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CAS Faculty Internationalization & Diversity Initiatives

Dr. Tom Lavellee

Dr. Lavellee coordinates the Travel Study to China program in the School of Business. This is a collaborative program with Xiamen University in the People's Republic of China. Using the framework of strategic management, students learn about the economic, cultural, political, and historical issues that influence the external environment of companies doing business in China and issues related to strategic market entry into China by foreign companies. According to Dr. Lavellee, the travel study focuses on the issues one needs to consider to be effective in the global environment. The course attempts to provide experiential learning during a two-week tour to China. Students spend 4 days in Shanghai, visiting cultural sites, Emerson's Shanghai Process Management Facility, The Illinois Trade Office in Shanghai, Andrew Telecommunications in Suzhou, 4 days at Xiamen University - interactions with students, cultural tours and business site visits, collaborative cross-cultural project between Xiamen and SIUE students, 4 days in Beijing - Chamber of Commerce, cultural sites and one business site tour.

Dr. Lavellee has been working on the project 'Electronic Network for Research on International China Heritage (ENRICH)', a collaborative research project with Dr. Cory Willmot. ENRICH was initiated in January 2011 as a distributed research network of scholars, students, and community members focused on the study of China heritage, broadly defined, which is engaged in building and populating an online database. ENRICH's collaborative network, while international in scope, has its home base at SIUE where it involves the participation of American and international faculty and students. A S.T.E.P. grant funded a pilot project "A Digital Imaging of Temple Art and Decoration in the Xiamen City Area".

Dr. Lavellee continues to coordinate collaborations with institutions in China, specifically Chengdu University, Sichuan Museum and Xiamen University.

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