Four University of Delaware professors
have been selected as 2015 Salzburg Fellows. Martha Buell, Rena Hallam,
Barret Michalec and Michael ONeal will travel to Salzburg, Austria,
where they will participate in a Salzburg Global Seminar.
Founded in 1947 by three innovative students from Harvard University
as an international forum for those seeking a better future for Europe
and the world after World War II, the Salzburg Global Seminar is
designed to challenge current and future leaders to solve issues of
global concern.
Buell, professor, and Hallam, associate professor, both in the Department of Human Development and Family Studies,
were invited by Salzburg Global Seminar organizers to attend -- a first
for UD faculty -- as national early childhood development experts.The invitation came in response to Buells participation in a 2014
Salzburg Global Seminar focused on philanthropy as a catalyst for
change.
Buell, who is director of the Delaware Institute for Excellence in Early Childhood
(DIEEC), noted that she was the only participant whose field was early
childhood development and the only fellow focused solely on children as a
philanthropic goal.
I started a conversation with organizers about what a Salzburg
experience would be for early childhood development and education
(ECDE), and the fault-lines in the field that could benefit from a
Salzburg Experience, says Buell.
With that suggestion the first ECDE-focused session at the Salzburg
Global Seminar was borne, and an invitation for Buell and Hallam,
interim chair of the department, to attend.
We are very fortunate, that the University of Delaware
has such a strong relationship with the Salzburg Fellowship Program and
that they support faculty in participating -- it is really a gift,
says Buell.
Additional faculty selected for attendance, include Michalec, assistant professor in the Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice and assistant director of health research at UDs Center for Drug and Health Studies, and Michael ONeal, associate professor in the Department of Geological Sciences.
Mich
alec will participate in Developing a Shared Culture of Health:
Enriching and Charting the Patient-Clinician Relationship. At the
September seminar, he will discuss doctor and patient interactions, and
how medical students learn socio-emotional communication skills through
both education and training.
I look forward to learning from more diverse perspectives. The
structure of the U.S. health care system is quite different compared to
other countries, and although some core competencies may be similar, we
have much to learn from each other, says Michalec.
ONeal will attend The Search for New Balance: Americas Changing
Role in the World. One of few geologists enrolled in the September
session, ONeal shared that he is hopeful that his participation will
provide me with important cross-discipline and cross-cultural training
needed to present my findings with the utmost sensitivity and
awareness.
An expert in natural variability of climates and landscapes, ONeal
has served as a primary investigator in the monitoring and analysis of
two unique sites in the Andes mountain range of Argentina and Chile.
ONeal applied to be a Salzburg Global Seminar after realizing that his
academic research had become increasingly intertwined with geopolitics.
My role in the Andes project is on climate-landscape interactions,
but traveling, eating and sleeping in these remote communities has
awakened me to how my research plays an important part in the future of
economic and social development in the area, ONeal says.
Members of the University community interested in attending a future Salzburg Global Seminar
should contact UDs Institute for Global Studies. Eligible applicants
are full-time UD faculty or professional staff, with preference given to
those who have not yet been a Salzburg Seminar Fellow; have relatively
limited international experience; and are at or near the mid-point of
their career.
About the Institute for Global Studies
The Institute for Global Studies
was created in 2009 to enhance the international dimensions of
teaching, research and outreach at the University of Delaware. IGS
provides leadership and support for programs and experiences that
contribute to the education of informed, skilled, open-minded citizens
of the world.
Best known for coordinating the Universitys study abroad program,
IGS also awards scholarships and grants to faculty and students for
myriad global opportunities, administers internationally-recognized
programs such as the MEPI (Middle East Partnership Initiative) Student
Leaders Institute, and sponsors such signature events as International
Education Week each fall and country-specific celebrations each spring.
IGS collaborates with other global partners on campus, including the
Office for International Students and Scholars, the Confucius Institute
and the Center for Global and Area Studies.
