The International and Foreign Language Education Office (IFLE) of the U.S. Department of Education is pleased to announce the opening of the competition for FY 2020 new awards under the Title VI International Research and Studies Program (IRS) Program. 

The IRS program provides grants to institutions, public and private agencies, organizations, and individuals to conduct research and studies or to develop instructional materials to improve and strengthen instruction in modern foreign languages, area studies, and other international fields. IRS program funds may not be used for the training of students and teachers. Cost sharing is not required.

The FY 2020 competition will feature three competitive preference priorities, each worth five points. An applicant may receive points under only one competitive preference priority.

• Competitive Preference Priority 1: Research on more effective methods of providing instruction and achieving competency in modern foreign languages, area studies, or other international fields.
• Competitive Preference Priority 2: Studies and surveys to assess the use of graduates of programs supported under Title VI of the Higher Education Act by governmental, educational, and private-sector organizations and other studies assessing the outcomes and effectiveness of supported programs.
• Competitive Preference Priority 3: Developing and publishing specialized materials for use in foreign language, area studies, and other international fields or for training foreign language, area, and other international specialists.

To learn about projects funded under the last call for applications for this program, visit our Google Map of FY 2019 IFLE Grantees and filter by the “International Research and Studies” program.

The deadline to apply is September 8, 2020. Please refer to the Notice Inviting Applications published in the Federal Register and the application package for further information. We appreciate your interest in this program and look forward to receiving your application.

Researcher and Assistant Professor Sean Kennedy credits his success to support he received from the Center for Southeast Asian Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), including four Title VI Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) fellowships to study Indonesian. In 2014, Kennedy decided to formally study Indonesian. Four years, four visits to Indonesia, and four academic-year FLAS fellowships later, he graduated from UCLA with a Ph.D. in urban planning. He now works with UCLA’s California Center for Sustainable Communities (CCSC) and as an Assistant Professor of Urban and Regional Planning at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

During his time as a FLAS fellow, Kennedy was surrounded in his Indonesian language classes by students from a variety of other disciplines like geography, architecture, and ethnomusicology. He remarked, “One of the most interesting things about FLAS is that the recipients aren’t all studying the same thing. A common interest in Indonesia has allowed me to meet people I wouldn’t have normally come into contact with and apply their knowledge to my own work and research. The skills I learned in the program allowed me to converse with the locals while conducting research — even in extreme situations — which enabled me to be much more understanding and engaged than I would have been without any language connection.”

Kennedy’s dissertation focused on the geography of transitions to renewable energy in Indonesia, but much of his research also applies to energy transitions in Los Angeles. Unequal access to modernized energy grids is a concern in both locations. “A lot of the issues related to income inequality that I’ve examined in Indonesia are applicable to Los Angeles,” said Kennedy. “Like Indonesia, Southern California is a region with big gaps in income levels,” he explained.

Although the geography of Southern California differs greatly from that of Indonesia, Kennedy predicts that both regions will eventually have to rely on the same renewable energy production methods as a means of fighting inequality. “The electricity sector in both countries is increasingly moving away from centralized energy generation towards small-scale operations which can be distributed across different types of places.”

This Fall 2020 semester, students at the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) will be able to study introductory Hebrew and Swahili for the first time.

While the initial course offerings focus on introductory Hebrew and Swahili, Georgia Tech expects to add intermediate and advanced courses and grow experiential learning opportunities focused on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals in the Middle East and Africa.

“Offering students a rich array of languages to study is an important part of our goal to develop leaders with a global mindset who are prepared to improve the human condition,” said Georgia Tech President Ángel Cabrera. “It is also yet another way we are supporting Atlanta as an international hub and contributing to the state’s economic development efforts.”

The new course offerings are part of the mission of the Atlanta Global Studies Center, a partnership between Georgia Tech and Georgia State University, a consortium grant recipient under the Title VI National Resource Centers and Foreign Language and Area Studies fellowships programs administered by the U.S. Department of Education.

by Austin Lord, Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad Fellow, 2019-2020

Five years ago, I was in the Langtang Valley with my parents at the moment when the earth shook. The earthquake released a massive, roiling avalanche weighing over twelve million tons of material from the slopes of Langtang Lirung, carrying half the force of an atomic bomb. The earthquake brought loss beyond words or comprehension, and even now, so much remains unspeakable and unknowable. Surviving those unstable moments and all that followed has changed my life and my view of this world forever.

The University of Arizona’s Center for Middle Eastern Studies and Center for Latin American Studies, two Title VI National Resource Centers, recently launched a new online educational game for secondary students called “Road Maps: Around the World Adventure.” This free resource is designed to expand students’ global awareness and spark interest in learning about Latin America and Middle East countries in particular.

“Road Maps: Around the World Adventure” is a web-based digital journey that allows students to explore new places, languages, cultures, and histories. As they travel virtually around the world, students complete “exploration” and “excursion” tasks that will help them learn more about the places they visit. The program offers students the opportunity to earn a certificate of completion and even have a chance to win prizes! Teachers can use the tool in a traditional in-person setting or in a virtual learning environment. This journey is suitable for students in grades 5–12, or anyone interested in learning more about the world around them. 

The Centers for International Business Education and Research (CIBER) Minority Serving Institution (MSI) Consortium, comprised of 10 Title VI Centers for International Business Education, is now offering a prolific series of webinars designed to inform faculty, students, and the business community in view of the current global health emergency and the prolonged recession it is likely to cause. Targeting its extensive outreach network, which includes Minority-Serving Institutions (MSIs), two- and four-year colleges, and trade practitioners, free webinars are offered on:

• pedagogy for teaching international business,
• contemporary trade and investment issues, and
• research trends in international business.

Speakers are experts drawn from the Georgia State CIBER and the national MSI CIBER network. For more information, please click “Read More” below.

The article linked below is the first of three in a series that attempts to frame a set of principles for measuring the outcomes of remote teaching and learning across U.S. universities and K–12 schools during the COVID-19 crisis. The framework of the first analysis focuses on the use of Zoom as one of the common mediums and platforms for course realizations, and how remote synchronous (real-time) teaching and learning measures up in comparison with typical campus-based, face-to-face classroom teaching and learning. Speech act theory, communities of practice, and speech communities will be additional aspects of the analysis in order to provide a research basis for designing the analysis.

This research was conducted by Edna Andrews, Director of the Slavic and Eurasian Language Resource Center (SEELRC) at Duke University. SEELRC is one of 16 Title VI Language Resource Centers funded by the U.S. Department of Education for the FY 2018-2021 grant cycle.

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Have you received a FLAS fellowship or participated in a Fulbright-Hays grant program? Join our alumni groups on LinkedIn.

FLAS Program Alumni          Fulbright-Hays Program Alumni

We seek motivated students who are eager to learn and work as part of our team as an unpaid full- or part-time intern during the summer, fall, and/or spring. Visit our website for more information.

We want to hear from you! Do you have suggestions for webinar topics? Ideas for things to include in future newsletters? Send them to Carolyn Collins at carolyn.collins@ed.gov.