Dr. Kiran C. Patel Center for Global Solutions
Welcome to the University of South Florida Dr. Kiran C. Patel Center for Global Solutions launched in May 2005. Located on USF's Tampa campus, the research center is dedicated to working with faculty, staff, and students across USF's campuses and colleges. The goal of the Center is to identify challenges in developing countries and create viable solutions for improving the lives of the people in those countries. The Center will facilitate the development of new research and technologies. Interdisciplinary research projects will focus on the natural environment, the social environment, and the economic environment.
With the generous support of donors Drs. Kiran C. and Pallavi Patel, the Center has attracted broad academic attention. It recently became the home of one of the premier interdisciplinary journals, Globalizations. The Globalization Research Network, a congressionally-funded consortium of global research centers, recently relocated to the Center. The Center is collaborating with the USF College of Education to develop the Global Schools Project, a partnership to emphasize international education in area high schools.
The site for a new facility for the Dr. Kiran C. Patel Center has been dedicated. The new building will be located adjacent to the Alumni Center on the Tampa Campus.
Recent News
Patel Center releases study on international trade in Tampa Bay region.
Researcher Jim Snyders presented the findings of this research, conducted with Dennis Colie, at the International Town Hall Meeting hosted by the Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce on Dec. 6, 2007.
A visit from Robert Adamski of Water for People
On September 12, the Patel Center hosted a presentation on “The World’s Water Crisis and How You Can Help Solve It” with Mr. Robert Adamski, Special Advisor to the United Nations for Water for People, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to providing safe drinking water to impoverished people around the world. He addressed a large crowd from the university and Tampa Bay communities at USF’s Marshall Center. Mr. Adamski’s remarks focused on how Water for People improves the quality of life of impoverished communities by supporting sustainable drinking water, sanitation and hygiene education projects in communities throughout the world. He also outlined steps that ordinary citizens can take to help address water issues in developing countries. His presentation was followed by a fruitful Q & A session.
Mr. Adamski is the vice president of municipal infrastructure programs for Gannett Fleming, an international consulting engineering and construction management firm. He provides consulting assistance to municipal water and wastewater system owners in the areas of facility operations and maintenance and utility management. He had 28 years of experience in government service with the New York City Department of City Planning and a number of other city and state agencies. He retired as deputy commissioner of the New York City Department of Environmental Protection.
The presentation on the world’s water crisis will run on WUSF 89.7 FM, starting Monday (11/5) and Thursday at 3:57 p.m. and Tuesday and Friday at 9:05 a.m.and on WUSF Channel 16, Monday through Friday, November 5-9, between 11:55 a.m. and noon, between 4:55 and 5 p.m., and between 11:25 and 11:30 p.m. It will also run on Saturday and Sunday, November 10 & 11, at three various times each day.
Patel Center Graduate Assistantship Awards
In 2007-2008, The Patel Center will provide graduate assistant support to two faculty conducting applied research on the provision of potable water and/or sanitation in the developing world.
Ken Thomas, Ph.D. student in Civil and Environmental Engineering, will analyze low impact ecotourism in Guyana, Trinidad, Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic. He is studying under Prof. Maya Trotz.
Cassandra Workman, Ph.D. student in Anthropology, will investigate the relationship between water security and HIV/AIDS in Lesotho. Nancy Romero-Daza is her major professor.
GSP teachers learn about the latest developments in the E.U.
On June 15, 2007, the GSP teachers participated in a summer workshop entitled, “Understanding and Teaching the European Union: Hemispheric, Transatlantic, and Global Perspectives.” Co-hosted by Miami-Florida European Union Center of Excellence, at FIU and the Dr. Kiran C. Patel Center for Global Solutions at USF, this day-long workshop allowed teachers to learn about the latest developments in the E.U. and interact with both academics and EU citizens (see program agenda).
Presentations included: Evolution of the European Union in a Global Context by Dr. Mark Amen, Academic Director of the Patel Center; The Economics of the European Union by Dr. Petia Kostadinova, Assistant Director at the University of Florida’s Center for European Studies; and a presentation by USF librarian Cheryl McCoy on teaching resources available through the USF Library as well as on the www.
A highlight of the workshop was a panel of USF students, all citizens of the EU:
Luca Lai, Anthropology (Italy); Tsvetelin Parashkevov, International Studies (Bulgaria); Monika Pierzchlewicz, International Studies (Poland); Simona Platukyte, International Studies (Lithuania). At the end of the day, teachers expressed their appreciation of having learned so much new information as well as hopes for a future workshop that would deepen and strengthen the knowledge gained.
The Patel Center travels to the Dominican Republic
Santo Domingo Today - June 15, 2007
Betty Castor, ex-education secretary of Florida and ex-USF president, and Mark Amen, Academic director of the USF’s Patel Center for Global Solutions, said the initiative to turn Miches into a sustainable development model will bolster efforts to attract investors and universities to develop it integrally, and improve the standards of living for its inhabitants.
The academicians visited John R. Gagain Jr, director of the Presidential Commission on the Objectives of the Millennium and Sustainable Development (COPDES) in the National Palace.
The Santo Domingo Technological Institute (INTEC), New York’s Columbia University, the University of Seville, are among the institutions taking part.
Columbia’s James Danf-Burg, director for the "Environmentally Sustainable Economic Growth (ESEG) initiative for Miches, said the university collaborates with the higher education institutions interested in Miches’ human and sustainable development, which aims to motorize the local economy with sustainable scientific strategies to conserve natural resources and attract tourists with its natural beauty.
Danf-Burg, a scientist and professor of Columbia’s Center for the Environment, the Economy and Society (CEES), lives in Miches together with a group of scientists, professors and post graduate students, for the purpose of collaborating with the Dominican Government, the City Council and the inhabitants of the rural communities to implement the pilot project. Images
Dominican Today - Santo Domingo,Dominican Republic
Globalization and Sustainable Development Issues and Applications
Do the forces of globalization hinder sustainable development or encourage development that takes into account the needs of future generations? By tracing the history of the modern environmental movement and examining case studies from around the world, this edited volume provides multiple perspectives on this globally important issue.
Copies available in SOC102 or by mail. Read online!
Globalization Studies Network (GSN) Third International Conference
Call for Abstracts and Panel Proposals
The Globalization Studies Network (GSN), a loose association of institutions from across the world united by a shared preoccupation to promote a better understanding of the processes and structures of globalization, will hold its Third International Conference, “Globalization and Human Diversity: Asian and Other Regional Experiences,” scheduled to take place in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia from 21 to 23 August 2006. The GSN invites abstracts and panel proposals, due May 1, 2006. Submission and conference details (PDF).
Highlighted Publications & Studies
Water Management Strategies in Urban Mexico: Limitations of the Privatization Debate. Part of a three country study on how increasing urbanization and changing economic conditions and priorities are affecting the provision of water and sanitation in urban areas worldwide.
Assessing Regional Free Trade Proposals uses a lens of economic forecasting and in-depth case studies to look at the potential implications of free trade agreements, such as FTAA and CAFTA, for Florida and the United States
Global Blues and Sustainable Development Conference: The Emerging Challenges for Bureaucracy, Technology and Governance. Selected papers, September 23-24, 2005, University of South Florida, Tampa.
Globalization Research Network
The Kiran C. Patel Center for Global Solutions is part of a consortium with globalization research centers at three other Research I institutions: University of Hawaii-Manoa, University of California/Los Angeles, and George Washington University. Together, these institutions comprise the Globalization Research Network (GRN), whose primary purpose is to enlarge capacity by working together and coordinating activities of the four centers. At each center researchers are working on material common to the processes of globalization while focusing research on the geographic regions of their specialization and responsibility. The GRN is currently based at the USF Center.
The four universities of the Globalization Research Network are working together on several projects. One of these, the Globalization Portal project, is being led by the University of South Florida. The network has funded the completion of a pilot of the portal and is now seeking external funding to refine and upload the portal for the use of globalization researchers, educators, and public policy communities throughout the world. The portal will provide researchers with access to a state-of-the-art cataloguing and classification system of electronic research resources (e.g., large data sets, occasional, white, and working papers, conference papers, reports, bibliographies, expert resource guides, website inventories, etc) related to multiple aspects of globalizations. The resources housed on the portal will support research endeavors, and will make a significant contribution to how globalization is studied and understood throughout the world.
GRN members also participate in the Globalization Studies Network.
Copyright © 2006 Dr. Kiran C. Patel Center for Global Solutions, University of South Florida, 4202 E. Fowler Ave. SOC 107, Tampa, FL 33620
Phone: (813) 974-2954 | Fax: (813) 974-2522 | GlobalResearch@cas.usf.edu