Award-winning Sci Fi Writer Returns to Read

Professor of English John Kessel says Andy Duncan's stories are great on the page. "But actually, he is one of the very best performers of his own fiction - maybe the very best I have ever heard," Kessel says of his former student.

That's high praise from Kessel, who has earned an international reputation as a master of science fiction. Kessel, who teaches science fiction in NC State's MFA in Creative Writing program, says Duncan "has a wonderful sense of humor" and produces "very different stories … but they are great stories."

Andy Duncan (MA, English '95) returns to campus on September 12, 2012, to read from his work.

Duncan's stories, including his newest fiction collection, The Pottawatomie Giant and Other Stories, often deal with themes of the American south. He has won two World Fantasy Awards and the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award for best science fiction story of the year. He has been nominated multiple times for the Hugo, Nebula, Bram Stoker and Shirley Jackson awards. His fiction has been featured in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction.

"Not all good writers are good storytellers," Kessel says. "Andy is a great storyteller. You think you are reading a funny story, and you are, but then he pulls the rug out from under you and you realize he has shown you something profound about people and the world."

When Duncan is not writing, he reports to work as a faculty member in the English department at Frostburg State University in Maryland. He also teaches seminars in 21^st century science fiction and fantasy in the Honors College of the University of Alabama.

Andy Duncan will read from his stories at 7:30 pm on Wednesday, September 12, 2012, in the Studio Theater in Thompson Hall on the NC State campus. The event is free and open to the public.

By Kristie Demers, CHASS Communication Intern

Chancellor visits CHASS

NC State Chancellor Randy Woodson visited CHASS on August 23 to learn more about some of the research underway and to get a closer, more personal view of life within our dynamic college. He started his afternoon immersion experience over lunch with a group of CHASS undergraduate and graduate students who described their research and scholarship to him. (See the Technician article.)

The chancellor then attended sessions in four of the college's 10 departments, where he heard about 11 interdisciplinary research projects pioneered by faculty.

The chancellor appeared to be thoroughly engaged as he asked questions about the transformative nature of the faculty's research. He wanted to know about the various projects' progress, the researchers' struggles and their goals. Digital humanities, the Integrated Language Learning Initiative, public history efforts and genetically modified mosquitoes were among the topics the chancellor heard about during the sessions.

"It's profound work with huge implications," he said of the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures' involvement in the Integrated Language Learning Initiative. The initiative aims to change the way the American military trains soldiers for leadership roles in foreign cultures.

After a presentation in the digital humanities on a program that will give anyone the opportunity to virtually experience a worship service as if he or she were actually there centuries ago, Chancellor Woodson exclaimed, "If only you could smell it too!"

A faculty question and answer session of over 75 attendees wrapped up Chancellor Woodson's busy day visiting CHASS.

See pictures of the chancellor's visit on our Facebook album.

By Kristie Demers, CHASS Communication Intern

Faculty moderate Read Smart book discussions

We love books around this college. We love reading them, talking about them, thinking about them. So it makes sense that faculty from the College of Humanities and Social Sciences are moderating four out of the five book discussions in the "Read Smart" program organized by NCSU Libraries and Wake County Public Libraries this semester and sponsored by Friends of the Library of North Carolina State University.

"We are proud and delighted to contribute in this way to the intellectual life of the community beyond our campus," says CHASS Dean Jeff Braden.

Read Smart is free and open to the public.  All discussions are held at the Cameron Village Regional Library, 1930 Clark Avenue, Raleigh, NC 27605. For more information, please call 919-513-3481.

The first evening in the series has already taken place, but mark your calendar for the others. These are books -- and discussions -- too good to miss.

Thursday, August 23 at 7:00 pm
Home by Toni Morrison
moderated by Dr. Sheila Smith McKoy, director of NC State's African American Cultural Center and Africana Studies Program and associate professor of English at NC State

 

 

Thursday, September 20 at 7:00 p.m.
In the Garden of Beasts by Erik Larson
moderated by Dr. Noah Strote, assistant professor of European History at NC State

 

 

 

Thursday, October 25 at 7:00 p.m.
Imagine: How Creativity Works by Jonah Lehrer
moderated by Marshall Brain, founder of the award winning web site HowStuffWorks.com and lecturer at NC State

 

 

 

Thursday, November 15 at 7:00 p.m.
A Land More Kind Than Home by Wiley Cash
moderated by Dr. Jim Clark, professor emeritus of English at NC State

 

 

 

Thursday, December 6 at 7:00 p.m.
The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg
co-moderated by Dr. Daniel Grühn, assistant professor of lifespan developmental psychology, and Dr. Douglas Gillan, head of the Department of Psychology at NC State

Genetically Engineered Mosquitoes: What the Public Thinks

Researchers from NC State University have conducted the first nationally representative survey in the United States to gauge public opinion on the use of genetic manipulations to drive down mosquito populations and related diseases. While public support varies, depending on how the mosquitoes are characterized, a plurality opposes the effort when potential risks are explained.

"We wanted to know what the public thinks about this issue, since modified mosquitoes are already being released in other parts of the world, and are under consideration for use in the U.S.," says Dr. Michael Cobb, an associate professor of political science at NC State who oversaw the poll. "We found that giving people accurate information about how this process works increases their support for the concept, but support is also contingent on the label used to describe these mosquitoes."

Dr. Andrew Binder, an assistant professor of communication, helped author the survey questions. "The survey findings are an excellent example of how public attitudes toward novel scientific innovations are far from fixed," he says. "But even if people haven't formed concrete opinions about this technology, that does not diminish the importance of engaging in transparent and honest communication about the nature of the mosquitoes and their potential risks."

Read all about this buzzing issue and the national survey on the NC State News Room site. You can also learn more about NC State's interdisciplinary Graduate Studies in Genetic Engineering and Society and its focus on mosquitoes and human health.

 

Lecturer Gets to the 'Pointe' of It

Sarah Egan Warren, assistant director of the professional writing program in the English department, always wanted to be a ballerina. Although she set aside her dream when she was 12, she realized it as an adult.

In the process of getting up on her toes, Egan Warren's empathy for her writing students rose. "My engineering students are brilliant at what they do but struggle writing about it," she says. "Learning ballet reminded me of this."

Egan Warren was so enlightened by her studio experiences she gave a live talk recently at Raleigh's Pecha Kucha Night, where speakers gather to discuss their various passions.

Read Egan Warren's story in the NC State Bulletin.

CHASS Welcomes New Tenure-Track Faculty

The College of Humanities and Social Sciences welcomes 18 new tenure-track faculty to its ranks this fall. Their research interests range from forensic psychology to the religions of East Asia. Meet these stellar scholars, researchers, and teachers.

Haydon Cherry joins the Department of History as an Assistant Professor with a specialty in modern Southeast Asian history.

Ph.D. (History), Yale University, 2011

M.Phil. (History), Yale University, 2007

M.A. (History), National University of Singapore, 2005

B.A. with First Class Honors (Southeast Asian Studies), National University of Singapore

Haydon Cherry's dissertation traced the changing social and economic history of the poor in French Colonial Saigon by following the lives of six migrants (an orphan, a prostitute, a rickshaw puller, a poor Frenchman, a Chinese coolie, and an invalid) in the early decades of the 20th century. Cherry's other projects include an intellectual biography of a leading Vietnamese Marxist intellectual and a social history of crime in Rangoon, Burma, during the 1920s and 1930s. At Yale, Cherry received both a prestigious Whiting Fellowship and the Wright Prize for the best dissertation outside of U.S. and European history. In 2011-2012, he held a post-doctoral fellowship at the Mahindra Humanities Center at Harvard University.

Anne Clément joins the college as an assistant professor of History and as a member of the International Studies faculty with a focus on the Modern Middle East.

Ph.D. (Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations), University of Toronto, 2012

Diplôme d'Etudes Approfondies (Middle Eastern and Mediterranean Studies), National Institute of Oriental Languages and Civilizations, Paris, 2003

Diplôme de Sciences Po (Sciences Po), Sciences Po, Paris, 2001

Anne Clément is a historian whose dissertation examined the interrelated issues of law and empire. Through the experiences of peasants tried for murder by newly created (1894-1914) "native" courts, she analyzes the implementation of a modern legal system in colonial Egypt, which in practice proved to be a parody of justice that linked peasants' alleged immorality to their illiteracy. Her second line of research reflects her long-term interest in the relationships between history, memory, and politics, and focuses on issues of historiography and history education in the Middle East. She has worked with international NGOs, and in 2011-2012 she held a Weatherhead Center for International Affairs post-doctoral fellowship at the Harvard Academy for International Area Studies.

Sarah Desmarais joins the Department of Psychology as Assistant Professor in the area of Psychology in the Public Interest.

Ph.D. (Psychology), Simon Fraser University, 2008

M.A. (Psychology), Simon Fraser University, 2005

B.A. (Psychology), Guelph University, 2003

Sarah Desmarais is a forensic psychologist who works on issues related to mental illness, substance use, and violence in criminal justice and health care settings. Her current research focuses on the development, implementation, and evaluation of assessment and intervention strategies for justice-involved adolescents and adults with behavioral health problems, as well as victims and perpetrators of partner violence. Before coming to NC State, Sarah was as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mental Health Law & Policy (College of Behavioral and Community Sciences) and the Department of Community & Family Health (College of Public Health) at the University of South Florida.

Michaela DeSoucey has been named Assistant Professor of Sociology in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology. She will teach primarily cultural sociology and the sociology of food movements.

Ph.D. (Sociology), Northwestern University

M.A. (Sociology), Northwestern University

B.A. (Sociology and Anthropology, Concentration in Women's Studies) Swarthmore College

Michaela DeSoucey's appointment follows post-doctoral studies at Princeton University.  Her work brings together the culture of food with national and regional movements, using both historical and organizational approaches.  Her dissertation brings these perspectives to an analysis of contention over foie gras in France, the European Union, and the United States. DeSoucey's articles, published in such prestigious journals as American Sociological Review and Administrative Science Quarterly have been recognized with awards from the American Sociological Association's sections on political sociology, economic sociology, and the sociology of culture.

Huling Ding  joins the Department of English as Assistant Professor.

Ph.D. (Rhetoric and Composition), Purdue, 2007

M.A. (English), Northern Illinois University, 2002

B.A., Department of English for Medical Purposes, Xi'an Medical University, P.R. China, 1997

Huiling Ding taught Professional Communication at Clemson University for five years before coming to NC State University. Her research focuses on intercultural professional communication, rhetoric of medicine, risk communication, and health communication. Her articles have appeared in Technical Communication Quarterly, Written Communication, Business Communication Quarterly, Rhetoric Review, English for Specific Purposes, and China Media Research. Others are forthcoming in Rhetoric, Professional Communication, and Globalization and Journal of Medical Humanities. She has recently finished a book manuscript on the transcultural communication about the global epidemic of SARS.

Michelle R. Eley joins the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures as Assistant Professor of German.

Ph.D. (German Studies), Duke University, 2012

B.A. (German), University of North Carolina at Asheville, 2004

Michelle Eley's research and teaching interests include German literature and cinema, African Diaspora, gender and race, and critical media literacy. Her current research explores narratives of racism, race, and identity in German film since World War II and focuses on the historical development of resistance to dominant national identity narratives in film productions. She has lived in a number of cities throughout Germany, including Essen, where she conducted research and lectured on cinematic interpretations of literature and race discourse in film at the University of Essen-Duisburg.

Marcie Fisher-Borne joins the Department of Social Work as an Assistant Professor.

Ph.D. (Social Work), University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2009

M.S.W., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2004

M.P.H., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2003

B.A. (Women and Gender Studies and Philosophy), Louisiana State University, 1997

Before coming to NC State, Marcie Fisher-Borne served as the director of evidence-based practice for the American Cancer Society. For the last seven years, she has also served as adjunct faculty within the Department of Social Work at UNC Chapel Hill, teaching coursework on community organizing, nonprofit leadership and programming planning and evaluation. Fisher-Borne's research interests involve identifying community-driven strategies to address health inequalities and understanding social determinants of health. She spent four years with the UNC-CH Center for Infectious Disease as a research associate with Project STYLE (Strength through Youth Living Empowered), the first federally funded HIV care and research project for adolescent men of color in the Southeast. Her dissertation was an outgrowth of the work of Project STYLE and involved the development and evaluation of a mixed methods study testing a cultural competency intervention for health care providers in North Carolina.

Ryan J. Hurley joins the Department of Communication as Assistant Professor of Communication.

Ph.D. (Speech Communication), University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2009

M.A. (Speech Communication), Kansas State University, 2003

B.A. (Communication Studies), Concordia College, 2001

Hurley's research focuses on new media and health information dissemination coming from a media content and effects perspective. For example, he has demonstrated that cancer news differs between sources as a result of the news aggregation process employed by websites such as Google News and Yahoo! News, which collect information from thousands of outlets simultaneously. His work has been published in top journals in communication, such as Communication Monographs, Journal of Communication, Public Understanding of Science, Journal of Health Communication, and Media Psychology among others.

Chelsey Juarez joins the Department of Sociology and Anthropology as an Assistant Professor of Anthropology. She will teach primarily in the area of forensic anthropology and will participate in the creation of the university's Institute of Forensics.

Ph.D. (Physical Anthropology), University of California-Santa Cruz

M.A. (Anthropology), University of California-Santa Cruz

B.A. (Anthropology/Women's Studies), University of California-Berkeley

In her recently completed dissertation, Juarez develops methods useful to start the identification of undocumented immigrants who die crossing the U.S.-Mexican border.  She uses stable isotope analysis of teeth to determine the birth place of the deceased, as she describes in the highly-regarded Journal of Forensic Sciences.  Her work more generally applies chemical methods to geolocation. She continues the application of forensic science to issues associated with undocumented immigration. Her doctoral work included additional specialization in Latin American and Latino Studies.

Richard Mahoney has been named director of the School of Public and International Affairs. SPIA encompasses political science, public administration, the master's of international studies program, and several leadership development programs.

J.D., Arizona State University, 1980

M.A., Ph.D. (International Relations), the John Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, 1980

B.A. (History), Princeton University, 1973

C.E.P. (Economics), Institut D'etudes Politiques de Paris, 1971

For the past four years,  Richard Mahoney  has held the Elizabeth Evans Baker Professorship of Peace and Conflict Studies at Juniata College in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, where he directed the Baker Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies. He was Secretary of State of Arizona for four years in the 1990s. Mahoney is considered one of the leading historians in the United States on the Kennedys and was the John F. Kennedy Scholar at the University of Massachusetts. He writes and consults on international security and is currently completing a book on regime change to be published by Oxford University Press.

Levi McLaughlin  joins the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies as Assistant Professor of Religious Studies.

Ph.D. (Religious Studies) Princeton University, 2009

M.A. (East Asian Studies) University of Toronto, 1998

B.A. (Japanese Studies) University of Toronto, 1996

Levi McLaughlin is a specialist in East Asian religions. He was Assistant Professor at Wofford College from 2009 until 2012 and a Postdoctoral Scholar at the University of Iowa's Center for Asian and Pacific Studies in 2011-2012. He has done extensive research in Japan and has been a Visiting Research Fellow at the Asia Research Institute, University of Singapore. An expert on the lay Buddhist group Sōka Gakkai, Japan's largest active religious organization, McLaughlin is completing a book entitled How to Cultivate a Mass Movement: Buddhism and Romantic Heroism in Sōka Gakkai. His future projects will include a reconsideration of the category "new religion" through a case study of the group Kenshōkai in Japan, and collaborative investigations of religion, natural disaster, and the state in modern Asia.

Shea McManus has been appointed jointly to the Department of Sociology and Anthropology and to the CHASS interdisciplinary program in International Studies, specifically the Middle East Studies program. She will serve as an Assistant Professor of Anthropology and teach cultural anthropology with a focus on the Middle East.

Ph.D. (Anthropology), Graduate Center, City University of New York

M.Phil. (Anthropology), Graduate Center, City University of New York

M.A. with distinction (Sociology), Goldsmiths College, University of London

B.A.  summa cum laude (Political Science), Honors College, Arizona State University

Shea McManus's recently completed dssertation is a critical ethnography of transitional justice in postwar Lebanon. Her work ranges across institutions, actors, discourses, sensibilities, and subjectivities to inform global arguments about the expanding scope of international law, democracy, and human rights.  Much of her field work was with mothers of "the disappeared," women who have continued their mobilization for many years after the war.

Jeff Mielke   joins the Department of English as Associate Professor of Linguistics.

Ph.D. (Linguistics), the Ohio State University, 2004

M.A. (Linguistics), the Ohio State University, 1999

B.A. (Japanese), University of Washington, 1997

Jeff Mielke uses laboratory and computational techniques to investigate linguistic sound systems in his research about the interaction of physiological, cognitive, social, and other factors. His current work includes projects on the relationship between autism and the mental representation of speech, and changes occurring in Canadian French vowels. This year he will build a phonology laboratory for using ultrasound imaging and other tools to study variation in the production and perception of speech sounds in English and other languages. Mielke spent two years as a postdoc at the University of Arizona and six years as a professor at the University of Ottawa before coming to NC State University.

John Millhauser joins the Department of Sociology and Anthropology as Assistant Professor of Anthropology.  He will teach primarily archaeology.

Ph.D. (Anthropology), Northwestern University

M.A. (Anthropology), Arizona State University

B.A. magna cum laude (Anthropology), Brown University

Millhauser studies salt making in Mexico in the post-classical and colonial periods.  His focus on technique, craft, and community could be said to bring a cultural anthropologist's focus to the past. He has contributed to archaeological methods via portable X-ray fluorescence, as documented in the well-regarded Journal of Archaeological Science.

James Mulholland  joins the Department of English as Assistant Professor.

Ph.D. (English), Rutgers, New Brunswick, 2005

M.A., University of Washington

B.A. (English), University of Virginia, 1997

Mulholland's work focuses on the global 18^th century, with a focus primarily on British poetry and Anglo-Indian literature. His book Sounding Imperial: Poetic Voice and the Politics of Empire, 1730-1820 (Johns Hopkins, 2013) uncovers the close relationship between the evolution of 18^th century poetry, the creation of a British nation, and colonial expansion overseas. His next project focuses on the Indian Ocean world and argues for the importance of regional-not just international-dynamics for emergence of Anglo-Indian literature during the 18^th century. In addition to teaching 18^th century literature and culture, he has interests in theories of orality, book history, and sound studies, globalization, and the literature of 9/11.

Alexander ‘Sasha' Newell becomes an Assistant Professor of Anthropology in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology. He will teach cultural anthropology with an emphasis on Africa.

Ph.D. (Anthropology), Cornell University

MA (Anthroplogy), Cornell University

BA (Social Anthropology), Reed College

Sasha Newell's research focuses on the social life of objects and the role of materiality in the production of culture. His book, The Modernity Bluff: Crime, Consumption, and Citizenship in Côte d'Ivoire, describes how urban African youth consume European and U.S. brands in an effort to perform "modern" success. Such performances, involving dance, slang, and conspicuous consumption, are recognized as bluffing, but imitation is appreciated as an art form rather than scorned as artifice. Newell is currently engaged in a new research project on storage space, memory, and role of stored objects in the production of kinship in U.S. culture.

Jennifer Nolan-Stinson joins the Department of English as Assistant Professor.

Ph.D. (American Studies), University of Maryland, College Park, 2008

M.A. (English Language and Literature), University of Virginia, 2001

B.A. (English and Philosophy), University of Texas at Austin, 1998

Jennifer Nolan-Stinson is an interdisciplinary scholar of 20^th century American literature, culture, and reading practices whose research and teaching fall at the intersections of literary studies, reception studies, cultural studies, and book history. She is currently completing her book manuscript, Reading Alone, which offers detailed ethnographic studies of three readers who came of age during the unprecedented expansion of book publishing in the United States following World War II. She is also interested in the materiality of the book and has begun a project on the role of the paperback revolution in shaping how American literature is marketed, understood, and received.

Nick Taylor has been appointed to the Department of Communication as Assistant Professor of Digital Media.

Ph.D. (Language, Culture and Teaching), York University, 2009

M.A. (Communication and Culture), York University, 2003

B.A. (Humanities), Carleton University, 2001

Nick Taylor is an ethnographer whose research and teaching charts the intersections of gender, digital media and play. His interests include designing educational games, conducting fieldwork with digital gaming communities, and exploring audio-visual research methodologies. These pursuits are united by a curiosity for the communicative potentials of digital media, and by an awareness of the inequities associated with their use. Prior to joining NC State, Nick worked as a post-doctoral fellow on a three-year collaborative study between York University (Toronto) and SRI International, in which he managed an international study of communication, sociality and identity in online role-playing games.

 

 

Social Networking Pays Off More in the U.S. than in Germany

New research from NC State University's Department of Sociology and Anthropology shows that informal social networks play an important role when it comes to finding jobs in both the United States and Germany. But those "who you know" networks are significantly more important for high-paying jobs in the United States  - which may contribute to economic inequality.
"It is interesting to note that the open market system in the United States, with minimal labor regulations, actually sees people benefiting more from patronage - despite the expectation that open markets would value merit over social connections," says Richard Benton, a  sociology Ph.D. candidate at NC State who co-authored the research.
The researchers looked at nationally representative survey data from the United States and Germany to compare the extent to which people find new jobs through "informal recruitment." Informal recruitment occurs when a person who is not looking for a new job is approached with a job opportunity through social connections.
The study shows that, on average, informal recruitment is significantly more common in Germany, where approximately 40 percent of jobs are filled through informal recruitment - as opposed to approximately 27 percent of jobs in the United States.
However, the jobs people find through informal recruitment in the United States. are much more likely to be high-wage managerial positions. Specifically, in the United States, the odds that a job will be filled via informal recruitment increase by two percent for every dollar of hourly wage that the job pays.
For example, the odds that jobs paying $40 per hour ($80,000 per year) will be filled through informal recruitment are about 66 percent better than the odds that a minimum-wage job ($7.25 per hour) will be filled through informal recruitment.
By comparison, the researchers found that wages in Germany did not appear to be linked to how workers found their jobs.
"Ultimately, this suggests that U.S. economic institutions offer greater rewards to sponsorship and nepotism than what we see elsewhere, which could help to explain why inequality is so extreme here." says Dr. Steve McDonald, an associate professor of sociology at NC State and lead author of the paper.
The paper, "Dual Embeddedness: Informal Job Matching and Labor Market Institutions in the United States and Germany," was published online July 19 in the journal Social Forces. The paper was co-authored by Dr. David Warner of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. The research was supported by NC State's College of Humanities and Social Sciences.
by Matt Shipman, NC State News Services

Correspondence from an Extraordinary Alum Abroad

Hi Dr. Braden,

What a delight to read about your recent trip to China. I relate instantly to your frustrations over having complex ideas and thoughts to share, but limited means (due to a language barrier) in which to share them.

I wanted to take this opportunity to comment on your experience as well as to update you of what I've been up to since graduating CHASS in May 2011. I worked for  a year in Philadelphia for two women's NGOs and am now working as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Indonesia. When I arrived in Indonesia this past April, I literally didn't speak a word of Indonesian.

Despite my studies of French and Arabic while a student in CHASS, I never dreamed I would live for two years in Indonesia, a place where the two foreign languages I already knew aren't of much help. (the Arabic does come in handy as a hat trick conversation topic in the largest Muslim country in the world). After almost four months in Indonesia, intensive language training from Peace Corps, and full immersion in my Indonesian village, I'm at an 'Advanced Intermediate' level of speaking Indonesian and am studying and learning more each day. Language is integral to communication and I often find myself settling on a simplified answer to a complex question merely because my Indonesian language depth can't take my listener to my true answer. It's frustrating at times but serves as motivation for my acquiring more language.

I agree with your vision of encouraging students to step outside of experiences abroad that keep them isolated in an English-speaking, American outside-

looking-in environment that perhaps many of NC State's study abroad programs implement. While a CHASS undergraduate, I completed three distinct

experiences abroad: a summer NC State study abroad program in Egypt; a semester study abroad in Morocco through an outside abroad program, AMIDEAST; a summer internship working in a town hall in France, arranged independently with the help of a professor.

Each of these experiences required language skills and they were increasingly more culturally integrated experiences. Starting with Egypt, I was with American

students from my home university. We took classes in Arabic but a lot, if not all, of our discussions were in English. We lived in a hotel and spent free time exploring Cairo together, as Americans observing another culture. In Morocco, I branched out a bit more, living with a Moroccan family, making Moroccan friends and having an experience unique from any other NC State peer at that time. Then in France, I moved to a town, worked, and lived independently of any Americans.

Each of my international experiences contributed to the next. Maybe I never would have been able to successfully live in France alone for a summer if I hadn't had two prior experiences abroad with the cushion of English native speakers surrounding me. However, I can't help but note that the two non-NC State

experiences abroad were largely and, at times, painstakingly self-driven. It was very challenging to find and arrange  a semester in Morocco and a summer in France.

What can be done to expand the international experiences available to NC State's globally curious and intelligent students? I understand that students like myself help forge paths for others to follow, and I hope that many others step outside the NC State Study Abroad brochure if their interests lie beyond an English-speaking, American-oriented experience. I understand that travel concerns from students and parents perhaps are a principal reason why NCSU's study abroad programs aren't more abundant and culturally far-reaching (i.e. only a select few programs in the Middle East, SE Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, and SE Asia). Maybe those programs will form only with an increased interest and demand for them to form. I wholeheartedly believe that NCSU's students, especially those culturally curious ones in CHASS, would seize opportunities to study and learn in places off the beaten path and outside of an American-dominated perspective.

I want to clarify that I in no way mean to imply that my NC State study abroad in Egypt wasn't a good experience. It was wonderful and integral to my professional and academic development. I wanted to share my thoughts and experiences on this topic as a means of encouraging and supporting NC State's growth as an institution that nurtures global, culturally intelligent citizens.

My service as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Indonesia is the apex of my international exploits thus far. It is challenging and enlightening every day. I am certain that I am able to deal with the ups and downs of Peace Corps service because at the base of my competency is my education at NC State as a CHASS student and Park scholar.

Please check out my blog if you have time: shiftchangego.wordpress.com

I would love to hear further thoughts on this and will be looking out for the great things CHASS students and faculty continue to achieve.

Best,

Katie Starr

NC State University, 2011

B.A. International Studies

B.A. French Foreign Language

2011 Park Scholar

Peace Corps Indonesia Volunteer, 2012-2014