Sigrid Berka
Executive Director, International Engineering Program
PROFESSIONAL PREPARATION:
Technical University Aachen, Germany
M.S. in German Studies (Education), 1985
Washington University
Exchange student, Fall 1985
University of California, Santa Barbara
Ph.D. in German Studies, 1990
APPOINTMENTS:
2010-present: Executive Director-International Engineering Program (IEP),
Associate Professor of German-University of Rhode Island, Kingston, RI
2009-2010: Associate Director-International Engineering Program
2007-2009: Managing Director-MIT-Germany Program, MIT International Science & Technology Initiatives (MISTI), MIT, Cambridge, MA
2003-2006: Director of Placement and Industrial Relations-MIT-Germany Program
1996-2005: Coordinator-MIT-Germany Program
1990-1996: Assistant Professor-Dept. of Germanic Lang. & Literatures, Barnard College, Columbia University, New York, NY
PUBLICATIONS:
Berka, S. (2011) "Retaining Engineering Students through a January Term German Immersion Study Tour," Global Business Languages: Vol. 16, Article 7.
Available at: http://docs.lib.purdue.edu/gbl/vol16/iss1/7
Berka, S. 2011. The Added Value of an International Graduate Dual Degree Program— A Closer Look at its Synergies and its Gains for Engineering Students, submitted to Online Journal for Global Engineering Education: vol. 6. (2011) iss. 1, article 5.
Berka, S. 2011. Retaining Engineering Students through a J-Term German Immersion Study Tour. Proceedings of the North-Eastern ASEE, April 29-30 West Hartford, CT.
Berka, S. 2010. Adding value in addressing the grand challenge areas of water and health through an international dual degree program with a multi-disciplinary research initiative, Proceedings of the 9th Annual ASEE Global Colloquium on Engineering Education, Singapore October 18-21.
Berka, S. 2009. Institutional Strategies: Seven Cases, Online Journal for Global Engineering Education (OJGEE), special volume on Educating Engineers as Global Citizens: A Call for Action/ A Report of the National Summit Meeting on the Globalization of Engineering Education, Grandin, J.M. and Hirleman,D.E. (eds.) 4.1 (2009) 22f.
Other significant publications:
Berka, S. 2000 The (Non) Position of Woman in Marlene Streeruwitz' Work,” After Postmodernism: Austrian Literature and Film in Transition, ed. by Willy Riemer, Riverside: Ariadne Press, 217-34.
Berka, S. 2000. “Anschwellender Bocksgesang,” “Botho Strauß,” “Marlene Streeruwitz," in Matthias Konzett (ed.) Encyclopedia of German Literature, Chicago: Fitzroy & Dearborn, 918f., 913-16, 919f.
Berka, S. (1995) The Textual and Sexual Politics of Vampirism in Elfriede Jelinek's Illness or Modern Women," The German Quarterly 68 (4):372-88.
Berka, S., S. Fink (eds.) 1994. Spiralen, Textbook for Intermediate German, Boston: Heinle & Heinle Publishers.
Berka, S. 1991. Mythos-Theorie und Allegorik bei Botho Strauss (Theory of Myth and Allegory in the Work of Botho Strauss), Vienna: Passagen Publishers.
SYNERGISTIC ACTIVITIES:
- Invited speaker at IEEE annual conference, Montréal, June 19-22, 2012, presented on “Changing the charge of Engineering Education—preparing students for the global work place through an integrated international dual degree curriculum.”
- 2012 Andrew Heiskell Innovation Award for Study Abroad, awarded by the Institute for International Education; successfully nominated the IEP for this award; received on March 9, 2012 in New York, presented by IIE President Allan E. Goodman.
- Nominated URI and received Senator Paul Simon NAFSA SpotlightAward for campus internationalization. NAFSA (Association for International Educators) convention, June 3, 2011 in Vancouver.
- Invited speaker at Georgia Tech conference on Models for Preparing the Global Workforce presenting on Maximizing the Impact of Global Engineering Education, Atlanta, GA March 17, 2011.
- Invited speaker at NSF workshop on Investigating the International Experiences in STEM Graduate Education and Beyond -- From Anecdotal to Empirical Evidence, presented Igniting Talk on Experiences in Assessment of Dual Degree Programs, Arlington, VA, February 6-8, 2011.
- Organized the13th Annual Colloquium on International Engineering Education, “Moving Forward,” Newport, RI, Nov. 4-7, 2010 (presented in workshops and on panels)
- Served as MIT Delegate for Global Engineering Excellence Initiative Program (GEIP), a consortium of the best engineering schools world-wide with the mission to educate the global engineer (2007-09).
- Presented and contributed to the Newport Declaration at 2008 NSF Summit on Globalization of International Engineering Education, Newport.
COLLABORATORS & OTHER AFFILIATIONS:
Collaborators (last 4 years)
Thomas Boving, International Engineering Program, University of Rhode Island; Gary Downey, NSF Summit on the Globalization of Engineering Education, Virginia Institute of Technology; Megan Echevarria, International Engineering Program, University of Rhode Island; Mohammed Faghri, NSF PIRE grant, University of Rhode Island; Claire Gmachl, NSF Summit on the Globalization of Engineering Education, Princeton University; Stephan Grilli, NSF PIRE grant, University of Rhode Island; Jon Gordon, Global Engineering Excellence Initiative Program (GEIP), Georgia Institute of Technology; Eckhart Groll, special volume of OJGEE (Online Journal for Global Engineering Education), Purdue University; April Julich Perez, Colloquium on International Engineering Education, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Paulo Kaminski, Global Engineering Excellence Initiative, Escola Politecnica da Universidade de Sao Paolo; Maresi Nerad, NSF Workshop on Investigating the International Experience in STEM Graduate Education and Beyond, University of Washington; Alan Parkinson, Colloquium on International Engineering Education, Brigham & Young University; Stephan Scholl, NSF PIRE grant, Technical University of Braunschweig; Subra Suresh, Colloquium on International Engineering Education, Massachusetts Institute of Technology/NSF.
Ph.D. Advisor: Laurence Rickels, University of California, Santa Barbara
