giving to Macalester

Exploring Compelling Issues Facing China and the East Asian Region
Erik Wiertelak, Psychology, and 12 other Macalester professors who took part in the 2006 Faculty Development International Seminar in China

“Our teaching and research force us to be niche players,” says Macalester psychology professor Eric Wiertelak. “On the Faculty Development International Seminar you get to be a liberal arts student again.”

The Faculty Development International Seminar engages up to 15 Macalester faculty members in a three-week intensive seminar involving academic presentations, educational field visits and opportunities for research with overseas colleagues. The sixth biannual seminar in May/June 2006 took Macalester faculty from 11 disciplines to East Asia where they grappled, both intellectually and through hands-on personal experience, with compelling issues facing China and the region. Previous seminars have taken place in Turkey, Malaysia, South Africa, Brazil and Hungary.

FDIS since 1995

Over 70 Macalester professors have participated in a 3-week Faculty Development International Seminar with overseas colleagues since its inception 11 years ago.

Turkey 2004
"Hybrid Geographies in the Eastern Mediterranean: A View from the Bosphorus"

Malaysia 2002
"Malaysia: Crossroads of Diversity in Southeast Asia"

South Africa 2000
"Transformation and Multiculturalism in the New Millennium”

Brazil 1997
“Landscape, Culture and Globalization: Views from Brazil”

Hungary 1995
“Transition and Globalization in Central and Eastern Europe”

“It was a fundamentally life changing experience,” says Wiertelak, who studied Chinese medicine as part of this year’s contingent. “It changes your worldview and makes you confront all your assumptions.” Wiertelak is director of Macalester’s Cognitive and Neuroscience Studies Program and his current research involves neurophysiological response mechanisms exploring pain modulation and natural remedies. As part of the seminar, he enjoyed a personal visit to the Chinese institutes that are the national research, teaching and health care centers for traditional medicines, acupuncture and moxibustion--the burning of plant material for its counterirritant effect.

“These connections could lead to scholarly exchanges and possible internships for our students,” says Wiertelak, “as well as giving us direct access to formulae and extracts we want to work with in our lab.”
Spending three weeks with Macalester colleagues in other disciplines was another benefit of the experience. “I can’t tell you how this informed my view of the people who are colleagues for me at the college. You can become isolated in your department or your discipline… [FDIS] really expanded my community on campus.”

The format and content of the seminar is designed to fit the intellectual and cross-cultural interests of both Macalester College and our host partners. It focuses on selected themes of great importance to the region, while also providing some insights into other issues in the sciences, the arts, the humanities and the social sciences. Meditative essays written by Macalester participants in the seminar as well as commissioned papers by scholars from the region will be published in the journal Macalester International.

When you support Macalester’s Annual Fund, you support important work everywhere.