Highlights

• Australian National University: Announcement of future visit by Vice-Chancellor Brian Schmidt
• Chancellor Paydar leads university delegation to Thailand
• University of Hamburg: New funding for IU faculty for collaborative research projects
• Freie Universität Berlin: IU and Freie Universität co-fund conference
• 5 recently approved partner agreements

The Australian National University

Paul Harris, director of The Australian National University’s (ANU) North American Liaison Office, visited IU Bloomington on November 14 for a productive set of meetings on various aspects of the ANU-IU partnership.

Mr. Harris met with all of the IUB units that currently have partnerships with ANU. In addition, Rita Koryan (Assistant Vice President for International Affairs, OVPIA) has been in touch with these units to help chart the overall progress of the partnership.

Some notable developments in the partnership over the past few months are:

• Professor Shruti Rana (Department of International Studies, Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies) is part of a team of legal scholars led by ANU who are starting a research study into the backlash against global law and legal institutions. Funding for the project comes in part from ANU’s support for strategic partnerships.

• In September, the IU Center for Applied Cybersecurity Research and ANU counterparts held a joint workshop at the IU Washington D.C. Advancement Center. The event, titled “Making Democracy Harder to Hack,” brought together a variety of academics, government officials, NGO leaders, and business people. A follow-on conference will be held next year in Canberra, and students from IU’s Cybersecurity Risk Management master’s program will also participate.

We are keen to continue to build the ANU-IU partnership with existing and new initiatives, as well as coordinated visits. Building on the successes of the 2016 and 2017 summit meetings, we hope to host ANU leadership once again at IUB as part of the Bicentennial academic activities. Brian Schmidt, ANU vice-chancellor, has tentative plans to visit during the 2019-20 Bicentennial year. We appreciate your ideas regarding that visit and possible events and workshops we could include.

Chancellor Paydar Leads University Delegation to Thailand

October 8-11, 2018, Chancellor Nasser Paydar led a group of IUPUI and IU administrators to Bangkok and Nakhon Si Thammarat, Thailand, to strengthen academic ties in the region going back 70 years and to explore new collaborations. The goals for the trip included exploring future research and training collaborations, exploring new or expanded partnerships to facilitate student exchange and study abroad, expanding recruitment of and scholarship funding for Thai students to attend IUPUI, and strengthening IUPUI alumni connections.

The trip also allowed the group to lay a strong IUPUI groundwork for the future IU ASEAN Gateway office in Bangkok, the latest addition to the IU Global Gateway Network, which will officially open in February 2019. President McRobbie will be in Bangkok for the opening of the ASEAN Gateway and other special events the last week of February 2019. In addition to this timely connection, the visit also coincided with the launch of the 6th Strategic Plan of Thailand’s National Science and Technology Development Agency, which welcomes international partners to promote research and educational collaborations with universities in Thailand.

The itinerary for IUPUI’s Thailand delegation was structured around two tracks. The first was a science and technology track pursued by the Schools of Science, Engineering and Technology, and Informatics and Computing, presenting an appealing offering of complementary disciplines to many of the Thai partners. The second was a public health track pursued by the School of Public Health, building on many historical linkages established by IUPUI’s Schools of Dentistry and Nursing in Thailand. University visits included King Mongkut’s University of Technology of Thonburi, Chulalongkorn University, Mahidol University, National Institute of Development Administration, and Walailak University.

University of Hamburg

Jannis Androutsopoulos, professor of linguistics at the Institute for Linguistics and the Institute of Media and Communications at the University of Hamburg, as well as Jan Frömming, director of strategic university partnerships in North America, visited Bloomington in late October to celebrate the 40th anniversary of IU’s partnership with the University of Hamburg.

In addition to his academic lectures, Professor Androutsopoulos met with faculty and students and has identified the following areas of potential mutual interest for future projects: computational linguistics, computer-mediated communication (CMC), African linguistics/language documentation, translation apps, and language learning.

On the partnership side, Mr. Frömming met with administrators and faculty in digital humanities, the University Graduate School, the College of Arts and Sciences, the Ostrom Workshop, Maurer School of Law, and the School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering with the aim of deepening and expanding existing collaborations with IU. The University of Hamburg is interested in possible student exchanges in informatics and natural sciences.

He also introduced the University of Hamburg’s new Cooperative Projects funding to support activities between Bloomington and Hamburg: https://www.uni-hamburg.de/en/internationales/wissenschaft/absprung-foerderprogramme/usa-hamburg-programme/koop-projekte-usa.html.

One last note of distinction about our partner: the University of Hamburg was recently granted four clusters of excellence:
https://www.uni-hamburg.de/en/newsroom/presse/2018/pm51.html

Freie Universität Berlin

The Indiana University-Freie Universität Berlin (FUB) fund for joint research workshops and short-term research stays will support a conference to take place in Berlin in June 2019. Titled “Poetic Critique” and organized by the Philological Laboratory at FUB and IUB, Professor Michel Chaouli (Department of Germanic Studies, College of Arts and Sciences), the conference will gather scholars, critics, writers of fiction, and poets from North America, Europe, and Asia to reflect on the idea of critique, which stands at the core of humanistic practice.

Recently Approved Agreements

• National Chengchi University (NCCU): The College of Arts and Sciences at IUB put in place a new unit-to-unit agreement for an undergraduate student exchange with NCCU in Taiwan.
• Sungkyunkwan University (SKKU): The Kelley School of Business at IUB renewed its undergraduate student exchange with the SKKU School of Business.
• University of Strasbourg: The Kelley School of Business at IUPUI renewed its undergraduate student exchange with the EM Strasbourg Business School.
• Presidency University: Under this Memorandum of Understanding, the Indiana Center for Regenerative Medicine and Engineering in the School of Medicine will assist Presidency University in Kolkata, India, in the establishment of a new school of regenerative medicine. Proposed activities include curriculum development, guidance on research, and faculty exchange.
• University of Augsburg: The School of Public and Environmental Affairs at IUB renewed its graduate student exchange agreement with Augsburg.

Partnerships Contacts

• Shawn Reynolds, Associate Vice President for International Partnerships, shreynol@iu.edu
• Rita Koryan, Assistant Vice President for International Affairs, rkoryan@iu.edu
• Ian McIntosh, Director of International Partnerships, IUPUI Office of International Affairs, imcintos@iupui.edu
• Shawn Conner-Rondot, Associate Director, shconner@iu.edu