The European Studies Group will present a guest lecture by Yasemin Mohammad, an assistant professor in the UI Department of German, on "Confronting Transnational Histories Violence, Protests, and Migration in Aras Ören’s Unexpected Visitor" at 4:00 p.m. on Friday, April 14 in 315 Phillips Hall.  The event is free and open to the public.

The Study Abroad Office, Peace Corps, the School of International Training (SIT), and International Fellowships will hold an upcoming informational session "Not Your Ordinary International Experience." This event is free and open to the public, and will take place from 6:30-8:00 p.m. on Tuesday, April 11, 2017, in 1117 University Capitol Centre. 

My free time looks a bit different than that of a student studying abroad. For my student teaching semester, I teach English as a Second Language (ESL) in an elementary school Monday - Thursday from 7:30 a.m. - 3:00 p.m. and Friday from 7:30 a.m. - noon. Moreover, my social circle includes my host family and the teachers with whom I work. Thankfully, I have been blessed enough to make some great friends with various other teachers my first two weeks of teaching and have already had many adventures as a result.

The Fulbright Lunch & Learn seminar series continues with "Why the Japanese School Year Begins During Cherry Blossom Season: A Glimpse into 21st-Century Japanese Education," featuring guest speaker Karen Wachsmuth, associate director, International Fellowships, International Programs. This event will take place Friday, April 7, from 12:15-1:00 p.m. in 1117 University Capitol Centre.

The European Studies Group will present a guest lecture by Professor L. Elena Delgado of Grinnell College on "Public Tears and Secret of the Heart: Populism, Secessionism, and the Question of Democratic Excess" at 2:30 p.m. on Friday, April 7 in 315 Phillips Hall.  The event is free and open to the public.

Overall, undergraduate international applications at the UI are experiencing a dip because of a multitude of potential factors.

Cooking with firewood and other biofuels is one of the most urgent problems in the world today. It affects the health and wellbeing of those inhaling the fumes at close range, relies on increasingly scarce sources of firewood, and contributes over 20% of global black carbon emissions. The harm to individuals and the environment cannot be denied, and yet there’s little awareness of the issue among the general public. WorldCanvass host Joan Kjaer and a panel of experts drawn from multiple fields including engineering, urban and regional planning, public health, anthropology, and geography will discuss the use of traditional wood-burning cookstoves and the complex social and cultural underpinnings of the practice on the April 12 WorldCanvass, a highlight of the UI’s yearly Provost’s Global Forum. The public is invited to attend the April 12 discussion at the Voxman Music Building Recital Hall from 7:30-9:30 p.m. There will be a pre-show catered reception from 6:30-7:30 p.m.

The UI South Asian Studies Program (SASP) will host an evening of Kabir songs by the award-winning Prahlad Singh Tipanya group. This event is free and open to the public and will be held on Wednesday, April 5, 2017, at 7:30 p.m. in the Concert Hall of the Voxman Music Building. 

While immigrants have long fueled the American experiment, passionate debate about the pros and cons of immigration are nothing new. The rhetoric of recent national and local elections highlights tensions around changing demographics, inspiring debate about the impact of immigration on employment, on crime, and on community identity, while challenging the citizenry to examine their values and notions of what it means to be an American. WorldCanvass host Joan Kjaer and a diverse panel of guests discussed the history of immigration in the Midwest over the past century and a half, as well as current questions about bilingualism, multiculturalism, and belonging and exclusion in times of international and domestic conflict.

Join us for a week of events to help you learn more about the Fulbright U.S. Student Program! Each session will provide different information and will have a Q & A period, so please attend as many as you can. All levels of undergraduate and graduate students welcome!