This information session provides prospective U.S. applicants with an in-depth look at the Fulbright Specialist Program and the opportunity to hear from a panel of Fulbright Specialist alumni based at U.S. Liberal Arts Institutions
Alumni panelists:
Laura L. Behling, Professor of English at University of Puget Sound, has teaching and scholarly interests 20th-21st-century U.S. literature and culture, as well as health humanities. As a Fulbright Scholar, she taught at Palacky University in Olomouc, Czech Republic (2003) and served as a Fulbright Senior Specialist at the American University of Bulgaria in Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria (2018). Her scholarly publications include: Gross Anatomies: Fictions of the Physical in American Literature (Susquehanna University Press/Associated University Presses, 2008) and The Masculine Woman in America, 1890-1935 (University of Illinois Press, 2001). In addition, she edited Reading, Writing, and Research: Undergraduate Students as Scholars in Literary Studies (CUR [Council on Undergraduate Research], 2010) and The Resource Handbook for Academic Deans (Jossey-Bass, 2014). For more than a decade, Behling has served in academic leadership, including positions as vice president for academic affairs and provost.
Ted Schwalbe is an emeritus faculty member at SUNY Fredonia, where he spent over 40 years as a Distinguished Service Professor. He was also chair of the Department of Communication for 19 years. He has written and been principal investigator for four major U.S. State Department media training grants in Albania, Bulgaria, southern Africa, and Turkey. The last grant involved teaching students to produce films about social issues in their cities and involved 72 students in 6 cities in Turkey. He has also been a very active member of the WNY/NWPA Fulbright Association chapter where he has served on the Board for over 20 years.
Schwalbe’s first Fulbright was U.S. Scholar Award to Bulgaria in 1997, and he has also received a U.S. Scholar award to Hungary (2004) and Fulbright Specialist awards to Swaziland (2002), Namibia (2007), and Albania (2017). Most of his teaching and research took place in Eastern/Central Europe and sub-Saharan Africa and focused on independent journalism and private media operation.