Prof. Philipp Bleek gave a talk on Friday, May 2 at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York. He spoke about his experience serving in the Pentagon during the 2012-13 academic year, and especially his role staffing the recently declassified, interagency Syria Chemical Weapons Senior Integration Group.
Bleek also has a guest post up on Jeffrey Lewis’ prominent Arms Control Wonk blog on the Ukraine situation.
Mar 18
Middlebury professor Andrea Olsen returns to the Monterey Institute for a residency the week of March 24, joined by her colleague, artist Josie Iselin. Josie’s images of seaweed are on display in the William Tell Coleman Library. Please stop in and see the exhibit, and join us for the accompanying lecture/performance on March 27:
JOSIE ISELIN is a California-based photographer, writer and bookdesigner celebrating the release of her seventh book: An Ocean Garden: The Secret Life of Seaweed. Iselin holds a BA in Visual and Environmental Studies from Harvard and an MFA in Photography from San Francisco State University. Please visit at www.josieiselin.com to view her work.
ANDREA OLSEN is a professor of dance and faculty member in Environmental Studies at Middlebury College in Vermont, and author of a trilogy of books on dance and the environment, including her recently released work with Caryn McHose, The Place of Dance: A Somatic Guide to Dancing and Dance Making.
Funded in part by a ONE MIDDLEBURY Faculty Grant, Middlebury College
On Friday, February 7, Orion Lewis, Visiting Assistant Professor of Political Science at Middlebury, will give a lecture on “The Coverage of Conflict: The Role of Media in Insurgencies and Conflict Resolution.”
ABSTRACT: Does international media coverage of conflict play a significant role in shaping foreign policy decisions? What are the interrelationships between media coverage, international intervention, and conflict resolution? This paper sheds light on these questions by utilizing a new dataset on all major insurgencies from 1946-2006, NAVCO 2.0. We find that, in contrast to those that have rejected the notion of a “CNN effect,” on average international media coverage is significantly associated with a greater likelihood of third party intervention and a shorter duration of conflict. This analysis provides systematic empirical support for the argument that communications matter greatly for conflict processes in the 21st century and seeks to contribute to renewed scholarly interest in their role in international relations and foreign policy.
WHEN: Friday, February 7, 2 pm
WHERE: MG 102
Co-sponsored by the Center for Conflict Studies and the M2 Lecture Series.
Shawna Shapiro, Assistant Professor of Writing and Linguistics at Middlebury College, joins us on Friday, Feb 7, as part of the International Education Management lecture series. In an interactive talk entitled “Support, Resources, and Advocacy for International Students,” Dr. Shapiro will present research-based strategies for helping international students to achieve success at U.S. institutions of higher education. She will outline institutional structures and resources that have been found to be effective in supporting students with social and academic integration. She will also discuss the role teachers and administrators can play in advocacy for their international student populations, sharing some of the most challenging scenarios she has encountered in her work at both public and private institutions of higher education.
WHEN: Friday, February 7, 12 noon
WHERE: Casa Fuente 434
Co-sponsored by the M2 Lecture Series and the International Education Management program.
Rumors of MIIS iLearn’s (moodle) untimely demise and replacement by some other tool are completely unfounded! It is simply taking a backseat to the MIIS Course Hub.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OEbM9hApPdA
Courses.miis.edu
Successfully launched last Fall, the MIIS Course Hub is a user-friendly web dashboard designed to improve access and sync with Bannerweb course information and resources you may be using to enhance the learning experience.
Faculty How-To Guides
The Digital Learning Commons team has created a series of video “How-to” guides and step-by-step instructions to help faculty and support staff learn how to add and manage resources available through the Course Hub.
Browse the how-to guides here: http://go.miis.edu/hubhelp
Moodle iLearn Archives & Rollovers
All requests for Moodle iLearn back-ups and rollovers are being handled by the MIIS Help Desk team. This is a two step process designed to familiarize you with the Course Hub and adding a Moodle resource. To request an iLearn course rollover from a previous term into the current Spring 2014 term:
E-mail Bob Cole [bcole at miis.edu] with questions, feedback, or feature suggestions.
At the end of December, Brenda Rowe marked 10 years of service to MIIS, and Marty Goss, Greg Harris,Carol Johnson, Edy Rhodes, Stephen Schwartz, and Monica Wilmot had all logged five years on the job. Thanks for your hard work!
Student Technology Services (STS) exists to serve MIIS students with their wireless needs, including connections for laptops, smartphones and tablets, combatting antivirus, printer configurations and minor account issues. With the maturity of wireless technology, the ubiquity of wireless devices in our everyday lives and the consolidation of some services to Middlebury, ITS has an opportunity to reorganize our end user services.
On Dec 13. the STS office will permanently close its doors. Starting Jan. 2, students, as well as faculty and staff, can receive the same level technical support for all computing needs at one location, Casa Fuente 320, where the current IT Help Desk resides. Our staffing will remain the same, with current STS GAs and Help Desk personnel working together in the ITS suite.
In conjunction with this change, GAs will be managed by our Help Desk Manager Greg Harris. This enables our Network Manager, Wen Lu, to dedicate her work exclusively to wireless and wired networking. These changes represent an advancement for Greg and Wen in their desired career goals at MIIS. Please take a minute to congratulate them for their accomplishments.
Information Technology Services
Tate Miller, Dean of Advising, Career, and Student Services, is pleased to announce that Ashley Arrocha will have a new title effective November 18th, 2013. Her title changes from Director of Student Services to Assistant Dean of Student Services. As most of you know, Ashley has served in the Director capacity for several years but with recent upgrades in the type and number of services being delivered from the Office of Student Services, we feel this change in title is an appropriate way to recognize her commitment to our students and their well-being.
Round out your semester with two great professional development workshops. Students have priority and register through Zócalo; faculty and staff are welcome to participate if space is available, and should contact Amy McGill.
Fri, Nov 22 • 11 am – 2:00 pm • CF 452
No new idea ever travels any further than the innovator’s ability to tell its story. We spend all our waking hours building the message and almost no time training the instrument of the messenger. This workshop uses techniques and insights from the world of theater, dance and neuroscience to tame and train the voice and body we use every day. It is fun, active and transformative.
Lunch provided • Limit: 18
Sat, Nov 23 • 1 pm – 3:30 pm • Holland Center
Through exercises and divergent and convergent group reflection this workshop explores best qualities and practices of leaders as well as some reverse engineering using bad leadership practices and behaviors. It is also built to explore our connection to our purpose in our lives, and how maintaining that connection can be an important source of resilience.
Refreshments provided • Limit: 30
Mike Kiernan, Physician and Instructor in Persuasive Communication
Dr. Mike Kiernan has been a MiddCORE instructor at Middlebury since 2008 in all areas related to communication: storymaking, crisis management, pitching, networking, and strategic presentation design and delivery. He has also worked as a communications consultant with political candidates, physicians, business executives and teams on leadership retreats. Mike is an actor and member of the local professional theater company, the Middlebury Actors Workshop. He is also an Emergency Department physician at Porter Hospital in Middlebury, VT.
In early October, GSIPM professor Philipp Bleek traveled to Istanbul at the invitation of the Turkish Navy to assist with the countering weapons of mass destruction aspects of a new maritime security doctrine. The doctrine is being drafted by a new Maritime Security Center of Excellence, stood up by the Turks last year to help promote interagency and international collaboration on countering maritime risks and threats. The effort built on his work on a new U.S. National Defense Strategy for Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction, on which he worked at the Pentagon while on leave from MIIS during the 2012-13 academic year.