Two faculty members receive Fulbright Specialist awards
June 08, 2012
Two University of Wisconsin-Whitewater faculty members will travel abroad this summer after receiving Fulbright Specialist awards.
David Nordstrom, associate professor of occupational and environmental safety and health, and Matthew Lange, associate professor of German, are among only 400 U.S. faculty and professionals to earn this honor.
The Fulbright Specialist Program provides short-term (two to six weeks) academic opportunities to faculty across the globe and aims to increase understanding between people of the United States and other countries. The Fulbright Program is considered America's flagship for international educational exchange and is sponsored by the U.S. State Department's Bureau of Education and Cultural Affairs.
Nordstrom will be leaving in late June for the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy in Ukraine and returning late July.
“I have been asked to do consulting, mentoring, and training,” Nordstrom said. “A Ukrainian counterpart and I will design, conduct and evaluate an intensive workshop for the university’s Ph.D. students, especially those in the new public health doctoral program.”
At the academy, Nordstrom will share relevant knowledge and skills with Ukrainian students entering enter public health fields.
Nordstrom won a Fulbright award in 2006 and taught at the same university. He says he is eager to revisit this large, formerly Soviet Socialist state, to see how its faculty and administrators are progressing.
He hopes his experience will influence his UW-Whitewater students to “study abroad, learn a foreign language, or research a substance use topic in a country outside the United States.”
Lange will participate in the Baden-Württemberg Seminar for American faculty in German and German studies from June 10 to June 23. He will travel throughout the German state of Baden-Württemberg, starting in the university town of Tübingen.
From there he will travel to Stuttgart, the state’s capital, followed by Marbach and Heidelberg. Lange will then visit Strasbourg, France and end his trip back in Tübingen. Along the way, he will stop at publishing houses, literary museums, universities, and meet with members of the European Parliament.
“This experience will refresh my knowledge of the German higher education system,” said Lange. “It will also give us a wonderful, very thorough overview of German universities, about teaching German, and teaching German to Germans,” he said.
Lange said this experience is an excellent opportunity for the German department at UW-Whitewater and will help bolster the program.
Lange was a previous Fulbright recipient in 2002. He is also a member of the National Selection Committee for Fulbright English Teaching Assistantships to Germany and is the faculty advisor for the Hessen-Wisconsin exchange.
Nordstrom's and Lange's awards bring UW-Whitewater's total 2012 Fulbright Awards to five, a university record. Three other faculty members won Fulbright Scholar Awards, and will travel abroad for a full academic year.