CSU–Pueblo History Professor Earns Fulbright Scholar Award

 
Pueblo –Jonathan Rees, associate professor of history at Colorado State University - Pueblo has been awarded a Fulbright scholar grant to lecture on American social and political history at the University of Constanta in Constanta, Romania during the 2005-06 academic year, according to the University States Department of State and the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board. From January – June, 2006, Rees will teach a broad range of American history courses as part of a new program in American Studies at the Romanian university.

Rees is one of approximately 850 U.S. faculty and professionals who will travel abroad to some 150 countries for the 2005-06 academic year through the Fulbright Scholar Program. Established in 1946 under legislation introduced by the late senator J. William Fulbright of Arkansas, the program’s purpose is to build mutual understanding between the people of the United States and other countries.

"I'm happy to get this opportunity to learn about another culture while I share our heritage with them,” Rees said. “I think it will help my teaching immensely to be faced with having to explain American history in new ways."

Last fall, Rees earned the 2005 University Award for Faculty Excellence in Scholarly/Creative Activity for the extraordinary amount of scholarly works he has generated in the past two years, including two books, nine scholarly articles, and 15 general interest articles. These achievements are even more impressive when you consider he accomplished them while maintaining a full teaching and service load. Although a nationally recognized specialist in labor history, his publications reflect a wide range of interests and expertise. Rees has played a central role in helping to secure the Bessemer Historical Society’s grant funding and thus insuring that one of Pueblo’s most valuable historical assets will be available to the general public and to labor historians. Currently, Rees is in China lecturing for two weeks on an exchange program with Ningxia University in Yin Chuan.

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. Over its 59 years of existence, thousands of U.S. faculty and professionals have studies, taught or done research abroad, and thousands of their counterparts from other countries have engaged in similar activities in the United States. They are among more than 265,000 America and foreign university students, K-12 teachers, and university faculty and professionals who have participated in one of the several Fulbright exchange programs.

Recipients of the Fulbright Scholar awards are selected on the basis of academic or professional achievement and because they have demonstrated extraordinary leadership potential in their fields. Among thousands of prominent U.S. Fulbright Scholar alumni are Milton Friedman, Nobel Laureate in Economics; James Watson, Co-Discoverer of the structure of DNA, and Nobel Laureate in Medicine; Rita Dove, Pulitzer Prize-winning poet; and Craig Barrett, CEO of Intel Corporation.


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