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The Carolina Asia Center administers Language Instructor Professional Development Travel awards to faculty who seek to develop Asian language pedagogy and instruction. These grants may be applied to either domestic or international travel and/or programs. To be eligible for funding, the faculty member must be teaching an Asian language spoken in East, South or Southeast Asia that is taught at UNC such as Chinese, Hindi-Urdu, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, Persian or Arabic.
These awards allow faculty to participate in programs that strengthen and enhance innovative teaching in language courses. Funds can be applied to programs including but not limited to:

  • OPI certification and re-certification
  • Summer institutes such as the Center for Advanced Research on Language Acquisition (CARLA)
  • Summer institutes or teacher training conferences abroad
  • Attendance at relevant conferences for enhancing language pedagogy

To apply, please submit a 1-2 page proposal, your curriculum vitae, and a budget to Kevin W. Fogg, kfogg@email.unc.edu. The proposal must describe how the grant will contribute to your professional goals and/or benefit Asian language courses and activities.

Applications will be considered on a rolling basis.

Grant usage policies:

  • Awards can be requested to pay for registration fees and travel reimbursements.
  • Domestic travel does not require a prior approval of the U.S. Department of Education.
  • Funding of international travel is contingent upon the approval of the U.S. Department of Education. If the grant is used to pay for airfare, the traveler must comply with the Fly America Act, which requires traveling as far as possible on a U.S. carrier.
  • To obtain an approval for an international trip, the applicant needs to submit a Travel Authorization request at least 40 days prior to the departure date to the U.S Department of Education through the Carolina Asia Center. The traveler must not purchase the air ticket prior to the approval of the trip by the U.S. Department of Education. A final draft itinerary must be shared with Kathryn Ulrich of the Carolina Asia Center who will submit a Travel Authorization request on behalf of the traveler along with the details: 1) purpose of the trip 2) amount requested and 3) what the Title VI funding will cover for the trip.
  • The reimbursement for the grant implementation must be claimed by the date specified, or an extension for the grant implementation must be requested from the Carolina Asia Center.
  • Faculty members are required to report on any changes in curriculum or publications as a result of the grant.