I am riding in the car. The anticipation of the vacation my family is about to embark on is building inside me. We arrive at the airport and the excitement dwindles for I know what comes next. Waiting.

Noaquia Callahan, a Ph.D. candidate in history at the University of Iowa, is one of 13 Fulbright U.S. Student Program grant winners from the UI for 2016-17. Noaquia will undertake research on the development of interracial collaboration between African-American civil rights leader Mary Church Terrell and German women activists from 1888-1922 at the Free University of Berlin and the University of Heidelberg. As part of her community engagement, Noaquia will work with the German-American Fulbright Commission's Diversity Initiative to prepare Turkish, Afro-German, Muslim, and other students for study abroad in the U.S.

We live in a world where digital data is almost as pervasive and unnoticed as the air we breathe. We have become an integral part of the Internet of Things; our personal smart items that we carry with us are sensing the world around us and sharing it with other smart things in our environment including our TV, refrigerator, thermostat, car, bridges — the list is ever growing. The amount of data that is being gathered and exchanged is staggering and growing fast. A billion tweets every 72 hours is one example. Collectively, the amount of data in our digital universe — approximately 5 trillion gigabytes — is doubling every two years.

Trains have always intrigued me. Watching them speed by, I’d always wonder where their final destination was. They carry a sense of mystery. Who’s on them? Where are they going? What are they leaving from? Why are they traveling at all? All these questions would race through my mind, as I would watch the trains pass through.

The African Studies Program and Caribbean, Diaspora, and Atlantic Studies Program will co-sponsor an upcoming forum entitled, “Crossing Borders Symposium: Rethinking Memory and Trauma: New Directions in Cultural and Visual Studies.” This event is free and open to the public, starting at 12:00 p.m. on Friday, April 22, through 2:30 p.m. on Saturday, April 23, in 315 Phillips Hall.

Traveling to Pondicherry with the 2016 India Winterm Program was my first trip abroad and the experiences I had over the three weeks I was there were life changing. I enrolled in the course Serving Children with Disabilities, Empowering Local Women, Assisting Older Adults (SEA). My enrollment in this course provided me with the opportunity to volunteer with nonprofit organizations in the area, attend lectures with guest speakers, and visit ancient temples and other cultural sites. I volunteered at SARVAM, an after school program created by the Sri Aurobindo Society that works to advance the educational attainment of children in rural areas.

Join the Organization for the Active Support of International Students (OASIS) in celebrating their annual cross cultural event, Bridging Fiesta 2016, "Under the Sea." This year's aquatic themed event will be an affair to remember, including live bands, dance performances, food catered by Formosa and OASIS, photo booths, raffle prizes, multicultural activities, and more!

WorldCanvass tackles informatics—also known as big data—on its final program of the 2015-2016 season. Guests from the diverse fields of computer science, medicine, sociology, public health, and geographical and sustainability sciences will discuss the proliferation of big data and their attempts to both understand and utilize this massive and, in many ways, untamed digital resource. “Big Data: Big Brother or Big Sister?” is the topic at 5 p.m. on Tuesday, April 19, at FilmScene. WorldCanvass is free and open to the public.

Visiting Assistant Professor Melissa Moreton will discuss her work examining the material culture of late medieval, Renaissance, and early modern Italy (1300-1650), combining methodologies from history, material book studies, art history, and the quantitative sciences.

Has French Cinema lost its roots and become a nondescript mass of so-called European film traditions? Is transnationalism just a weighted synonym for ‘international coproduction?’ Can popular cinema also be art?