Two Clarke Faculty Members Receive Prestigious Fulbright Award
posted on April 5, 2012
Two Clarke University faculty members recently received notification of their selection as recipients of the prestigious Fulbright Scholar grant. Lynne Niznik, Ph.D., chair and associate professor of history and political science, and Bryan J. Zygmont, Ph.D., assistant professor of art history, will both participate in the program during the 2012-13 academic year. This is the first time in Clarke’s history that it has had two simultaneous Fulbright Scholars. Molly Fitzgibbons, a Clarke student, is a finalist in the student Fulbright grant process and she awaits word on her selection.
Next January, Niznik will travel to South Africa where she will be hosted by the University of Limpopo, Turfloop Campus. She will teach students at the Centre for Academic Excellence, offering faculty workshops on pedagogy, student assessment and retention strategies. She will also teach at the university in the political science department and will direct student research. Her appointment is for 12 months.
Zygmont has been selected for a Fulbright lecturing award to teach two American studies courses in Poland during the spring semester during spring of 2013. His affiliation will be at Jagiellonian University in Krakow – the second oldest university in Eastern Europe, founded in 1364. The first course he will teach is a discussion-based class on the depiction of families and immigration in American art, film and literature while the second is a traditional survey of American art from the 16th to the 20th century.
Niznik and Zygmont are among approximately 1,100 US faculty and professionals who will travel abroad through the Fulbright US Scholar Program in 2012-13.
The Fulbright Program is the flagship international educational exchange program sponsored by the US government and is designed to increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of other countries. The primary source of funding for the Fulbright Program is an annual appropriation made by the US Congress to the US Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. Participating governments and host institutions, corporations and foundations in foreign countries and in the United States also provide direct and indirect support. Recipients of Fulbright grants are selected on the basis of academic or professional achievement, as well as demonstrated leadership potential in their fields. The program operates in over 155 countries worldwide.
Since its establishment in 1946 under legislation introduced by the late US Senator J. William Fulbright of Arkansas, the Fulbright Program has given approximately 300,000 students, scholars, teachers, artists and scientists the opportunity to study, teach and conduct research, exchange ideas and contribute to finding solutions to shared international concerns.