A year or so before I retired from Luther in 2018 Rebecca and I talked about wanting to visit and if possible to live for a few months in an Eastern or Southern European country, a part of the world neither of us had visited. Romania, a southeastern European country, seemed a perfect geographical fit.

In 2017 I applied for a Fulbright Grant to teach about American democracy in Romania and was unsuccessful. After visiting Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro in 2018 on one of our Malta group trips, Rebecca and I decided I should give a Fulbright Grant to Romania another try and this time my application was successful. I am writing this blog from Timisoara where I will be teaching two courses on American democracy at West University of Timisoara. Timisoara is in western Romania, close to the Serbian border.

The Fulbright program is named after USA Senator J. William Fulbright who said the following about Fulbright grants.

The essence of intercultural education is the acquisition of empathy–the ability to see the world as others see it, and to allow for the possibility that others may see something we have failed to see, or may see it more accurately. The simple purpose of the exchange program…is to erode the culturally rooted mistrust that sets nations against one another. The exchange program is not a panacea but an avenue of hope.

From 1960 to the present, over 3000 Romanian and Americans have participated in one of the Fulbright grant programs. This year there are 15 Fulbright scholars teaching and doing research at Romanian universities around the country, with another 16 American student grantees teaching English. In 2020, there are over 500 Fulbright grantees around the world.

In addition to teaching two courses in American democracy to Masters level graduate students in the American Studies Department at West University, my Fulbright responsibilities include giving presentations on various aspects of American democracy and the presidential election of 2020 to community audiences around the country. Romanians are intensely interested in America and quite aware of the impact of America’s domestic politics on its relation to the world.

Rebecca will be joining me in Timisoara on March 5th, as her time in Romania will be limited to the 90 days allotted to tourists. As a Fulbright grantee, I will apply for a residence permit that will allow me to stay in the country until the end of the spring semester, June 17th.

We look forward to sharing our experience with you and hope to give you an on-the-ground sense of this beautiful country and its friendly people.