BLOG/BLOGOñA/BLOG of BOLOGNA. Why is that so fun to say? IU Faculty Exchange
Women and Recipes in the Medieval Mediterranean
Checking back in! To round off my sabbatical, I was awarded an IU Faculty Exchange program through the Office of the Vice President for International Affairs (OVPIA). I was so fortunate to receive this award, but I noticed there really wasn’t a lot of information for participating faculty. The Office of the Vice President for International Affairs reacted positively when I told them I could blog about my experience to help future faculty navigate this literal and figurative journey. The paperwork process between the two universities compounded with cultural differences can cause delays for these exchanges. So starting early and having a clear understanding can help faculty meet their research goals.
My exchange is with the University of Bologna, Italy (see photo). There are several possible exchanges through the OVPIA: Germany, Japan, México, Poland, and others (https://global.iu.edu/partnerships/faculty-exchange/index.html). The Bologna exchange is for 2 weeks. Durations vary on others.
To apply for the exchange, you should research why that site is suitable for your research, a workshop, etc. If you know anyone there, it is helpful to connect at this time, but that is not a requirement. However, if you do not connect now, you will need to connect with someone later.
Applications should include:
1. Narrative Statement (1500 words)
2. CV
3. Letter of support from chair or dean
4. Supplementary documents
My narrative included the categories: Background, Full description, Methodology, and Objectives. I recommend that the narrative focus on international connectedness and how your project branches into different fields of study. Applications are submitted here: https://global.iu.edu/machform/view.php?id=123087
These awards are for the fiscal year. So the earliest the exchange can occur is in July. Because my sabbatical is ending this summer, I opted for the first two weeks of July.
So, you write a great research overview and prospectus and, CONGRATULATIONS!, the committee awards YOU the exchange. Now what? I had no idea.
When you get your award letter (January), you are told by the office of OVPIA (IUB) they will be in touch with more details. If you are planning July travel, you may have to nudge this along to get through the process.
IUB will contact UniBo. If you have a person with whom you will collaborate, they will need to send a formal letter of invitation to you and the university. If you do not personally know someone, the office of exchange there can kindly submit your materials to a scholar in your field who will (hopefully) write you a letter. This is what occurred for me and I am grateful.
After this, the host university goes through the evaluation process. They must also approve of your visit. Nope! You still cannot purchase air tickets! This is why starting earlier is helpful. For me, this process took weeks and weeks.
After their approval it bounces back to the OVPIA and they will approve your flight purchase in the Egencia app at one.iu.edu. They will give you a specific budget for your flight. When they give you permission, they should also give you the account number to charge. If they do not, ask for it. You can’t book without it. If the budgeted amount isn’t enough for tickets, you can request additional funds. They may approve; in my case they did because by the time all the paperwork went through it was June and I was buying a July ticket-definitely not ideal.
As of 2022, IU will pay for your airfare and give you an $800 stipend for meals for the 2 weeks. This money comes through a reimbursement process using Chrome River. The per diem tool will account for meals, but at the rate of $116 per day (https://aoprals.state.gov/web920/per_diem_action.asp?MenuHide=1&CountryCode=1092), this will not cover 14 days. 14 x $116= $1624. So you will actually get less than half of this for meals. The website even states they do not use per diem to calculate your cost. Don’t panic, I have found that it is generally easy to eat below the declared per diem rates if you are careful. It is particularly easy to stay in budget if you have a kitchen, which brings us to housing.
Housing, in this case, is provided by the host institution. Bologna generally houses scholars in the Ospitalità San Tomasso (http://www.ospitalitasantommaso.com/wp/). I would describe this as an adult residence hall or an adult hostel. It is associated with a monastery. They provide breakfast. Rooms are clean and minimal. There is a curfew. You cannot arrive after 1am or leave before 7am. In my case, my husband was joining me and there was only one remaining room with a twin bed. (By the time this was actually booked, it was June for travel occurring in July, so pickings were slim). UniBo says they will house scholars in other sites provided that the site can provide an online charge and stays within their budget ($1000 for 2 weeks). I can’t elaborate on this further as I paid for my own housing so that my husband could join me. I had planned for him to join me in the Ospitalità, but we ran into the twin bed and “no availability issue.” I had emailed the hotel to add him to my room (and pay the difference) two weeks before but never got a response. I called the week before and that is when we heard the tale of no space. As the university had already booked this lodging for me, they were not willing to change it the week before travel.
My Airbnb is a studio with a kitchen (https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/653625872026751892?source_impression_id=p3_1656803491_TxfwknZntYItdqxu). It was $1200, $200 over the stipend of Unibo for housing. Yet $1200 (less than $100 per day) is actually a great price for a 2 week stay and much below nearly all of the hotel options in the center! So, if you plan to book a stay outside of the provided hotel, be prepared to subsidize your housing. But again, the kitchen will be key to staying under the meals budget and, let’s face it, who wants to eat out every single meal for two weeks? Not me. I don’t mind sleeping on a pull out couch in the kitchen as long as it gets me a kitchen! :)
A week before my trip, I had heard nothing from UniBo about any kind of welcome, orientation, campus tour, meeting, required event, archival assistance, etc. I imagined these might be the things IUB would do for visiting faculty, but I had heard nothing from Italy. And, as I mentioned, there was also no faculty handbook on this experience in Bologna. So, I sent an email to to be sure I was available for anything I needed to be available for. I received the response that, essentially, this exchange is just for independent faculty research. Some may have a collaborative component to them and, as such, there would be meeting with the host faculty. But, mine was to show up and do my thing. No problem for me! They did say I would likely be met by someone in the international relations department, but I haven’t heard from them yet.
I plan to travel outside of Bologna to Parma to study a 15th century Spanish manuscript at the Palatine Library (https://complessopilotta.it/en/palatine-library/ -incidentally one of the most
gorgeous libraries in the world). Because I have no required meetings, I have considerable flexibility about when I go. I emailed the library to try to set up a day and be sure I had all required documents, but-you guessed it!-I got no response. This can occur more than one may like in European archives and libraries. I called and never got anyone to pick up. So, I will need to show up and see if they let me in. They may require that I submit documentation and then they will likely need time to process that information. In my experience, nothing happens on the same day in southern Europe. Every time this irks me, I remind myself of cultural differences and differing priorities. Italians emphasize life over work, which I admire. And differences are all part of the process of international exchange!
I may have to go to Parma more than once to get in to see the document. It is an hour and a half by train and I will need to travel back and forth to get to my housing. I am sure the view from the train is lovely. Add a cappuccino and what more could one desire?
I also want to study women’s historic roles in the production of vinegar, wine, olive oil, etc. AND, I got a reservation for the often proclaimed BEST RESTAURANT IN THE WORLD, Massimmo Batturo’s Osteria Francescana (https://osteriafrancescana.it/). I cannot believe I got us a table. Food studies certainly has its perks!
To recap:
1. IU Pays: Airfare (match cost for economy), Meals ($800 for 2 weeks)
2. UniBo pays: Housing ($1000 for 2 weeks)
3. The process of scheduling the exchange takes months. Initiate early and check progress often!
4. Despite all your planning and attempts, some things will have to be worked out “on the ground.” Roll with it.
I will keep you posted on how it goes! Women and Recipes in the Medieval Mediterranean, here we come!
Comments
Post a Comment