Professors earn trips to Europe

In the past year, four of Sacramento State’s best and brightest professors have been chosen to represent the University in several countries around the world. They are the recipients of Fulbright Scholarships and will travel to Romania, Germany, Russia and Ukraine to give students and faculty an American perspective in their respective fields.

The Fulbright Scholarship program has allowed students and professors to journey overseas to study, teach or conduct research since 1946. The program allows the exchange of ideas and cultures to all corners of the world in order to increase cultural and educational diplomacy. This year, approximately 850 U.S. faculty and professionals received Fulbright grants to study and conduct research in some 150 countries.

Gary Dilworth, a trumpet professor in Sacramento State’s Music Department leaves for Romania in January. He will be teaching at the National Conservatory of Music in Bucharest. “I’m sure I’ll help the students in Romania deal with some of the same issues as I do with students here,” he jokes. Dilworth will lecture in music education, brass pedagogy and performance practice for six months before returning to the classroom at Sacramento State.

Foreign Languages Professor Marjorie Gelus attended a Fulbright German Studies Seminar in Berlin titled, "Current Tendencies in Contemporary German Literature." From June to July of this year, Gelus helped examine the society and culture of contemporary Germany and economic, social and political issues that the country faces. The seminar also took Gelus on a tour of several institutions within Europe’s most populous nation. Gelus remarked that the trip "gave me valuable contacts and resources for future work, provided me with a lot of new material for my students and, incidentally, greatly perked up my spoken German."

Criminal Justice Professor Robert Hurley will be traveling to Russia in February as he embarks on a six-month trip to teach at one of the country’s oldest universities, Kazan State University. A previous Fulbright assignment had him teaching about consumer protection in the Republic of Georgia.

English Professor Emeritus Hortense Simmons was also the recipient of a Fulbright Scholarship—for the second year in a row. Simmons is currently in Eastern Europe lecturing on African American literature and culture at Petro Mohyla Mykolayiv State University in Ukraine. She has been also been teaching English workshops and has delivered a lecture to first-year law students on the United States court case Brown vs. Board of Education.

Before her return home in early December, Simmons will give a two-part lecture series on the works of popular African American writers Langston Hughes and Gwendolyn Brooks to both faculty and students. “My Fulbright grant activities have exceeded my expectations,” she says.

Sacramento State is also hosting a Fulbright scholar as well. Zita Iren Zoltayne Paprika is an associate professor in the Department of Business Economics at the Budapest University of Economics and Public Administration in Budapest. Paprika has been researching decision-making skills in upgrading business performance at Sacramento State since September and will continue her research until January of the upcoming year.

For more information of the Fulbright Scholarship program, visit exchanges.state.gov/education/fulbright/.

— Josh Huggett