International Travel Grants: Fostering research around the world

This spring KU International Affairs awarded more than $37,000 in travel grants to 16 KU faculty and graduate students to support research and collaboration abroad.

These competitively awarded funds were dispersed among faculty and students in the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences and schools of Architecture & Design, Education, Engineering and Music. Through these funds, faculty and students will travel to 11 countries on four continents to conduct research, access archives, collaborate with colleagues and strengthen international partnerships.

Grant Awardees

South, Southeast and East Asia Fund

This fund develops, strengthens and maintains institutional exchanges and academic collaborations between KU and counterparts at selected post-secondary institutions within Asia.

Hyesun Cho

The associate professor of curriculum and teaching will travel to South Korea to explore opportunities to develop a short-term program for U.S. educators and administrators. The visit will be the first step toward applying for a Fulbright Hays-Group Projects Abroad grant and an Academy of Korean Studies Educational and Cultural Program grant to establish Korean cross-cultural learning experiences and educational and cultural programs in the United States.

Kyoungchul Kong

The associate professor of physics and astronomy will conduct research on Large Hadron Collider physics with research groups in South Korea at Pusan National University, Yonsei University and Seoul National University.

Ian Lewis

The assistant professor of physics and astronomy will work with a collaborator at the Korean Advance Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) to study measurements of the properties of the Higgs boson to learn more about dark matter. Lewis will collaborate with Hye-Sung Lee, assistant professor of physics at KAIST.

Bo Luo

The professor of electronic engineering and computer science will conduct research at the Japan Advance Institute of Science and Technology (JAIST) with Razvan Beuran, research associate professor at JAIST. The research will focus on smart grid security.

Kapila Silva

The associate professor of architecture will travel to Sri Lanka to conduct research for a book project on the vernacular architecture of the Kandyan era, which he is undertaking with Dhammika Chandrasekara, dean of the faculty of architecture at the University of Moratuwa.

International Enhancement Grants

These grants support graduate students pursuing semester or summer-long internationally-focused academic or training opportunities in Latin America that will enhance their degree program at KU.;

Tobin Jenning

A master’s student in indigenous studies will travel to Antigua, Guatemala to attend language and culture courses in Kaqchikel, expanding upon his education at KU.

Pre-Dissertation Travel Grant

This grant supports six- to eight-week trips for preliminary dissertation field activities taking place in Latin America.

Daniel Sarvestani

A doctoral student in anthropology will collect preliminary data to better explore how notions of cultural identity, belonging and indigeneity have developed in relation to Indigenous Peoples Rights Discourses among the Maya Chorti peoples of Honduras.

International Travel Fund for Humanities Research

This fund supports KU faculty pursuing international humanities research abroad. The funds are intended for summer research projects and provide funding for airfare and related travel expenses.

Andrew Denning

The associate professor of history will conduct archival research at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Royal Museum of Central Africa in Brussels for his book on roads, mobility and the making of colonial Africa.

Alex Diener

The associate professor of geography will travel to three key centers of place attachment research in Sweden to access databases and work with leading scholars in the field for a book project.

Dale Dorsey

The professor of philosophy will accept the Plumer Fellowship at St. Anne’s College, Oxford, to work on a project about British moralists of the early modern period. The grant will support travel and accommodations.

Diane Fourny

The associate professor of French and humanities will conduct research using archives and the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris to study scholarly debates during the Enlightenment over Chinese civilization.

Marike Janzen

The associate professor of humanities will attend and observe Berlin’s International Literature Festival, which is engaging with the theme of the refugee. Janzen’s research will contribute to her book project.

Marcy Lascano

The professor of philosophy will study four texts housed at the University of Cambridge, United Kingdom for a research project on the 17th-century philosopher Anne Conway.

Margaret Marco

The professor of music will travel to Tashkent, Uzbekistan, to research Uzbek oboe composer Polina Medyulyanova. Also, she will perform as the featured oboe soloist with the National Symphony Orchestra and Chamber Orchestra of Turkistan at an international music festival organized by KU alumnus Shah Sadikov.

Peter Ojiambo

The associate professor of African and African-American studies will travel to Kenya to collect data through archival and audio-visual materials in the Kenyan National Archives and to conduct interviews related to Eddah Waceke Gachukia, a leading woman educator, for his current book project.

Rami Zeedan

The assistant professor of Jewish studies will travel to Israel to research the history of the integration of Arabs into the Israeli Defense Force at the Israeli Defense Forces Archives and the Israel State Archives.