Education paper by Kádár, Judit Ágnes
The Value of International Experiences in Higher Education: A Model for Institutions and Faculty (Accepted)
Type of Abstract (select):Abstract (max. 250 words):
The present paper is based on academic experiences, discussions as well as feedback from higher educational and diplomatic entities both in Hungary and the US. It provides a model for turning one’s international exchange experience to various types of community values. For entities of internationalization (foundations, universities, GOs and NGOs) that support faculty engagement abroad, beyond the individual researcher’s and educator's increase of expertise and network, certainly efficiency and the disseminated impact are equally relevant factors in their efforts to facilitate global internationalization and its goals. I wish to share the experience of the last decade as a Fulbright alumna, reaching out for greater utilization of that experience than expected, and affecting the complex internationalization processes of two universities. Seven areas are investigated: increased-value professional knowledge based on transatlantic teaching and research; networking for colleagues and students; developing institutional partnerships; value transfer (sharing and adopting North-American cultural and citizenship values with Hungarian students and faculty); acquiring management skills and introducing them to HEI managements; as an alumna, supporting others in applying for mobility and promoting the value of international exchange experiences; and finally, creating alumni-network and such network-based research projects, one of which focused on the engagement of disadvantaged student pools, a topic related to “Future students.” Getting faculty engaged in such process-type mobility experiences is an academic commitment that I have found essential in the current Hungarian (and global) HE arena. My presentation focuses on the extended role and responsibility of HEIs and individual faculty opportunities in that context.
Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Judit Kádár is the Director of International Relations at the University of Physical Education in Budapest, Hungary. She taught American and Canadian culture studies at the Department of American Studies of Eszterházy University (Eger) for 25 years, with a focus on ethnic and multicultural studies. She published a textbook (Critical Perspectives on English-Canadian Literature, 1996). She has received some research grants (FEFA, FEP, FRP/CEACS, JFK, Fulbright) and holds a temporary lecturing position at GCSU (Georgia, USA, 2009), taught and did research at UNM (Albuquerque, USA, 2012-3). As for research, earlier she studied alternative histories in recent western Canadian fiction (PhD thesis), then the psychological and sociological implications of the gone indigenous passage rites (Othering/indigenization) in US and Canadian literature and culture and has published Going Indian: Cultural Appropriation in Recent North American Literature (2012, University of Valencia Press). In 2013, she obtained her habilitation at ELTE University of Budapest. Currently she explores mixed blood narratives and identity negotiation in the SW literature and recent Nuevomexicano and Canadian Métis writing respectively. She was the director of the International Relations Center at Eszterházy University and has worked in internationalization for years. She is a language examiner (LCCI, ORIGO, ECL). Between 2015-17, she was the country representative of the Central European Association for Canadian Studies (CEACS). She worked as the educational expert of the Central Bank of Hungary. She served as the co-chair of the International Committee of the Hungarian Rectors’ Conference between 2017-9. She obtained her diploma in interpreting in 2017 (ELTE, Budapest). Recently she co-edited an E-journal on mixed heritage US and Canadian literature and visual arts (Americana) and contributed to The Routledge Companion to Native American Literature (2016) on a mixed heritage-related topic. She is also the head of the foreign language portfolio developing project of UPE.