Samia Spencer, AU alumni professor of French and honorary consul of France in Alabama, was an invited participant at the first meeting of the newly founded Terrafemina association, created under the auspices of French President Nicolas Sarkozy to serve as a link with the Union for the Mediterranean. The first meeting was held at the Senate of France July 12 on the eve of President Sarkozy's meeting with the heads of the union's 43 member nations. The objective of Terrafemina is to establish a network of women leaders who will contribute to the achievement of the union's goals.

"Global and international issues are not discipline-specific and should not be taught in silos," explained Bobrowski. "We are fortunate that the deans of the College of Liberal Arts and the College of Business recognize the importance of interdepartmental collaboration and encourage their faculty to work with one another to achieve a common goal. It is important to prepare our constituents for the complexities of globalization."

"Creating opportunities to position the College of Liberal Arts for the future is critical. Establishing an interactive global environment for our students is of the utmost importance to us," said Dr. Anna Gramberg, Dean of the College of Liberal Arts. "This grant allows new relationships to take place and grow in an academic world as well as in a world of commerce, thus creating a unique and beneficial opportunity for everyone involved."

The BIE grant, which is approximately $250,000, will provide funding for two years and will be used to support three major initiatives. The first initiative, expected to begin in fall 2007, is aimed at creating faculty awareness of the social, political, economic and business environments in Latin America. Some of the grant activities include trade missions to key destinations for Alabama exports, language immersion programs, faculty attendance at varying seminars, and conference presentations on international trade issues.

"In addition to the collaboration between business and liberal arts, we have also partnered with Tuskegee University and the State of Alabama Development Office - International Trade Division (ADO) in hopes of expanding the project beyond the university community," said Marshall. "We believe that the faculty participating in this project can be a resource not only to their own campus but to a number of community colleges throughout the state and to the non-traditional student population."

A second initiative under the BIE grant involves student programs and academic enrichment. Though both the Colleges of Business and Liberal Arts offer international education curricula, neither program focuses on Latin America specifically. With the BIE grant, both the international business curriculum in the College of Business and the international trade curriculum in the College of Liberal Arts will be restructured so as to provide undergraduate and graduates courses in export management as well as courses on Latin American society and culture. The BIE grant will also be used to develop an international trade certificate program designed for students not enrolled in either curriculum. Such curricular changes are expected to be implemented in 2009.

"We would be remiss if we did not prepare students for the global economy," said Marshall. "Unfortunately, there is sometimes a misconception that international trade negatively impacts state and local business. The reality is that companies engaged in international business actually yield economic growth. We need to prepare our students to enter today's global workforce."

"Such initiatives, as this by the College of Business and the College of Liberal Arts, to create cross-disciplinary, international opportunities for our students is an Auburn University response to the private sector requirements for the 21st century university graduate," remarked Dr. Paul Bobrowski, Dean of the College of Business and Wachovia Professor. "I hope that this type of collaborative, international effort becomes an Auburn University standard."

The third initiative outlined in the BIE grant proposal is targeted at the state and local business community. In coordination with Tuskegee University, the State of Alabama Development Office, the Auburn University Small Business Development Center and the Auburn Technical Assistance Center, project co-directors will develop outreach programs designed to encourage and facilitate trade with Latin America. A series of community seminars are expected to be available by fall 2008.

(Contributed by Dina Roberts and Vicky Santos)

John Homayoun Mazaheri was born in Teheran and raised in Iran and in Paris, France. He studied at the Lycée Henri IV in Paris (1965-70), at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts (MFA in printmaking, 1976), at the University of Aix-en-Provence (MA in French, 1984), and at Brown University (PhD in French, 1989).

He taught printmaking and French in Teheran in the late 1970s (in college), returned to France in the early 1980s, and moved with his family to the United States in 1984. He taught for several years at the University of Massachusetts/Boston and at Clark University (Worcester, Mass.), before he became assistant-professor of French at Auburn University in 1989. In 1991 he became an American citizen. He has been full-professor since 1999. His publications include a book on the French moralist La Bruyère, two monographs on H. de Balzac (the second one is forthcoming), and many articles on the 17th and the 19th centuries, which have appeared in various scholarly journals in Europe and in the U.S. He is mostly interested in the relationships between Christian theology and literature. He is also active as a visual artist, and participates in juried shows.

October 23, 2007

We will be having a celebration for the National Italian American Heritage Month at the Jule Collins Smith Museum. The title of the event is Italian(s) in America: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow. On the 23rd of October, at 4 p.m. the director Michael DiLauro will present his documentary, Prisoners Among Us.

Prisoners Among Us chronicles the assimilation of Italians into American culture from early 19th century immigration through World War II. In particular, the film sheds light on our country’s “enemy alien” policies at the start of that conflict and the impact of these legislative acts upon unwitting families. Personal and collective experiences from this period have had a profound effect on Italian-American identity.

The outbreak of world conflict in Europe changed an already tenuous landscape. Conflicted loyalties strained natural family ties, and paranoia ran the gamut from street-side prejudice to formal declarations of war upon non-citizen Italians. Through interviews, historical detail, photographs, archival footage, music and literature, the film’s frank historical analysis reveals the spirit of a proud people who ultimately emerge victorious.

Acclaimed actor, Tony Lo Bianco, spokesperson for Order of Sons of Italy in America, narrates along with commentary by Tom Brokaw of NBC News and Mary Ann Esposito, host of “Ciao Italia.”

After the documentary there will be a panel of Q/A with AU scholars, Drs. Anthony Gadzey from Political Sciences and Larry Gerber from History, the Education Officer of the Italian Embassy in Washington DC, Dr. Luigi De Sanctis and the President of the COPILAS, Dr. Joseph Lupo. Refreshments will follow at 7 p.m.

The two Italian officers will also meet before the program two reps from the local high school and junior high school, hoping to increment the interest for the language and culture in Alabama. The officers are in fact here because they have heard of the large interest and active group of students of Italian, in spite of the quasi lack of Italian heritage that we have here in AL. The following day we will also show the documentary for those who missed it but it will not be followed by other events.