U. finalizes 3rd cross-national strategic partnership of year, with University of Tokyo

Continuing its effort to support collaborative, cross-national research and teaching initiatives, the University has finalized its third strategic partnership of the year with the University of Tokyo. The partnership will function similarly to those signed with Humboldt University in Berlin and the University of Sao Paulo in Brazil by encouraging joint faculty research collaboration and student exchanges.

“Every partnership will look slightly differently,” history professor and Council for International Teaching and Research director Jeremy Adelman said. “While the University designs the architecture, it’s really up to the faculty and students to determine the content. All we’ve done is really laid out a format or template for people to use.”

Like the previous two agreements, the partnership with the University of Tokyo was arranged by the CITR, which identified the University of Tokyo as an institution of interest for collaboration due to its location and existing programs.

Three pilot programs are already in place, serving as examples for the kind of collaboration that the University hopes to pursue in the future. According to Adelman, the programs include initiatives in East Asian Studies, astrophysics and the Wilson School.

“I think that the benefit of the program is that many of us who already have an interest in Japan will find it easier to establish research connections and engage in work together at a faculty level or a student level,” said Christina Davis, associate professor of politics and international affairs. Davis added that the partnership, which provides opportunities for faculty to teach in Japan, will allow more faculty members to go abroad because they will not have to wait for a sabbatical leave.

According to Benjamin Elman, chair of the East Asian Studies department, the formal partnership will also make it easier for faculty to apply for and receive funding from the CITR. The council recently issued a call for proposals that invited faculty members to apply for University grants to fund research projects done in collaboration with University of Tokyo colleagues. Before the partnership was signed, Elman said, faculty members received funding from a variety of unaffiliated sources including the East Asian Center, the Humanities Council and the Davis Center in the history department.

“We were all cobbling money together to do these kinds of things,” he said. “Now we have top-down support from CITR, which means it’s a lot easier.”

Arrangements will be made later in the year — including at a meeting this spring for faculty in the Wilson School — to discuss the future of the strategic partnership.

“It’s going to create great opportunities for our students to learn and study in Japan at really one of the great institutions,” Adelman said.

Although the University does not have specific plans to sign any more formal partnerships this year, Adelman said it does hope to continue expanding its international presence at comparable institutions across the globe.

“It’s exactly the kind of thing we want to see flourishing around the world,” he said.