Global Dimensions

News and notes from across NYU's Campuses and Sites

NYU Named Gilman Top Producing Institution

Posted on , modified on by Kristin Law
Benjamin A. Gilmn International Scholarship logo

The Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship is a program of the US Department of State with funding provided by the US government and supported in its implementation by the Institute of International Education (IIE).

In recognition of the large number of Gilman Scholars NYU has produced, the US Department of State named the University one of the highly regarded program’s 20 large Top Producing Colleges and Universities in 2021. NYU was the only private research university in the large category to receive this distinction, announced last fall by the State Department’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.

“Gilman’s mission is to make study abroad more accessible and inclusive by providing scholarships to outstanding US undergraduate students,” says NYU Office of Global Programs assistant director of student services Nyoka Joseph. “As a top-producing institution, NYU is recognized for its support of equity, diversity, and accessibility in study abroad through the programs it offers and the culture it has created with regards to studying or interning abroad for any student who wants the experience.”

Helping Students Fulfill Their Study Abroad Dreams

Since its foundation in 2001, the Gilman Scholarship Program has partnered with US higher education institutions to make study abroad more accessible for underrepresented students, including first-generation college students, students who are of historically marginalized ethnicities, students with disabilities, and students attending historically Black colleges and universities.

Students receive up to $5,000 in funding to study abroad for a full semester or academic year, and they are eligible to apply for an additional $3,000 in aid if they plan to study a critical need language (a language deemed critical to national security).

Each year, Joseph and her team host informational sessions to review the Gilman application process and teach students how to write strong essays. With three Gilman advisers on board, Joseph says they can mentor more than 35 student applicants each semester.

For Mika-Elle Metellus, a College of Arts and Science senior pursuing a double major in French and Politics, the Gilman advisers played a critical role in her Gilman success story.

“Thanks to the NYU Gilman advisers, my application process ran smoothly,” she says. “In the beginning of the spring 2019 semester, I attended a Gilman Scholarship information session at the StudentLink Center. I was then paired with an adviser who simplified the process for me by creating personal deadlines, reviewing all my essay drafts, and motivating me along the way.”

The Lasting Impact of a Gilman Scholarship

According to Joseph, students benefit from the Gilman Scholarship in many ways. One of the immediate benefits, she says, is the reduction of their financial burden. The scholarship allows them to focus on their studies while fully experiencing their new international environment. This was true for Mika-Elle, who studied abroad at NYU Paris in the fall of 2019. “I became fully integrated into the French culture and language,” she says. “My biggest takeaway from studying at NYU Paris was the language immersion that no classroom setting could ever provide.”

The Eiffel Tower

A view of the Eiffel Tower

When students complete their term abroad, Joseph says they gain access to the Gilman Scholar Network (a national alumni network), become a Gilman ambassador, and complete a service project for their NYU peers or their local community. They also qualify for at least 12 months of noncompetitive eligibility hiring status within the federal government. This allows US federal government agencies to hire eligible exchange program alumni outside of the formal competitive job announcement process.

Overall, Joseph says the Office of Global Programs at NYU regularly promotes the Gilman Scholarship because it continues to be an invaluable funding opportunity for students who might not otherwise have the means to study abroad. In the past 20 years, 307 NYU students have received a Gilman Scholarship. With Gilman they’ve been able to explore a new culture, study a diverse language, and acquire critical skills for their personal and professional development.

For more information about the Gilman Scholarship application process, please visit the Studying Abroad Gilman Scholarships page on NYU’s website.

Written by Samantha Jamison

Bilingualism Comes Naturally to Our Brains

Posted on by Katie L

The brain uses a shared mechanism for combining words from a single language as well as ones from two different languages, a team of neuroscientists has discovered. The findings indicate that switching languages comes naturally to those who are bilingual because the brain has a mechanism that does not detect that the language has switched, allowing for a seamless transition in the comprehension of more than one language at once.

“Our brains are capable of engaging in multiple languages,” explains Sarah Phillips, an NYU linguistics doctoral candidate and the lead author of the paper, “Composition within and between Languages in the Bilingual Mind,” which appears in the journal eNeuro. “Languages may differ in what sounds they use and how they organize words to form sentences. However, all languages involve the process of combining words to express complex thoughts.”

“Bilinguals show a fascinating version of this process—their brains readily combine words from different languages, much like when combining words from the same language,” adds Liina Pylkkänen, the codirector of the Neuroscience of Language Lab at NYU Abu Dhabi, a professor in NYU’s linguistics and psychology departments, and the paper’s senior author.

A teacher instructs a student writing letters on a whiteboard

An estimated 60 million people in the United States use at least two languages, according to the US Census. Across the globe, the majority of people know more than one language. Indeed, many countries have more than one official national language.

Unsurprisingly, in today’s highly globalized world, bilingualism provides a variety of meaningful social and practical advantages. People using multiple languages can converse with a wider array of people, and they can also more readily connect across cultures and adjust to new situations. At NYU, students studying away benefit from exploring new places and having new experiences as members of the University’s global network. But they also have the opportunity to immerse themselves in a different language, deepening their experience and sharpening their minds.

Yet, despite the domestic and international widespread nature and evident benefits of bi- and multilingualism, the neurological mechanisms used to understand and produce more than one language are not well understood. This terrain is an intriguing one; bilinguals often mix their two languages together as they converse with one another, raising questions about how the brain functions in such exchanges.

Phillips and Pylkkänen sought to better understand these processes. They explored whether bilinguals interpret these mixed-language expressions using the same mechanisms as when comprehending single-language expressions or, alternatively, if understanding mixed-language expressions engages the brain in a unique way.

To test this, the scientists measured the neural activity of Korean and English bilinguals. The study’s subjects viewed a series of word combinations and pictures on a computer screen. Then, they indicated whether or not the picture matched the preceding words. The words either formed a two-word sentence or were simply a pair of verbs that did not combine into a meaningful phrase (such as, “icicles melt” versus “jump melt”). In some instances, the two words came from a single language (Korean or English) while others used both languages, with the latter mimicking mixed-language conversations.

In order to measure the study subjects’ brain activity during these experiments, the researchers deployed magnetoencephalography. The technique maps neural activity by recording magnetic fields generated by the electrical currents produced by our brains.

The recordings showed that Korean and English bilinguals, in interpreting mixed-language expressions, used the same neural mechanism as they did while interpreting single-language expressions. Specifically, the brain’s left anterior temporal lobe, a brain region well studied for its role in combining the meanings of multiple words, was insensitive to whether the words it received were from the same language or from different languages. This region, then, proceeded to assign complex meaning to two related words regardless of whether they shared a language.

These findings suggest that language switching is natural for bilinguals because the brain has a combinatory mechanism that does not “sense” the language has switched. “Earlier studies have examined how our brains can interpret an infinite number of expressions within a single language,” Phillips observes. “This research shows bilingual brains can, with striking ease, interpret complex expressions containing words from different languages.”

You can watch Phillips discussing her research on bilingual speakers in this NYU-produced video (credit: NYU, courtesy of Kate Lord).

Content repurposed with permission from NYU News

Environmental Studies Abroad

Posted on , modified on by Kristin Law

NYU global faculty teach a range of courses on environmental studies. At NYU Shanghai, for example, faculty discuss the government’s response to environmental challenges. At NYU Sydney, faculty consider the impact of literature on environmental action. And at other NYU sites, faculty study the evolution of US environmental policy on everything from climate change and invasive species to land management and fracking. Below, we outline several environmental studies courses offered at NYU’s global academic locations.

A professor and students squat in the forest to discuss the soil

NYU London’s Climate Change course on a class trip to Highgate Wood

Finding Your Focus at NYU London

In Dr. Lisa Weber’s Climate Change course, students acquire a multifaceted understanding of climate change while studying in a global center of policy, business, and research. They learn how the climate system works and how human activities influence greenhouse gas emissions. They also explore projections about past and potential future climate change on Earth.

Before her time at NYU London, Mahima Kakani, Class of 2021, was pursuing a Business degree at the Stern School of Business with concentrations in finance and business economics. But after taking Weber’s Climate Change course, she changed her second concentration to sustainable business. “By thinking about how businesses can remain profitable while also doing good, we can contribute to a better environment while creating significant economic opportunities for communities,” she explains.

Mahima was particularly inspired by the class discussions they had on European companies and their response to climate change regulations. For example, her class discussed Airbus’ efforts toward zero-emission flight. After graduation, Mahima hopes to work on sustainability in the private sector.

Students and a professor seated at a table covered in maps.

Students meet with their professor in NYU Berlin’s Urban Greening Lab course.

Exploring Community Activism at NYU Berlin

NYU Berlin lecturer Sigismund Sliwinski teaches a course called Urban Greening Lab, which provides a comprehensive look at Berlin’s urban ecology and approaches to urban planning. In Sliwinski’s course students discuss the intersection of Berlin’s built structure, urban nature, and culture. They also attend workshops and visit local neighborhoods and sites, such as an indoor market called Markthalle Neun, the ufaFabrik cultural center, and an urban farmland called the Princess Gardens, to understand Berlin’s history of urban change along with the processes that turned it into a global green icon.

For Nina Lehrecke, Class of 2021, taking Urban Greening Lab gave her the confidence to pursue a concentration in infrastructural ecologies at the Gallatin School of Individualized Study. The class trips especially influenced her outlook. “It was affirming,” Nina says. “I’m focused on how community-based movements and activism shape cities, and the class was all about visiting alternative communities that are sustainable in some way.”

Students walk along a green and rocky coast

NYU Sydney students walk along the coast.

Witnessing the Effects of Climate Change Up Close at NYU Sydney

Over the years, lecturers at NYU Sydney have taught students how to report on environmental issues in a country directly experiencing the climate crisis. In Australia concerns about climate change and its effects on society can be found in the media every day, as was evident in the case of the wildfires from late 2019 to early 2020. The environmental journalism courses at NYU Sydney—which is scheduled to reopen in its new home this fall after its closure in spring 2020 due to COVID-related border restrictions—help expose students to some of the most important environmental issues of our time.

As part of an environmental journalism course he took while studying at NYU Sydney, Nicolas Mendoza, Class of 2020, learned about the effects of climate change on Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, one of the seven natural wonders of the world. In particular, he learned about the 2016 mass bleaching event that wiped out approximately 30 percent of shallow-water corals.

On a diving trip in Cairns, Nicolas witnessed these effects up close. But he also encountered people trying to save the reef, which gave him hope. “Even though the reef is clearly damaged, the people who are looking after it really do care,” he says. “We’re all there because we want to get some actual experience with these issues so we can try to protect other ecosystems.”

Overall, in their environmental studies courses, NYU global faculty teach students how to address the consequences of climate change and other environmental threats. Their coursework also sheds light on the global activism related to these issues.

Content adapted with permission from NYU Global Notebook by Samantha Jamison

In Conversation with Lecturer Anna Kazumi Stahl: Finding Your Voice Abroad

Posted on by Katie L

Growing up in a Japanese German American family, Anna Kazumi Stahl enjoyed playing word games, savoring the subtle but culturally precise differences in meaning across languages. It’s no surprise then that writing came to play a significant role in her life.

Portrait of Anna Kazumi Stahl

Anna Kazumi Stahl

When Stahl decided to study abroad in Argentina as a college student, she’d never visited the country before. But there, she discovered an unexpected creative energy in its literary culture—and she found it inspiring. “Studying abroad can open up more opportunities than you can rationally know beforehand,” Stahl reflects. “Especially when you are traveling to a culture that is new, unfamiliar, and potentially full of revelations.” Today, Stahl has lived in Argentina for 20 years, where she serves as NYU Buenos Aires’ program director and teaches the course Creative Writing: Argentina.

NYU: In your view, what can studying creative writing teach us about ourselves and the world?

Stahl: Words are a very special instrument for transmitting experience. They can communicate a message clearly to a broad, diverse audience and yet also preserve and highlight the individual voice, mood, and moment. Moreover, communicating effectively with your words and your storytelling is a key skill today, more relevant than ever in this fast-paced, multimedia, and multicultural age. In my class students work on expanding their knowledge about styles and techniques for writing. In the process they become more empowered to apply those tools to their own purposes.

NYU: What is unique about studying creative writing in Buenos Aires?

Stahl: Being in a foreign environment heightens your perceptions; you are exploring and adapting to new local realities. At the same time, because reflection and inner processing are also part of writing as an art, you hone your self-awareness. You strengthen your own voice and its range; you stretch it to be able to encompass the new experiences you’re having abroad.

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My course provides a structure for each student to begin and sustain a personal writing practice and find their own style and interests. In general, everyone is putting words to the experience of living abroad. So everyone is creating stories or poetic pieces and sometimes even multimedia narratives around what they are seeing, hearing, tasting, and experiencing every day. Whether going about their new routines or heading out to travel, writing becomes part of completing any given experience: it captures the moment, delves below the surface, and makes more sense of the ephemeral first impressions.

Plus, there’s another dimension in the course: I want my students to meet people who can connect them to the profession of being a writer. So we meet with published authors, publishers, and agents. They demythologize some aspects and also give their personal perspectives and advice. Every spring is special because our Creative Writing: Argentina course often gets a slot at the International Book Fair of Buenos Aires, where students read a piece of their own original work to a local audience.

NYU: When it comes to studying away, what one piece of advice would you give students?

Stahl: Be open-minded.

NYU: As a lecturer, what goal do you hope all your students achieve as a result of studying with you?

Stahl: My core goal is for all students to find and strengthen their voice—and to do so in an environment that values difference and respects spaces of dialogue and exchange.

NYU: What three things do you encourage your students to do to deepen their understanding of Buenos Aires?

Stahl: Try the shared ritual of drinking maté. Learn to recognize the terms from Indigenous languages that are woven into the Spanish of Argentina—maybe even take up one of the 15 Indigenous languages still spoken here. Ride a bus, any bus, on its whole route, and let the city as it rolls by show you its incredible diversity, contrasting neighborhoods, wide-ranging socioeconomic realities, and vibrantly unique cultural enclaves, all flowing together as you ride end-to-end through this massive, major Latin American megacity.

Content repurposed with permission from NYU Global Notebook

Professor Li Li Unpacks the Mysteries of the Brain

Posted on by Katie L

Professor Li Li’s career has taken her across the globe, from Lanzhou to Beijing and Rhode Island to Hong Kong. As a professor of neural science and psychology at NYU Shanghai, she’s worked in academia, at NASA, and in the private sector all while raising two daughters. Recently, she met with the NYU Shanghai News team to reflect on her journey across continents and industries—and share how she found her way back to academia in Shanghai.

You started your academic career as a Psychology major at Peking University (PKU). How did you settle on neuroscience as your field of study?

I followed a very typical growth path of a good Chinese student back in high school in Lanzhou, Gansu. I was good at taking exams and got a good grade on the gaokao [the national college entrance exams] to get into PKU. When deciding on my major, I picked Psychology because it seemed the most interesting and could provide me with opportunities to interact with people.

Psychology has many subareas, and I felt most interested in using experimental and computational methods to study rules and mechanisms underlying our cognition, which is also known as cognitive psychology. I still remember the shock I experienced when I entered the Perception, Action and Cognition Lab at Brown University for the first time about 20 years ago. Researchers in the lab were using these visual displays and virtual reality techniques to conduct scientific experiments and expand the boundaries of knowledge with so much passion. It made me say, “Wow, this is so cool!”

As a typical “science person,” the most attractive aspect of scientific research for me is that it allows data to speak for itself. I initially focused on memory and representation, but later on, I found that it was not strongly driven by data in many ways. So I shifted my focus to perception and action. I enjoy using scientific methodologies to study brains, and I am obsessed with the beauty of the logic, precision, and scientificity of research. I’m always searching for the keys to unaddressed questions through research.

You’ve worked in both academia and industry. How did you finally settle on university research and teaching as your life’s work?

After obtaining my PhD from Brown University and working as a postdoctoral researcher at Harvard Medical School, I gradually lost confidence in my career as an academic. I foresaw the entire career path, which lacked surprises and dampened my enthusiasm. I wanted to explore more possibilities, so I went into industry.

I worked as a human factors scientist at an engineering and scientific consulting firm in the Bay Area of California. But I soon became bored with the simple and repetitive procedural work I was assigned to do every day. More importantly, I felt I was wasting my graduate and postdoctoral training. Though the university salary was not as competitive as that in industry, I realized my true joy comes from figuring out the essence of the world and deciphering the mystery of the brain.

While making all these job shifts, I constantly asked myself what on earth I was working for. Did I work for intellectual challenges or monetary reward? The majority of people will choose to go into industry, leaving only a small group of people who can endure loneliness and stick to research. I eventually realized that the “lonely” research path fits me better.

Since joining NYU Shanghai, you’ve spent a lot of time and effort on building three different labs. Could you tell us more about them?

The first lab, the Perception and Action Virtual Reality Lab, focuses on using virtual reality techniques to study perception, control of self-motion, and eye–hand coordination. The second lab is the Perception and Action Neural Mechanism Lab, which focuses on examining the related underlying neural mechanisms. The third lab is the Neuropsychology Lab at Shanghai Ruijin Hospital. We study visuomotor and locomotion control in patients with neurodegenerative motor deficits, such as Parkinson’s disease.

Recently, we conducted a series of fMRI experiments and identified the areas of the brain where motion and form information are integrated for the perception of self-motion. We also examined baseball players’ basic visuomotor abilities and found that their basic eye-tracking ability could predict their potential to hit baseballs. Moreover, we discovered that visuomotor control ability becomes impaired and brain structure changes during the incubation period of neurodegenerative diseases.

As a teacher, what particular skills and traits do you encourage your students to cultivate to become more successful in the classroom or lab?

I’d like to share two things. First, the details are of paramount importance and play a decisive role in yielding extraordinary results in scientific experiments. As rigor and credibility lay the foundation for scientific research, I always ask students to pay more attention to the details, put more effort into the experimental design and the comprehension of logic, take the initiative to explore the reasons behind each step in the experiment, and prevent themselves from forgetfulness, carelessness, and taking anything for granted.

Second, long-term development in research should be supported by proficient academic writing skills. I urge my students to read more and practice their writing as much as possible so they can strengthen their sensitivity in using the English language and improve the logic and organization of their writing.

Lastly, what advice do you give to aspiring neuroscientists?

I think students who aim to study neuroscience should have intrinsic curiosity and thirst for knowledge about the nature of the brain. Thinking critically about the relationship between experiments and theory is also necessary. I suggest all students who want to make a career in science never give up or give in. In all areas of life, a successful person is not always the smartest person, but they are certainly the one who can stick it out until the end. As a perfectionist myself, I always hold an “excelsior” attitude toward work and research, and I hope that students will not be satisfied with their current situation. Only excellence can make endless progress.

This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

Content repurposed with permission from NYU Shanghai News and Publications

What’s in a Date?

Posted on , modified on by Kristin Law

NYU researchers use “resurrection genomics” to sequence genome of extinct date palms germinated from 2,000-year-old seeds

In a recent study for the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers from NYU Abu Dhabi’s Center for Genomics and Systems Biology—along with their research colleagues in Israel and France—used a technique called “resurrection genomics” to successfully sequence the genome of 2,000-year-old date palms. This study marks the first time researchers sequenced the genomes of plants from ancient, germinated seeds. The research team, led by NYU biology professor Michael Purugganan, germinated date palm seeds that were radiocarbon-dated from the 4th century BCE to the 2nd century CE to yield new, viable plants that they could, in turn, use to conduct whole genome sequencing.

Date palm

A date palm germinated from a 2,200 year old seed growing in Israel
Photo credit: Marcos Schonholz/The Arava Institute for Environmental Studies

What Did They Learn?

By examining the genome of a species called Phoenix dactylifera that thrived millennia ago, Purugganan and his team determined how these previously extinct Judean date palms evolved over time. Between the 4th century BCE and 2nd century CE, they observed that date palms in the eastern Mediterranean region showed increasing levels of genes from another species, called Phoenix theophrasti, which grows in Crete and other Greek islands as well as southwestern Turkey today due to the hybridization between species. The team concluded that the increasing levels of genes from P. theophrasti during this time signifies the increasing influence of the Roman Empire in the eastern Mediterranean region.

New Possibilities with Resurrection Genomics

Resurrection genomics is an alternative approach for sequencing DNA that is particularly useful for studying ancient and extinct plant species, the researchers note. Ancient plant DNA can be tricky to study, as it easily degrades without the protection of material like bone and only small quantities are usually found. But regrowing the whole plant offers new possibilities.

“We are fortunate that date palm seeds can live a long time—in this case, more than 2,000 years—and germinate with minimal DNA damage in the region’s dry environment,” says Purugganan, who is also affiliated with NYU Abu Dhabi and the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World. “This ‘resurrection genomics’ approach is a remarkably effective way to study the genetics and evolution of past and possibly extinct species like Judean date palms. By reviving biological material, such as germinating ancient seeds from archaeological and paleontological sites or historical collections, we can not only study the genomes of lost populations but also, in some instances, rediscover genes that may have gone extinct in modern varieties.”

To read the full study from Purugganan and his team, titled “The genomes of ancient date palms germinated from 2,000 year old seeds,” head to pnas.org.

Content adapted with permission from NYU News by Samantha Jamison.

NYU Los Angeles Presents: The Hollywood Climate Summit

Posted on , modified on by Katie L

At the intersection of entertainment and environmentalism sits the Hollywood Climate Summit. Produced by NYU Los Angeles, along with the social impact agency Young Entertainment Activists (YEA!) and Netflix, this year’s conference brought activists, performers, content creators, and young creatives together to address the entertainment community’s role in combating climate change.

Logos of organizations that sponsored the 2021 Hollywood Climate Summit

Over fifteen organizations sponsored the 2021 Hollywood Climate Summit

From September 23 to 26, 2021, attendees gathered to discuss the industry’s collective responsibility to enact more sustainable practices and increase accountability in the face of the climate crisis. The summit, now in its second year, combined virtual and in-person events, examining topics such as climate storytelling, eco-influencing, and sustainability across film, music, and gaming. However, NYU Los Angeles’ Program Director Nina Sadowsky notes, “The Hollywood Climate Summit is not just for Hollywood people. It’s about how anyone can advocate anywhere. In today’s world, NYU students aren’t just hoping to succeed in the industry—they’re trying to change it.”

NYU Los Angeles, launched in the fall of 2019, is the newest NYU global site—but its students are determined to make an enduring impact. Each semester, the program welcomes advanced students interested in pursuing careers in entertainment, media, music, technology, and broadcasting. Through a combination of rigorous coursework, experiential learning opportunities, and one-on-one mentorship, NYU Los Angeles acts as a professional bridge for students launching their entertainment careers.

The program’s partnership with YEA! provides students with networking and career-building opportunities that support social justice and global transformation. The greater NYU arts community is also involved in a variety of environmental efforts, having recently joined the Green Film School Alliance, a collaboration of leading film schools dedicated to incorporating industry-level sustainable production practices into their programs. As an alliance member, the NYU Tisch School of the Arts made a commitment to take specific actions to reduce the impacts of physical production on the environment, share best practices, and further sustainable initiatives. Moreover, Tisch is set to pilot a green production program this fall.

The first Hollywood Climate Summit was an exercise in creativity. Launched mere months into the COVID-19 pandemic, it quickly shifted from an in-person event to an online one. Despite a few technical hiccups, the event was a great success. “We were only able to accommodate maybe 150 people in person,” Sadowsky explains. “But, and here’s the really beautiful thing, by doing it virtually, we actually reached over 15,000.”

This past year, summit highlights included interactive panels with filmmakers, environmentalists, and politicians as well as an outdoor screening of the documentary Youth v. Gov, directed by Christi Cooper. Small workshops, one-on-one networking with industry leaders and activists, and virtual vendors and job fairs rounded out the four-day event.

Panelists and guests included actor Rosario Dawson, Netflix sustainability officer Emma Stewart, and Democratic Senator of Massachusetts Ed Markey. The summit also featured several eco-influencers, known for their eco-friendly social media posts. These included Leah Thomas, founder of @intersectionalenvironmentalist, and Isaias Hernandez, environmental educator at @queerbrownvegan. “Storytellers have a unique power to shape the culture,” Sadowsky concludes. “You’re not powerless. Every single one of us can do something that will affect change. And art can change minds and hearts in a way that argument cannot.”

Content adapted with permission from MeetNYU by Dana Guterman.

The Return of Study Away—An International Education Week Program

Posted on , modified on by Katie L

Last fall during International Education Week, NYU hosted an array of events that explored the benefits of international study away programs. One of those programs—a virtual roundtable discussion featured four NYU site directors. NYU Tel Aviv’s Benjamin Hary, NYU Accra’s Chiké Frankie Edozien, NYU Berlin’s Gabriella Etmektsoglou, and NYU London’s Catherine Robson discussed the lessons COVID-19 taught them, how they used those lessons to reconstruct their programs, and their hopes for future study away students. NYU’s Associate Director of Study Away Student Support Alejandro Marti moderated the panel.

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Site directors, Chiké Frankie Edozien (top left), Gabriella Etmektsoglou (top right), Catherine Robson (bottom right), and Benjamin Hary (bottom left)

Using the Past to Reshape the Future

When the pandemic first began in 2020, the faculty and staff at NYU’s global sites quickly adjusted. They adopted Zoom technology for virtual classes, planned online events for cultural immersion, and reimagined the scope of their curricula. Unsurprisingly, the lessons they learned in 2020 influenced the trajectory of their programs in 2021. For Chiké Frankie Edozien (NYU Accra), this meant creating new experiential learning trips and adopting new wellness guidelines for students.

“We tried a lot of things during the time of restrictions with our Go Local students who were primarily Ghanaian,” said Edozien. “We tried new excursions based on topics like climate change, taking students to the sea defense wall construction site. We weren’t able to (and we’re still not able to) do overnight trips, so we tried to think of ways we could teach students about Accra outside of the classroom—ways that allowed them to come back safely without the need for excessive travel or hotels. Sometimes we held classes outside so students and professors could be out in the sun, rather than in a confined space, and feel a bit more safe. We also encouraged our faculty to implement what we call ‘mask breaks’ so students can remove their masks for a short time before continuing their work.”

Similar to NYU Accra, Benjamin Hary and his team at NYU Tel Aviv spent the first part of the pandemic redesigning their curriculum to accommodate COVID-19 regulations. They now invite a range of guest lecturers to the classroom, and they developed a robust orientation for students who might need to quarantine upon their arrival in Israel.

“As we prepared for last semester, we created ways to connect students with one another and staff,” said Hary. “What my staff did for orientation, which was totally online because students were in quarantine, is a good example of this. We usually take the students to the famous Tel Aviv market, but since we couldn’t do that, my staff created a video of the market instead. They went to each specific ethnic food place and actually bought all the same food for the students. We delivered it to their doors so when they were watching the video, we could tell them about the food, and they could follow along. They loved it.” In addition, he noted, “With Zoom, it is very easy to invite people, such as guest lecturers and other experts, to participate in our programming, regardless of their physical location.”

Preparing Intentional Coursework for All Circumstances

During the early months of the pandemic, NYU’s global staff worked hard to create a future curriculum that could span multiple formats: in person, online, and/or hybrid. By preparing for various circumstances, NYU’s global locations worked to ensure students never missed a beat in their education.

“Without our faculty, we would not have been able to offer such a good experience for our students,” said Gabriella Etmektsoglou (NYU Berlin). “They showed adaptability and flexibility. They developed so many different options for their courses within a semester. In Berlin, for example, we had times when we were teaching in person and hybrid, and we had times when we had to lock down the site for a few weeks. If you had planned trips to museums or nongovernmental organizations during those weeks, you had to totally rethink your class. The faculty really embraced, very intentionally, the values of equity, diversity, belonging, inclusion, and accessibility when rethinking their sessions. It wasn’t simply, ‘I can’t go to this museum. What do I do now?’ It was, ‘Why was I going to this museum to begin with? Is there any way I can bring this museum to my class?’”

Eagerly Awaiting Cultural Immersion

The pandemic forced educators across the globe to rethink and reimagine the ways in which students learn. While some tactics will remain in place moving forward, such as expanded access to guest lecturers, increased collaboration between study away sites, and new experiential learning opportunities, other tactics will likely fall to the wayside, like learning a new language online or participating in a remote internship—both of which are challenging to accomplish without full-blown cultural immersion.

“In orientation we always talk about immersion in your new culture,” said Catherine Robson (NYU London). “Only by doing that do you start to think deeply about the place you come from. When you’re remote, you’re still in your usual place. You don’t have that experience of sort of turning inward, of being challenged to think about your own country, your own region, your own locality. Only by being in that different environment do you really start to reflect because it defamiliarizes what was deeply unquestioned by you before. And so that is why actually being in person in that different country is so key to what we do.”
And that’s why NYU’s global staff are eager to welcome more and more students back to their centers this year in 2022.

What’s Ahead: Embrace the Unexpected

For students preparing to study abroad in the coming semesters, all four site directors encouraged them to maintain an open mind and a positive attitude.

“Right now I think students need to be adaptable and have a little bit of trust in the future,” said Etmektsoglou. “Twelve years ago when I started at NYU Berlin, it was so much more about traveling. Now it’s about your professional career and your development as a young researcher. Yes, you might miss some traveling, but it’s not the key. Because of the pandemic and because of the way we used the time, the quality of our classes increased. They’re much more focused on addressing the career skills and needs for professional competencies. They’re about applied research; they’re about becoming entrepreneurial young professionals. Students will benefit from the diversity, the guests, and all the things we embraced during the pandemic.”

Written by Samantha Jamison

Madrid Stories: Documenting Life During COVID-19

Posted on , modified on by Chelsea Robles
 

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Jack Siebert

“What we saw in this period of scarcity was the emergence of creativity,” said Robert Bahar and Almudena Carracedo, Emmy-winning filmmakers and lecturers at NYU Madrid, who described their experience moving Madrid Stories, a location-based course, to an online format.

Madrid Stories is a semester-long class at NYU Madrid that encourages students to look, listen and explore Madrid with a documentarian’s gaze, to represent the city from new perspectives, and to seek out stories that explore and question pre-existing notions of Madrid (and Spain more broadly). Jim Fernandez, site director of NYU Madrid and professor of Spanish Literature and Culture, explained that the nature of the course made it challenging  to adapt for remote learning. “In some ways, Madrid Stories, rooted as it is in Madrid, was the most difficult course to adapt to an online format, when the COVID-19 crisis abruptly forced us to teach and learn remotely. But Rob, Almudena and the students did an amazing job, making some delicious lemonade from the lemons they were given, as it were.  Each of the thirteen films, produced in quarantine, captures the strange rhythms of confinement, and tells a story about the impossibility of returning home.”

Some students felt that the creative process of film production might be a meaningful outlet and a means for making sense of the unprecedented situation they were facing. Robert Bahar

Bahar explained that in early March “our students had just begun work on their film projects and were offered the option to go home, and then leaving the site quickly became mandatory.” He explained that a decision had to be made about how to adapt the course curriculum, by either shifting toward an analysis of documentaries or keeping the focus on the production process. They sought input from their students, who  responded with clear enthusiasm for wanting to continue creating their own films. In fact, some students felt that the creative process of film production might be a meaningful outlet and a means for making sense of the unprecedented situation they were facing.

“The students had little in terms of production equipment, but they did have iPhones and family. They created something absolutely amazing by scavenging any available resources to create a final product — all within two weeks. They had to reimagine their lives, the course, and the project. Their lives took a turn, but in the process of doing so, the class served as a mirror on themselves, and a mirror into themselves. The process of making their films was reflective of where they were in the quarantine,” explained Carracedo. 

“We all learned to use digital tools to serve the production process,” noted Carracedo. “They had to learn new editing programs, and we taught them how to edit by sharing our screens and providing demonstrations.” The feedback process was also adapted to an online format. Zoom’s breakout room function allowed the students to work in small groups where they could view each other’s work and offer the critique and feedback that are essential to fine tune a film. “The difference between good and great is the last push of the editing and polishing,” said Bahar, “which is also the most difficult part of producing a film. We always push students toward great. We want to help them achieve their visions and be proud of their work.” 

In addition to learning new technical tools to support the filmmaking process, students also had to develop new strategies to enable them to complete their work remotely. For Jack Seibert, a rising senior at Tisch School of the Arts, said he had to learn to remind himself “that artistic processes always encounter unforeseen bumps in the road — large or small — and it is our job as creatives to develop innovative solutions to those problems while staying on schedule. I found pursuing a creative process during this time to be incredibly beneficial to my future artistic career — whether working in theater or film — because I discovered personalized tools to recognize when I feel motivated or unmotivated, and how to either encourage myself to keep working or give myself breaks.” 

Developing their film projects also helped some students cope with the sense of uncertainty brought about by the pandemic and they noted that the experience was cathartic and therapeutic. Claudia Picado, a rising senior at Steinhardt School of Education, Culture, and Human Development, explained that her film, Meires en Cuerentena, enabled her to process her experience through “self expression, while also creating something that represented my family and how we came together during quarantine.”

Colin Donahue, a visiting student at NYU Madrid from Swarthmore College, created a film entitled, In an Instant, that detailed idyllic scenes of life in Europe. It is a portrait of travel to Rome and Paris and all of the things you imagine global students doing. Donohue explained that when he first returned to the United States, he “spent the first two weeks of quarantine in my childhood bedroom reflecting on my past experiences and feeling grateful for the health and safety of my family. After looking back on the footage from my study abroad experience, I knew I wanted to use this project as an opportunity to not only remember Spain but to document how I experienced this international public health crisis.” 

Donohue said that for him and many of his classmates, the creative process became “a philosophical reflection on the lockdown and quarantine, and the feeling of going back in time when one returns to their childhood home,” said Carracedo. They used the experience to produce introspective glimpses into what life was like during uncommon times. 

While the final screenings of student productions are typically held in-person at a closing event at NYU Madrid, this year’s films were screened online, which allowed  families and friends to participate.

View all Madrid Stories here (Vimeo).

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

NYU Shanghai Faculty Ranks Boosted by 34 New Members and 28 ‘Go Local’ Instructors

Posted on , modified on by Martha J Bekink
 

students and professor in masksAs classes began on September 14 – live for students in Shanghai and online for students around the world still waiting for visas to enter China – NYU Shanghai welcomed 34 new full-time faculty members from 10 countries for the 2020-2021 academic year. The new members span 20 academic fields from Finance to Art History to Journalism, including the university’s first faculty member in the field of Global Public Health. 

An additional 28 new faculty have joined the university this fall to help deliver in-person courses to the NYU and NYU Abu Dhabi students taking part in the NYU Global Network’s “Go Local” program at NYU Shanghai. 

“We are thrilled that NYU Shanghai continues to attract a remarkable group of faculty across the disciplines, people whose research is stellar and whose dedication to teaching is exemplary,” says Provost and Julius Silver Professor of History Joanna Waley-Cohen. “I know they will greatly enrich our expanded academic community, and am very much looking forward to getting to know them all over the next few weeks.”

NYU Shanghai’s full-time faculty has more than doubled from just 102 members in 2014 to 226 members this year, representing 25 nationalities.

Among this year’s newcomers is Yufeng Professor of Social Science Wu Xiaogang, who will serve as the founding director of NYU Shanghai’s newest research center, the Center for Applied Social and Economic Research (CASER). Wu, whose scholarship examines inequality and social stratification in China, most recently led a team of researchers investigating how family and community ties supported individuals’ well-being under anti-coronavirus quarantine restrictions in Wuhan. “NYU Shanghai offers a perfect environment for scholars to conduct first-rate China research that can have both local reach and global impact,” Wu says.

This fall, the university also welcomes Brian J. Hall as Associate Professor of Global Public Health. Hall, who leads the  Global and Community Mental Health Research Group, focuses on interdisciplinary approaches to population health challenges, particularly among migrant worker groups in the Asia-Pacific region.   

“My work in China has been ongoing for more than eight years, and I view NYU Shanghai as an excellent home and platform for this work to continue and expand,” Hall says. “I am excited about the university’s intimate scholarly community, the exceptional students, and the emphasis on interdisciplinary research, which I believe is absolutely essential to address even the most protracted public health challenges.”

Hall says he is looking forward to teaching several courses for undergraduate students this academic year, including a global mental health course and a capstone seminar for seniors  producing original scholarship.

Despite the unique challenges posed by the ongoing pandemic and closure of national borders, many new faculty members, including Senior Lecturer in the Writing Program Marcos Martínez, expressed enthusiasm about their students’ and colleagues’ flexibility and adaptability.

“The university’s Writing Program has been so supportive and willing to explore new modes of teaching and ways of building connections with our students,” Martinez says. “I look forward to working with my colleagues and learning from their experiences.”

Visiting Associate Professor of History Jacqueline Armijo, who will take part in NYU Shanghai’s “Go Local” program, says she appreciates the program’s ability to confront some of the problems caused by the pandemic. 

“When the opportunity arose to teach students face to face in Shanghai, I could not resist,” Armijo says. “I have been very impressed with NYU Shanghai’s conscientious COVID precaution policies, and I very much appreciate the opportunity to be able to teach safely in a classroom with students face to face, or at least masked-face to masked-face.”

New faculty are also looking forward to connecting with the campus and the city’s uniquely dynamic international community. “I’ve been living in Shanghai for a few years now, and I really love the city’s cosmopolitan energy,” says Clinical Assistant Professor of Spanish Allen Young. “At NYU Shanghai, that energy is more palpable than almost anywhere else.”

Sun Wenting, who joins NYU Shanghai as Assistant Arts Professor of Dance, concurred. “I think the campus reflects the city with its international broad spectrum of nationalities and its drive towards success,” says Sun. “I was fortunate to previously guest teach at NYU Shanghai and was instantly exposed to the positive and engaging environment and the up-beat community, so I already have a really clear vision that this will be a great place to work.”

Others are eager to explore the city’s potential as a hub of research and innovation, including Instructor of Operations Management Zhang Jiding. 

“Shanghai is one of the most dynamic cities around the globe, and it is a place where some of the most innovative business practices have been born. As a researcher, I am eager to learn from these practices and study the drivers of such innovations,” says Zhang.  “As an educator, I am thrilled to convey what I have learned to my students, and to prepare them for their future leadership in the fast-changing world.”

The new faculty members in 2020-2021 are:
 

Daniel Jin Blum

Research Assistant Professor of Psychology

Joshua Dy Borja

Lecturer, Writing Program

Denis Butkus

Visiting Assistant Arts Professor of Theater Art

John Tseh-han Chen

Visiting Assistant Professor of History

Kelly Donovan

Lecturer, English for Academic Purposes

Bassam Fayad

Visiting Professor of Mathematics

Cori L. Gabbard

Lecturer, Writing Program

Andy Garcia

Clinical Instructor of IMA

Gong Jin

Clinical Assistant Professor of Chinese

Brian J. Hall

Associate Professor of Global Public Health

Jinzi Mac Huang

Assistant Professor Faculty Fellow of Mathematics

Catherine Journeaux

Senior Lecturer, English for Academic Purposes

Li Chen

Visiting Assistant Professor of Accounting

Li Siran

Visiting Assistant Professor of Mathematics

David Maguire

Visiting Professor of Practice in Journalism

Marcos L. Martínez

Senior Lecturer, Writing Program

Laurent Ménard

Visiting Associate Professor of Mathematics

Miao Jia

Assistant Professor Faculty Fellow of Sociology

Zee Perry

Visiting Assistant Professor of Practice in Philosophy

Alejandro Francisco Ramirez Chuaqui

Visiting Professor of Mathematics

Bruno Schapira

Visiting Professor of Mathematics

Sun Wenting

Assistant Arts Professor of Dance

Yik-Cheung Tam

Professor of Practice in Computer Science

Yuan Tanya Tian

Assistant Professor of Management and Organizations

Leandro Vendramin

Visiting Assistant Professor of Mathematics

Wen Shuang

Visiting Assistant Professor of History

Daniel Woody

Lecturer, Writing Program

Wu Wei

Associate Professor of Mathematics

Wu Xiaogang

Yufeng Global Professor of Social Science

Xia Ku

Senior Language Lecturer, Chinese Language Program

Allen Young

Clinical Assistant Professor of Spanish

Zhang Jiding

Instructor of Operations Management

Geoffery Xin Zheng

Assistant Professor of Finance

Zuo Lala

Assistant Professor of Art History

This story comes to us from NYU Shanghai. You can find the original here