Seven Syracuse Abroad Faculty Selected as Global Innovation Fund Recipients

Seven Syracuse Abroad instructors have been selected for 2018-19 Global Innovation Fund awards. The fund supports Syracuse Abroad center faculty in their professional development, their contributions to Syracuse University’s general intellectual and academic culture abroad, and their pedagogical innovation.

The fund was announced in January 2018. This is the second round of grant recipients. All faculty members at Syracuse Abroad centers are eligible.

“The Global Innovation Fund, by providing necessary resources to instructors, helps us attract top-quality faculty members. And it reinforces Syracuse Abroad’s mission to consistently provide students with unique, high-quality, global learning experiences that are steeped in the academic excellence for which Syracuse University is known,” says Petra Hejnova, Syracuse Abroad director of curriculum and academic services.

This round’s recipients and projects are:

Sean Nelson, instructor at Syracuse Florence, developed a GPS-based augmented reality game for selected history of art courses at the Florence Center. Nelson repurposed the functions of an application called Action Bound to map out an interactive scavenger hunt that uses the GPS function on smartphones to link preprogrammed prompts to specific locations in the city in order to create a historical narrative in which students participate. This in turn helped students actively conceptualize key events of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance.

Alessandra Adriani and Francesca Bea, instructors at Syracuse Florence, will participate in the pedagogical workshop “’Grammatica si, grammatica no.’ Modelli metodologici per portare la grammatica in classe.” [Translation: “Grammar Yes, Grammar No: Methodologies for Bringing Grammar into the Classroom.”] The workshop is sponsored by the Progetto Lingua Italiana Dante Alighieri and will give Adriani and Bea the opportunity to learn about new language teaching methodologies and how to integrate learning technologies into the classroom experience.

Gregorio Astengo, instructor at Syracuse London, presented the paper “The Compleat Architect: Joseph Moxon’s Vignola in 17thC London” at the 72nd annual International Conference of the Society of Architectural Historians in Providence, Rhode Island.

Meghan Callahan, instructor at Syracuse London, chaired a session called “Vasari on Jews, Michelangelo and Miracles” at the Renaissance Society of America annual meeting in Toronto, Canada.

Eric Nicholson, instructor at Syracuse Florence, will do the final edit and publication of “The Lovers’ Debates,” the first English translation of “Fragmenti di alcuni scritture” (“Amorosi contrasti”) (1617), by Isabella Andreini.

Kirsten Stromberg, instructor at Syracuse Florence, attended the Paradox Fine Art European Forum Conference in Riga, Latvia. Stromberg was a steering committee member of the conference, as well as a curator and facilitator of a strand of the conference.

Project applications for the fund are reviewed for their potential to advance Syracuse Abroad’s vision and mission, project viability and the significance of the project objectives. All Syracuse Abroad Center faculty are eligible to apply. Recipients of Global Innovation Fund awards are selected by Syracuse Abroad central and center staff. This year’s selection committee was Hejnova, Mauricio Paredes of Syracuse Santiago and Caroline Tong of Syracuse Beijing. For more information about the Syracuse Abroad Global Innovation Fund, contact Petra Hejnova at phejnova@syr.edu.