Athens, Ga. – Three UGA faculty members, Allan Kulikoff, David Smilde and Douglas Toma, are currently traveling abroad to lecture and conduct research through their Fulbright Scholar grants.
Kulikoff, the Abraham Baldwin Professor in the Humanities in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences received a grant to lecture at the Institute of American History and Culture at Nankai University in Tianjin, China. He is teaching three courses on American economic history, the American Revolution and American political history for undergraduates. Before arriving, the history professor received a grant from the President’s Challenge Fund to get more than 700 books for the Nankai University Library.
While at Nankai, Kulikoff has helped organize the first international conference on early American history to be held in China. The conference, to be held in late May, will include papers from twenty foreigners (including two Pulitzer Prize winners) and thirty Chinese scholars.
“My teaching has greatly influenced my research. After presenting a paper on Ben Franklin and popular culture at a conference in Nankai, I decided to write a short book on the topic,” said Kulikoff. I compiled a list of free, internet-based sources for American history and culture (1600-1877) to help my Chinese students and colleagues find primary sources. That list will be published in the future in the on-line journal Common-place.
Smilde, an assistant professor of sociology in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, received a grant to lectureat the Central University of Venezuela in Caracas and researchreligion and political conflict in Venezuela. He isfocusing on theCatholic Church and Evangelical movementduring the presidency of HugoChavez.
He is teaching a seminar on the methodology of the study of culture and religion in the social sciences doctoral program. Smilde also is interviewing religious professionals to understand the relationship between their political tendencies, theological positions and social networks.
“It is an exciting time to be in Venezuela as history, for better or worse, is being made,” said Smilde. “The Catholic Church and the Evangelical movement have taken on an important political role that will be key to the direction Venezuelan democracy takes.”
Toma, an associate professor in the Institute of Higher Education and dean of the Franklin Residential College, is lecturing, conducting research and consulting at the University of Zagreb in Croatia. He is focusing on strategy and management in higher education, legal issues in higher education and in sports, and qualitative research design.
“My colleagues at the Institute and I greatly value our work over the past several years related to developing higher education in Croatia,” said Toma.”The opportunity to become immersed in the higher education system of another country, particularly in Croatia at such a critical moment in its development, has enriched my research on developing managerial capacity at universities and the ‘Americanization’ of world higher education.”
Since 1946, the U.S. Government-sponsored Fulbright Scholar Program has provided faculty and professionals with an unparalleled opportunity to study and conduct research in other nations.
These UGA faculty members are among the more than 270,000 American and foreign university students, K-12 teachers, and university faculty and professionals who have participates in one of the several Fulbright exchange programs. Recipients of Fulbright Scholar awards are selected on the basis of academic or professional achievement and because they have demonstrated extraordinary leadership potential in their fields.
For more information, visit the CIES (Council for International Exchange of Scholars) Web site at http://www.cies.org/.