My name is Gisela Sin, and I am the IGI acting Executive Director for the 24-25 academic year. I want to thank everybody at IGI, and its centers and programs as you have all been very helpful in my transition to this new role. I’ll be serving in this capacity while Jerry Dávila is spending the year as a Presidential Fellow at the Office of the President of the University of Illinois System, concentrating on his forthcoming book and the development of the Brasillinois initiative. I am looking forward to an exciting year at IGI.
To those of you who might not know me, I am a professor in Political Science, and for the last four years have served as Director of the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies. My research explores how the separation of powers among the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of government causes members of one branch to anticipate the future behavior of members of the other branches when formulating policy. I investigate these institutional actors in Latin America and the United States
This newsletter gives us the opportunity to welcome all the new faces we have at the IGI, its centers, and programs. First, the Illinois Global Institute has a newly appointed Faculty Director for South Asian Studies within the Center for South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies (CSAMES). Rini Mehta’s appointment is the first step toward the creation of dedicated units in Middle Eastern and in South Asian Studies, which will strengthen both areas at the U of I. This appointment provides us with a greater ability to focus on both South Asian and on Middle Eastern Studies, concentrating capacity in both regions. You can read more from Dr. Mehta elsewhere in this newsletter.
CSAMES also has a new center Director, Eric Calderwood (Comparative Literature). We have three additional new directors, Angela Di Fulvio (Nuclear, Plasma, and Radiological Engineering) at ACDIS, Matt Winters (Political Science) at CEAPS, and Min Zhan (Social Work) at WGGP, two new acting Directors, Jessica R. Greenberg at EUC and Andrew Orta at CLACS (both from Anthropology), and two returning Directors, Terri Barnes (History) at CAS, and John Karam (Spanish and Portuguese) at the Lemann Center. They are providing leadership and vision for the centers in the last year before we embark on a new round of Title VI proposals. Welcome!
This year we are also celebrating the 25th Anniversary of one of our National Resource Centers, the Center for Global Studies (CGS). For 25 years, CGS has worked toward fulfilling its mission “to promote and support innovative research to better understand global issues confronting the world’s populations and identify ways to cope with and resolve these challenges.” This is no small accomplishment, and we recognize the hard work of past CGS staff and current administration who are responsible for their many initiatives, among them the International Studies Research Lab; Scholar-in-Residence Program; Global Intersections; Spurlock Big History Program; and the Collaborative for Cultural Heritage Management and Policy at the University of Illinois. Furthermore, and along with ACDIS and WGGP, CGS is working to offer a Master of Science In Global Studies, which would allow for three tracks: (1) Global Security; (2) Gender and Public Policy; and (3) Global Governance.
As you see, we at IGI are excited at all that is going on here and urge you to attend our events, investigate our academic and scholarship opportunities, and keep in touch with us through social media!
Best,
Gisela Sin
Gisela Sin (Pronouns: she/her/hers)
Norman P. Jones Professorial Scholar
LAS Dean’s Distinguished Professorial Scholar
Acting Executive Director, Illinois Global Institute
Professor, Department of Political Science
University of Illinois