UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — The Center for Global Studies (CGS) at Penn State has been awarded two new federal grants to advance Penn State’s strategic goals as a global university.
Penn State will receive just over $2.1 million in Title VI National Resource Center (NRC) and Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) funding over four years from the U.S. Department of Education. The latest funding marks the third time that CGS has received NRC and FLAS awards — more than $6 million total in that time — and highlights national recognition of the center’s active engagement with research, education, and outreach in global studies. CGS is also one of only six centers in the nation to receive both the NRC and FLAS awards in the international competition for Title VI awards.
CGS is based in the College of the Liberal Arts and is directed by Sophia McClennen, professor of international affairs and comparative literature, who founded the center in 2010 after receiving Penn State’s first NRC grant. “I am thrilled that CGS is receiving funding to advance global studies at this critical time,” she said. “The center is committed to supporting a wide range of activities across the Penn State community that will enhance our global mission and help fulfill our goals as a University with global impact.”
CGS is also supported by executive and advisory boards, a FLAS committee, and liaisons across Penn State. FLAS coordinators are Caroline Eckhardt, professor of comparative literature and English and director of the Penn State School of Global Languages, Literatures, and Cultures; and Elena Galinova, academic director of the Summer Language Institute.
Over the next four years, CGS will work collaboratively with Penn State’s Sustainability Institute, Humanities Institute, Social Science Research Institute, Rock Ethics Institute, and Center for Advanced Language Proficiency Education and Research (also a Title VI Center) to support research, teaching, and programming that advance Penn State’s expertise in global studies and international perspectives. A new initiative this cycle includes a partnership with Penn State Abington to support faculty travel for research. CGS also plans to collaborate with Penn State Global, Penn State’s Global Learning in Agriculture Initiative, the Pennsylvania Council for International Education, and the University of Pittsburgh to organize workshops and conferences on internationalizing the curriculum and identify new curricular initiatives.
CGS will also foster global citizenship and cross-cultural awareness through support of Arabic, Chinese, Hindi, Korean, Russian, and Swahili language instruction at the University Park campus. The NRC award will additionally help fund Penn State’s first Farsi class and will support a symposium on “Afghanistan in Global Perspective.”
CGS will award FLAS funding to undergraduate and graduate students in the form of fellowships that enable them to achieve competency in selected world languages and to study and conduct research domestically or abroad on related international and area studies. FLAS-eligible languages currently offered by Penn State include Arabic, Chinese, Hindi, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, and Russian; other languages may be added.
FLAS fellowships typically include an institutional payment for tuition, or related costs of up to $18,000 for a graduate student and $10,000 for an undergraduate student per academic year, and an estimated subsistence allowance of $20,000 for a graduate student and $5,000 for an undergraduate student. However, given the timing of the notice of the recent FLAS award, CGS will only offer awards for the Spring 2023 semester this academic year. For summer 2023 fellowships, the estimated institutional payment will be $5,000 and the subsistence allowance will be $2,500 for both graduate and undergraduate students.
Visit the Center for Global Studies website or email the center for additional information or to subscribe to its listserv.