Learn more about Eklin and his work here.

Dr. Espinoza was recently asked to be a content expert on millennials in the workplace for the Cable News Network (CNN) and is a contributing author for New Directions for Teaching and Learning: Interpersonal Boundaries in Teaching and Learning (Jossey-Bass, 2012).  Dr. Espinoza’s first book, Managing the Millennials: Discover the Core Competencies for Managing Today’s Workforce (Wiley, 2010) was also based on his PhD program learning achievements.

 
Watch Dr. Espinoza here!
Learn more about Dr. Espinoza’s work here!

Dale specializes in mediation, community economic planning, collaborative planning, and cross-cultural reconciliation. Learn more about his efforts here.

Learn more here.

Irwin Abrams

Antioch Education Abroad is very pleased to announce a new scholarship to honor our co-founders, two visionary leaders in the field of international education. Irwin Abrams and Paula Lazarus Spier were influential as theorists and practitioners of international education, and co-founded Antioch Education Abroad in 1957.

As an Antioch College faculty member in History, Abrams took on the college’s challenge to enable every student to study abroad. In 1957, he led the European Urban Term, proving that a semester-long, thematic program abroad could demonstrate academic rigor. He published countless articles on international education, and became a leading authority on the history of the Nobel Peace Prize.

Paula L. Spier

Spier led international education efforts for Antioch students, and opened AEA programs to students from colleges and universities around the country in 1972. She was a formative, active member of the Council on International Educational Exchange (CIEE), and the Association of International Educators (NAFSA), who awarded her the “Leo R. Dowling Award of Excellence” in 1990, after her formal retirement in 1985.

With this distinguished legacy, AEA is now accepting applications for the Irwin Abrams & Paula L. Spier Study Abroad Scholarship towards any of our thematic study abroad programs offered around the world.

Eligibility

Any undergraduate student in good academic standing currently enrolled in a U.S. college or university, may apply for the scholarship towards an AEA study abroad program. Multiple scholarships will be awarded each year, and may range from $1,500 to $4,000.

The scholarship is need-based, and aims to support broader access to study abroad opportunities through AEA. It supports the core values and vision of Antioch University to build diverse, inclusive learning communities, and to offer transformative education in a global context.

For an application, and details on how to apply, visit: www.antioch.edu/aeascholarship

Or contact us at: (800)874-7986 / aea@antioch.edu

For the complete press release on the Irwin Abrams & Paula L. Spier Study Abroad Scholarship, click here.

Highlights from Brian’s lecture tour include:

1. April 26, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh Great Britain,   “Zen Terrorism in 1930s Japan: Lessons for Today.”
2. May 1,   Bristol University, Bristol, Great Britain,   “Violence-enabling Mechanisms in Buddhism.”
3. May 8, University of Oslo, Humanitarian Faculty, “Zen as a Cult of Death.”
4. May 9, University of Oslo, Theological Faculty, “Universal Characteristics of Holy War.”
5. May 14, 2012, University of Hamburg, Hamburg Germany, “Zen, D.T. Suzuki and the Nazis.”
6. May 29, 2012, University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany, “Zen, D.T. Suzuki and Nazis.”
7. June 13, 2012, Keynote address at the Conference of the World Federation of Buddhists in Seoul,   South Korea, “Buddhism and Violence.”

Brian will return to Yellow Springs in early July to continue preparing for the fall 2012 Japan and Its Buddhist Traditions program. You may contact Brian through the AEA Office: aea@antioch.edu; (800) 874-7986.

Integral to the Seminar, students participate in a service learning project in Bariloche. Possible service learning projects include: community/public health; environmental conservation and education with the National Parks Service; education and youth outreach; indigenous rights and preservation of cultural heritages; or community arts.

The program coursework is in Spanish, and includes a pre-semester Spanish language intensive as well as a semester-long Spanish Tutorial focusing on academic writing, reading and oral skills to support their coursework and service learning engagement. In addition, students choose two additional course electives with Argentine students and faculty at the Universidad Fraternidad de Agrupaciones Santo Tomas de Aquino (FASTA), as part of their regular semester course offerings, such as Argentinean History; Political Economy; Contemporary Issues of Indigenous Peoples of Patagonia; and Audiovisual Storytelling. Students live in homestays for full cultural immersion. AEA Assistant Director and Academic Coordinator for the Argentina program, Luisa Bieri Rios, leads the program orientation and team teaches the Seminar with faculty from FASTA.

Read more about Globalization and Community Responses in Argentina here.

For more information regarding curriculum, costs and scholarships, and application materials, please contact AEA.

Given the uncertain future of northern Mali, we have decided to relocate Arts and Culture in Mali 2012 to the city of Kankan, the third largest urban center in the Republic of Guinea, Mali’s neighbor to the southwest. Kankan is the heartland of Mande culture, home to a thriving Mande art and artisan community, as well as Julius Nyerere University, which will provide us with classroom facilities, guest lecturers, and access to library facilities.

Sekou Camara, our Guinean-born Mande culture lecturer and language teacher who has been with the program since 2007, will join Program Director and Lead Faculty Nick Hockin (who did extensive research in Guinea in 2007-08) in coordinating a smooth transition to our new location. All of the current courses listed for the Arts and Culture in Mali program will be offered, including French language. The African language course will be Dioula, a widely spoken language that incorporates aspects of Bamana and Malinké. Dioula, Bamana, and Malinké are mutually intelligible, and Dioula is almost identical to the Bamana spoken in Bamako. Apprenticeships and homestays will function as planned, with local artists, artisans, dancers, and musicians.

Guinea is a country recently emerged from years of single party rule. Alpha Condé was elected president in 2010, and multi-party legislative elections are due in the summer of 2012. The Peace Corps has been operating in Guinea since 1963, and currently has 31 volunteers in the country. The U.S. State Department has a travel warning in place for Guinea, last updated on Nov 4, 2011, citing political unrest surrounding the presidential elections. All indicators point to smooth elections, and we are confident in the democratic stability of the country.

We are taking all the steps necessary to ensure that our students enjoy a safe and secure study abroad experience in West Africa this fall. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us.

Read the March 29 AEA update on Mali here.

Read the March 22 AEA update on coup in Mali here.

For more   information on the Arts and Culture in Mali program, click here.

It’s super easy and only takes a minute! Visit the photo gallery here   and simply click “like” to vote for your favorite photos.

Voting ends April 20, 2012!

Stay tuned for the announcement of the winners for all categories later this month.

AEA still has spaces available on many of our fall programs, encourage your friends to apply here!

Visit the photo contest gallery here!

We are monitoring the situation closely, through a variety of international news sources, (including the BBC), social media, and regular communication with the Peace Corps, the American Embassy in Bamako, and Study Abroad offices in other universities and colleges that run programs in Mali. We also monitor the updates issued by the State Department on a daily basis, and are in regular contact with our staff in Bamako. From our ongoing communications with all of these sources, we are guardedly optimistic that the situation is stabilizing. We anticipate running the program as scheduled this fall, in Mali. We have, nonetheless, taken steps to address the uncertainty, and, as always, the safety of our students is our top priority.

In the event that we are not able to operate the program in Mali this fall, we have a contingency plan to relocate to the Republic of Guinea, Mali’s neighbor to the southwest. The essence of the Arts and Culture in Mali program lies in Mande cultural aesthetics, history, language and customs. The Mande Cultural Area is shared between Guinea and Mali. Much of Malian folkloric dance and music is rooted in Mande traditions. The Sunjata epic, recounting the founding of the Mande Empire in 13th century West Africa, is as integral to Guinean identity as it is to Malian. Guinea (also known as Guinea Conakry) is also a former French colony, and shares the French language and a colonial history very similar to Mali.

We have a strong network of artists, artisans, dancers, and musicians that will ensure that the Arts Apprenticeship course will be equally successful in Guinea. In fact, faculty Program Director Nick Hockin has done extensive research in Guinea in 2007-08, and our main guest lecturer and language teacher, Sekou Camara, was born in Guinea, and has already agreed to join us there in the event we need to relocate. All of our current courses scheduled for the Arts and Culture in Mali program would be taught in Guinea, including French language, with the exception that Malinké would be taught instead of Bamanankan; both are mutually intelligible branches of the Mande family of languages spoken widely in Mali and Guinea.

Guinea is a country recently emerged from years of single party rule. Alpha Condé was elected president in 2010, and multi-party legislative elections are due in the summer of 2012. The Peace Corps has been operating in Guinea since 1963, and currently has 31 volunteers in the country. As the State Department stated, there was some political unrest surrounding the call for elections in 2011, but Guinea has remained stable since. We anticipate democratic elections this summer, and are confident in the stability of the country.

We are taking all the steps necessary to ensure that our students enjoy a safe and secure study abroad experience in West Africa this fall. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us.