Sources: Gabriela Diaz de Sabates, 785-532-5738, gabsab@k-state.edu;
and Marcelo Sabates, 785-532-0417, sabates@k-state.edu
News release prepared by: Emily Vietti, 785-532-2535, evietti@k-state.edu

Thursday, Dec. 16, 2010

PARTNERSHIP WITH ARGENTINEAN UNIVERSITY KICKS OFF

MANHATTAN -- Two Kansas State University professors recently traveled to Argentina to kick off an international institutional cooperation between K-State and the University of Lanus, or UNLa, in Buenos Aires.

The institutional agreement was developed last summer after Gabriela Diaz de Sabates, instructor of women's studies, and Marcelo Sabates, associate professor and head of the philosophy department, presented the idea to authorities at the University of Lanus. Their trip was supported by a grant from K-State's office of international programs.

To begin the partnership, Diaz de Sabates and Sabates lectured at UNLa in November on the concept and current mission of a land-grant university.

"The UNLa is an innovative, public university that is developing a concept that follows, in part, our land-grant model," Sabates said. "As such, the institutional receptivity is in place for a variety of initiatives."

Diaz de Sabates said, "We were very impressed by their institutional involvement with the agreement. After our talk, Ana María Jaramillo, UNLa's president, held a reception for us where main administrators and many faculty were present."

The collaboration allows for the possibility of research collaboration between various K-State departments and different UNLa programs, such as the university's Center for Human Rights, Center for Research in Ethics and Center for the Study of Resiliency. A permanent study abroad option every summer in Buenos Aires, including visits to rural communities in northern Argentina, is also one of the main components of the partnership.

"UNLa is working to include future research and seminars done in collaboration with K-State within the framework of a project to internationalize Argentinean college education, " said Nerio Neirotti, UNLa's academic vice president.