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Released from teaching schedules and deadline pressures, scores of University of Connecticut educators have followed their academic curiosity to every corner of the globe over the decades under the renowned Fulbright Scholar Program.<\/p>\n The program, which also sends UConn students on international study fellowships and has brought dozens of overseas researchers to Storrs, has been a key part of UConn\u2019s engagement in global research, the world economy, and cross-cultural relationships.<\/p>\n More than 170 UConn professors have received Fulbright awards since the government-sponsored program was established in 1946, including six who studied in 2011-12 in Europe and Asia, with others heading to spots around the world this fall.<\/p>\n Research and lecture topics have ranged from the geology of earthquake-prone areas in Taiwan to public health practices in Belgium, student journalism in Romania, and theatrical lighting design in Russia.<\/p>\n Faculty say they share a sense of gratitude for the opportunity to live and work in the midst of the regions on which they have focused years of scholarship and bring those lessons back to UConn, passing them along to students and peers.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s such a rare gift to students and scholars, to artists and writers and researchers, to be able to pursue the topics that really fascinate you. The Fulbright is a very freeing, liberating grant in that way,\u201d says Alexis Dudden, a history professor in UConn\u2019s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and a 2009-10 Fulbright scholar in Niigata, Japan.<\/p>\n The Fulbright program started in 1946 to promote understanding between U.S. citizens and people in other countries in the name of peace, education, and mutual prosperity. The program now operates in 155 countries with fellowships that range from two weeks to 12 months, generally accompanied by funding to cover travel and living expenses for the awardee and his or her dependents.<\/p>\n In the 2009-10 academic year, UConn\u2019s tally of six Fulbright Scholar award winners placed it in the top 10 among U.S. research institutions in terms of the number of faculty selected.<\/p>\n Narasimhan Srinivasan, an associate professor of marketing in the School of Business, says one major benefit of the Fulbright program is that it allows scholars to discover the many things they have in common with people in other nations.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you have a global outlook and begin to see those commonalities in people, it becomes much easier to communicate and work together,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n Srinivasan visited Canada as a Fulbright Kahanoff Fellow in 2000. As a Fulbright Senior Specialist in Peru in 2008 and 2011, he has also built professional relationships with counterparts abroad.<\/p>\n \u201cAs we continue to globalize, our economic self-interest will depend more and more on what the rest of the world does,\u201d he says. \u201cWe cannot afford to be isolationist \u2026 just as the rest of the world has an economic interest in what is going on in America.\u201d<\/p>\n Like other Fulbrighters, Srinivasan takes his lessons back to the classroom and into his research. He is also an unofficial ambassador to international Fulbright award holders who come to UConn, inviting them to serve as guest lecturers in his classes.<\/p>\n Fulbright links can last for decades. Steven Wisensale, a professor of human development and family studies in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, still hears from people he met during a 2003 fellowship in Germany and 2006 fellowship in the Czech Republic.<\/p>\n \u201cThe benefits certainly went beyond the fellowship trips themselves. I was able to incorporate both of my experiences into my teaching back here at UConn,\u201d says Wisensale.<\/p>\n <\/strong>The family-friendly aspect of the Fulbright awards has been another special feature for researchers, giving them a chance to introduce their children to new cultures and worldviews.<\/p>\n Dudden was able to take along her then-4-year-old son, Julian, as what she jokingly calls her \u201cjunior research partner\u201d during her 2009-10 fellowship in Japan. She and her son were back there on vacation a year later visiting friends and former colleagues, when the massive earthquake hit the country on March 11, 2011, triggering a deadly tsunami that killed nearly 16,000. Although they were out of the danger zone, that experience and others that Dudden has had on return trips since her Fulbright year have provided immeasurable insights she\u2019s been able to pass along to her students and incorporate in her research.<\/p>\n![\"Professor](\"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/2012-summer-mag-uconn-P1010014.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nGlobal outlook<\/h2>\n
<\/a>Beyond books<\/h2>\n