National Resource Center
The Cornell Institute for European Studies, in partnership with Syracuse University's Center for European Studies, is a National Resource Center (NRC) funded by the U.S. Department of Education.
The NRC program is among several different federal initiatives to strengthen American education in foreign languages and area studies on both the secondary and post-secondary levels. These programs encourage teaching and research on other cultures and languages, the training of specialists, and the broadening of the American public's general understanding of the peoples of other countries.
Specifically, the NRCs support institutions of higher education through a competitive grant application process to be national resources for:
- Teaching of modern foreign languages, including the “less commonly taught” languages
- Instruction in fields needed to provide full understanding of areas, regions, or countries in which the language is commonly used
- Research and training in international studies
- Language aspects of professional and other fields of study
- Instruction and research on issues in world affairs
In applying for the NRC, Cornell's Institute for European Studies forged a partnership with Syracuse University's Center for European Studies. Together we formed the Upstate New York Consortium for Trans-European Studies. The Consortium significantly widens the range of activities and collaborations among Europeanists in New York State, and strengthens the resources available to researchers, students and teachers.
The Department of Education provides some support for the study of less commonly taught foreign languages through the Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowships (FLAS) and through a distance-learning pilot program we are developing to allow Cornell and Syracuse University students to take advantage of Polish, Serbo-Croatian, and Hungarian language courses at both institutions. The NRC enhances the budgets for interdisciplinary initiatives, events, and conferences on trans-European studies, Cornell library special collections, faculty travel, and outreach programs to K-12 schools and regional colleges and universities.
Download the NRC Abstract on the Consortium
For more information on the National Resource Centers: http://www.ed.gov/programs/iegpsnrc/index.html