Gordon at the Kremlin Wall – Philip E Rakita – USSR 1976
I was in Moscow in the spring of 1976 on my Fulbright exchange for 4-month teaching chemistry at Moscow State University. With me were my first wife, Frances, and our two sons, Michael (9) and Gordon (6). It was a cold spring day, and we were headed out on a family sightseeing trip. We were […]
Is Mutual Understanding Through Exchange Still Possible? – Margaret McLeod and Bryce Johnston – Spain 2020
Since early 2020, global travel bans have placed educational exchanges on pause. While American students remained at home, the landscape of international education changed dramatically. Hybrid classrooms now allow students from across the globe to connect through digital technology; however, it also created new channels for misinformation to undermine classroom discussion around sensitive topics. As […]
British people are Latin people who just happen to speak English – Cristina Elena Ciocirlan – UK 2015
The biggest insight from my Fulbright experience was probably – and I know this sounds cliché- learning about cultural nuances, breaking down stereotypes. There’s a train culture in England that I wasn’t familiar with. If you think of British people as reserved and almost stand-offish, take a train from Durham to Edinburgh on a weekend […]
The Hydrogen House That Could – David Blekhman – Sweden 2019
This 15 min video documents a case study of green technologies by a Swedish inventor and entrepreneur Hans-Olof Nilsson. The documentary presents his vision to live off-grid in a net-zero house. And if that can be accomplished in Sweden, it can be applied everywhere. The house contains all of the elements of hydrogen economy collected […]
Carnival in the Canaries – Pharibe Pope – Spain 2019
“¿Qué significa murga?” This was a question I asked after picking up the local newspaper in our teacher’s lounge. It was a room just big enough to fit one futon and four stools, but at any one time you might find ten to fifteen exuberant teachers sitting shoulder to shoulder, sipping 1-euro cafecitos from the […]
Celebrating the coming spring in the vineyard – Diane Quantic – Bulgaria 1986
On February 14, 1987, we joined the other foreign professors from the Veliko Turnovo University at a cooperative farm and school, a young girl in traditional dress bringing a ceremonial offering of bread to the vineyard, ceremoniously pruning the vines, spreading feasts in the snow for all, then watching a parade of decorated tractors and […]
Being in the Middle of the Opening of the Berlin Wall – John Austin Murphy – Germany 1989
While on a Fulbright research assignment at the Free University of Berlin in 1989-90, I connected with East German demonstrators and officials as well as with researchers from both Germanies and Hungary. I learned to dance in East Berlin discos, as well as later on the streets of West Berlin when the Berlin Wall opened […]
From the start – Brad Deacon – Germany 1993
From my arrival in Bonn for orientation, I found myself surrounded by some of the most interesting people I’d ever met. Fulbrighters from across the U.S., in Germany to study economics, physics, medieval literature, engineering, music, and so many more areas. All with vastly different lives and experiences, but brought together for a few days […]