NIU International Affairs has announced a record 11 Cobb Fellowships this year.
The fellowships will allow NIU faculty to establish new collaborations through travel to international destinations, including China, Kenya, Israel, Madagascar, Myanmar and South Korea.
“Cobb fellowships stimulate collaboration across borders to facilitate faculty research and long-lasting partnerships,” says Brad Bond, dean of the NIU Graduate School.
The Cobb program is funded through an endowment that was established from the estate of Lillian (“Pauline”) Cobb, who served as the first chair of the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures from 1930 to 1966.
It is a competitive grant program designed to promote the active involvement of tenured and tenure-track NIU faculty members in international travel that will enhance their on-campus programs.
The specific invitational priorities of the Cobb Faculty Travel Fellowship program may be adjusted each year to support particular aspects of the university’s strategic plan and mission. For the 2016 competition, two invitational priorities were identified: International Research Collaboration and New Study Abroad Program Development.
The 2016 Cobb Fellows
Abu Bah, Department of Sociology, who will travel to Kenya to develop the Center for Media, Democracy, Peace, and Security at Rongo University College in Kenya. Bah co-founded the center with Fredrick Ogenga.
Jon Briscoe, Department of Management, who will travel to Slovenia to work with Robert Kase at the University of Ljubljana to develop a cross-culturally valid scale of career success meanings.
King Chung, School of Allied Health and Communicative Disorders, who will travel to the Philippines to develop a study abroad research and service program for audiology students.
Courtney Gallaher, Department of Geography, who will travel to Tanzania to develop a study abroad program for environmental sciences students to focus on environmental management and physical geography in East Africa.
In-Sop Kim, School of Allied Health and Communicative Disorders, who will travel to South Korea to collaborate with Korean professionals on speech treatment options for patients with apraxia of speech.
Judy Ledgerwood, Department of Anthropology, who will travel to Cambodia to develop a study abroad program for community college faculty and NIU students to study in Cambodia and to increase collaborations among Cambodian institutions, NIU and U.S. community colleges.
Melissa Lenczewski, Department of Geology and Environmental Geosciences, who will travel to Myanmar to educate and train local students, faculty and professionals on groundwater development, well construction, well head protection and groundwater quality/sampling.
Mark Rosenbaum, Department of Marketing, who will travel to Israel to explore how Israeli Jews, Arabs and Druze internally grapple with the issue of working together with “adversarial” service providers.
Linda Saborio, Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures, who will travel to Costa Rica to develop a study abroad-internship program there.
Karen Samonds, Department of Biological Sciences, who will travel to Madagascar to develop a new collaborative research site in the region of Tsaramody, Sambaina Basin.
Lei Zhou, Department of Finance, who will travel to China to use data from the nascent but fast growing Chinese bond market to test if investors differentiate credit rating agencies (CRAs) based on their perceived reputation.
