The International Studies major is an interdisciplinary major of the UWM College of Letters and Sciences. More than 120 faculty in over twenty UWM departments and programs teach courses in International Studies, whose record of University service goes back more than forty years.

In the past academic year, the IS major sponsored two undergraduate senior seminars, one each semester, for our students. These seminars were taught by Professors Bruce Fetter (History) and Caroline Seymour-Jorn (Foreign Languages and Linguistics Political Science). These two offerings provided our students with expert overviews of Africa and the Middle East. Seminars have been arranged for the 2007-2008 academic year. The first, by Professor Shale Horowitz (Political Science) will deal with nationalism. The second, on China, was scheduled to be taught by Professor Yehua Wei (Geography). Following his unexpected and recent resignation from UWM, we are working to organize a second seminar for the Spring 2008.

Our Careers Across the Map educational series directed by Tracy Buss and Andrea Joseph included four programs for the benefit of our students and UWM community during the 2006-2007 academic year. These well attended programs focused on: the Peace Corps, Foreign Service, Manpower International, and NATO.

In October 2006, the International Studies program was proud to support the visit and class presentation of Dr. Madeleine Allbright, former Secretary of State of the United States and U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations at UWM.

In the 2006-2007 academic year, more than eighty students were majoring or minoring in International Studies. They received advising about their programs of study from Prof. Pienkos, faculty coordinator of the major, and Ms. Andrea Joseph and Ms. Tracy Buss of the Center for International Education. Advising for the International Studies program is in Garland Hall. Again this past Spring, Dr. Pienkos met with college advisors in Letters and Science to discuss the International Studies program with them and to answer their questions about the program.

During the past year, International Studies students, alumni, and faculty received two issues of the International Studies Newsletter. These were distributed in August 2006 and January 2007. Under Andrea Joseph's editorship, the Newsletter has become an outstanding resource that regularly informs and educates our readers about the I.S. program.

Information on the International Studies program was provided at the UWM Open House in October 2006 and on numerous other occasions. Brochures publicizing the certificate programs with which the Major is associated (Russian and East European, Middle East and North African, Asian, Latin American and Caribbean, and Peace Studies) were distributed during the year.

In Fall 2006, a new and enhanced I.S. brochure came out, which includes all the necessary information about our program for the benefit of prospective majors and minors.

In April 2007, International Studies, in cooperation with the Global Studies degree program and the UWM Center for International Education, sponsored a scholarship awards ceremony in which four outstanding undergraduates in International and Global Studies received merit scholarships of $2,000 each in recognition of their academic accomplishments at UWM.

These substantially enhanced awards are named in honor of UWM Chancellor J. Martin Klotsche and his wife Roberta.

The 2007 award recipients: International Studies majors Naomi Golke and Timothy Kolk and Global Studies majors Izmir Aitch and Renat Kirpichev.

At the same ceremony, International Studies and Global Studies majors who have been inducted into the Phi Beta Kappa National Honor Society were also recognized. They are: Angela Andrew, Carrie Goggin, Timothy Kolk, and Jaclyn Wright, all of International Studies, and Izmira Aitch of Global Studies. These awards testify to the outstanding quality of the students enrolled in these UWM programs.

Among those in attendance and speaking at the April awards ceremony were UWM Chancellor Carlos Santiago and Mr. Allen Klotsche, grandson of UWM's first Chancellor.

The Klotsche Awards Committee that selected this year's scholarship awards recipients were: Professors Patrice Petro, Mohsen Bahmani (Economics), and Don Pienkos. They were assisted in their work by Ms. Joseph.

The International Studies Faculty Advisory Committee created by the Dean in 2005 met during the 2006-2007 academic year to review and take note of the changes in the program that are designed to strengthen it for the future. These changes were approved by the College in Spring 2006. Committee members in 2006-2007 were: Professors Ellen Amster, Bruce Fetter, Douglas Howland, and Kristin Ruggiero (History), Bob Beck (CIE), Shale Horowitz, Donald Pienkos, and Steven Redd (Political Science), William Holahan (Economics), Jennifer Jordan (Sociology), Caroline Seymour-Jorn and Jeanne Schueller (Foreign languages and Linguistics), and Patrice Petro, Sara Tully, Andrea Joseph and Tracy Buss of the Center for International Education.

One overload course in International Studies was taught in Fall 2007 by Prof. Shale Horowitz. This was approved earlier by the Dean and helped I.S. and the Political Science department to meet their instructional objectives in the field.

With the much appreciated approval of the College, the Political Science department appointed Dr. Kristin Horowitz, a specialist in International Relations, to a continuing position as a lecturer in the department in October 2006. In the 2007-2008 academic year she will teach three courses. In 2008-2009, she is scheduled to teach six courses.

The I.S. program is an integral element within the Center for International Education and Faculty and actively cooperates with CIE, its Director, Dr. Petro, and other CIE representatives in working with all UWM programs having an international focus. These include UWM's faculty-directed foreign area studies certificate programs, the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, the UWM Institute of World Affairs, the Global Studies degree, and the global student alliance, a very active, student-directed group on our campus.

 

Donald Pienkos, Political Science Faculty Coordinator June 30, 2007

cc: Dean Richard Meadows
Associate Dean Rodney Swain
Dr. Patrice Petro
Ms. Connie Jo
Advisory Committee members