Two New International Studies Faculty to Work Across Disciplines

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE DATE: November 2, 2005 CONTACT: Ronnie Hess, Director of Communications, Division of International Studies, (608) 262-5590, rlhess@wisc.edu Two New International Studies Faculty to Work Across Disciplines Madison, WI – Until just a few months ago, Claire Wendland and Laura Schechter were not exactly your average graduate students but true to type were finishing work on their dissertations, looking for jobs at colleges and universities, and hoping to begin teaching careers in their respective fields. They had interviewed and been offered a few jobs. And that’s where the typical part of the story ends. Wendland and Schechter decided to accept positions at UW–Madison and in doing so became the first faculty members hired under a new initiative developed by the Division of International Studies and called “seed hires.” Under the program, International Studies and three colleges – the Colleges of Agricultural and Life Sciences, Letters and Science and the Medical School – have partnered to create faculty lines in emerging new fields and areas of scholarship. Not only interdisciplinary but international, the positions are designed to ensure that multiple programs, such as the International Institute, and multiple departments benefit from the faculty members’ expertise. Wendland’s background is in medical anthropology and Schechter’s in development economics. Wendland, who is an assistant professor in both anthropology and obstetrics and gynecology, was actually born in Madison at UW Hospitals when the medical center was located at 1300 University Avenue. Her father had been an engineering graduate student at UW–Madison but, after receiving his degree, took a job at Boeing and moved the family to Seattle. Wendland received an M.D. at Michigan State University and did postgraduate specialty training at the University of New Mexico. She worked as an obstetrician-gynecologist on the Navajo reservation, then returned to school for graduate studies in cultural anthropology at the University of Massachusetts. Switching from medicine to anthropology was a challenge for Wendland. “My first semester was pretty intimidating,” she says. It was her work on the reservation, and time spent as a medical student and researcher in Africa, that got her interested in cross-cultural differences and international education. Practicing medicine in a large urban hospital in Malawi, with 14,000 deliveries a year but limited medical facilities, was a very different experience from what Wendland had been accustomed to in the U.S. On the reservation in New Mexico, many of her patients spoke only Navajo. Wendland has some knowledge of French, German, and Spanish as well as Chichewa, the national language of Malawi. Her field research has examined the assimilation of values by African health practitioners during training and practice in Northern-style biomedicine. Schechter, who is an assistant professor in agricultural and applied economics, has an international background as well. Raised in Los Angeles in an upper middle class family, Schechter grew up aware that she was extremely privileged compared to many people in other parts of the world. While she was an undergraduate at the University of California-Berkeley, she spent a summer teaching English literature in a high school in China. “That was great, the people were so friendly,” she says. As a result of her teaching experience, she decided to major in development studies, an area she says she gravitated to because the coursework was interdisciplinary, with courses in sociology, economy, history and Spanish. After graduation, Schechter (left) spent two years in the Peace Corps in Paraguay, doing agricultural extension work. She helped villagers diversify their crops, putting less focus on cotton and moving toward the production of sesame, a natural sweetener native to Paraguay with a ready market in Japan. The Peace Corps stint helped develop her interest in agricultural economics. It also gave her the seeds for her dissertation research, again at UC-Berkeley in agricultural and resource economics. She had observed that about 50 percent of the farmers in Paraguay had experienced some kind of theft, and that there was a lack of trust among them, the logical result of criminality but also years of dictatorship in the South American country. Her thesis, on trust, trustworthiness and risk in rural Paraguay, analyzed how the agricultural workers looked at gift giving as bribery but developed it creatively as a disincentive to crime. The transition from being graduate students to professors has been exciting but also daunting for the two women. “AARGH,” Wendland says in mock-terror when asked what it’s been like. But she adds that the work of doctor and professor are similar, inasmuch as both involve explaining and teaching. Wendland is teaching a medical anthropology course, a small group course in the Medical School, and a graduate seminar, “Anthropology and International Health.” “It’s a great opportunity to learn,” she says. Schechter says she is busy teaching, developing lesson plans, going to committee meetings, and writing grant proposals to get more funding for her graduate students. Schechter is teaching two courses this year, including “The Growth and Development of Nations in the Global Economy,” which includes International Studies and economics majors, and “Latin American Economic Development.” What impresses both women about UW–Madison and accounts in large part for their decision to come here is the cross-campus emphasis on interdisciplinary teaching and research. Schechter says teaching across disciplines will expand her perspectives on economics, and growth and development. “That’s the whole draw of this position,” Wendland says. “It’s not just a challenge, it’s an opportunity.” During a morning meeting, as they discussed what had brought them to UW–Madison, both women even began to see parallels in their research and opportunities for collaborative work. Schechter is interested in exploring networks of trust, gift-giving, and informal mechanisms people use to ensure against calamity. Wendland is focusing on bio-medical concepts of risk, and the nature of medical evidence. “We definitely need to talk,” Wendland says to Schechter as they both make plans to collaborate.