Two Fulbright Faculty Land in Slovak Republic

Bob Kochersberger and Heidi Hobbs usually work a few floors apart in the Tompkins/Caldwell building complex on NC State’s north campus. This semester, they’re 60 miles from each other, and half a world away from NC State. As Fulbright scholars, Kochersberger, who teaches journalism, and Hobbs, director of the Master of International Studies program, have coincidentally both landed in the Slovak Republic.

Kochersberger, associate professor of English, is participating in the highly competitive Core Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program. Only 500 such awards are made each year. He is spending the semester at the University of Constantine the Philosopher in Nitra, Slovakia, working in the Department of British and American Studies. In addition to lecturing in the Department of Journalism there, he’s working with the U.S. embassy in Bratislava to offer training in journalistic writing in English for students from throughout Slovakia.

Kochersberger says he may well hold the record for the number of Fulbright study awards among NC State faculty. In addition to his current grant in Slovakia, he has had Fulbright core grants to Yugoslavia and Slovenia and short-term specialist grants in Egypt, Thailand, Slovenia and Italy.

Hobbs, associate professor of political science in NC State’s School of Public and International Affairs, is participating in a Fulbright Specialists Program in Bratislava, at the University of Economics. During her month-long stay, she will work with the Center for North American Studies to develop curricula for a specialized certificate program and teach a short course on American Society in Global Perspectives.

The Fulbright Program, America’s flagship international educational exchange activity, is sponsored by the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. For more information, visit the Core Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program or the Fulbright Specialists Program.