Mission

The MISSE areas provide intra- and cross-cultural education, leadership and organizational development opportunities, social justice education and change, a "home away from home" for students, and a safe space for cultural and psychosocial development. The Centers compliment the academic mission of the University by enhancing students' experiences inside and outside of the classroom.

Vision

The International Student Support and Engagement, or ISSE, focuses on supporting international students and international student organizations' development to enhance international students' experience within and outside of the classroom.

History

In spring of 2016, two students, Akash Bhalerao and Brian Leal advocated to add a staff member to support international students within the Division of Student Life. A spilt position was created between former Center for Student Involvement and Leadership (CSIL) and the International Student and Scholar Services (ISSS). In 2017, this position officially became part of the Multicultural and International Student Support and Engagement (MISSE) team as the International Student Support and Engagement area.

Location

152 IMU, 125 N. Madison Ave, Iowa City, IA

Hours

  • Monday, 11:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.
  • Tuesday, 3:30 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.
  • Wednesday, 11:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.

Note: We will close during University holidays and academic breaks.

Social media

ISSE Instagram page

Professional staff

Portrait of Shuhui Lin

Shuhui Lin

Coordinator, International Student Support and Engagement


 

Upcoming Events

Crosscurrents in Time: A Video Trilogy by Aline Motta (Exhibition) promotional image

Crosscurrents in Time: A Video Trilogy by Aline Motta (Exhibition)

Friday, March 31, 10:00am to Tuesday, August 1, 2023 4:30pm
Stanley Museum of Art
This multi-channel installation of three related videos will be on view in the Lauridsen Family Gallery at the Stanley Museum of Art. Aline Motta is a participant in Frequências: Contemporary Afro-Brazilian Cinema & the Black Diaspora, an Oberman Humanities Symposium & International Programs Major Project Award, held at the University of Iowa March 30 - April 1, 2023. Among the Atlantic waters that connect Brazil, Portugal, Sierra Leone, and Nigeria, contemporary artist Aline Motta engages with...
Frequências: Interventions by Tatiana Carvalho Costa, Michael B. Gillespie, and Cris Lira promotional image

Frequências: Interventions by Tatiana Carvalho Costa, Michael B. Gillespie, and Cris Lira

Friday, March 31, 2023 10:30am to 11:45am
Stanley Museum of Art
This event is part of the 2023 Obermann Humanities Symposium, Frequências: Contemporary Afro-Brazilian Cinema & the Black Diaspora. Tatiana Carvalho Costa is a curator and teacher. She is a doctoral student at the Federal University of Minas Gerais where she researches Afro-Brazilian epistemologies and Black Brazilian Cinema, in particular the recent production of short films. She works as programmer and juror of festivals and recently joined the curatorial team of the Mostra de Cinema de...
Hawks of Color with Greg Geffrard promotional image

Hawks of Color with Greg Geffrard

Friday, March 31, 2023 11:30am to 1:00pm
Virtual
Hawks of Color is a place of welcome and community building while celebrating excellence! Formerly Faculty and Staff of Color, Hawks of Color is a re-envisioned community space to support and promote conversations among historically underrepresented, global majority, and/or marginalized faculty, staff, postdocs, and students at the University of Iowa. In addition to uplifting our voices and brilliance, attendees will have an opportunity to gather with others. Individuals with disabilities are...
 Frequências Humanities Symposium & IP Major Projects Award: Artist Talk by Aline Motta — "Bridges over the Abyss" promotional image

Frequências Humanities Symposium & IP Major Projects Award: Artist Talk by Aline Motta — "Bridges over the Abyss"

Friday, March 31, 2023 1:15pm to 2:45pm
Stanley Museum of Art
This event is part of the 2023 UI Obermann Humanities Symposium & International Programs Major Projects Award:. Frequências: Contemporary Afro-Brazilian Cinema & the Black Diaspora. Following the opening of Brazilian visual artist Aline Motta’s exhibition at the Stanley Museum, the artist Aline Motta and Brazilian curator and scholar Tatiana Carvalho Costa will share their thoughts on the works exhibited and discuss the uses of speculative fiction and archive to piece together a possible family...
Frequências: Interventions by Miryam Charles and Aline Motta promotional image

Frequências: Interventions by Miryam Charles and Aline Motta

Friday, March 31, 2023 3:00pm to 4:15pm
Becker Communication Studies Building
This event is part of the 2023 Obermann Humanities Symposium, Frequências: Contemporary Afro-Brazilian Cinema & the Black Diaspora. Please note that this event has been moved from the Stanley Art Museum to 101 BCSB. With her artistic practice, Aline Motta (b. 1974, Niterói, Brazil) seeks to point out and fill in the gaps in her own family history as a result of colonial erasure. Her videos, photographs, installations, and performances are based on speculative studies that mix archival...
Frequências Humanities Symposium & IP Major Projects Award: "Black Utopia LP" Performance by Cauleen Smith promotional image

Frequências Humanities Symposium & IP Major Projects Award: "Black Utopia LP" Performance by Cauleen Smith

Friday, March 31, 2023 4:30pm to 6:30pm
Becker Communication Studies Building
This event is part of the 2023 UI Obermann Humanities Symposium & International Programs Major Projects Award: Frequências: Contemporary Afro-Brazilian Cinema & the Black Diaspora. Please note that this event has been moved from the Stanley Art Museum to 101 BCSB. Join us for Cauleen Smith's captivating audio-visual performance, Black Utopia LP. Combining 35mm slide projection with the artist's vinyl LP, this 90-minute "film without film" offers a unique cinematic experience. Emerging from...
Frequências Screening: Director’s Choice programmed by Christopher Harris promotional image

Frequências Screening: Director’s Choice programmed by Christopher Harris

Saturday, April 1, 2023 10:15am to 12:00pm
FilmScene (Chauncey)
This event is part of the 2023 Obermann Humanities Symposium, Frequências: Contemporary Afro-Brazilian Cinema & the Black Diaspora. Christopher Harris makes films and video installations that read African American historiography through the poetics and aesthetics of experimental cinema. His work employs manually and photo-chemically altered appropriated moving images, staged re-enactments of archival artifacts and interrogations of documentary conventions. His current project is a series of...
Frequências: Interventions by Janaína Oliveira, Yasmina Price, and Cauleen Smith promotional image

Frequências: Interventions by Janaína Oliveira, Yasmina Price, and Cauleen Smith

Saturday, April 1, 2023 1:00pm to 2:15pm
FilmScene (Chauncey)
This event is part of the 2023 Obermann Humanities Symposium, Frequências: Contemporary Afro-Brazilian Cinema & the Black Diaspora. Janaína Oliveira will present "Frequencies of Kalunga."  Kalunga: a concept originating from Bantu cultures with multiple meanings. For some, the line that marks the limits between the worlds of the living and the ancestors, the line of the horizon and of saudade (longing), which divides but also aggregates. It can also be a portal or the core of the vital energy...
Frequências: Screening: Janaína Oliveira Short Film Program promotional image

Frequências: Screening: Janaína Oliveira Short Film Program

Saturday, April 1, 2023 2:30pm to 4:15pm
FilmScene (Chauncey)
This event is part of the 2023 Obermann Humanities Symposium, Frequências: Contemporary Afro-Brazilian Cinema & the Black Diaspora. Janaína Oliveira is a curator and researcher who holds a doctorate in history and was a Fulbright scholar at the Center for African Studies at Howard University (USA). She is one of the founders of FICINE—Fórum Itinerante de Cinema Negro. Her research focuses on Black Brazilian and aphrodiasporic cinemas and also on African cinematographies. She has served as a...
Frequências: Screening of Cette Maison (Miryam Charles), and a Conversation with Yasmina Price promotional image

Frequências: Screening of Cette Maison (Miryam Charles), and a Conversation with Yasmina Price

Saturday, April 1, 2023 4:30pm to 6:15pm
FilmScene (Chauncey)
This event will feature a screening of Cette Maison, directed by Miryam Cahrles followed by an introduction and post-screening conversation with Yasmina Price, Department of African Americans Studies at Yale University. 
Life in Iowa and ISSE Weekly Coffee Hour promotional image

Life in Iowa and ISSE Weekly Coffee Hour

Wednesday, April 5, 2023 3:30pm to 4:30pm
University Capitol Centre
Starting Jan. 18, Life in Iowa (part of International Student and Scholar Services) and International Student Support and Engagement invite international students and scholars at the University of Iowa to join them for a weekly coffee hour every Wednesday from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. at T.Spoons coffee shop (located in University Capitol Centre).
Life in Iowa and ISSE Weekly Coffee Hour promotional image

Life in Iowa and ISSE Weekly Coffee Hour

Wednesday, April 12, 2023 3:30pm to 4:30pm
University Capitol Centre
Starting Jan. 18, Life in Iowa (part of International Student and Scholar Services) and International Student Support and Engagement invite international students and scholars at the University of Iowa to join them for a weekly coffee hour every Wednesday from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. at T.Spoons coffee shop (located in University Capitol Centre).
ISSE Mediation and Mindful Movement promotional image

ISSE Mediation and Mindful Movement

Saturday, April 15, 2023 11:30am to 12:30pm
Iowa Memorial Union (IMU)
When you have balance, you start to pay more attention to your bodies and mind’s needs and develop a healthier body and a more peaceful state of mind. Come and join the meditation and mindful movement session with ISSE! Yoga mats will be provided.
Life in Iowa and ISSE Weekly Coffee Hour promotional image

Life in Iowa and ISSE Weekly Coffee Hour

Wednesday, April 19, 2023 3:30pm to 4:30pm
University Capitol Centre
Starting Jan. 18, Life in Iowa (part of International Student and Scholar Services) and International Student Support and Engagement invite international students and scholars at the University of Iowa to join them for a weekly coffee hour every Wednesday from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. at T.Spoons coffee shop (located in University Capitol Centre).
Life in Iowa and ISSE Weekly Coffee Hour promotional image

Life in Iowa and ISSE Weekly Coffee Hour

Wednesday, April 26, 2023 3:30pm to 4:30pm
University Capitol Centre
Starting Jan. 18, Life in Iowa (part of International Student and Scholar Services) and International Student Support and Engagement invite international students and scholars at the University of Iowa to join them for a weekly coffee hour every Wednesday from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. at T.Spoons coffee shop (located in University Capitol Centre).