100,000 Strong in the Americas projects
Please join me in congratulating the teams of College of Liberal Arts representatives that won 100,000 Strong in the Americas Innovation Fund grants in cooperation with the U.S. Department of State and the Colombian Department of Science, Technology, and Innovation.
Five of the 13 grants awarded in the 2019 Nexo Global Innovation Competition for Creative and Cultural Industries went to Purdue collaborations with Colombian universities, and three of those grants were awarded to CLA-affiliated teams. This year, the grant program aims to implement student academic research/practicum and internship opportunities for students under three themes: the arts, culture and heritage, and digital media and software.
CLA Senior Associate Dean for Undergraduate Education and International Programs Joel Ebarb traveled to Bogota with CLA Director of Study Abroad and International Programs William Sartore to attend a Sept. 10 ceremony where Colombian President Ivan Duque Marquez announced the awards. Joining Joel and Will in Bogota were Liliana Gomez, Director Colombia, Purdue International, and Juan Diego Velasquez, managing director for strategic initiatives with the Colombia Purdue Partnership.
Joel and Will’s project, “Intercultural Communication through Devised Theatre,” was one of the three CLA grant winners. The partnership with Universidad de Caldas in Manizales, Colombia, will target students from backgrounds such as dance, music, and theatre. Participants in the cross-cultural learning experience will coordinate to design and produce theatre work and develop a promotional plan to showcase the final product.
The College’s other winning projects were:
* “Partnering for Prosocial Digital Campaigns: A Student Exchange and Faculty Collaboration,” which establishes a partnership between Purdue and Universidad de La Sabana in Chia, Colombia. The student and faculty exchange will focus on creating a set of skills and competencies that will help Colombian coffee farmers combat climate change. The two-semester program involves Purdue students traveling to Colombia for fall semester and La Sabana students traveling to the U.S. in the spring. The Colombian students will participate in a research-creation internship in the Brian Lamb School of Communication’s Boiler Communication Agency. Co-PIs on the project are CLA Associate Dean of Research and Graduate Education Sorin Matei and Jessica Eise, a Ross Fellow, Purdue Research Fellow, and Ph.D. candidate in the Lamb School. Additional collaborators are Boiler Communication director Christi Eden and Lamb School graduate research assistant Mackenzie Breneman.
* “Translanguaging: A Writing Laboratories Academic Exchange,” a collaboration between Purdue’s Writing Lab and the Universidad del Norte in Barranquilla, Atlantico, Colombia. The universities will participate in a student exchange in an effort to grow the Universidad del Norte’s Centro de Escritura (writing center), established in 2018. Four Uninorte students will visit Purdue to shadow Writing Lab tutors and attend classes and conferences. In return, two Purdue graduate students will travel to Colombia to help design writing courses and workshops and lead creative writing seminars for groups in Spanish and English. Harry Denny, associate professor of English and director of the Writing Lab, is the Purdue partner on this project.
Congratulations to all of the CLA grant recipients!
David A. Reingold
Justin S. Morrill Dean
College of Liberal Arts