Day: February 18, 2009

With the incoming deans of the Institute’s new Graduate School of Translation, Interpretation and Language Education (GSTILE) and Graduate School of International Policy & Management (GSIPM) now identified, our new leadership team has turned to its first major task: determining how the substructures of the two new schools will be organized.

After reviewing several conceptual approaches to this question, we have decided to make our current degree programs the focal points of the new substructure.  This will ensure a smooth transition to the new schools, providing students and faculty with the necessary continuity in terms of curriculum and degree requirements, while at the same time creating a strong specialized foundation for future initiatives and innovations.

Specifically, the substructure of the Graduate School of International Policy and Management will consist of the following four programs:

The Fisher Program in International Business (MBA)
Program in Public Administration for International Management (MPA)
Program in International Environmental Policy (MAIEP)
Program in International Policy Studies (MAIPS)

In addition to these degree programs, several non-degree GSIPM activities and programs — including DPMI, CLP, IPSS, CEAS, MonTREP, and the GLOBE Center – will be grouped together under “Special Programs.”  We will work to identify the synergies between some of these programs and, where appropriate, strengthen opportunities for collaboration.

Organizing the Graduate School of Translation, Interpretation, and Language Education around degrees offers a greater challenge given the multiple tracks available to students studying in our T&I program, as well as the supporting role played by the language program for both policy and business students.  To ensure external recognition of our key T&I degrees while also indicating the importance of our language studies curriculum, we developed a substructure for GSTILE that will consist of the following five programs:

Program in TESOL/TFL (MATESOL/MATFL)
Program in Translation and Interpretation (MATI)
Program in Conference Interpretation (CI)
Program in Translation and Localization Management (MAT/MATLM)
Program in Language Studies

Like GSIPM, GSTILE has several non-degree activities and programs, including CLS, SILP/WILP, ESL, and TI non-degree short programs (such as those run for U.S. or foreign governments or groups) which will be pulled together under “Special Programs.”  Eventually, there may be a more extensive consolidation of these non-degree efforts into a single center to ensure effective coordination and collaboration.

The next step in the assembly of the new schools’ structures will be the appointment of program chairs for each of the above degree programs.  These chairs will work with the two academic deans, faculty and staff to develop, enhance and promote the individual programs going forward.

The un book club met to discuss My Stroke of Insight by Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor. Dr. Taylor is a brain scientist who went through a stroke that impaired much of the left hemisphere of her brain.  Her story of the stroke and complete recovery was rich in detail and provided us with much to discuss.  The left brain is often considered the more rational, organized and responsible part with the right typified as its creative, unpredictable counterpart.

Dr. Taylor provided an in-depth analysis of the different yet complimentary functions of the brain as she took the reader through her healing process – an amazing and uplifting story. Any one reading this will be relieved to know that even as we get older our brains, thanks to neuroplasticity, continue to learn and fire new neurons or make new connections every day.   The point that we all took away from the discussion was that we have to be mindful or deliberate in using both hemispheres of the brain.    Feeling that we were heavy on left brain usage, the group considered ways to recognize and honor right brain functionality as well as achieve greater balance between the two.

The next book for the un book club is The Art of Possibility: Transforming Professional and Personal Life by Rosamund Stone Zander and Benjamin Zander.  The next meeting is on March 9, 2009 from 12:00 to 1:00 in Kade.  Remember, it’s not necessary to read the whole book to participate. Here is a TED Talk by the same author.

A $1,000 Rev. William Sloane Coffin cash prize will be awarded to the MIIS
student who writes the best anti-human trafficking essay. $500 will be
given to the writer of the second-best essay.  The award is named after
the late remarkable  civil rights and peace activist Chaplain at Yale
University and the money is donated by his close friend, Professor Peter
Grothe. The essay should be no more than
2,000 words.

The student should state what experiential and/or academic background
she/he has had in anti-human trafficking and what she/he has learned from
this. A major part of the essay should be devoted to what  motivates the
writer to go into the anti-human trafficking field. Further, what are the
most promising strategies for putting brakes on this affront to humanity?

The deadline for the essay is 5 pm Friday, March 13th. Essays should be submitted to Dr. Grothe or put in his box in the Student Affairs building. The judges  for the Rev. William Sloane Coffin Prize will be a panel of faculty experts.

Please share this opportunity with your students.