WELCOME TO THE STANFORD GLOBAL STUDIES' 2014-15 ACADEMIC YEAR!

Robert and Florence McDonnell Professor in East European Studies and the Sakurako and William Fisher Family Director of the Stanford Global Studies Division

 

Dear Friends,

Welcome to the Stanford Global Studies’ 2014-15 academic year! During the coming year, SGS and its centers will provide a rich offering of conferences, lectures, discussions, research trips, cultural events and many other activities as we continue to sponsor the high-level programming our community has come to expect and enjoy.

I am very pleased to announce that Kate Kuhns will be joining us as the new Executive Director of SGS. Kate worked for eight years at FSI as Director of their Initiative on Distance Learning, and later was the Director of Program Development at a local Silicon Valley startup. I’m sure you will all extend a warm welcome to her in the weeks to come. We want to wish former executive director Kim Rapp (and husband Sean Hanretta) happy days in Evanston and thank them again for their years of service to SGS.

We are grateful to Richard Roberts of the History Department and Grant Parker of Classics for assuming the Co-Directorship of the Center for African Studies. Also, we want to welcome Charlotte Fonrobert of Religious Studies as the new Director of the Taube Center for Jewish Studies. Outstanding faculty leadership at our centers is crucial for our continuing success.

We are also excited about our new center at SGS: the WSD Handa Center for Human Rights and International Justice, headed by Director David Cohen and Associate Director Penelope Van Tuyl. Already, the Center has involved a number of our students in monitoring international criminal tribunals in Cambodia. We look to the Handa Center to help us coordinate an H&S-wide human rights curricular program.

Recent gifts have made two of SGS’s major goals a reality: 1) sending our masters students abroad for research, and 2) expanding our overseas internship programs. Over the summer, our first group of nine masters students received the Global Perspectives Award, made possible through a generous gift from the Friends of Stanford University Foundation in Taiwan. The award allowed these students to travel abroad and work on their research projects. Under the leadership of Denise Chu, our Global Studies Internship Program has now opened up to most areas of the world. The number of students interested in interning abroad is expanding, so we urge you to bring new internships to our attention and encourage students to apply.

Finally, we have just heard that the designations of the Center for East Asian Studies, the Center for Latin American Studies, and the Center for Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies as Title VI centers have been renewed by the Department of Education. Congratulations to them, and to the Ford Dorsey Program in International Policy Studies, which has instituted a new dual degree program with the Graduate School of Business.

The vitality and success of SGS are directly attributable to the involvement, commitment, and hard work of faculty, staff, students, and friends. Our collective efforts have paid off in the excellence of our programs and the growth in international opportunities for our faculty and students. We look forward to another exciting year at SGS.

Best,

Norman Naimark