Get ready for adventures in international education

By Cynthia Lee

No need to book a flight for this international excursion. Next week, there's an opportunity for all faculty, staff and students to go global without leaving campus.

For the first time, UCLA will join campuses across the country in celebrating international education and exchange worldwide. International Education Week is a joint initiative of the U.S. departments of State and Education.

Running throughout the week of Nov. 13 will be events — lectures, a traveling photographic exhibition, discussions, gatherings and more — demonstrating UCLA's global reach and the many ways the campus community can be part of it.

You'll be able to learn about documentary film-making in India, listen to the adventures of a former foreign minister of Thailand, explore the possibility of having your own international career and discover how 9/11 and globalization have affected international educational exchanges.

Hear different perspectives about the Middle East at a Nov. 13 conference/workshop on jihadism and jihadi movements sponsored by the Center for Near Eastern Studies. The keynote address: "Osama Bin Laden as Media Star: The Making of an Information Age Anti-Hero," to be delivered by Bruce Lawrence of Duke University.

Staff members can come and hear students just back from studying abroad, as well as UCLA's international students, talk about adapting to different cultures. There will be international food and entertainment as well (noon-1:30 p.m. at the L.A. Tennis Center on Nov. 14), hosted by the Student Affairs Staff Diversity Committee. RSVP is required.

Representatives from the Peace Corps and other organizations will be discussing opportunities to work abroad (Noon-2 p.m. at Ackerman Viewpoint Conference Room, Nov. 14).

Opera/theater director Peter Sellars, a world arts and cultures professor and a renowned innovator on the international arts scene, describes what a major research university can do if it cuts across disciplines and reaches beyond the campus. He lectures Nov. 14 at noon at the CNSI Auditorium.

International Education Week at UCLA is sponsored by the Career Center, Dashew Center for International Students and Scholars, UCLA Go Global, the Office of Residential Life and several other campus units — all to encourage the free flow of ideas, students and scholars across international borders.

To see a complete schedule of events, go to www.goglobal.ucla.edu/iewcalendar.htm.