One of our primary goals is to support IU faculty in expanding their scholarly networks across Europe and provide them with opportunities to present their latest research to an international audience. In June, we hosted a large academic conference on Poetic Critique, which was co-sponsored by the Einstein Foundation Berlin and organized together with the Philological Laboratory at Freie Universität Berlin’s Friedrich Schlegel Graduate School of Literary Studies.

The conference co-organizer Michel Chaouli is Professor at IU’s Germanic Studies Department and current Einstein Foundation Visiting Fellow.In the fall, two recipients of the Indiana University President’s International Research Awards (PIRA) used the Gateway’s space and resources to bring together diverse groups of scholars and discuss their respective research projects. After an initial event at the India Gateway, 2018 PIRA recipient Ron Sela from the Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies convened researchers in October in Berlin to investigate the fragmentation of religious authority in Islam. Later that month, Elizabeth Dunn from IU’s Geography Department kicked-off her 2019 PIRA-supported project "Infrastructures of Refugee Arrival: Spaces, Politics and Negotiations of Asylum" with a workshop at the Europe Gateway. In the new year, we will be supporting yet another PIRA recipient, Carmen Luca Sugawara from IUPUI’s School of Social Work, who studies the role of higher-education institutions in fostering local capacity development in post-communist countries and who will be organizing a project-related workshop at the Gateway in early May 2020.

The President’s International Research Awards support high-impact international collaborative research projects that engage one or more of IU's Global Gateways and the communities they serve.

Read more about past Gateway events

Taking advantage of the Gateway's proximity to Eastern Europe, IU researchers have organized events intended to strengthen ties with IU’s Polish and Russian partner institutions.

In collaboration with Jagiellonian University, Michael Brose, Director of IU’s Pan Asia Institute and the East Asian Studies Center, gathered a group of scholars for a workshop in November that explored the evolution of Sinology – “China Studies” – in the Cold War period. It was Brose’s second event hosted at the Gateway in 2019 after his international workshop on “Halal Economies in non-Muslim Countries” in May, which was co-sponsored by the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology and the Fritz Thyssen Foundation.

Further east, in June, the Gateway Director participated in the International Partners' Week of one of our closest Russian partner institutions, the Higher School of Economics Moscow, to further strengthen the bonds while exchanging ideas and best practices in international education and planning joint future events. Having hosted a series of workshops involving scholars from HSE at the Gateway in the past, we are looking forward to organizing more events in the upcoming years: the Russian Studies Workshop at the Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies is currently planning an academic workshop on Siberian studies in 2020 and a joint HSE-IU summer school in 2021.

Whenever necessary and possible, the IU Europe Gateway supports global partnerships and collaborations that could otherwise not be realized. In August, Michael Kowolik, Executive Associate Dean of Faculty Affairs and of Global Engagement at the IU School of Dentistry (IUPUI), met with colleagues from Tehran University of Medical Sciences at the Gateway to plan joint research projects and discuss a possible future workshop in Berlin.

This past year, we welcomed a record number of study abroad students – from IUPUI’s Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, IU Bloomington’s Kelley School of Business and the O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs. We also hosted the first ANU-IU joint summer school in collaboration with the Australian National University and five other partner institutions of an ERASMUS+ Jean Monnet Network, which will take place again in the summer of 2020.

For 2020, we are particularly looking forward to welcoming our first student group from the Dwyer College of Health Sciences at IU South Bend in March.

Please get in touch if we can be of assistance as you plan your student programs for 2021 and beyond. For groups visiting Berlin, we offer facilities and logistical support as well as an introductory module presented by our Gateway Director. For programs taking place in and outside of Berlin, we help connect faculty leaders with local speakers and contacts at various visit sites, and provide advice on extra-curricular activities.

Plans for 2020 include a reception with IU President Michael A. McRobbie and IU students, alumni and local partners as part of IU’s Bicentennial celebrations, academic events in a variety of disciplines, including social work, entrepreneurship, Chinese language studies and higher education assessment, as well as several study abroad programs. Please visit our events calendar for further information as it becomes available.

OVPIA will match $5,000 in commitments from other IU units (e.g., departments, schools, campuses) for activities that take place at one of IU's Global Gateways. Find more information on funding.

For faculty members within the College of Arts & Sciences at IUB whose primary area of research or creative activity is in the arts and humanities, please consider our CAHI Global Gateway Grant funding, administered jointly by the College Arts & Humanities Institute and OVPIA.