International Institute celebrates 10 years as portal to the world

Gilles Bousquet has been dean of International Studies and director of the International Institute since 2002 and is a professor of French. When the institute was founded 10 years ago as a joint initiative of the Division of International Studies and the College of Letters and Science, he was program director of the European Studies Program, one of 13 member programs, including five federally funded Title VI National Resource Centers (NRC). Today, there are 16 member programs and nine federally funded centers or programs within the Institute.

Wisconsin Week: Why was the institute created?

Gilles Bousquet: The institute was created to bring together programs that had been scattered geographically across campus and to create more of a community of faculty, staff and students interested in regional and global issues. I remember from the point of view of the director of a small program with no external resources that it was very beneficial to be able to go down the hall and talk to Title VI NRC directors, to begin to envision how European studies could reach their level. And, indeed, there’s been spectacular growth in the study of Europe, where we now have four coordinated centers, all of them with external funds.

WW: What exactly does the institute do?

GB: It has three dimensions: knowledge, both in terms of research and teaching; outreach to the public; and “inreach,” creating bridges with areas of campus that are increasingly seeing their disciplines influenced by global issues and globalization. For instance, when the new Center for Global Health was established, the International Institute was an obvious partner.

WW: The institute has been called a portal to the world. It sounds more like an incubator.

GB: For me, a few words capture what the institute is and what its record is: excellence, collaboration and innovation.

WW: What does the institute do differently from departmental units?

GB: I think as knowledge evolves and as we analyze the complexity of contemporary issues, our department affiliations represent only one part of our scholarship. The institute is like an observatory of contemporary global life and by coming together as individuals and programs we can bring together north and south, east and west perspectives, and generate new knowledge. The institute represents an intellectual and professional capacity to make sense of our global world and address its critical challenges.

WW: What are the institute’s major achievements?

GB: The institute has been very effective at program building. It has been extraordinarily successful in extramural fund-raising, in particular through Title VI but also from other sources nationally and internationally. We have been able to foster very original research through our research circles that span the humanities, social sciences, the professional schools and now some of the sciences. Curricular innovation has been important. Institute programs have been able to create new courses and modules, particularly in the critical area of language teaching and very successful summer institutes that provide training in the less commonly taught languages.

WW: What has the institute contributed to the state of Wisconsin?

GB: The institute’s Center for World Affairs and the Global Economy is collaborating with the Center for Business Education and Research on major, sustained outreach to business around the state. People have turned to the institute for information and context during difficult times in our international life. We have also realized in the last decade that we will not be able to educate globally competent citizens unless we have a strong partnership with K-12 and have built a significant constituency and outstanding expertise in reaching out to teachers.

WW: How do you think the institute will look 10 years from now?

GB: We are celebrating the institute’s 10th anniversary not with a big splash but by showcasing the institute at work, what it does on a daily basis, the courses and conferences that will be taking place throughout the year. We are also taking stock of where we have been and where we think we should be going. I think the way international education is developing on campus, the role of the institute as a bridge builder will be even more pronounced than before. The institute also has a tremendous potential to reach out even further across the state, the nation and internationally.

WW: Why will we need an International Institute on campus in 2016?

GB: Our students increasingly will need to be globally competent citizens and professionals, able to enter the global economy and society knowing what world issues are about, having language and cultural proficiency, and an international educational experience. The institute is and will continue to be a core element of that education, and UW–Madison a model of the global research university.