Embark on a scholarly journey with six members of the Northwest College faculty as they explore and share their recent travels, experiences, and research projects undertaken through the Undergraduate International Studies and Foreign Languages (UISFL) Faculty Grant. The group will present on Tuesday, February 6, from 4 to 6 p.m. in the Yellowstone Building Conference Center. This free event is open to the public, and drinks and hors d’oeuvres will be served.

Presenting their work will be:

• Milo Asay (Assistant Professor of ESL), who visited France while researching the importance of “place” and culture in relation to authors who wrote there, with the goal of incorporating that cultural element into his literature courses.
• Eric Atkinson (Associate Professor of Biology), who worked with ecologists in the United Kingdom who are leaders in biodiversity conservation, studying their efforts to preserve natural places, while bringing back a new historical perspective to the scientific theories taught in his biology classes.
• Elaine DeBuhr (Associate Professor of Art), who pursued the study of Chanoyu – the art of the Japanese tea ceremony – on the island of Kyushu, bringing that knowledge back to include in her Ceramics II course, while also teaching the history behind it.
• Amy McKinney (Associate Professor of History), who traveled to Japan to increase her expertise in the cultural customs of East Asia, allowing for more in-depth analysis of themes such as philosophy, politics, religion, gender, family life, and social customs as NWC expanded its course offerings on the history of East Asia.
• Anthony Polvere (Associate Professor of Photography), who studied the process of creating early photographs in England known as salt prints, in order to learn the skill himself, and be able to teach students the same process while connecting it to modern-day photographic techniques.
• Greg Smith (Professor of Anthropology), who explored the ruins of 4,000-year-old ancient cities of the Indus Valley Civilization in Pakistan, observed wild monkeys, and visited a small village that was the subject of anthropological study in the 1950s to infuse real-world experiences into several of his anthropology and geography classes.

The primary goal of the UISFL grant, which is administered by the U.S. Department of Education, is to provide funding to eligible institutions of higher education, or consortia of such institutions, to enable them to establish, strengthen, and operate undergraduate foreign language or international studies programs, especially those that are interdisciplinary in nature. It is jointly managed by the Northwest College International Student & Scholar Services Office and the Office of International Studies at Montana State University Billings.