In Brief: Summer 2015

Sightings

>>The devastating earthquakes in Nepal this May affected millions of people, and MIIS alumni are among those working to support relief and recovery efforts. Archana Karki Chhetri BAIS ’08, MAIPS ’09 lives in Pokhara, four hours from the epicenter, and has been raising funds for earthquake relief through her nonprofit organization Empowering Women of Nepal. Bishnu Adhikari MAIEP ’07 won the 2010 Choice Humanitarian of the Year award for his work on sustainable development in rural Nepal; he now lives with his family in Kathmandu and has been assisting relief efforts there. Students in Monterey also staged fundraising events to support those affected by the earthquakes.

>>Professor Avner Cohen, a leading authority on Israel’s nuclear program, curated a trove of declassified documents on the program’s history for release by the National Security Archive at George Washington University. Cohen also coauthored an essay for Politico on the documents’ revelations, which garnered substantial attention, drawing 9,000 comments on Politico. com and hundreds of likes and shares on Facebook. As an observer at Politico remarked, “Not too many historians can attract numbers like those!”

>>Alumni Relations Director Leah Gowron MPA ’97 arrived in Tokyo for the Japanese Exchange and Teaching (jet) program conference and saw that Nils Bildt MAIPS ’99 was quoted on the front page of the Japan Times. Nils, president of security consulting firm CTSS Japan, was quoted in a February 9 Reuters analysis of attempts to negotiate with Islamic State forces holding two Japanese citizens.

>>The University of El Salvador communications department published an article describing a pilot academic exchange that the Institute’s Team El Salvador practica had with students at the university’s Marine Sciences and Research Institute. Team El Salvador’s annual winter term practica allows Institute students to hone development skills and improve language and cultural competency through an ongoing partnership with local nongovernmental organizations in the Bajo Lempa region.

>>The Monterey Herald spotlighted the Institute’s recent focus on water issues—a timely topic in drought-stricken California—in a February 10 article quoting Professor Jeff Langholz. “Our vision is that the city of Monterey can be known internationally not just as a place for great language education, golf courses, and car races—but also for water solutions,” said Langholz.

>>A New York Times story on the resignation of Governor Kitzhaber of Oregon quoted Jim Moore MAIPS’86, director of the Tom McCall Center for Policy Innovation and an assistant professor of politics and government at Pacific University.

>>Professor Beryl Levinger and alumna Nikki Gillette BAIS ’06, MPA ’07, MBA ’09 codirected the research supporting the 2015 State of the World’s Mothers report published by Save the Children. The report’s findings—including ranking the U.S. the 33rd best country for mothers—received extensive media attention. Professor Fernando DePaolis and student Sophie Dresser MPA ’18 also contributed to the research effort for the report.

 

Presentations

>>Cyber Initiative Director Dr. Itamara Lochard spoke at a workshop on “Terrorists’ Use of Cyberspace,” co-hosted by the NATO Center of Excellence Defense Against Terrorism and the Macedonian Military Academy Mihailo Apostolski. The Institute was the only U.S. academic institution represented at the workshop.

>>Past and present CNS experts dominated the agenda for the 2015 Carnegie Endowment International Nuclear Policy Conference in March, including Professor William Potter, Gaukhar Mukhatzhanova MAIPS ’07, Dr. Chen Kane, Miles Pomper, Mary Beth Nikitin MAIPS ’00, Karim Kamel MANPTS ’11 and Laura Rockwood (currently executive director-designate of the Vienna Center on Disarmament and Non- Proliferation). Current students and CNS visiting fellows also attended.

 

Achievements

>>In January, the Chilean government awarded Dr. William Potter, director of the Middlebury Institute’s James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies (CNS), the Order of Bernardo O’Higgins in recognition of his work in the field of disarmament and nonproliferation education. The award is the highest honor conferred on non-Chileans, and was presented at the Chilean Ministry of Foreign Affairs in conjunction with an international conference on nuclear disarmament. “The award was totally unexpected,” says Dr. Potter. “It was a tremendous honor and is indicative of the reputation CNS has internationally in the field of disarmament and nonproliferation education.”

>>In annual rankings this spring, the Institute was listed 21st as one of the “Top Master’s Programs for a Policy Career in International Relations” by Foreign Policy magazine in its Jan/Feb 2015 issue, and 5th by the Peace Corps’ for top volunteer-producing graduate schools across the country.

>>Students continue to succeed in business-case competitions around the world. The team of Patty Viafara MBA ’18, Derek Musial MBA ’17, Grete Helle Non-degree ’14, and Muhammed Sayed MBA/ MAIEP ’15 placed in the top five in the Corporate Knights Business for a Better World case competition. The team of Meagan Braun MBA/MAIEP ’15, Nuan He MBA ’15, Jessica Sandoval MBA/MAIEP ’15, and Stephanie Harris MBA ’16 achieved a top 10 finish in the Aspen Institute’s 2015 Business & Society International MBA Case Competition, earning them honorable mention. And most recently, the team of Cara Hagan MBA ’15, Caryn McKinney MBA ’15, Nenneya Shields MBA/MAIPS ’16, and Anya Watford MBA ’15 earned an honorable mention in the Nespresso Sustainability MBA Challenge. n Institute students and alumni once again tallied an impressive list of fellowships and scholarship awards this spring, including the following: Davis Projects for Peace: Laura Mortara MAIEP/MBA ’16. Boren Fellowship: Shant Krikorian MANPTS ’15, Russian, Kazakhstan; Kathryn Smart MANPTS ’16, Russian, Georgia; James Kent MANPTS ’16, Arabic, Tunisia (alternate). Critical Language Scholarship: Carly Laywell MANPTS ’16, Arabic, Morocco; Gretta Herrin MAIEM ’15, Chinese, China; Ayla Ashford MANPTS ’15, Chinese, China; and Allison Collopy MAIEM ’15, Urdu, India. Presidential Management Fellowship: Lewis Dorman MANPTS ’15 and Zachary Yarnell MBA ’13. Nunn-Lugar Fellowship: Benjamin Pack MANPTS ’14. Fulbright English Teacher Training and Research Awards: Maggie Steingraeber MATESOL ’12. NOAA Coastal Management Fellowship: Amanda Leinberger MAIEP ’14, Puerto Rico. NNSA Graduate Fellowship Program: Tom Gray MANPTS ’15, Andrew Brown MANPTS ’14, and Sarah Norris MANPTS ’14. Congratulations!

Collaborations

>>In 2014, Lorene Pagcaliwagan MATESOL ‘94 founded the English as a Second Language program at Gardner Webb- University. This spring Lorene wrote to MATESOL Professor Kathi Bailey and Assistant Dean of the Graduate School of Translation, Interpretation, and Language Education Patricia Szasz: “Thank you for all your effort, time, and generosity in helping me in getting this inaugural English and engineering program off the ground. Your insight, expertise, and encouragement helped me tremendously.”

>>One of two papers Professor Philipp Bleek presented at this year’s International Studies Association Annual Convention was a collaboration with recent grad Navindra Gunawardena MANPTS ’14 that began as a short memo Navindra wrote for one of his seminars. Navindra now works at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, and their paper summarized an ongoing research project on improvised chemical weapons threats.

>>Chisom Udeze MAIEM ’16 moved to London to finalize plans to open a secondary school in her native Nigeria. After breaking ground on the building, Chisom and partners Christian Lervik and Kim-Andre Nikolaisen were joined by Charley Ruegger MBA ’14, the school’s business director. The team expects Xanadu Academy to be fully operational in 2016 if current fundraising is successful. “Hopefully I will be able to return to Monterey to complete my degree,” says the energetic Chisom. He added, “My classes at MIIS provided me with the skills I needed to build the school of my dreams.”

>>The Country Global Citizenship Report Card, which assesses the ability of individual countries to function as global citizens, unveiled a prototype in April (see www.countryreportcard. org) that rates countries based on six domains: human rights, environmental stewardship, good governance, poverty reduction, global peace and justice, and gender equity. The project is a collaboration between the Global Citizens’ Initiative, Zogby Analytics, and the Middlebury Institute, with Dean of the Graduate School of International Policy and Management Kent Glenzer serving as the project’s research director.

>>For the 29th consecutive year, Stanford Health Care hired a group of MIIS students as medical interpretation interns. As part of their paid internship, students complete a weekend training session followed by 21 days of work at Stanford hospitals. Graduating student Erin Teske MATI ’15, a summer 2014 intern who recently accepted a full-time position as a relief interpreter with Stanford Health Care, notes that her new employer is “a teaching hospital, so staff members are used to working with students and interns and everyone goes out of their way to give you constructive feedback and help you learn.” This year’s interns are Yanan Cheng MACI ’16, Jingxin Lin MATI ’16, Jingjing Abby Mo MATi ’16, and Yiray Wu MACI ’15 (Chinese program); Galina Ryabova MACi ’16 and Anastasiia Taranenko MACI ’16 (Russian program); and Vianney Cisneros-Stenner MATI ’16, Ana Ramirez MACi ’16, and Suhey Tapia MATI ’16 (Spanish program).

>>In early May, MIIS cohosted the first Language Capital of the World Cultural Festival in Monterey along with the Defense Language Institute, Naval Postgraduate School, and several other language-focused organizations in the region. Performances and activities honoring different cultures were staged throughout the weekend at Custom House Plaza, alongside booths offering international food and beverages. A gubernatorial proclamation in the 1990s declared Monterey the “Language Capital of the World.”

 

Publications

>>The Routledge Handbook of Interpreting (Routledge), coedited by Professor of Translation and Interpretation Holly Mikkelson MAICC ’76 and Dean of the Graduate School of Translation, Interpretation, and Language Education Renée Jourdenais, features chapters by Professors Chuanyun Bao, Wallace Chen MATI ’95 and Jean Turner.

>>Professor John Balcom authored translations of two books, Grass Roots: Selected Poems by Xiang Yang (Zephyr Press) and Memories of Mount Qilai: The Education of a Young Poet by Yang Mu (Columbia University Press).

>>Markus Naerheim’s MAIEP ’05 new novel Bay of Hope explores environmental conservation and drug trafficking on Mexico’s Baja Peninsula while drawing on his experiences traveling in the region. In addition to authoring four novels, Markus writes a blog on modern culture and is the founder / principal of Creative Earth Consultants, a consulting firm specializing in sustainability. Preview the initial chapters of Bay of Hope at www.markusn.com.

>>The fourth edition of Teaching by Principles: An Interactive Approach to Language Pedagogy (Pearson Education) was coauthored by Professor Heekyeong Lee.

>>Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean of the Institute Jeff Dayton-Johnson’s new book Latin America’s Emerging Middle Classes: Economic Perspectives (Palgrave Macmillan) reflects on his time as head of the Americas desk at the OECD and features chapters by notable scholars of Latin American development, including two current cabinet members in their respective nations.

>>CNS staff member Elena Sokova coauthored an op-ed for the World Economic Forum on the need for better security for military nuclear materials as part of her work as a member of the Global Agenda Council on Nuclear Security of the World Economic Forum.

>>“How the Public Can Shape the Future of Drone Use” was the topic of a timely op-ed piece by CNS Scientist-in-Residence George Moore, published on April 3 on Truth-out.com.

>>As the nuclear deal with Iran progressed from rumor to pending proposal, Jeffrey Lewis of CNS authored a series of provocative blog posts for Foreign Policy, analyzing the proposed nuclear deal with Iran (“A Skeptic’s Guide to the Iran Nuclear Deal”; “Why a ‘Bad’ Deal With Iran Is Better Than No Deal at All”). Lewis also hosts the Arms Control Wonk blog at armscontrolwonk.com.

 

Passages

>>Described by Professor Emeritus Glynn Wood as “the single person most responsible for the physical shape of the current Institute campus,” former longtime employee Jim Wood passed away on February 25. Over the course of two stints in the U.S. Navy, Jim rose to the rank of Lt. Commander in the Civil Engineer Corps, working on projects including construction of the U.S. base at Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean. In later years he moved to the Monterey area to work at the Naval Postgraduate School before joining the staff at the Monterey Institute. Former Institute President Robert G. Gard remembered Jim as “the Institute’s master builder and my friend. He rehabilitated every falling-down building on the campus and designed and built the McCone Building.” A sculptor who enjoyed working with metal, Jim created numerous pieces still visible in the area today, including the prominent red sculpture in front of the William Tell Coleman Library on campus.