Faculty

Students Share “Amazing” Experiences from CBE Summer Fellowships

Anne-Marie Steiger asteiger@miis.edu Alumni, Faculty, Featured, newsroom
Kelsey Richardson

Student Kelsey Richardson on her fellowship at the UN Environment Programme in Nairobi.

An internationally recognized hub of ocean research and advocacy, Monterey Bay is also known for one of the nation’s most spectacular marine protected areas, the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary. This fertile environment is an inspiration to all students at the Monterey Institute, but perhaps most pertinent to those who are enrolled in the International Environmental Policy program’s Ocean and Coastal Resource Management concentration.

Building on their studies in Monterey, students are eligible for fully funded summer fellowships with top marine organizations through the Institute’s Center for the Blue Economy. This summer, ten students are working on projects directly related to their career goals ranging from fishery policies to surfonomics to global marine litter issues. Some have traveled as far as Denmark, Kenya or Micronesia, while others have picked assignments closer by. We checked in with several of the fellows for a mid-summer report.

Working with the Environmental Defense Fund’s (EDF) Ocean Research team in San Francisco has been “amazing,” says Jessica Ann Morten (MAIEP ’15). She is working with the team on several ongoing fisheries policy projects but taking the lead on putting together a research paper on EDF’s global fishery management strategy.

Her classmate Trent Hodges (MAIEP ’15) has been working with the Save the Waves Coalition in Baja, Mexico, collaborating with community members, surfers and conservationists to envision and plan for a “future with healthy waves and a robust local economy.” Part of his work is to build capacity and develop a surfonomics research plan to capture the economic value of surfing. A highlight of his time in Baja was participating in the dedication of the Bahia Todos Santos Surfing Reserve with a paddle out of international and local surfers.

Also in Mexico is Sara Pfeifer (MAIEP ’15) who is working with Nature Conservancy on a cost-benefit analysis for development on the Costa Maya coast of Quintana Roo. Her fieldwork included a month-long journey along the coastline of southeastern Mexico.

Not too far away is Jordan Sanchez who is working with EcoViva in El Salvador. You can follow his work with local fishing cooperatives on his blog.

Another talented blogger is Matt Nichols (MAIEP ’14) who started the summer in Norway learning about the Norwegian Model for natural resource management and policy but has now moved across the Skagerak strait to Denmark where he will start his internship with Maersk Drilling.

Mairi Miller (MAIEP ’15) has spent the summer working on the Sherbro Island in Sierra Leone where she has been helping bolster efforts to combat illegal fishing through community engagement. Also in Africa is Kelsey Richardson who is working on issues related to global marine litter for the UN Environment Programme (UNEP). She says it is “a bit ironic to be here on a CBE fellowship and totally landlocked in Nairobi, but the nature of the work is exactly what brought me to MIIS, and I am continually challenged and learning more with every day.”

For more information about the CBE Fellowships and a complete listing of fellows, visit the CBE website.

MIIS French Professor Michel Gueldry keeping busy

Adrienne Lubbert Events, Faculty, Language Education, Language Program Administration, Language Studies, MIIS Update, News, TFL

MIIS Professor Michel  Gueldry has had, and continues to have, a very busy semester. As a French language studies professor at MIIS, Gueldry specializes in international relations and sustainability studies. Just this year, Gueldry has completed and submitted three articles for publication: a new research paper entitled “Energy and Climate Change: The Emergence of an Overarching Security Nexus,” an essay entitled “Personal Transformation and Worldly Engagement: When Mindfulness Meets the Market,” and a paper entitled “Ecological Economics: An Alternative Grand Narrative for Capitalism and a Blueprint for a Sustainable Economy.”

Besides submitting three papers for publication, Gueldry will participate in Peter Fordos‘ student weekend workshop, “Intercultural Competence for Sustainability,” on March 29. His contribution to this workshop is a segment called “How to Communicate Climate Change for Diverse Audiences: Engaging Stakeholders across Professional Cultures.” On April 8, Gueldry will also co-teach a workshop for students with CACS Advisor Edy Rhodes. The workshop is called “Emotional Intelligence: The Tip of the Iceberg.”

Gueldry’s busy schedule will continue into the summer. He will teach three panels at the University of Leipzig, Germany, in July 2014: one on energy policy, one on narratives of capitalism, and one on personal transformation and professional growth.

Congratulations to Professor Gueldry on all of his accomplishments!

MIIS Alumni Mingle at CATESOL Conference

Adrienne Lubbert Alumni, Events, Faculty, Language Education, MIIS Update, TESOL, TESOL Convention, TFL
CATESOL 2013 - MIIS Alumni

MIIS Alumni: Back Row: Don Sillings, Larry Lawson, Tammy Wik, Jeff Madison. Middle Row: Gary Sosa, Karen Hamilton, Celeste Coleman, Belinda Braunstein. Front Row: Erin Butler, Chigusa Katoku.

Many MIIS graduates, students, and faculty attended the 44th Annual CATESOL Conference two weeks ago in San Diego. The conference is for TESOL professionals in California, and the theme this year was “Riding the Waves of Success,” which dealt with the challenges and achievements educators and students face when teaching or learning English. The event included pre‑conference institutes, multiple plenaries, featured speakers, level and interest group workshops, poster sessions, an electronic village, and general sessions for every level of ESL. Highlights of the conference were the opening plenary, the Thursday evening reception, the Presidential Luncheon on Friday, and the Saturday Night Sizzle.

CATESOL 2013 (2)

The event was a great opportunity for all TESOL educators and students to come together, especially current and past TESOL educators and students from MIIS. Many MIIS students, graduates, and faculty attended the event, including Tammy Wik, MA TESOL ‘10, who is currently the English Language Fellow Program (ELF) Regional Recruitment Coordinator for MIIS, and Celeste Coleman, also a TESOL graduate and English Language Fellow (see picture, right). All of the MIIS graduates met up and hung out at the Saturday Night Sizzle, which was a fun 2-hour social event on the last night of the conference (see featured picture above, with captions). Considering there were only about 100 total people who attended the social hour, there was a great turn out of MIIS people at the event.

Pym to Present on Translation and Language Teaching

Jenna Tidwell Faculty, Interpretation, Language Education, localization, MIIS Update, Professional Development, TESOL, TFL, Translation, Translation & Interpretation

translation_language_learning_en

Anthony Pym, visiting researcher at GSTILE, is in Brussels on October 25 to present the results of a one-year research project on Translation and Language Teaching.

The presentation will be part of the DGT’s Translation Studies Days, to be webcast live: http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/translation/publications/studies/.

The research has been carried out for the European Commission’s Directorate General for Translation. Professor Pym is the lead investigator, with input from the European Society for Translation Studies, the University of Leicester in the United Kingdom, and over 100 experts contacted worldwide.

The research shows that there is no strong empirical evidence that the creative use of translation has a negative effect on the learning of a foreign language.

The Executive Summary can be downloaded here.

The final report can be downloaded here.

While in Europe, Professor Pym will be in Tarragona on October 24 for the public defenses of two doctoral dissertations that he has supervised: Postediting Machine Translation Output and its Revision: Professional Translators versus Subject-Matter Experts, by Özlem Temizöz, and Training for the Translation Market in Turkey: an Analysis of Curricula and Stakeholders, by Volga Tilmaz-Gümüs.

Prof. María Sierra Córdoba Serrano comes out with a new book

GSTILE Faculty, MIIS Update, Translation

CordobaThe University of Ottawa Press, Canada’s oldest French language university press and the only bilingual university press in North America, has just published Prof. María Sierra Córdoba Serrano’s work Le Québec traduit en Espagne: analyse sociologique de l’exportation d’une culture périphérique.

The book was selected by the publisher to be showcased at the 2013 ACFAS congress, one of the largest congresses in the Social Sciences and the Humanities in the French-speaking world.

In the book, Prof. Córdoba uses the study of peripheral cultures as a privileged observatory to examine the sociological relations that configure a corpus of literary works between Quebec and Spain (with a focus on Catalonia). In addition to this specific case study, Prof. Córdoba’s book sheds light on the different phases of cultural exchanges in general: from the initiation and selection of cultural products, to their international circulation, reception, and re-branding so they fit the logic of the receiving cultures where they are reinserted. It further examines the decisive but non-deterministic role of public institutions in forming translation flows, as well as the part other key international stakeholders (publishers, critics, translators, scouts, etc.) play in facilitating, and sometimes hindering, the international circulation of ideas. Beyond its theoretical interest, the book offers a definite applied dimension, as it critically examines specific public diplomacy policies (particularly the use of translation as a tool for national image-projection abroad), and evaluates their implementation and results.

2nd Annual Celebrating Foreign Language Education: A Monterey Bay Symposium

GSTILE Events, Faculty, Language Education, Language Program Administration, Language Studies, MIIS Update, TESOL, TFL
cropped-FLS_logo_blogheader-copy_111        In honoring our late Dr. Leo van Lier, the 2nd Annual Celebrating Foreign Language Education: A Monterey Bay Symposium will commence on Saturday, March 30, 2013. Our keynote speaker this year is Peter DeCosta speaking on “Scales: An Alternative Lens for Investigating Foreign Language Learning and Teaching.” In addition, we will have speakers for local institutions speaking on assessment methods, technological tools, and intercultural competency.
        Ready to register? Please go to http://mflsymposium.eventbrite.com to register today! Interested in participating in this meaningful event? We are looking for participants for the poster session. If you have a curriculum design project, a Kumar trade fair project, or a research project that you would like to showcase, please fill out our Poster Session Signup Form. If you would like to volunteer some time to help out with the event, please fill out our Volunteer Form. Volunteers will receive a waived $15 registration fee and lunch will be provided. For more information, please visit our website at mflsymposium.org We look forward to celebrating foreign language education with you on March 30th!