NYU Silver Signs a Memorandum of Understanding with Rheinmain University of Applied Sciences

The NYU Silver School of Social Work recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Faculty of Applied Social Sciences at RheinMain University of Applied Sciences in Wiesbaden, Germany, to foster collaborative faculty research and student education between the two schools. This will be the first such agreement for NYU Silver with a university in Europe.

The MOU outlines areas of cooperation that include research and scholarship, allowing for faculty exchanges; student exchanges at the baccalaureate and master’s levels; and the establishment of a joint international summer school.

Work is already starting on the summer school, expected to take place in 2016. The summer school, which is a common educational structure in Europe, will likely focus on human rights among marginalized populations, and it will be taught by faculty members from both institutions for one to two weeks. A group of students from NYU Silver will travel to Wiesbaden to learn with students from RheinMain and students from RheinMain’s other partner schools in Europe and South America. A delegation of faculty members from RheinMain is scheduled to visit New York this summer to plan the curriculum.

“The summer school will be unique in that students from the Silver School will be living and learning with students from other countries,” said James Martin, associate professor at the Silver School. “This will be a true international collaboration among students.”

NYU Silver’s relationship with RheinMain started in 2011, when Professor Heidrun Schulze of RheinMain’s Faculty of Applied Social Sciences spent a semester at the Silver School as a visiting professor. During this time she presented a brown bag talk to NYU Silver students and faculty on the commonalities and differences between biographical-narrative research and narrative therapy. She later invited Martin to speak at RheinMain, where he has since lectured and given workshops several times over the last four years.

“Over the past few years RheinMain and the Silver School have developed a strong relationship, which has included a joint presentation by me, Heidrun Schulze, and Davina Höblich on practice-based research with vulnerable populations, and a collaborative book project,” said Martin. “We are looking forward to a productive partnership in the coming years.”