A new major in global health studies is now available to undergraduates after long efforts by campus faculty.

The Japan Foundation Institutional Project Support (IPS) Grant is funding graduate students to conduct research in Japan, with additional support from the Center for Asian and Pacific Studies (CAPS). Laurel Taylor is a second-year student in the UI's MFA in Translation program who conducted research on the culture of translation in Tokyo in the summer of 2016. At Iowa, she is translating short stories and a novel by the contemporary Japanese novelist Shibasaki Tomoka, a participant in the International Writing Program for 2016.

The 2016-2017 Fulbright Lunch & Learn seminar series kicks off Friday, October 7 with "Classical and Folk Traditions: Exploring the Mahabharata in the Himalayas."

I know I promised to deliver a blog about my classes this week, but consider that cancelled for the moment. Instead, I feel it is necessary to discuss my past week in Potosí. I’m fortunate to be studying here on a program that takes us to 6 major cities of Bolivia and even into parts of the countryside. I was not, however, mentally prepared for Potosí.

My daily commute to class is something that makes even me jealous. When I was given my housing assignment the first day I arrived in Florence I was a bit panicked because it seemed so far away from the main school building and I was obviously worried that I would get lost in the labyrinthine streets of Florence. However, I quickly realized that it was not nearly as far as it seemed and while it took me a bit to get the hang of my commute without getting lost, once I did, I realized that it was a blessing in (not so subtle) disguise.

International Student and Scholar Services is pleased to announce the recipients of the 2016 International Parents of the Year award: Dr. Khalid Joudi and Dr. Maysoon Yasin. They are the parents of recent University of Iowa grad Dr. Kawther Khalid Ahmed, who just received her Ph.D. in pharmaceutics in August. Dr. Ahmed is now a post-doctoral scholar here at the University of Iowa while her husband, Ali Al-Jumaili, finishes his own program. They have two daughters and a little boy here with them in Iowa City.

Her dreams rested high on the mythical peak of Mount Olympus. Now, Delaney Nolan, 27, will travel to Europe having achieved her dream of receiving a Fulbright.

While heritage, adventure, education and cuisine were all critical considerations in my choice to study abroad, I learned in the first three days of my trip that those reasons would have dissolved if I didn’t have a great support system. Ironically, the largest influence in my decision to move 5,993 miles away from my family…was my family.

Being in CIEE’s Santiago de Chile program has been an extraordinary and seemingly-existential experience thus far.  I’m having a wonderful time, my host family is so nice and so supportive—I couldn’t imagine a better housing arrangement—my classes are so interesting and thought-provoking, and Santiago (well… Chile, itself, really) is full of unexpected adventures.

Travel anxiety is not a recent development of mine. Of course, I call it “travel anxiety” because I don’t know what else to call it, and it’s difficult to pin with words

It’s now been a week since I moved in with my host family and began classes in Cochabamba! Much has changed in this short time both for me and Bolivia as a whole. With that, I want to take a moment to touch on what’s been going on in the heart of South America.