Fulbrights – Page 2 – Center for Intercultural Dialogue

Sheila McNamee Fulbright

Sheila McNamee is Professor of Communication at the University of New Hampshire. She submitted the following discussion of her Fulbright award.

In 2012 I was a Fulbright Specialist at the University of Caldas in Manizales, Colombia. The invitation arose because, during this period, I was supervising an Assistant Professor at the University of Caldas in her PhD work. Her PhD research was on the re-integration of former child soldiers into civilian life. The opportunity to work with her research group, CEDAT, provided a living laboratory where the constructionist ideas I write about could be put into practice.

Sheila McNamee in Colombia — Sheila McNamee (second from left in back row) with colleagues and students in Colombia.

The project consisted of training in a social constructionist stance aimed at undergraduate and graduate faculty of the University of Caldas. Focus was on exploring how a social constructionist approach could be applied to specific areas such as social work, family development, social sciences, social research, conflict resolution and mediation. I was engaged in offering seminars, workshops and consultation with research groups. While most of my work was with faculty, some activities were extended to students and professionals from the academic community. The faculty with whom I worked were expected to begin a reflective process on teaching, research and professional practices, from a social constructionist approach and apply the knowledge acquired during the training, within the undergraduate curriculum, graduate curriculum, and social extramural programs such as “Tutor Home” and the “Center for family Intervention.” I worked with several research groups to offer advice on the specific projects being carried out at the moment as well as guidance on new projects. I worked a good deal with one research group, CEDAT. They develop processes in the area of conflict, violence and coexistence within the context of the Colombian conflict. This is one of the strategic areas of research at the University of Caldas.

My work with CEDAT focused on conflict resolution and mediation, from a constructionist perspective. These topics are central to CEDAT’s focus on reintegration into civilian life of children and young people detached from the Colombian armed conflict. I engaged dialogical workshops with specific groups of professors with a particular focus according to the programs and needs: (1) a seminar on social construction and social work aimed to professors of the department of human development; (2) a training Workshop on constructionist research addressed to professors assigned with various research groups. These activities included Master students; (3) a training workshop on dialogue, conflict resolution and mediation; (4) a training workshop on family intervention for professors assigned to the department of family studies and the Center for family intervention staff; and (5) a seminar open to the academic community on social constructionist theory.

While these are all the “formal” activities in which I engaged, my own learning was expanded tenfold thanks to this Fulbright. It was exciting working with research groups who were focusing on the long-standing and crippling conflict in Colombia. This was an opportunity to take my work beyond local community and organizational conflicts and see how it could be put to use in an enduring cultural struggle. The experience transformed my work and provided countless connections to both scholars and practitioners interested in working with dialogic ways of generating new forms of understanding.

Paul Voakes Fulbright to Uganda

Paul Voakes is Professor of Journalism at the University of Colorado Boulder. He submitted the following comments about his Fulbright award.

Voakes in Kampala — Paul Voakes (right) with Aaron Mushengyezi, then chair of the Mass Communication department at Makerere University.

The primary purpose of my specialist assignment at Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda, in April-May of 2012, was to work with the chair and faculty of the Mass Communication Department to evaluate the current strength of the Department’s graduate program and think strategically about its sustainability. I think it worked out pretty well. I was one of the leaders of the two-day faculty retreat (May 9-10) in which we achieved consensus on the structure and content of the new MA curriculum. I constructed the 10,000-word document (in the format required by the university) that would enable approval of the new curriculum. I was told several times that this effort had been stalled for three years, until my contribution to the effort. I also researched Ph.D. programs in Mass Communication in Africa and then assessed the graduate-teaching resources in the department. The result was a 5,000-word report and recommendation, which I submitted to the chair on May 23.

The secondary purposes of the assignment were to (a) develop possible partnerships (for training, exchanges or research collaborations for faculty or students) between the University of Colorado and Makerere University, and (b) lead class sessions at both the undergraduate and master’s levels, as requested. I drafted a Memorandum of Understanding between the University of Colorado and Makerere University, which would accommodate development of collaborations and exchanges of faculty and students. The document has the approval of the legal offices at both universities, but budget constraints at Makerere have hindered the implementation of physical exchanges. In terms of my teaching, I delivered 12 guest lectures over my six-week stay, on topics ranging from public relations ethics and communication for development to investigative reporting techniques and feature-writing tips.

I also enjoyed a few meetings with the larger Ugandan journalism community. I gave a talk to the “U.S. Press Corps,” an organization of Ugandan journalists sponsored by the U.S. Embassy in Kampala. I also represented Makerere at The Kampala Dialogue, a day-long regional conference to observe UNESCO’s World Press Freedom Day. I gave a 30-minute talk and participated in the Q&A panel at the end of the day.

Most rewarding, as I now look back, are the personal relationships I was able forge with colleagues at Makerere. One example: The University of Colorado Boulder is particularly known for Environmental Science, and we are also home to one of the world’s few centers for Environmental Journalism. In the fall of 2013, 18 months after my assignment, our center hosted an international conference on the communication of climate change. I encouraged one of my faculty colleagues at Makerere to submit a paper, which was accepted. Travel funding, however, is a constant hindrance for our Ugandan colleagues as they attempt to develop their scholarly careers. Because of our Fulbright-enabled connection, I was happy to host the Ugandan colleague in our home and get her conference registration fee waived. Thus airfare was her only major expense for the conference. She presented the paper in Boulder and later got it published in an international journal on environmental communication. In Boulder she was also able to forge new relationships with scholars globally in this field.

David Altheide Fulbrights

David L. Altheide is Regents’ Professor Emeritus, Arizona State University. He submitted the following comments about his Fulbright awards.

David Altheide I made two Fulbright visits as a Fulbright Specialist after I retired from Arizona State University in 2011. The first visit was in 2012 to Zeppelin University (Friedrichshafen, Germany), with a brief lecture trip to Vienna, Austria; the second was in 2017 to Universidade Catolica Portuguesa (Lisbon, Portugal). A few comments about contacts, networks, and curricular notions will be followed by an overview of the experiences.

The major impact of my visit to both countries was connecting with key faculty and graduate students. At Zeppelin University, which I had previously visited two years prior, I was reacquainted with a major scholar, Nico Stehr (Karl-Mannheim Chair of Cultural Studies) and my main Fulbright guide, Marian Adolf. A few years after my Fulbright appointment, Professor Stehr visited Arizona State University as a guest of the School of Sustainability. I corresponded with several faculty and graduate students after the conclusion of the visit. The visit to Lisbon, although much briefer (i.e., 2 weeks), also produced some collaborative discussion with faculty and graduate students. I forwarded to ASU colleagues and others copies of research reports and ongoing projects from both universities. Two of my former students were in contact with faculty in Lisbon about their own projects. Finally, I was able to connect faculty from Zeppelin and the Catholic University with scholars in the EU who share common interests. I was invited to return to Lisbon for additional lectures in October 2019.

Another interesting development was contributing to some disciplinary integration. I am a sociologist with a long history of research, teaching, and publishing in mass communication, news and propaganda, and fear communication—all areas that are also associated with Communication Departments and scholarship. (I also taught in an Interdisciplinary School of Justice Studies at Arizona State University). It seemed that my Fulbright lectures and seminars attracted students and faculty from various disciplines, who might not otherwise have much contact. Our conversations, often during meals, etc., occasionally sparked some shared topics of interests that could promote collaborative work in the future in the host institutions.

It is always a challenge to separate out key experiences of the visits since there are so many cultural insights and contrasts, but I can make a few comments about the process that led to my two Fulbright awards. I have been fortunate to do some research-related travel and collaboration with foreign colleagues prior to pursuing a Fulbright Award. The first thing to stress is practicality: Because of my family priorities, commitments to students, and other university responsibilities, I never really considered applying for Fulbright Award that would typically last six months to a year. It was not until toward the end of my teaching career that I learned about and pursued the Fulbright Specialist Award, which could last 2-6 weeks. I learned from colleagues at home and abroad that there is also a pragmatic aspect of a shorter term for a host institution as well: Many universities that do not have a visiting scholar tradition and resources simply are not equipped to support and deal with a visiting faculty person for an extended time. Thus, a Fulbright Specialist award was an ideal situation for my research interests, although the emphasis would not be collecting data per se, but rather, interacting with colleagues, students, offering assistance and suggestions about curricula, programmatic concerns, and perhaps some administrative suggestions. Having worked in an interdisciplinary Ph.D. program in Justice Studies, I felt comfortable offering some modest suggestions for promoting cross-discipline integration, including team-teaching. Moreover, I found that the shorter time periods of the Fulbright Specialist were often more manageable for host institutions in terms of more modest support. Fortunately, I was able to use some contacts and familiarity from an initial lecture visit, to develop an application for a six-week appointment at Zeppelin University in Friedrichshafen, Germany. Several years later a general inquiry about visiting Lisbon morphed into an invitation to spend two weeks at the Universidade Catolica Portuguesa. I heartily recommend considering a Fulbright Specialist Award. Indeed, my enthusiastic discussions with colleagues led a fellow professor and a former student to apply for and receive a Fulbright Specialist Award. My only regret is that administrative rules prevent me from receiving another award for several years to assist other international faculties.

Ayseli Usluata Fulbrights

Dr. Ayseli Usluata is a Professor in the Communication faculty at Yeditepe University, Istanbul, Turkey. She has received Fulbright awards at two different stages of her life, which are described here as part of a continuing series documenting Fulbrights and their impacts.

Ayseli Usluata

As a last year student at middle school in Istanbul our class was given a test, and then my parents were informed that I was one of the two girls in the country who won an award to study at the American College for Girls. It was a Fulbright award.

Years later, after graduating from the English Philology Department at Istanbul University for my Masters degree, once more I received a Fulbright award, this time to study at the University of Kansas. Prof. Moore and his family agreed to accommodate me in their home, and the following year I shared an apartment with a Chinese friend, Donna. While studying in the American Literature department I took some Philosophy courses as well. With Prof. Wolfe I translated Turkish author Sait Faik’s stories and poems into English, which were published in Kansas magazines (Smoky Hill Review and Prairie Schooner, in 1965-66).

During the summers I worked with Prof. Samson as his assistant mentoring students with bright ideas. At the end of the two years (in 1964) before going back to Turkey, the Foreign Students’ Office assigned me to represent both KU and Turkey at the Williamsburg International Assembly to discuss “American Reflections and Projections” (Schlessinger was the Director). I met Alfred Friendly who introduced me to his family, and they hosted me for the weekend. Mrs. Friendly visited Turkey later on.

Upon my return to Turkey, I taught English at the Preparatory School of Middle East Technical University (METU) in Ankara. After two years I proposed “Translation” as a new Freshman elective course open to all departments. The course became very popular among Engineering students and I added 3 more sections. Then I moved to Istanbul and started translating books by well-known authors, including Aldous Huxley, Bertrand Russell, Jacob Bronowski, and C. P. Snow.

I started teaching English at Boğaziçi University. Due to my interest in communication I started sending my research papers to international associations such as ABC (Association for Business Communication), IAMCR, SIETAR, ECA, GCA, IABC, moving into leadership roles, such as becoming a board member. Every year I presented one or two papers at international conferences.

At one of these events, I complained about news misrepresentations of Turkey — following the rule “bad news is good news”. I talked with colleagues at different conferences emphasizing the importance of interpersonal communication to understand the cultures of different countries, and we decided to have our students communicate through the Internet, including using e-mail. I first started with a German friend from Karlsruhe University; the whole semester students from our two universities exchanged e-mail messages about their culture, daily lives, etc. This international exchange expanded in following semesters to include Canadian, Swedish and American students. It was very successful, to the point where some of the students visited each other later on. With colleagues, I presented conference papers discussing the results and recommendations. This went on until I retired, when I started teaching at Yeditepe University. On a visit to Nebraska-Lincoln University, I met Dr. Charles Braithwaite who talked about his Global Classroom project (to improve students’ practical experience with intercultural communication) and expanded from e-mail exchanges to video conferencing between students, and from discrete teaching to joint video-conferencing. This collaboration has continued every semester since 2000.

Other results included the following:

1. I took students to the ECA Munich Conference in 2002.
2. Our students won an international award with their project.
3. Curi Curtis our UNL student in the Global Ciassroom came back to Turkey as a Fulbrighter.
4. Two American professors were invited as visiting professors at our Department (Jim and Carol Roever).
5. Our university welcomed Erasmus students from different countries.
6. Students carried out research on “the image of Turkey.

Two larger results:

Hosted the 9th ABC European Convention at Yeditepe University on May 23-26, 2007. Edited the Proceedings in a book. Scholars from 11 different countries attended the convention and contributed to the book. “Communication: Spanning Cultures, Change, and Challenges” Published by Yeditepe University, İstanbul, 2008.

Hosted the ECA (European Communication Association) İstanbul Conference 2004 at Yeditepe University. April 17-20. Edited the Proceedings in a book “Shaping the Communication Research in Europe. Published by Yeditepe University, 2005.

Other noteworthy accomplishments:

“Abdi İpekci peace prize” (held under the auspices of UN) (1991 ) for an article written to promote peace between Greece and Turkey
Project coordinator of Turkey for the “Global Project of Women in Media” for the years 1995 and 2000.
Visited the two-year colleges to study the programmes on communication/journalism in Englandand Scotland as the guest of British Council (1983 summer)and community colleges in the US (1983 Nov.).
Fellow of Salzburg Seminar for the “Communications, Development and Society in an Information Age” Austria (1984).
Appointed as the director of Center for International Studies at Boğaziçi University (1991) and arranged to two international conferences on “Italy and Turkey” and “Peace Studies.”
“Social Responsibility Project for Graduation” course under the title “From 7 to 77 Solidarity Between Generations” was the co-winner of the European Map of Intergenerational Learning Award (2013).
Published the book Social responsibility as academic learning course at the university with Peter Lang in 2021.

Calling all Fulbrights!

I am writing a chapter entitled “The Value of a Fulbright: Internationalizing Education One Person at a Time” for inclusion in the volume Internationalizing the Communication Curriculum in an Age of Globalization: Why, What, and How, to be edited by Paaige K. Turner, Soumia Bardhan, Tracey Quigley Holden, and Eddah Mbula Mutua, to be published by Routledge.

There are already 16 stories about Fulbrights posted to this website, but I am now asking these scholars, as well as anyone else who has held any of the various types of Fulbrights, to email me, so that I can include your story in this overview. (In addition, I would like to add more personal narratives about Fulbright experiences to this website, so if you have not yet told me about your experience, let’s talk.) The specific focus in my chapter will be on what happened after you returned to your home campus: how did you revise your own courses or influence others in your department in ways that helped to internationalize the curriculum?

Further details about what I plan to write:

Continue reading “Calling all Fulbrights!”

Steven Darian Fulbright

Steven Darian, Professor emeritus at Rutgers University, has sent in a description of his Fulbright experience in Uzbekistan, 1997-1998. Details follow.

Steven Darian The Fulbright was for someone to teach courses in management at the Tashkent Institute of Finance. I had a keen cultural interest in Central Asia, but my Ph.D. was in Applied Linguistics, & most of my teaching dealt with the English language, with courses like applied linguistics, fiction, & non-fiction writing, I also taught an MBA course in business communication. In my Fulbright application, I stressed the fact that an American business professor teaching in a place like Tashkent would be faced with serious comprehension problems from his students, especially since management has its share of jargon and technical terms. I offered to prepare a book for management students who were also nonnative speakers of English. I was also lucky enough to have had a previous Fulbright, plus several other long-term overseas ESL teaching assignments (in Afghanistan, Saudi, & Indonesia). At any rate, the Fulbright came through, and I arrived in Tashkent with copies of the book (later published as English for Decision-Makers: A Course in Modern Management).

Continue reading “Steven Darian Fulbright”

U Loughborough Fulbright Award

The 2019-20 Fulbright Loughborough Scholar Award is now open for applications with a deadline of 1st August, 2018.

Each year, one award is offered to a US citizen in support of research and/or teaching/lecturing in any subject, in any of (or a combination of) Loughborough research-active departments. The appointment will be for a period of 3-12 months – to be determined by the applicants and their host school. Candidates will be selected by the Fulbright Commission and the Council for the International Exchange of Scholars (CIES).

NOTE: Many other Fulbright opportunities are available, whether in the UK, or in the rest of the world.

2018-19 Fulbright US Scholar Competition

The 2018-19 Core Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program competition is now open, and this year there are many awards in the field of Communications. Opportunities are found in the newly redesigned Catalog of Awards and include:

Swaziland: Mass Communication and Broadcast Journalism
United Arab Emirates: All Disciplines (Teaching or Teaching/Research)
Jamaica: All Disciplines
India: Fulbright-Nehru Distinguished Chair (All Disciplines)
Norway: Digital Culture
Burma: All Disciplines
Zambia: Journalism and Broadcasting

Applicants must be U.S. citizens and the current competition will close on August 1, 2017.

Among the other Fulbright programs are those for Visiting (non-US) Scholars and Fulbright Specialists (short-term, US-based).

Save

Fulbright Scholar Program 2016

Fulbright U.S. Scholar Awards in Communications and Journalism

The Fulbright Scholar Program offers nearly 500 teaching, research or combination teaching and research awards in over 125 countries for the 2017-2018 academic year. Opportunities are available for college and university faculty and administrators as well as for professionals, artists, journalists, scientists, lawyers, independent scholars and many others.

This year, the Fulbright Scholar Program is offering over 100 awards in the field of communications and journalism. Opportunities include:
– Malaysia: Fulbright-MCMC Award for Communications and Multimedia Studies
– Bulgaria: Communications, Journalism and Media
– Swaziland: Mass Communication and Broadcast Journalism

For additional awards in the field of communications and journalism, please visit the CIES website. There you will find award highlights and examples of successful projects in the discipline, and scholar testimonials which highlight the outcomes and benefits associated with completing a Fulbright Scholar grant.

Please check eligibility factors, detailed application guidelines, and review criteria. You may also wish to register for one of our webinars or join My Fulbright, a resource center for applicants interested in the program. Applicants must be U.S. citizens and the current competition will close on August 1, 2016.

Please contact Sophia Yang with questions about any of the opportunities listed above or the Fulbright Scholar Program in general.

The Fulbright Program, sponsored by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, is the U.S. government’s flagship international exchange program and is supported by the people of the United States and partner countries around the world.

Glenn Geiser-Getz Fulbrights (Russia and Ghana)

I served as a Fulbright Fellow for the fall semester of 2000 through the end of the spring semester of 2001 in St. Petersburg, Russia. Although I applied for a teaching fellowship, I included scholarly plans in my application and I conducted research while serving in Russia.

I found the application process pretty straightforward. My impression is that they are looking for scholar-teachers who have a great interest in travel and other cultures. I also believe that (at least when I applied) they were interested in people who were flexible and willing to adjust to the dynamics of other places and peoples. Finally, I think they value people who are interested in a true exchange, who are not only interested in learning something new but in sharing alternate ways of being, thinking, and doing with others. My teaching (especially of argumentation and debate) and my scholarship (which involved ethnographic interviews) required my student and faculty hosts to adjust their thinking about higher education and research. However, I also took great care to learn from them and to absorb and appreciate the culture that surrounded me.

My primary assignment was at St. Petersburg State University in the Department of International Journalism, although I am more a rhetorical scholar than a mass media or journalism scholar. I was not able to secure a sabbatical from my home institution because the application process at my campus was so different from the Fulbright application process. However, I was able to get educational leave without pay and health insurance through COBRA (the cost of which was reimbursed by my institution when I returned). I deducted all of my work-related living and transportation expenses and as a result paid less in tax than I normally would. My wife quite her elementary teaching job and joined me on the trip. In the end, the trip reduced our income but it was definitely worth it. I rank my experience as a Fulbright Scholar the third most significant experience of my life (behind my education and my marriage/children).

There were plenty of challenges during my time in Russia and some strange miscommunications, but it was all part of the rich variety of experiences I had during that year. As a result of connections with the state department and various educational and cultural organizations, I had the opportunity to teach in many cities outside of St. Petersburg. I taught college students, high school students, journalists, other college faculty, elementary and secondary teachers, and community members. I taught in gymnasiums, churches, public libraries, community centers, hotels, and (of course) college buildings. I enjoyed a great deal of travel by train to countries including Finland, Sweden, Estonia, Latvia, and others.

I also received a Fulbright-Hays Fellowship to Ghana, but that is a whole different story. It was a month-long study trip, so I was more a student and researcher than a teacher. But it was an awesome experience as well! I encourage anyone to consider applying.

Glenn Geiser-Getz, Ph.D.
East Stroudsburg University
Department of Communication Studies
5/26/15

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: