| Annual Webster Geneva Conference Tackles Humanitarian Issues
|
From Yugoslavia to Somalia and now Sudan, nations' internal strife and political instability can quickly escalate to passionate violence and suffering too appalling for the outside world to stomach. But when outsiders are inclined, for humanitarian purposes, to intervene as a country's civil war leads to genocide or forced starvation of innocents, they must first tackle questions of who, how, through what auspices, and under what rules?
| New Initiatives Reflect Department's Multicultural Mission
Currently, the department offers majors and minors in French, German, and Spanish, as well as a minor in Japanese, and an English as a Second Language (ESL) program whose students enroll in both ESL and content course work. Courses in other languages such as Italian, Russian, Latin, and Polish are also offered periodically. With three campuses now in China, Chinese will be offered more regularly beginning in spring 2005. Each year, teaching assistants (TAs) from Argentina, Germany, France, and Japan come to Webster's home campus to teach their native language, in a highly successful program that both energizes the department and gives students a perspective directly from their culture of study. But Kennelly envisions expanding language offerings and the TA program to reflect all of Webster campuses' host cultures. FULL STORY |
New Faculty The College of Arts and Sciences welcomed several new full-time faculty members in the last academic year. In this issue, Global Thinking introduces two of them. FULL STORY
Joseph Stimpfl, a religious studies professor, came to Webster in 1999 as the director of the Center for International Education. Three years ago, he also assumed directorship of the Center for Interdisciplinary Studies. Earlier this year, he was named chair of Religious Studies, allowing him to fully "release the reins" of his directorships of CIE and CIS at the end of 2004. |
The study of foreign languages already has a long history at Webster, but the tradition is poised to be further enriched under the leadership of French professor Brian Kennelly, who last summer became chair of the department of International Languages and Cultures. As the University continues to strengthen its international presence, Kennelly envisions expanded language offerings and teaching exchanges that complement and refine Webster's growth overseas.
Dean's Message
When Kim James saw a school bus accident on her way to work as a nurse on a nasty, snowy day in 2003, her first instinct was to pull aside and help. "I kept thinking about all those kids," she recalls. "So I called work and said, 'Look, I'm going to be late, I'm going to check on these kids and make sure everyone is OK.' The kids were really shook up." The effort won her a "Best of the Best" award from her employer, Cardinal Glennon Children's Hospital, where she was also named employee of the month. The instinct to help then, when others might understandably drive on in the warmth of their daily routine, perhaps explains another extraordinary decision she made the next year: In February 2004, James left Cardinal Glennon—which she called "like a home to me" for 10 years—to become director of the Metropolitan Homeless Center, a city homeless shelter for mentally ill and substance-addicted women. James, it seems, is always looking for more—more to learn, more to help, more ways to make a difference. FULL STORY |
