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2019-20 Americans in the EU

Breaking the Bubble at Alcoa’s Sustainability Day

“We must account for them.” My co-presenter Laura and I turned away from our lunches to see an older man not so subtly gesturing his hand up and down in our direction. After seeing the look of confusion on my face, Laura laughed and said, “He’s talking about us – ‘the younger generation,’” signaling air […]

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2019-20 Americans in the EU

Cardiff: UK Fulbright Forum

The Fulbright-Schuman program affords grantees the incredible opportunity to live and work in (up to) three different countries within the European Union during our 9-month grant. While this presents unique logistical challenges and the need to become an expert packer, those difficulties are more than balanced out by the benefits.

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2019-20 Americans in the EU

Kiel: Germany’s Naval City

One of my favorite things to do after work in Kiel was to grab a share bike and cycle along the Kiel fiord. I loved seeing the cruise ships anchored in the harbor, the citizenry enjoying pleasant strolls along the Kiellinie, and students rowing or practicing water polo. Kiel bills itself as Europe’s “sailing city” […]

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2019-20 Americans in the EU

Greece: Breaking Stereotypes

One of the unique aspects of the Fulbright Schuman fellowship is its stipulation that scholars divide their time between at least two European Union member states. I spent the first half of my fellowship in Kiel, Germany; and the second in Athens, Greece. Shortly before I left Kiel, one of my German friends warned me […]

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2018-19 Americans in the EU

Seven Countries in Six Months

In my immediate family, I was the first and still the only one who obtained a Bachelor’s degree, moved outside our hometown, and stepped foot outside North America. For the latter, that did not occur until I was 29. I have become a fervent traveler since then, in some ways making up for lost time […]

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2018-19 Europeans in the USA

Design your life through Fulbright

Travel and change of place impart new vigor to the mind. – Lucius Annaeus Seneca – Roman Stoic Philosopher The Roman Philosopher Lucius Annaeus Seneca almost 2000 years ago described what the spirit of Fulbright simply is today: exchange of ideas, knowledge, culture in order to enhance vigor in our minds and our life. To receive […]

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2018-19 Americans in the EU

Open Science by Design  –  A Fulbright in Review

The ideals and principles of open science (or “open research and scholarship”, as we might express it in the States) are summed up in the EU’s Research and Innovation strategy as “the ongoing transition in how research is performed and how knowledge is shared.” Anyone in any corner of any university could look at whatever […]

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2018-19 Americans in the EU

Four Judges

Primo It’s February and I’m in, of all places, Luxembourg. How did I get here? I accepted a six-month Fulbright-Schuman fellowship in Florence, but we fellows have all been summoned for a weeklong seminar in Luxembourg and Belgium. I’m not thrilled, I admit, to leave my large family behind in a still-frigid Tuscany. But here […]

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2018-19 Europeans in the USA

What it’s like to live the Fulbright-Schuman experience in California

The Fulbright-Schuman Program offered me the extraordinary opportunity of working on my research project in California, collaborating with other researchers and students in one of the best cognitive science labs of the U.S., which has been very worthy for my professional career. I spent 5 months as a predoctoral visitor student in UC Merced researching […]

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2018-19 Americans in the EU

A Timely Look at European Defense Policy

An Interview with Michelle Shevin-Coetzee By Elisabeth Bloxam In April 2019, nearly three years after the June 2016 referendum, the world remains mesmerized by ongoing Brexit negotiations in Brussels and London. For those working and living in Brussels, negotiations over the departure of the United Kingdom from the European Union have been so slow-going that […]