Committee on International Studies records, 1962-1978, bulk 1964-1977

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Summary

Creator:
Duke University. Committee on International Studies
Abstract:
Established under a large Ford Foundation grant in 1964, the Committee on International Studies oversaw the distribution of the grant money and other sources of income to various departmental and area programs having to do with international scholarship. Spanning from 1962 to 1978, the records contain details of the committee and various subcommittee's activities during that time.
Extent:
5.5 Linear Feet (5 boxes)
Language:
Materials in English
Collection ID:
UA.05.02.0001
University Archives Record Group:
05 -- Office of the Provost
05 -- Office of the Provost > 02 -- Committees

Background

Scope and content:

The collection includes the records of the Committee on International Studies and all area program sub-committees, as well as grant and financial information from 1962 to 1978, with the bulk of the records spanning from 1964-1977. These records are comprised mostly of memoranda, correspondence, financial information, publicity materials, reports, course offerings, symposium and conference proceedings, visiting scholar information, biographical sketches, and minutes of meetings, as well as assorted documents.

Major subcommittees and centers include: African Studies, Canadian Studies, Commonwealth Studies, East Asian Studies, Hispanic Council, Latin American Studies, Middle East Studies, Russian and East European Studies, and South Asian Studies.

Further major subgroupings of note in the collection include: Cooperative Program in International Studies, Ford Foundation materials, Rockefeller Foundation materials, visiting scholar materials, faculty research materials, and US Office of Education materials.

Biographical / historical:

Various sources of external support fitted together Duke University's mosaic of programs in international studies in the two decades between 1955 and 1978. In 1955 a group of research scholars concerned with the British Commonwealth negotiated a $350,000 grant from the Carnegie-Commonwealth Fund, initiating a structured program of conferences, lectures, research, publications, and fellowships. In the 1960's United States educational institutions and the foundations that supported them were affected by a wave of interest in international studies as the nation looked outward with a mixture of interest, altruism, and fear for the first time since World War II.

The first major grant to Duke from the Ford Foundation, made in 1961, was a development grant of $400,000 which allowed the expansion and intensification of international programs. This was followed by a five-year, $900,000 grant in 1964 allocated to international programs at Duke University. This led to the establishment of the Committee on International Studies. The committee was a part of the Provost's office, coordinating and advising the provost in the establishment of budgets for individual department programs. Vice-Provost Crauford Goodwin was instrumental in helping secure the major Ford grant for the program, and became the chairman and director of the Committee on International Studies from its inception in 1964 to the spring of 1971, when he took leave from Duke University to work for the Ford Foundation to direct their program on International Studies. The chairmanship then passed temporarily to Dr. Margaret Ball as acting chair, then to Dr. Thomas F. Keller, who chaired the Committee from the fall of 1971 to the spring of 1972. Dr. Ball then took the permanent chairmanship of the committee until the spring of 1974, after which it passed to Dr. Gerald Hartwig, who was acting director until the record series ends in 1978. Marion Salinger was the administrative assistant for the committee for the duration of its recorded existence.

From the mid-1960s to the early 1970s the grant supported faculty and visiting faculty additions which brought scholars to the university with a variety of international interests and substantially strengthened the disciplines of history, economics, education, anthropology, sociology, religion, political science, and foreign languages. Due to the Ford Foundation grant Duke began offering instruction in non-western languages: Swahili, Hindi, Japanese, and Chinese, along with the necessary library staff support.

The years of 1965 through 1973 saw a massive expansion in programs in international studies, as well as new sources of funding to supplement the Ford grant. The Ford Foundation gave an additional $400,000 for a two year cooperative (Duke-UNC) post-doctoral training program for faculty from regional colleges and universities; the South Asia committee was designated an N.D.E.A. program and received financial support from the U.S. Office of Education direct support for administration, faculty, and library staff, as well as 45 fellowships. Faculty research interest was also widely supported, in part by a grant by the Rockefeller foundation and research areas ranged around the globe--from an examination of forestry schools in Europe to a study on resistance to change in Rhodesia.

With the advent of the 1970s, however, interests in area programs faded. The Ford Foundation grants ran out and were not renewed. Federal funding diminished, and the foundations withdrew support. Fellowship aid became scarce and program money was cobbled together largely through the individual efforts of faculty pursuing their own research. Interdisciplinary studies became the new vogue, while area studies faded and closed. Funding and interest shifted, but many of the programs and courses established with the seed money from the Ford Foundation and others became permanent parts of the Duke curriculum and remain active to this day. The Committee on International Studies survives today as the Office of International Affairs and Development, re-established in 1995 as an adjunct of the Provost's Office. The office is dedicated to support the University's commitment to internationalization and provide a locus for new initiatives, as well as provide development activities for this specific purpose as well as for University initiatives as a whole, and carries on the legacy of Duke's commitment to the support of international studies to this day.

Sources Used: Notes for a Report on International Studies, Committee on International Studies records, Duke University Archives, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University.

Committee on International Studies, Committee on International Studies records, Duke University Archives, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University.

http://www.provost.duke.edu/units/internationalaffairs.html

Acquisition information:
The Committee on Intenational Studies records were received by the Duke University Archives as a transfer in November 1977 and March 1979.
Processing information:

Processed by: Matthew Schaefer, June, 2013

Accessions described in this finding aid: UA 77-169, UA 79-15

Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Contents

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Restrictions:

Collection is open for research.

Terms of access:

Copyright for official University Records is held by Duke University; all other copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.

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Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], Committee on International Studies records, Duke University Archives, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University.

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https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/m19d7v