Dwight King, NIU political science professor emeritus and former director of the Center for Southeast Asian Studies, was honored last month by Indonesian Ambassador to the United States Dr. Dino Patti Djalal. Djalal traveled to DeKalb from Washington, D.C., to present King with an “Award of Distinction for Lifetime Contribution to the Understanding of Indonesia.”...

The Center for Southeast Asian Studies (CSEAS) will present a photographic exploration of Islamic cultures across Southeast Asia in “Islamic Cultures in Reflection,” an exhibit opening at 4 p.m. Monday, March 5, at the Holmes Student Center’s Gallery Lounge. The exhibit will kick off a series of  events over the next year planned to mark ...

It’s a cool concept: Turn Peace Corps volunteers into an army of travel authors. That’s the aim of a new startup publishing house, Other Places Publishing, and NIU’s Thomas Rhoden, a doctoral student in political science, is one of its word-wielding soldiers. For seven years, Rhoden made Thailand his second home, experiencing and exploring the...

Two engineering professors from Universiti Malaysia Pahang, Malaysia’s premier engineering school, are visiting NIU this week. UMP engineering professors Wan Azhar bin Wan Yusoff and Kamal bin Yusoh will present the latest research at the school’s Center for Academic Innovation and Competitiveness. The presentation begins at 2:30 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 25, in Room 358 of...

NIU is front and center in the current push by the U.S. and Indonesian governments, announced in 2010 by President Barack Obama, to strengthen higher education in Indonesia through educational exchanges and university partnerships. The Center for Southeast Asian Studies (CSEAS) and the Division of International Programs have been taking the lead in leveraging NIU’s...

In celebration of the sesquicentennial of Jose P. Rizal’s birth, Consul General Leo M. Herrera-Lim of the Consulate General of the Philippines Chicago will donate copies of the original manuscripts of two of Rizal’s famous novels to NIU. The novels “Noli Me Tangere” (Touch Me Not) and “El Filibusterismo” (The Reign of Greed), published by the National Historical...

Members of the Southeast Asia Club of NIU invites the campus community to Southeast Asian Culture Night, scheduled from 6 to 8 p.m. Friday, April 15, in the auditorium of Wirtz Hall. The event will showcase the rich cultural diversity found in Southeast Asia from student and guest performances. Admission is free, and free appetizers will be served for all to...

Five of seven current and retired Center for Southeast Asian Studies (CSEAS) associates who served as volunteers in the Peace Corps, and whose lives changed course through their experiences, came recently to the center’s weekly lecture series to hear CSEAS graduate assistant Maria “Rai” Hancock tell the story of NIU’s formative role in the early days...

NIU’s Susan Russell, a cultural anthropologist and former director of the Center for Southeast Asian Studies, has a new title: member of the indigenous Manobo tribe of the Philippines. For the past eight years, Russell has directed a U.S. Department of State-funded initiative to bring peace to a conflict-torn region of the Philippines. Each year,...

History graduate student Maria ‘Rai’ Hancock will explore NIU’s rich Peace Corps heritage during a public lecture from noon to 12:50 p.m. Friday in Room 110 of the Campus Life Building. The presentation, titled “Connecting Globally, Locally: NIU, Southeast Asia, and the Peace Corps,” honors the memory of the late R. Sargent Shriver, founder and first...

The parties were gathered Tuesday morning in the Lincoln Room at the Holmes Student Center: Japan, Micronesia, the United Nations, the World Wildlife Fund and the U.S. Department of State. Their task: to resolve a mounting depletion of Pacific fish population by getting everyone at the table to agree to the same plan of action...

A reception recognizing the Outstanding International Educator for 2010 and a panel discussion featuring current study abroad program directors providing information on preparing to lead a study abroad program will headline International Education Week 2010 at NIU. A joint initiative of the U.S. Department of State and the U.S. Department of Education, International Education Week...