Full Circle: Northwestern Assistant Vice President for International Relations Earns the Award She Long Championed
Kim Rapp Named to Fulbright International Education Seminar
Northwestern has long been among the top producers of Fulbright awards for students and faculty. A smaller but equally longstanding category of recognition, the awards, has also been part of that tradition. This year, the award goes to the Northwestern staff member who has spent years guiding and advising previous awardees.
"Throughout the years of learning about each of the countries and programs awarded, I kept looking for the right one for me and France it was, because of the many collaborations Northwestern already has with the country, several of which I'm involved with," said Kim Rapp.
Rapp joins a line of Northwestern colleagues who have taken part in the Fulbright IEA seminars. Catrina DeBord, of the Global Learning Office, traveled to Germany in 2016; Greg Buchanan, assistant director of the Program in Global Health Studies, participated in the India seminar in spring 2018; and Katherine Lee, of Medill, took part in the South Korea seminar in 2019. Having encouraged and advised all three awardees, Rapp now joins a Fulbright IEA cohort herself – going full circle.
Northwestern and France
The work also builds on a broader institutional strength. In 2016, Northwestern's partnership with Sciences Po in Paris earned an in the IIE Andrew Heiskell Awards for Innovation in International Education, recognizing a deep, multi-level collaboration spanning student exchanges, dual PhD and faculty exchanges, research, and joint conferences.
France is a favored destination among Northwestern students and faculty. The university maintains at least 23 formal projects at 11 French institutions, and nearly 100 undergraduate and 50 graduate students study in France each year.
Northwestern’s ties to France run long and deep. In 1996, faculty members founded the ) to promote long-term intellectual exchange across all disciplines with Northwestern's French partners. Ongoing collaborations span Critical Theory, Early Modern Studies, Contemporary Literature in English, and Security and Governance in Africa. Alongside its working groups, FIG supports individual faculty exchange and seed grants.
For graduate students, Northwestern offers a dual PhD and several exchanges with French institutions, as well as the Summer Institute of Psychoanalysis—a joint venture with Université Sorbonne-Nouvelle. Launched in 2017, it brings doctoral and postdoctoral humanities students from Europe, Israel, Latin America, and the U.S. together for an intensive week studying the intersection of psychoanalysis and the human sciences.
ٍٍٍ½خر is also deeply engaged in the Big Ten Academic Alliance's International Research Experience Program (IREP) with France's FIGURE network, which places FIGURE master's students in BTAA laboratories. Rapp has managed Northwestern’s participation in this program since its 2019 launch, matching students from Toulouse 3, Poitiers, Cergy-Pontoise, and Université de Strasbourg with Northwestern faculty and researchers.
"My office supports faculty collaboration with researchers in France, provides funding and administrative support for joint symposia and conferences, and hosts visiting delegations exploring new opportunities," Rapp says.
The IEA seminar, she says, is a chance to amplify and enhance that work. "Learning more about the French academic landscape, as well as the personal and academic customs of the country, will help me better manage these projects, and better support French students at Northwestern, faculty working in France, and the departments involved with dual degree and exchange agreements. As the Fulbright seminar will include visits to a great number of institutions, I will also be able to highlight Northwestern’s strengths in research and academic collaboration our colleagues in France."
Rapp also expects the upcoming experience will shape both the course she teaches in SESP’s MSHE program, Global Issues in Higher Education, and the staff development programs on internationalization she leads for Northwestern and for the Big Ten Academic Alliance. "The meaningful relationships I'll build and the conversations I'll have with leaders in France, and within the U.S. practitioner cohort, will greatly impact my personal and professional growth. I am grateful to have been selected to participate in this Fulbright seminar and know the experience will inform and invigorate my work at Northwestern and my interactions with colleagues throughout the world."