Dean Oscar Posas, Leyte State University College of Agriculture, describing the life cycle of a major insect pest affecting Asian rice production during joint Cornell-LSU interdisciplinary course in 2004.
For more photos and news about the Einaudi Center and it's programs, view the entire annual report online.
Did you know?
Visit our Programs page to find out more.
History
A long history in international involvement
1961
Professor Mario Einaudi leads the effort to establish Cornell's Center for International Studies to stimulate, support, and coordinate the University's long established, far-flung teaching, research, and practical work in and about the world.
1962
The Center for International Studies receives a substantial financial endowment from the Ford Foundation to strengthen and expand its scope. Longstanding, distinguished academic activities, such as the China Program and the Southeast Asia Program, become constituents of the Center. Two major innovations that emerge with the founding of the Center are the International Agricultural Development Program and the Latin American Studies Program.
1967
Under a second large grant from the Ford Foundation, the Center begins to develop several small projects focused on cross-national and cross-area problems. This second grant permits the Center to further strengthen its major Area Studies Programs, to initiate additional interdisciplinary research activities, and to establish a substantial endowment, the income from which enables the Center to support a variety of research and teaching activities during subsequent years.
1980's
Directors of the Center for International Studies hold an endowed professorship, thanks to a grant by the late John S. Knight. Three additional senior professorships devoted to international studies—the Binenkorb, Marks, and Carpenter Chairs—are established in the Center in cooperation with the College of Arts and Sciences. Moreover, the State of New York set up nine faculty chairs in the College of Agriculture focusing entirely on international agriculture.
With the help of the Center, Cornell's expanding strength in the study of major world areas succeeds in gaining substantial financial support from the U.S. Department of Education. Presently, Cornell has five U.S. Government funded National Resource Centers: East Asia, Latin America, South Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Institute for European Studies. These Programs also provide U.S. Government funded Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) fellowships. The study of Africa at Cornell is supported by the Institute for African Development, housed in the Mario Einaudi Center, and the Africana Studies and Research Center. Cornell is also the home base of Nka: The Journal of Contemporary African Art. To promote scholarship and teaching about the Muslim world, the Center conceives the Comparative Muslim Societies Committee, composed of faculty, students, and research scholars.
Through the early 1980's, the Mario Einaudi Center encourages Cornell's professional schools to build and strengthen their international programs. The uniquely well-endowed and influential International Programs in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, the international and comparative activities of the Law School, the Department of City and Regional Planning, and the Division of Nutritional Sciences all achieve international prominence at this time. The Einaudi Center fosters interdisciplinary research programs focusing on major policy areas, including the International Population Program and the highly productive Rural Development Committee that mobilizes Cornell's impressive strengths in development studies and eventually emerges as the Cornell International Institute for Food, Agriculture, and Development (CIIFAD). The Peace Studies Program becomes a leading U.S. university center for the analysis of international conflicts, with unique strengths in the scientific aspects of arms control and nuclear weapons proliferation.
During this time, at the request of the Board of Trustees and the alumni-run Cornell University Council, the Einaudi Center undertakes the development of Cornell Abroad, the undergraduate study abroad program. Over the years, the Center has also hosted delegations from universities abroad to explain Cornell's activities and discuss mutual interests.
In the mid-1980's, the Center assumes the responsibility for the Henry E. and Nancy Bartels World Affairs Fellowship, a major public event involving a visit by an eminent international public leader.
1996-Present
The Center's mission continues to evolve, partially by taking over functions from other units of the university, such as the Fulbright Program and the cross-college undergraduate concentration in International Relations, and partially through new initiatives. The Mario Einaudi Center plays a large role in promoting international field research by graduate students throughout the university by coordinating a university-wide Travel Grant Program that combines resources from the Center and its constituent programs. These grants aim to change the culture of graduate education incrementally so that international research can begin before the dissertation. In addition, the Center has organized predissertation workshops and forums designed to increase the competitiveness of Cornell graduate students in getting outside funding for doctoral research. The Center receives two consecutive three-year grants from the Ford Foundation for this purpose.
In its role as incubator for new initiatives, the Mario Einaudi Center has taken the lead in developing a Working Group on Governance and Nature to raise issues of public authority and public policy in regard to the environment. An offshoot of this initiative has been a new predissertation workshop, started in spring 2000. As the world and academic understanding have changed, so have the interest, demand, and potential of Cornell's international programs. Over the years, the Einaudi Center has provided support in such diverse areas as international agriculture, nutrition, population, law, planning, politics, economics, and world peace. As one program gains enough momentum and recognition to attract its own resources, the Center redirects its energies to other pilot activities, to bring faculty and students together across customary professional, departmental, and college boundaries.
Directors
Mario Einaudi, 1960-1962, 1966-1968
Stephen Muller, 1962-1966
Douglas Ashford, 1968-1969
Milton Esman, 1969-1983
Davydd Greenwood, 1983-1994
Gilbert Levine, 1988-1989, 1994-1996, 2002-2003 (Acting Director)
Ronald J. Herring, 1996-2002
Nicolas van de Walle, 2004-
Home Calendar of Events Contact Us FAQ Sitemap | 
Subscribe to our electronic newsletter
© 2008 The Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies | Administration