Center for International Studies

Established in 2000, the Center for International Studies continues Grinnell College's century-long commitment to international education. The center brings prominent international scholars and artists to campus to share their knowledge and skills with Grinnell students in short-term or semester-long courses. The center also sponsors numerous on-campus events that address international issues or showcase international performers. In conjunction with the Office of Off-Campus study, the center works to give Grinnell students many opportunities for study, research, internships, and volunteer work in Asia, Australia, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. The center oversees Grinnell's 20-year partnership with Nanjing University in China, which allows Chinese scholars to come to Grinnell, and Grinnell students and faculty to teach in China. The center sponsors seminars for faculty to deepen their teaching and scholarship by traveling to a foreign site&mdash recent destinations have included Berlin, South Africa, and Turkey. Finally, the center brings together international and domestic students to share experiences and discuss global topics. Come to Grinnell, explore the world!

Center for Prairie Studies

The Center for Prairie Studies at Grinnell College was established in 1999 to increase awareness, appreciation, and understanding of our region. Faculty members associated with the center represent the humanities, sciences, and social studies divisions. The center is committed to helping students, faculty, and members of the community learn about the natural and cultural life of the prairie region by offering courses and course components, and sponsoring public lectures, symposia, art exhibits, musical and theatrical performances, academic-year and summer student internships, faculty development, field trips, and a variety of publications. The center maintains a close relationship with the College's Conard Environmental Research Area (CERA), a 365-acre field station 11 miles west of Grinnell. The Center for Prairie Studies also collaborates with the Grinnell school system and numerous community and regional organizations in furthering its mission.

Center for the Humanities

The Center for the Humanities at Grinnell College was founded in 2001. The purpose of the center is to draw attention to and support superlative research and teaching in the humanities at Grinnell, to provide Grinnell faculty with an opportunity to be in dialogue with humanities scholars from around the world, to be an ongoing forum for sustained communication between the humanities and academic endeavors in social sciences and sciences at Grinnell, and to provide selected students with the opportunity for intensive intellectual collaborations with faculty. The activities of the center each year focus on a broad theme selected by the center's advisory board in connection with the research interests of the Visiting Professors in the Humanities. Each year, the center invites one of several visiting scholars to Grinnell whose work illustrates the kind of research suggested by the annual theme. These scholars are in residence for varying lengths of time, ranging from a few weeks to the entire academic year. In most years, the visiting scholars teach an upper-level interdisciplinary seminar open to third-year students and seniors. They also direct faculty seminars and reading groups, and they participate in the programming offered by the center throughout the term of their visit. In addition, visiting scholars give a public lecture, often in the course of the center's annual spring symposium.

In fall 2001, Visiting Professor in the Humanities Peter Dews taught a seminar and directed a faculty seminar that explored the question of "Modernity and the Problem of Evil." In fall 2002, Visiting Professor Vyacheslav Ivanov taught a seminar on "Literature and Cinema," and directed a faculty seminar on "Semiotic Approaches to the Total Work of Art." In fall 2003, Visiting Professor in the Humanities Jeffrey T. Nealon taught a seminar on "Language and Cultural Studies," and directed a faculty seminar titled "Post-Postmodern: Globalization, Symbolic Capital, and Resistance." In fall 2004, the center sponsored visits by four Visiting Professors in the Humanities, each of whom taught a three-week module of a seminar on "Feminist Scholarship Today": Kristin Ross, Susan Bordo, Amy Hollywood, and Rosi Braidotti. In 2005-06, the center organized a number of events around the theme of the New World Disorder, including symposia on "Intolerance," "The Resurgence of Anti-Semitism in the West," and "Religion and Violence," and three-week visits and short courses by Visiting Professors Sander Gilman, Veena Das, and Coco Fusco.

In 2006-07, the center's activities focused on the theme of "Pleasure" with three-week visits by Visiting Professors Carolyn Dean (History), Shuen-fu-Lin (Chinese literature), Jennifer Doyle (English), and Claire Colebrook (English literature).

In 2007-08, the center's activities focused on the theme "Thinking Interdisciplinarity," with three-week visits in the fall by Visiting Professors Robert J. Richards (history of science and medicine), Lawrence Grossberg (cultural and media studies), Lennard Davis (disability studies), and M. Jacqui Alexander (women's and gender studies).

In 2008-09, the center welcomed Visiting Scholar Jeanette Roan to lead our programming around the theme of Visual Culture. Roan received a B.A. in visual arts from Brown University and a Ph.D. in visual and cultural studies from the University of Rochester. She is the author of On Location: Travels to Asia on the American Screen, forthcoming from University of Michigan Press.

In 2009-10, the center will focus on the theme of "Space, Place, and Memory." Among guest lecturers will be James E. Young of the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, author of The Texture of Memory and At Memory's Edge, both groundbreaking works on the Holocaust and its memorialization. More information about the center's activities is available at web.grinnell.edu/centhumanities.

The Louise R. Noun Program in Women's Studies

The Louise R. Noun Program in Women's Studies was endowed by the College in 1986. Operating through an endowed chair and interdisciplinary committee of students and faculty, the Noun program has sponsored national symposia, speakers, and events aimed to further understanding of local and global concerns about women, feminisms, and gender relations. The Noun program also initiated faculty colloquia, curricular development grants, a collaborative "Feminist Seminar" of scholarly readings, and plans for the gender and women's studies concentration.

To introduce the "new" scholarship on gender and women in the 1980s, Noun sponsored such conferences as "Reading and Writing the Female Body," and "Rethinking the Family from Multicultural Perspectives," and cosponsored student conferences such as "Secrets of the Orient: Reconstructing Asia/Asian American Sexuality" and the "Women in Development Symposium."

Over the past decades, prominent international scholars, artists, and writers have visited Grinnell under the sponsorship of the Noun program. They include: Lani Guinier, Gwendolyn Brooks, Elizabeth Fox-Genovese, Gayatri Spivak, Angela Carter, Catharine Stimpson, Jessica Mitford, Naomi Schor, Florence Howe, Meridel LeSueur, Anne Fausto-Sterling, Harry Brod, Paula Gunn Allen, Ruth Seidel, Darlene Clark Hine, Rev. Walter Ong, Dale Spender, David Halperin, Patricia Hill Collins, Margaret Randall, Ntosake Shange, Tillie Olsen, Trinh T. Minh-ha, and Peggy Whitson.

Since 1992 Noun summer internships have enabled students to work at sites including the Women's Research Institute, Meijin; GLV (Gay Men and Lesbians Opposing Violence) in Washington, D.C.; the Women's Oral History Project in Monteverde, Costa Rica; The Feminist Majority in Arlington, Va.; and the literacy project at the Midwest Women's Center in Chicago. Each year, Noun's Jeanne Burkle Award, named for a prominent local feminist, honors the senior woman who has contributed significantly to the cause of women.

In 2009, the College created a new major&mdash Gender, Women's, and Sexuality Studies&mdash to further explore the study of these issues.

The Rosenfield Program in Public Affairs, International Relations, and Human Rights

The Rosenfield Program was established in 1979 to honor the Rosenfield family of Des Moines, particularly longtime trustee Joseph Rosenfield '25, who was a leader in promoting responsible and progressive action in public affairs, international relations, and human rights. The program's purposes are to promote campus discussion of important policy issues and to encourage civic responsibility among students. The program sponsors or co-sponsors four three-day symposia each year. Recent topics have included: "New Faces in Iowa: The Challenges and Prospects Created by Recent Immigration"; "Iraqi Culture and the Diaspora"; "Women, Politics, and Leadership for the 21st Century; " Global Pharmaceuticals"; "Trends in Islam"; and "Water: Conflicts and Trade-offs." In addition, the program sponsors the Rosenfield foreign policy lectures and brings to campus a series of speakers and weeklong visitors from the United States and abroad, who address important policy issues from diverse government, academic, and private sector perspectives. The program provides stipends for about 10 students each year to undertake summer internships related to public affairs, international relations, and human rights.

Donald L. Wilson Program in Enterprise and Leadership

Established through a generous gift by Donald L. Wilson (1904-1986), a life trustee of Grinnell College, the Donald L. Wilson Program in Enterprise and Leadership supports the theory and practice of socially responsible innovation, enterprise, and leadership in the business, government, and nonprofit sectors, with the goal of empowering students to explore diverse career options. The program supports interdisciplinary courses that critically examine theories and case studies of innovation and leadership. During the academic year, the Wilson program invites College alumni to return to campus to offer three-week short courses and to visit clases, both to share their expertise and to reflect on creative careers in business, government, and the nonprofit sectors. Recent short courses include Kirsten Tretbar '89, "Making Documentary Films: From Concept to Marketing," Jim Diers '75, "Local Activists and Local Government," Clint Korver '89, "Ethics in Business and in Life," and David Rosenbaum '78, "Intellectual Property and Its Role in Global Socioeconomic Shifts." Each summer the Wilson program funds student internships for eight weeks in a variety of organizations throughout the world. During spring break, the Wilson program also funds short-term externships, enabling current students to "life shadow" alumni hosts for up to a week. The Donald L. Wilson Professor of Enterprise and Leadership administers the program with the assistance of a faculty committee.

Peace Studies Program

The Peace Studies Program was established in 2004, when the Iowa Peace Insititute, which had been based in the city of Grinnell since 1987, transferred its assets to Grinnell College to endow a new academic program that would continue and expand the institute's legacy of international peacemaking and interpersonal dispute resolution. The Peace Studies Program builds upon Grinnell College's long history of social commitment and civic engagement, as it seeks to promote understanding of the causes of conflict and exploration of creative stratgies for the peaceful resolution of conflict in our community, our nation, and our world. Through a variety of campus presentations, curricular innovations, and experiential opportunities for students, the Peace Studies Program provides academic perspectives on conflict and peacemaking as well as training in practical applications of conflict resolution, such as mediation training, meeting-facilitation workshops, and internships. Events sponsored by the Peace Studies Program have included a symposium on "Dividied Land, Divided Hearts: The Struggle for Peace in the Middle East," a panel of state legislators discussing ways of "Building Consensus in the Iowa State Legislature," and talks by prominent mediators and experts on negotiation, such as Bernie Mayer and Jayne Seminare Docherty. Each summer, three peace studies-related internships are sponsored by the Peace Studies Program. Recent awards supported internships at the Center for Victims of Torture, Nonviolent Peaceforce, Minneapolis Safe Zone Collaborative, and Prevent Genocide International.