and director of the South Asia Initiative, for his proposal for undergraduate summer service internships in India.

Timothy J. Colton, Morris and Anna Feldberg Professor of Government and Russian Studies, and director, Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies, for his proposal to create five undergraduate summer internships in Russia.

Elvira G. DiFabio, senior preceptor in Romance languages and literatures, for her proposal to develop a summer community service course in Italy in conjunction with a Cambridge-based semester course on Italian and the community.

John Doyle, professor of physics, for his proposal to place undergraduates in physics labs at Kyoto University and in Tokyo-area institutions.

Gerald Gabrielse, Leverett Professor of Physics, for his proposal to place undergraduates in summer research positions for the next five years at the CERN Laboratory in Geneva.

Ryan Goodman, J. Sinclair Armstrong Assistant Professor of International, Foreign and Comparative Law, along with others, for a proposal to provide undergraduates an opportunity to study human rights law and practice, and engage in human rights work abroad through the Harvard Law School Honors Program in Human Rights for Undergraduates.

William Granara, Gordon Gray Professor of the Practice of Arabic, and director of the Arabic Language Program, for his proposal for a site visit to the American University of Cairo, and summer language institutes in Cairo and at Cairo University.

Michael McCormick, Francis Goelet Professor of Medieval History, for his proposal for an undergraduate research internship in medieval archaeology at Oxford, U.K.

Jens Meierhenrich, assistant professor of government and social studies, for his proposal for undergraduate research opportunities on genocide in Rwanda and elsewhere.

Gregory Nagy, Francis Jones Professor of Classical Greek Literature and professor of comparative literature; director of the Center for Hellenic Studies, along with others from the center, for a proposal for undergraduate summer internships in Greece.

Christopher William Stubbs, professor of physics and of astronomy, along with others from the department, for a proposal for an undergraduate astrophysics program in Chile.

The members of the Faculty Committee on Education Abroad are Dean Benedict H. Gross, oversight dean; Professor John H. Coatsworth, chair; Dean Patricia O’Brien; Dean Georgene Herschbach; Jane Edwards, director of the Office of International Programs; professors Sugata Bose, Carter Eckert, Grzegorz Ekiert, Brian Farrell, Luis Fernández Cifuentes, William Granara, James McCarthy, Elisa New, Howard Stone, Francis Abiola Irele, and Leslie Hill; and senior preceptor Clemence Jouet-Pastre.

The new International Innovation Fund supports initiatives that seek to combine academic work in Cambridge, Mass., with international study, research, internships, service, or employment. Proposals may include pilot projects involving student study or work abroad that could develop into ongoing or larger programs, educational travel that pursues unique opportunities, faculty travel, and other costs related to organizing Harvard programs abroad, and other projects that create significant international opportunities for Harvard College students. The Committee on Education Abroad hopes to sponsor a second application and funding cycle in spring 2006. For more information, contact Jane Edwards, director of the Office of International Programs, at jedwards@fas.harvard.edu.