Expanding Perspectives Beyond Borders for American Educators through Fulbright-Hays Group Projects Abroad to Hungary and Eastern Europe

Type of Abstract (select):

Abstract (max. 250 words):
Presentation focuses on two Fulbright-Hays Group Projects Abroad conducted in Hungary in 1990 and 1991, organized and directed by Ruth G. Biro. Marta Pereszlenyi-Pintér served as co-director for the $50,000 six-week award for fourteen professors (from four Pittsburgh area universities representing different academic disciplines), held in Pécs, Western Hungary, and Budapest in May-June 1990. Julianna Nádas Ludanyi was co-director of the 1991 July-August $60,000 grant for fourteen F-H fellows (four faculty and three graduate-in-service teachers from Duquesne University and seven teachers from the Oregon International Council. Elizabeth Simon was the native informant for both years. The on-site Hungarian Leadership team was composed of three English professors from Janus Pannonius University(now University of Pécs).

The purpose, benefits, eligibility, criteria, personnel, pre-departure orientation, itinerary abroad, assessment, follow-up, outcomes, and outreach relating to the F-H GPA (CFDA 84.021 A) will be specified. Aspects of the 1990 and 1991 Duquesne University grants, now twenty-five years later, will be described in relationship and comparison with recent awards for Hungary (and Hungary in combination one or two other countries). Additionally, Eastern European nations bordering Hungary that have been the subject of F-H grants will be mentioned.

The potential for AHEA member(s) to develop and/or AHEA to sponsored a future F-H GPA application will be addressed. Principal Investigator role, Federal Register announcements, application packet procurement, priorities, deadlines, preparation (orientation, time frame, travel arrangements, accommodations, field trios, lectures, honoraria, debriefings, dissemination plans), along with online submission details, peer review, notification, and final reporting will be enumerated. Possible contacts, sites, topics, and activities will be discussed pertaining to a prospective proposal involving Hungary and/or one or two neighboring nations. American professors, teachers, and graduate students would have the opportunity to greatly expand their perspectives on Hungary and other Eastern European countries through a carefully planned overseas project designed to achieve the goals of the Fulbright- Hays Mutual Educational and Cultural Exchange Act-- P.L. 87-256, 75 Stat. 527.


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Dr. Biro holds a B.A. in Political Science from Chatham College, and a Master's in Library Science and a Ph.D. In Higher Education from the University of Pittsburgh. Now retired from Duquesne University, she taught courses in Children's and Adolescent Literature, Cultural Diversity, International Education, Multicultural and International Literature, Program Design, Holocaust Perspectives, and others in the USA and abroad. She was curriculum coordinator of the AHEA sponsored Ethnic Heritage Studies grant on Hungarian Americans in Pittsburgh, directed by Paul Body in FY 1980-81. With co-authors Miklós Kontra and Zsófia Radnai, Dr. Biro wrote the Hungarian Picture Dictionary for Young Americans (Budapest: Tankönyvkiadó, 1989). From 1996-2004 she was a Summer Faculty Associate at the Russian and East European Institute of the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, under the auspices of the US Department of State and the US Office of Education. Her article "Refuge, Resistance, and Rescue in Hungary in WWII: Religious and Cultural Interactions," was published in Learn, Teach, Prevent: Holocaust Education in the 21st Century, Eds. Carol Ritter and Wendy Whitworth. (Greensburg PA: Seton Hill University, National Catholic Center for Holocaust Education, 2010, 102-115.) Dr. Biro, a founding member of the AHEA, was the recipient of the Peter Basa Award of the American Hungarian Educators in 2012.