User:H. Stephen Straight

H. Stephen Straight is professor of anthropology & of linguistics in Harpur College of Arts & Sciences and vice provost for undergraduate education & international affairs at Binghamton University, State University of New York. Dr. Straight received a BA in English from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, in 1965, and an MA and PhD in linguistics from the University of Chicago in 1970 and 1972, with a specialty in developmental psycholinguistics and dissertation field work among the Maya of Yucatán. In addition to a revised version of his dissertation, he has published more than fifty journal articles, book chapters, conference papers, and book reviews in the fields of theoretical psycholinguistics, first & second language acquisition, Mayan ethnolinguistics, comparative sociolinguistics, and translation theory, among others. His research has received support from the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, and the SUNY Research Foundation.

Since coming to Binghamton University in 1970, Dr. Straight has taught graduate and undergraduate courses of all types (large lecture with TA-led discussion section, medium-size lecture/discussion handled alone, small project-focused seminar) in virtually all subfields of linguistics and various aspects of cultural anthropology, including cognitive anthropology and comparative socialization; directed or helped to direct or examine nearly fifty doctoral students in anthropology, psychology, and sociology, among others; and served as director of the linguistics program, director of graduate studies in anthropology, acting chair of the department of anthropology, associate dean of Harpur College, co-director of Latin American and Caribbean Area Studies, and interim dean of the graduate school, as well as numerous campus and statewide faculty governance posts.

Having made meaningful use of his knowledge of a half dozen languages and wanting to help his students do so, in 1991 Dr. Straight became the founding director of Binghamton's Languages Across the Curriculum (LxC) program, the concept for which he originated jointly with Ellen H. Badger, Binghamton's director of international student and scholar services. Developed with additional guidance from Distinguished Professor Marilyn Gaddis Rose, founding director of the Translation Research and Instruction Program, LxC enrolls more than 200 students every semester in optional course-linked study groups employing materials in languages other than English in a wide variety of disciplines in Harpur College, the School of Management, and the Watson School of Engineering & Applied Science. Over the past decade and a half Dr. Straight has produced or co-produced more than a dozen publications on Languages Across the Curriculum (LAC), including two edited multi-authored volumes and a widely cited Education Resources Information Center (ERIC) Digest on the topic. At Binghamton and elsewhere in collaboration with LAC advocates across the country, Dr. Straight has co-organized four national LAC conferences, most recently at the University of Iowa (in November 2005) and Portland State University (in October 2006). He has directed two grants in this area from the Department of Education's Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE) for a total of more than half a million dollars of extramural support, and he has served as associate director, major participant, or consultant on a half dozen other LAC projects supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities, FIPSE, and the Department of Education's Title VI Program.

Having held visiting appointments as Fulbright senior lecturer at the University of Bucharest (1979-80), Mellon fellow in the Center for Advanced Studies at the National Foreign Language Center (1995-96), and senior associate in the Center for Institutional and International Initiatives at the American Council on Education (2005), Dr. Straight bears special responsibility for Binghamton's efforts in comprehensive internationalization. Under his leadership as vice provost, Binghamton was chosen in 2000 to participate in ACE's project on Promising Practices, which spotlighted eight colleges and universities nationwide as models for the infusion of global and international content into their curricular offerings and co-curricular activities; in 2003 the LxC program received recognition in the Institute for International Education's Andrew Heiskell Award for Innovation in International Education for internationalizing the campus; and in 2004 NAFSA: Association of International Educators selected Binghamton and four other institutions as the inaugural recipients of the Senator Paul Simon Award for Campus Internationalization. In 2007 Lois B. DeFleur received the Harold R. McGraw Jr. Prize in Education for her leadership in comprehensive internationalization of Binghamton University, where she has been president since 1990. As a result of these accolades for his campus, plus his prominence in the Languages Across the Curriculum movement, Dr. Straight has served as a conference panelist, invited presenter, keynote speaker, workshop leader, and external consultant at conferences and individual campuses across the United States and in Europe.

From 2002 to 2005 Dr. Straight co-directed a State Department-supported SUNY project that created uniquely innovative dual-diploma bachelor's degree programs for students at Turkish universities. Offered jointly by various pairings among (at present, though the number of partners and fields of study is expected to grow) nine campuses in the SUNY System and nine Turkish universities, current dual-diploma degrees are awarded in business and business administration; civil, environmental, information-systems, and maritime-management engineering; economics; fashion design and textile development & marketing; global & international affairs; and teaching English as a foreign language. At projected steady-state size at Binghamton alone, these programs will enroll nearly 400 students a year, half in residence and the other half studying at their home university in Turkey. In 2007 the Institute for International Education awarded the SUNY System the Andrew Heiskell Award for Innovation in International Education for institutional partnerships for the creation of the Turkish Dual-Diploma Programs. Dr. Straight has given formal and informal presentations on this initiative at nearly a dozen national and international conferences and workshops.

Winner of New York statewide awards for excellence in teaching and service, Dr. Straight is a fellow of the American Anthropological Association, a life member of the Linguistic Society of America, member and past member of the board of directors of the Linguistic Association of Canada and the United States, member and past founding chair of the advisory council of the American Council on Education's Internationalization Collaborative, and member of the executive committee of the Association of International Education Administrators. (2008-05-04)