CIEE Announces 2016 and 2017 Annual Conference Themes

CIEE announced today the themes for its 69th and 70th annual conferences on international education.

CIEE’s 2016 Annual Conference will focus on the importance of engaging faculty in the development of international education programs and will be held in Los Angeles, CA, November 16-19, 2016.

“Faculty are the heart and soul of the university, shaping each institution’s curriculum, research agenda, service initiatives, and serving as student mentors and role models. Today, trends in international education are calling faculty from every academic discipline to lead the development of new international programs in areas such as business, education, health sciences, and STEM disciplines that augment and complement more traditional international programs in the humanities, languages, and social sciences. Facilitating that trend will require a rich collaboration between faculty and experienced study abroad professionals who are well versed in developing and implementing high-quality international programs,” says James P. Pellow, Ed.D., president and CEO of CIEE.

CIEE’s 69th Annual Conference theme, “Study Abroad 2016: Partnering with Faculty to Expand Global Education,” will serve as a springboard for a multi-part dialogue dealing with critical issues shared by study abroad professionals and the constituencies they serve. Conference presenters will be encouraged to submit proposals that demonstrate best practices for collaborating with faculty to expand the portfolio of high-quality international programs for students from all academic disciplines.

“The trends in study abroad are clear,” says Maritheresa Frain, Ph.D., executive vice president for study abroad at CIEE. “For the last two decades, there has been a dramatic increase in the number of faculty leading study abroad programs, as well as an increase in non-traditional academic disciplines interested in international programs including global programs focusing on business, STEM majors, and health sciences. In response, we need to expand our conversation and share best practices for supporting these trends, especially in the area of collaborating with faculty.”

CIEE’s 2016 Annual Conference will serve as an opportunity for universities to share best practices in how faculty and study abroad professionals collaborate on advancing institutional objectives. Questions that might be addressed include: How do we build a more robust framework for collaboration? How can study abroad professionals collaborate with faculty to help students from all socio-economic backgrounds, and all academic majors, participate in high-quality study abroad programs? How are students pursuing the most challenging academic majors finding ways to study abroad, with faculty leading the charge? How can we jointly overcome the primary barriers to study abroad: cost, curriculum, and culture? How are innovative institutions leveraging technology to facilitate and enhance faculty-directed international study?

2017 Annual Conference will Highlight the Use of Technology to Enhance International Education
With preparations well under way for 2016, CIEE also announced that their 2017 Annual Conference will center on how best to leverage and manage technology to achieve learning and program goals. While many faculty and study abroad professionals loath the proliferation of technology and smart phones in university settings and yearn for a return to the days when students were completely offline during international programs, our reality is that the world has changed and is interconnected like no other time in history. Today’s world is connected via the internet, social media, and a 24/7 news cycle. Our students travel with the world in their pockets. Our challenge is to find the most positive ways to embrace technology to enrich international learning opportunities for a generation that was born after the founding of Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.

The 2017 Annual Conference, “Born Digital: Embracing Technology to Enhance International Education,” will be held in Austin, Texas (November 8–11, 2017).

For additional information on CIEE Annual Conferences, please contact: Anne Gray, senior manager, CIEE Annual Conference, at AGray@ciee.org.