August 24, 2005

Teaching exchange projects begin between Purdue, French universities

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – A professor from a university in Strasbourg, France, will visit Purdue University, and a Purdue professor will visit the French university to kick off two graduate-student exchange programs.

Jean-Christophe Pellat, a professor of French grammar and vice president for finance at Marc Bloch University, will be on campus from Monday (Aug. 29) until Sept. 3 to give lectures, conduct seminars with graduate students in French, and meet with Purdue faculty, students and administrators. John Sundquist, a Purdue assistant professor of German, linguistics and second-language acquisition, will travel to the French university the week of Oct. 16 with the same agenda.

The faculty exchange marks the beginning of an interdisciplinary program between Purdue and Marc Bloch University. This semester one Purdue graduate teaching assistant will travel to France, and one French teaching assistant will come to Purdue. The Purdue student visiting France will teach English language courses, and the French student visiting Purdue will teach French language courses.

The program mainly will involve Purdue students pursuing master's degrees with the intent of teaching French language classes at the middle or high school levels.

Andrew Gillespie, associate dean of International Programs at Purdue, said Purdue and Strasbourg have exchanged undergraduate students and graduate research assistants for several years, mostly in liberal arts and chemistry. What makes the current program different is that it involves graduate teaching assistants instead of research assistants.

"It has been possible to send research assistants abroad because they are paid for research no matter where they choose to perform it," Gillespie said. "Finding financing for sending teaching assistants abroad has been a struggle in the past because Purdue needs them to stay in our classrooms to teach and cannot afford to send them abroad."

A $15,000 grant from the French American Cultural Exchange, in cooperation with the Cultural Service of the French Embassy through its Fund for University Partnerships, has made the teaching assistant exchange program possible. The grant will cover travel and living expenses for faculty and students and will support teaching costs.

"This is a new partnership stemming from long-established ties that offers a fresh way to exchange graduate students that will benefit both Purdue and Marc Bloch," Gillespie said.

He said an experience like this has many benefits for future foreign-language teachers.

"An immersion program is an excellent way to teach not only about another country's language, but also about its culture," he said. "Strasbourg is a fabulous city for our students to visit. It is a gorgeous, ancient city of Europe situated on the Rhine River on the French-German border with many canals and wonderful medieval architecture."

Gillespie said the future goal is to exchange at least two students each semester.

A second program, between Purdue and Robert Schuman University, has received a $2,000 grant through the French American Cultural Exchange. This collaboration is exploring a joint curriculum in European and American studies and will be geared toward Purdue students seeking master's degrees in political science.

"Studies at Robert Schuman University offer an excellent opportunity for Purdue master's degree students to work with French professors and learn firsthand about the rocky process of integrating the European Union," said Mark Tilton, a Purdue associate professor of political science. "Along with Brussels and Luxembourg, Strasbourg is one of the 'capitals' of the European Union."

Purdue experts in American politics, comparative social policy, international security policy and environmental policy will be involved in this collaboration. Meanwhile, faculty members from Robert Schuman University will teach Purdue students about European government.

The program, which is in its beginning stages, will develop over the next three years. The goal is to initiate a program similar to the one with Marc Bloch by 2007. In July, Tilton, along with Purdue associate professor of political science Patricia Boling and a group of undergraduates from Purdue, traveled to Strasbourg to strengthen ties between Purdue and Robert Schuman University by initiating a new summer study-abroad course.

"The great thing about the growing relationship between Purdue and Strasbourg is that it offers potential for exchange and collaboration on a number of levels – undergraduate, graduate and faculty research," Tilton said. "Robert Schuman faculty presented a number of lectures this summer that gave our students an understanding of a number of hot debates in France over issues like immigration, high unemployment and the European Union. The experience gave students a chance to see some of the ways that the French think about politics that are quite different from the United States. I'm excited to think about master's students getting to spend even more time in Strasbourg and the insights they could gain into French and European politics."

Gillespie said Strasbourg provides an excellent location for educating students about the European political system.

"Strasbourg is the perfect venue for learning about political science in Europe because the European Parliament and European Court of Human Rights are located there," he said. "It's a natural location for education in this area."

Gillespie said Purdue would like to develop similar exchange programs with universities in Spain and Germany.

"Any time you send students and faculty overseas, they are expanding their view of the world," Gillespie said. "That is why it is important for as many students as possible to be exposed to different cultures. What they find is that problems they thought were only American problems are really global. That is the point of international travel – to realize that all of us share the same issues and must work together on a global scale to find the answers."

Writer: Kim Medaris, (765) 494-6998, kmedaaris@purdue.edu

Sources: Andrew Gillespie, (765) 494-8463, andyg@purdue.edu

Mark Tilton, (765) 494-4176, mtilton@purdue.edu

Patricia Boling, (765) 494-3711, boling@purdue.edu

Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; purduenews@purdue.edu

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