Director of the Office of International Studies and Programs Luis Canales and Associate Professor of Sociology and Anthropology Maria Schmeekle will present a wrap up of the International Studies Seminar series at noon on Wednesday, November 18, in the Prairie Room of the Bone Student Center. The talk is free and open to the public.

The presentation will revisit the theme of Global Knowledge, Global Attitudes, Global Skills, and describe next steps for the series and Illinois State.

Canales was named director of the Office of International Studies and Programs in July 2014. Prior to his director’s position at Illinois State, he was director of the Institute for International Affairs at Murray State University in Murray, Kentucky; he served as assistant director of the Helen Kellogg Institute for International Studies at the University of Notre Dame; and was director of international education in the Center for International Education at Texas Christian University.

He earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology, a master’s degree in counseling and personnel services, and a doctorate in educational leadership and organizational development from the University of Louisville. He also holds a teaching certificate in elementary education and a licentiateship in psychology from Escuela Normal Central Para Varones and Universidad Rafeal Landivar in Guatemala.

Schmeekle teaches several courses such as child global perspectives. Her research and interests focuses on children and youth, global and transnational sociology, family, aging/social gerontology, and sex and gender. In 2014, she received the Kenneth A. and Mary Ann Shaw Teaching Fellowship. In addition to receiving the award, she has given five presentations including “The International Geography of Children’s Inequality” at the International Conference on the Geographies of Children, Youth and Families at San Diego State University earlier this year.

Under the theme of Global Knowledge, Global Attitudes, Global Skills, this fall’s International Studies Seminar Series will be Wednesdays through November 18. All talks are free and open to the public. The International Studies Seminar Series is sponsored by the Office of International Studies and Programs.

For more information, contact Schmeeckle at mhschme@ilstu.edu or (309) 438-2932.