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Faculty Opportunities

International Graduate Research Fellowships (IGRF)

To enhance already existing international collaborations, the Graduate School encourages faculty members to nominate students for an IGRF to offer students a short-term research experience with partners overseas. Involving graduate students in an existing collaboration can strengthen the activity, provide new perspectives on ongoing projects, and identifynew areas of research. This activity can also help students broaden their professional networks and find new paths to career opportunities.

Graduate School Field Committees

The Graduate School supports intellectual exchange across academic disciplines through the creation of interdisciplinary field committees, which range in focus from film studies to Latin American studies to society and the environment. Field committees present a great opportunity for cross-campus and intercontinental collaboration. The GS encourages faculty members to identify international partner institutions with similar academic programs to enhance the graduate student experience and elevate the visibility of UMD’s expertise overseas. Conferences, symposia, lectures, seminars, and courses are just a few examples of opportunities for collaboration.

Current Field Committees

Joint PhD Seminars

The Graduate School invites faculty members to develop a joint PhD seminar, followed by a student conference with a publication outcome, on any topic that can be taught simultaneously at UMD and at a partner institution overseas. This model has proved successful for UMD’s English department, which partnered with the American studies department at the University of Tübingen in Germany, and for UMD’s anthropology department, which partnered with the English department at University College Cork in Ireland. UMD’s Latin American literature program is developing this model with the University of Córdoba in Argentina and UniversidadCátolica in Chile. UMD’s criminology program is planning a similar model with the Free University of Berlin.

Long-term and In-depth Partnerships 

World-renowned academic institutions that know each other well through partnership and collaboration can develop new ideas and programs to augment and amplify existing educational opportunities for faculty and graduate students.

For example, the University of Maryland has had a long-standing and in-depth relationship with the University of Tübingen (Germany) for the past 35 years. In 2013, the two institutions launched an exciting research and teaching program in neuroscience, cognitive science, and the biomedical sciences. The purpose of the collaboration is to bring together faculty who may not have worked together previously to undertake new projects that would benefit from cross-fertilization of ideas and experiences. A focal point of every collaborative research project is a substantial educational component for graduate students and postdoctoral scholars, who are integral to these research projects. UMD and UT have funded five of these projects. A new round of proposals is expected soon.

The Graduate School is interested in developing unique programs with UMD faculty members. Please contact the Office of International Initiatives if you have an idea for a program.

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