Southwest Michigan Educational Initiative on the East Indian Ocean

2017-18 Faculty International Travel and Course Development: South Asia

For 2017-18, the program will focus solely on South Asia which includes the present day states on the eastern side of the Western Indian Ocean.The College of Fine Arts, the Haenicke Institute for Global Education, and the College of Arts and Sciences invite applications from faculty members to develop course material about South and Southeast Asia. Four applicants will be selected and receive funded training in India and a $2500 honorarium for course development resources. Funding is provided by the Southwest Michigan Educational Initiative on the East Indian Ocean (SMEIEIO), a three-year program funded by the Department of Education’s Undergraduate International Studies and Foreign Language (UISFL) Grant.

Course development topics will widely encompass the following issues:

• Travel and trade
• Governance, (post-)colonialism, and capitalist expansion
• Religion and sovereignty 
• Hindu and Sufi textual practices

Award Recipients

Awardees will be required to: Training in India, Dec 8-22, paid for by the SMEIEIO. The successful awardees will receive the following to develop South Asia-centered content in existing courses:

1. $2,500 honorarium for course development resources.

1. Attend two mandatory meetings per month over Fall 2017 at a mutually agreeable time.
2. Read two assigned texts.
3. Obtain permission from chair and college dean to be absent for finals week.

Dr. Carol Anderson, Kalamazoo College, Dept. of Religion and Dr. Nathan Tabor, WMU, Dept. of History, will facilitate curriculum development and lead the trips to India.  

To Apply

To apply, please complete a SMEIEO application form and submit a two-page letter of interest detailing your present and developing courses and how
they could benefit from a greater understanding of the academic study of South Asia. 

The deadline to apply is May 31, 2017.

detailed Instructions