The Laidlaw Undergraduate Leadership and Research Program promotes ethical leadership and international research around the world—starting with the passionate leaders and learners found on campuses like Cornell. Open to first- and second-year students, the two-year Laidlaw program provides generous support to carry out internationally focused research, develop leadership skills, engage with community projects overseas, and become part of a global network of like-minded scholars from more than a dozen universities. We’ll also share tips for approaching potential faculty research mentors and writing a successful application.

Register for the virtual session.

Can’t attend? Contact laidlaw.scholars@cornell.edu.

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The Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies hosts info sessions for graduate and for undergraduate students to learn more about funding opportunities, international travel, research, and internships. View the full calendar of fall semester sessions.

Come to the LRC to practice your language skills and meet new people. Conversation Hours provide an opportunity to use the target language in an informal, low-pressure atmosphere. Have fun practicing a language you are learning! Gain confidence through experience! Just using your new language skills helps you learn more than you might think. Conversation Hours are open to any learner, including the public.

The East Asia Program (EAP) offers several categories of fellowships and grants to support student and faculty research and study related to East Asia:

EAP Graduate Area Studies Fellowships East Asian Language Study Grants EAP Research Travel GrantsCan’t attend? Contact eap@cornell.edu.

Come to the LRC to practice your language skills and meet new people. Conversation Hours provide an opportunity to use the target language in an informal, low-pressure atmosphere. Have fun practicing a language you are learning! Gain confidence through experience! Just using your new language skills helps you learn more than you might think. Conversation Hours are open to any learner, including the public.

Please join us at the Rachel Hope Doran '19 & HEB Level T Display Cased at the College of Human Ecology, for the opening of "The Making of Barkcloth: Place, Gender, and Trans-Local Community." The exhibition is curated by Human Centered Design PhD Student Iris Luo '27 and funded in part by the Charlotte Jirousek Fellowship.

Conservation is a field at the intersection of art and science, requiring practitioners to have knowledge through both lenses. In this Barkcloth Conservation Workshop, we invite our special guest, Mimi Leveque, a trained archaeologist and lifelong conservator, who is an amazing and knowledgeable educator with extensive cross-cultural work experience. She worked for over twenty years at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts. In particular, she has worked with hundreds of historic bark cloths as part of the Bark Cloth Relocation Project at PEM.

In this workshop, you will observe and experience some simple hands-on learning of two primary approaches to barkcloth treatment - humidification and mending. This workshop is open and welcome to people with any level of knowledge and experience in textile conservation, passion is the most important thing!

Mimi Leveque is a conservator of objects and textiles with a special interest in indigenous organic materials and archaeological objects. Since 2021, she has been working on the Pacific Barkcloth Project at the Peabody Essex Museum, to conserve, document, and rehouse the collection of over 900 barkcloth objects. She has been on staff as conservator at the Peabody Essex Museum, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and the Rhode Island School of Design Museum, Providence, as well as consulting for many museums and cultural institutions as the director ArchaeaTechnica Art Conservation Services.

Mimi received an M.A.C. in objects and textile conservation in 1978 from Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada, and an M.A. in Western Asiatic Archaeology from the Institute of Archaeology (now University College), University of London, UK. She has done archaeological field conservation in such far-flung places as Iran, Pakistan, Syria, Italy, Peru, and England.

Barkcloth is a type of non-woven textile, made directly from the inner bark of trees through a process of soaking, fermentation, and beating. Throughout history, barkcloth has been made for everyday and ceremonial uses, and could be found all along the migratory routes of Austronesian-speaking ancestors. "The Making of Barkcloth: Place, Gender, and Trans-Local Community" invites you to explore the interconnectedness among the vast waters through the lens of barkcloth, the voyagers and makers who traverse these vast waters illuminate a form of mobility that transcends geographical regional boundaries. In the exhibition, we will take a close look at barkcloth – from the front, the back, and magnified – examining the surface and the structure. Similarly, contemporary artists and designers examine and innovate upon traditional techniques. And scholars dig into the archives to examine the fissures and faults of historic records. This is a journey along the ocean, connecting art and science, past and future.
The exhibition is curated by Human Centered Design PhD Student Iris Luo '27 and funded in part by the Charlotte Jirousek Fellowship.