Zuheir Sofia Endowed International Faculty Seminar

Objectives of the Zuheir Sofia Endowed International Faculty Seminar

The ZSEIFS is a two- to three-week interdisciplinary seminar intended to provide an opportunity for targeted international development of WKU faculty members. The ZSEIFS Leader will be selected by the Office of International Programs based on his or her expertise and experience in the target country/region (for more information on the role of the ZSEIFS Faculty Leader, click here). The overarching goals of the ZSEIFS are:

• To gain new international, inter-disciplinary knowledge about a region or a country selected on the basis of its current significance to the world and to institutional curricular needs.
• To involve faculty members from all schools and all departments in an interdisciplinary dialogue, by providing a shared focus: the studied and experienced country or region.
• To encourage the use of this newly acquired knowledge for the creation of new courses, modules in already taught courses, and occasional assignments and references in the full spectrum of courses.
• To encourage further cultivation of old and the development of new international linkages for both research and teaching.
• To strengthen the freshmen core course by offering faculty members first-hand experience of cultures which produced texts studied in the course.
• To support existing and to develop new exchange relationships with institutions abroad by giving faculty members an opportunity to visit universities abroad.  As a result of these visits, faculty members are also better able to encourage and advise students on study abroad.To promote faculty exchanges with partner institutions abroad.

 As they relate to the IYO:

• To position a core group of faculty members to successfully lead their respective colleges and the WKU campus in engaging with the selected country/region.