Internationalization Mini-grants
Reports: 2006-2007

There were 25 applications for internationalization mini grants in fiscal year 2006-2007. Total funds available were $15,000 and proposals in past years were typically funded at the level up to $1,000. Part of the reports of funded projects are listed below:

1. Donald Truxillo, Department of Psychology

Portland State University was selected to serve as the center for coordinating research designs and data collection for our international group of researchers on the attitudes and behaviors of job applicants (ARCOS/ARCLES). Since receiving our mini-grant, we have:

• recruited researchers from 23 countries.
• developed a detailed set of guidelines for all participating researchers to follow.
• planned a series of coordinated field and laboratory studies, including proposed analyses.
• established a web site to enhance communication and share research ideas and measures: http://www.arc.pdx.edu/dev/neuj/arcos/
• had two meetings (4/26 and 4/29) with 15 of our international members at the Society for Industrial and Organizational Conference in New York. This is the premier international I/O Psychology conference.

At our New York meeting, we established members of our board of directors and our research agenda.

We are excited about how quickly our international project has come together. Our goal at this point is to begin data collection for our research, focusing on how hiring processes differ across nations and cultures, and how these affect the perceptions and expectations of job applicants.

2. Fernando Fabio Sanchez, Foreign Languages and Literatures

The Internationalization Mini Grant was fundamental for the successful realization of Cine-Lit VI, an international conference on film and fiction organized by members of Portland State University, Oregon State University, Portland Guadalajara Sister City Organization, and Northwest Film Institute, among
others, which took place from the 21st to the 24th of February, 2007, at Portland State campus. This Cine-Lit edition had the honor to invite five highly regarded film directors from Mexico, Spain and Latin America in general, Jaime Aparicio, Ricardo Benet, Andres Leon, Felipe Cazals, and Enrique Gabriel, who participated in the Round Table of Film Directors on February 23rd and in Q&A sessions after their film screenings as part of the Portland International Film Festival. More than one hundred and fifty scholars from the United States, Mexico, Canada and Europe attended the conference and read their papers.

Cine-Lit VI total expenditures were approximately $ 30,000.00. The $1,200.00 Internationalization Mini Grant was used to cover the cost of the printing of the conference flyers and programs.

3. Karen Marrongelle and Sean Larsen, Department of Mathematics & Statistics

Funds for this project were used to prepare a grant proposal to the National Science Foundation (NSF) under the Partnerships for International Research and Education (PIRE) program.The proposal was collaborative effort between PSU, San Diego State University, University of San Diego, University of Copenhagen (Denmark), Turino University (Italy), and Tel Aviv University (Israel) and addressed two pressing problems facing US and international institutions. First, the project aimed to catalyze a cultural change in participating U.S. institutions. To this end, we proposed to conduct studies to identify the parameters, challenges, and traits of collaborations between mathematics disciplinary faculty and mathematics educational researchers to better understand how best to foster collaborations that improve undergraduate teaching and learning, using mathematics as a case example. Our collective experience as mathematics education researchers serving in mathematics departments suggested that a major obstacle in reforming teaching at the undergraduate level lies in the way mathematics instructors typically view the nature of mathematics teaching and learning. There seems to be a considerable gulf between a typical mathematician's view of the problems and challenges of teaching undergraduate mathematics and the body of research findings on the learning and teaching of mathematics at this level. Thus, it is crucial to understand the nature of the conceptualizations of mathematics teaching by the two communities-research mathematicians and research mathematics educators-and the nature of collaboration between the two the communities that can advance the quality of mathematics teaching at the undergraduate level.

Our second goal was to conduct research that informs the critical juncture between secondary and post-secondary education and how mathematics disciplinary and mathematics educational researchers can collaboratively address this problem. We take as a basic premise that, while these two pressing problems can be addressed separately, systemic change will only come about when stakeholders across secondary and post-secondary education engage in problems of practice.

The National Science Foundation received 479 proposals in the PIRE program. Fifty were selected for further consideration (the NSF intended to fund 14-17 projects). Our proposal was not recommended for funding by the National Science Foundation; however we received very encouraging reviews. The panel felt that our proposed project was an important topic warranting international collaboration but pointed out that we did not offer a new model for international collaboration. Reviewers also encouraged us to expand the scope of our international partners (including, for instance, partners from Eastern Europe and/or Asia).

Funds were used to offset the cost of travel to San Diego for a partner's meeting and for print resources to be used for a future re-submission of this grant proposal.

4. Anne McClanan, Department of Art

The money I received for the grant went to two main areas: a student research assistant and a preliminary research trip. The class in Italy was postponed until 2008, but the grant still put in place important groundwork for it and a future course I have in mind.

The undergraduate research assistant, Heather McCambley, did a terrific job. Moreover her work connected with developing course materials for the class in Rome and Venice ended up inspiring her project for which she just became a McNair Scholar (her project is on the Church of San Marco in Venice). She did extensive work fleshing out the bibliography on various topics pertinent to the course, photocopying and making digital scans of materials to be used for the class.

The preliminary research trip allowed me to see the Icons from Sinai show, which displayed material that is normally inaccessible in a very unusual opportunity. This is pertinent to a class I have in mind later on about Christianity in Egypt and elsewhere in the Middle East, and also served as preparation for a subsequent trip in which I brought a group of PSU students to the exhibition.

5. Jan Haaken, Department of Psychology

This is my report on the $1200 internationalization mini grant that I received for the 2006-07 academic year. The funds were in support of an educational documentary film, carried out through the PSU Foundation, titled Moving to the Beat. The documentary focuses on how Black youth in Africa and America are using hip hop music as a way of communicating with one another and as a force for anti-violence activism and social change. Moving to the Beat grew out of my earlier work on the Sierra Leonean civil war, which included a documentary video and curriculum book. The Moving to the Beat documentary has included three separate trips to Sierra Leone with production crew, and has involved ongoing collaborations among youth in West Africa, South Africa, and the U.S. in all phases of the production process, including editing and screening sessions.

The $1200 mini grant allowed me to purchase an external hard drive and to hire an editor to assist in producing a series of work samples: a ten minute trailer, 25 minute and 46 minute rough cuts of the final documentary, and a photo slide show. The 25 minute trailer was screened at invited addresses where I spoke at the London School of Economics and Birkbeck College, University of London, in April 2007. Responses to the project on the part of faculty and students were extremely positive. We have included several of the work samples in proposals submitted for completion funds over the past month and expect to submit additional proposals over the summer. The goal is to complete the documentary by January 2008, including a version in Krio for distribution in Sierra Leone.

In addition to three PSU grants received in support of this project over the past two years, we have raised over $25,000 in individual contributions. We also are hopeful about additional support for completion costs. Recently, Tom Dogget, Vice President for programming at Oregon Public Broadcasting, wrote a letter of support for the documentary. After viewing the rough cut, he expressed his interest in broadcasting the documentary through their Independent Lens series.