07/20/2008
Stephen Burwood of Geneseo, N.Y., the assistant provost for international affairs at SUNY Geneseo, has been appointed as director of the James M. Clark Center for International Education at SUNY Cortland.
The Clark Center aims to unite the College's many international initiatives under one umbrella. Burwood, who begins his duties on Aug. 1, will report to the provost and vice president for academic affairs.
He will replace Distinguished Service Professor Henry Steck, a professor of political science who directed the Center for International Education from 2000-05 and served thereafter as interim director of the renamed James M. Clark Center for International Education. Lara Atkins, who was interim director of the International Programs Office, will remain in the reorganized Clark Center and was promoted to assistant director, while Steck will continue as the coordinator of the Project on Eastern and Central Europe.
The center was opened in 2000 with Steck, who had coordinated the College's International Studies Program from 1989-98, as its director. In 2004, the center was renamed in honor of SUNY Cortland President Emeritus James M. Clark, who is credited with positioning the College as a study abroad pioneer within the SUNY system during his presidency from 1979-95.
With the consolidation, the center relocates to the International Programs Office in Miller Building, Room 16, and can be reached by calling (607) 753-2209.
At SUNY Cortland, Burwood will develop and oversee campus international efforts, including new international programs and the accompanying funding proposals. He will direct international education and supervise study abroad programs, international students and scholars programs, faculty and staff exchanges, and international visitors. Burwood will represent international affairs both on and off campus to enhance the visibility of the College's international activities. He will cultivate faculty participation in teaching and research exchanges and work with faculty to internationalize the curriculum and increase the international experiences of students.
At SUNY Geneseo, Burwood supervised the Study Abroad Office, the Office of Dual-Degree Programs and the Office of English for Speakers of Other Languages. He reached multiple cooperation agreements with universities in Mexico, Turkey and Russia for undergraduate dual diploma degree programs; concluded new agreements for faculty and student exchanges in South Korea, the West Indies, Mexico and Costa Rica; and expanded a longstanding exchange agreement with the Netherlands. He also facilitated a major expansion of short-term study abroad programs.
From 2001-05, Burwood served SUNY Geneseo as associate dean, director of study abroad programs, and director of graduate studies. He worked on a successful $178,000 U.S. Department of Education grant to establish a Center for International Business in the School of Business. Burwood established new academic programs for SUNY Geneseo at Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland, and at Rhodes University in South Africa. He helped establish a faculty exchange with Shanghai Normal University, China.
Previously, Burwood chaired the Department of Social Sciences at Southwestern Oklahoma State University for one year and was a visiting assistant professor of history at SUNY Geneseo from 1999-2000.
From 1993-99, he was a senior lecturer in American history and American studies at Staffordshire University in Stoke-on-Trent, England, where he was the founding chair of American Studies. He was responsible for department planning, development, and administration and, for three years, filled all academic program administrative positions.
Burwood previously served on the faculties at Alfred University, Wells College and Broome Community College. He began teaching history in 1976 at secondary schools in England.
He has conducted extensive, published research in his field and has lectured frequently. The author of the 1999 book, American Labour, France, and the Politics of Intervention, 1945-1952: Workers and the Cold War (Lampeter & Lewiston: The Edwin Mellen Press), he also co-edited with Melvyn Dubofsky seven volumes on The Great Depression and New Deal (New York: Garland). His most recent articles include "National Labor Relations Act" in Milestone Documents in American History (2008) and "Eugene v. Debs" in The Dictionary of Literary Biography (2005).
He reads French fluently and has also studied Italian, Russian and Hebrew.
Burwood grew up in Exeter, England, and earned a Bachelor of Arts in European History from University of Warwick, England, and a Postgraduate Certificate in Education from University of Sussex, England. He has a master of arts and a doctorate in U.S. history from Binghamton University.
He is married to Linnea Goodwin Burwood,
a professor of history at SUNY Delhi. Their daughter, Sasha, recently
graduated from Avon High School.