International Short Programs, in collaboration with the School of Business Entrepreneurship team, will host the Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative Academic Fellows Program, which is focused on innovation, entrepreneurship and economic empowerment. 

The program is funded by a grant from the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs at the U.S. Department of State. Beginning in September 2025, KU will host 25 young leaders from Southeast Asia in Lawrence for the five-week intensive academic exchange program.

The Academic Fellows Program is part of the wider Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative, which is the U.S. government’s signature program to strengthen leadership development and networking in Southeast Asia. The program provides skills training to youth ages 18-25 from 11 Southeast Asian countries.

Some highlights of the KU program will include academic sessions with the KU Entrepreneurship and Leadership Studies teams, field trips and service activities in the Lawrence and Kansas City area, and networking opportunities with the KU and Lawrence communities. Specific networking opportunities will be announced closer to the program’s start date.

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Thanks to a $35,000 U.S. State Department grant, KU will partner with two Western universities to lay the groundwork for a reciprocal exchange program that will connect indigenous students and elders in the U.S. with those in Fiji and New Zealand.

KU is partnering with the University of Wyoming and Montana State University through the Western Indigenous Relationship Exchange program, which will allow Indigenous students to explore their heritage on a global platform.

The University of Wyoming applied for the grant and was one of 37 higher education institutions to receive funding through the State Department’s Increase and Diversify Education Abroad for U.S. Students Program. IDEAS grants enable higher education institutions to create and expand study abroad programs that align with U.S. foreign policy goals and provide international experiences for U.S. students to develop new knowledge and skills.

The funding will allow the three universities to send tribal members, university administrators and faculty on a two-week capacity-building mission to Fiji and New Zealand in 2025. The group will connect and forge partnerships with Indigenous communities and their counterparts at the universities of the South Pacific, Waikato and Auckland.

Ultimately, the initiative aims to develop a program that supports credit-bearing, semester-long exchange programs between the three U.S. universities and those in Fiji and New Zealand. The grant will allow the universities to create support structures for indigenous students who participate in the inbound and outbound study abroad experiences.

During the two-week mission to the South Pacific, the delegation will connect with the universities to establish global support networks, work on the logistics for the study abroad programs, share effective student support methods and develop a memorandum of understanding to solidify a sustained commitment to Indigenous student exchanges.

KU International Affairs has opened nominations for two competitive awards that recognize faculty who engage in internationalization across campus.

The International Affairs Advisory Board International Research Award recognizes a KU faculty member who has provided outstanding leadership in international education through research and discovery efforts at KU.

The George and Eleanor Woodyard International Educator Award recognizes full-time, tenured KU faculty members on the Lawrence campus who have provided outstanding leadership in international education at KU.

Visit the International Affairs website for more information, criteria and nomination deadlines. Nominations and supporting materials should be submitted via email to Whitney Denning no later than Oct. 3.

A KU doctoral candidate in history has received the prestigious Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad Award to spend a year conducting research in Tanzania.

Alicia Houser has been granted $24,400 from the U.S. Department of Education to travel to Africa to study how Tanzanian women in small urban areas have restructured their lives and landscapes since colonization.

Each year about 100 fellows representing roughly 40 institutions receive the award from the Department of Education’s Fulbright-Hays International Education programs. The program provides opportunities to engage in full-time dissertation research abroad in modern foreign languages and area studies.

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Melinda Lewis, professor of the practice for social welfare, received the International Affairs Advisory Board International Teaching Award, which recognizes KU faculty members who have provided outstanding and sustained leadership in international education through their teaching, advocacy and mentorship at KU. The award is financially supported by members of the KUIA Advisory Board.

Shannon O’Lear, professor of geography and atmospheric science, was honored with the Chancellor’s Club Teaching Professorship, which recognizes excellence in teaching and is awarded to those who have demonstrated outstanding teaching over the years. O’Lear is a faculty member with the Center for Russian, East European & Eurasian Studies.

Lewis and O'Lear will be recognized at the annual University Teaching Awards ceremony at 7 p.m. Oct. 8 at the Jayhawk Welcome Center. All members of the KU community are invited to attend this celebration. Please RSVP in advance.

Glenn Adams director of the Kansas African Studies Center, spoke at the opening ceremony of the eighth annual conference of the Lagos Studies Association, which took place June 25-29 at the University of Lagos in Nigeria. Associate Director Stacey Vanderhurst was a presenter at the award ceremony.

A translation by Vitaly Chernetsky of Ostap Slyvynsky’s “Winter King” was shortlisted for the Derek Walcott Prize for Poetry. Chernetsky, professor of Slavic languages and literature, is a faculty member with the Center for Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies.

Jacquelyn Edison, a lecturer in the KU School of Professional Studies, virtually presented “Elevating Women’s Voices within a Historically Male Dominated Industry: A Traveling Exhibit Learning from the Past, Celebrating Progress in the Present, and Paving a Way for the Future” at the 22nd International Conference on New Direction in Humanities held at Sapienza University of Rome.

Jon Giullian, librarian for Slavic and Eurasian studies and head of international collections, received the Committee on Libraries and Information Resources Distinguished Service Award from the Association for Slavic, East European & Eurasian Studies. The award honors ASEEES member librarians, archivists or curators whose contributions to the field of Slavic, East European and Eurasian studies librarianship has been especially noteworthy or influential. 

“The Poverty of the World” by Sheyda Jahanbani, associate professor of history, won the 2024 Bernath Prize for best first book from the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations. Jahanbani is a core faculty member with the Center for Global & International Studies.

Erik Scott, director of the Center for Russian, Eastern European & Eurasian Studies, was named the inaugural John P. Black Professor of History, enabling him to pursue research on the global legacies of the Cold War. Scott also won the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations’ Ferrell Book Prize for best subsequent book in the field. The book also received the Tonous and Warda Johns Family Book Award from the Pacific Coast Branch of the American Historical Association. 

More than 500 community members were treated to a beautiful night for the Mid-Autumn Festival, hosted by the KU Center for East Asian Studies and the Student Union Activities. Held on Asher Family Plaza in front of the Kansas Union, the celebration featured activities, crafts, mooncakes and performances by House of Dragons, Three Trails Taiko and KU Lion Dance Team. 

More than 250 people connected with KU's international community and academic units during the 2024 Global Brunch. Held each year during Hawk Week, Global Brunch introduces incoming students to the global opportunities available at KU. 

At this year's brunch, students had the chance to enjoy food from around the world and meet with students, faculty and staff to learn about studying a foreign language, joining international student groups, studying abroad and attending international events.

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