From February 20-24, U.S. Fulbrighters Courtney-Sophia Henry and Nathan Brophy, along with Tricia Richards-Service, Fulbright-Schuman grantee to Ireland and Romania, participated in the 2018 Fulbright Seminar on the European Union and NATO. The seminar kicked off in Luxembourg with briefings by Foreign Service Officers and a reception at the U.S. Embassy to Luxembourg. Participants then traveled to Belgium for visits to the European Court of Justice, the Bastogne War Museum, the European Commission and U.S. Mission to the E.U. The seminar ended with a visit to NATO headquarters in Brussels. In addition to the many informative speakers and briefings, the seminar offered a unique chance to network with other Fulbrighters across Europe and learn about their research on a variety of topics within the EU, ranging from advanced in solar technology, European literature/cinema, the refugee crisis, and beyond.

On February 22 & 23, 2018, the Romanian-U.S. Fulbright Commission organized its traditional Winter Orientation Seminar devoted to the American Fulbright grantees present in Romania for the academic year 2017-2018 and to greeting the newly arrived U.S. Fulbright grantees.

The seven new Fulbright grantees were welcomed by U.S. and Romanian high officials, and received information on different topical subjects, including consular, security, political, economic and health briefings, from U.S. Embassy experts and Romanian and U.S. alumni of the program. In the evening, a welcome reception was organized for our guests at Casa Oamenilor de Știință. On Friday, February 23, the group visited the Romanian Parliament, as well as Cotroceni Palace.

On Wednesday, February 21, the Fulbright Educational Advising Center marked Black History Month by hosting a special event: a screening of the 2014 Oscar-nominated feature „Selma”, which recreates a seminal moment in Black Americans’ struggle for equal rights – the Martin Luther King-led march from Selma to Montgomery -, followed by a discussion on the Civil Rights Movement in the U.S. Our guest speaker for this event was U.S. Fulbright Grantee Jasmine Mangrum (University of Iowa).

Jasmine shared her personal perspective, as a Black American growing up in Iowa, on the Civil Rights Movement, both as a well-defined moment in U.S. history, as well as in terms of its relevance to contemporary U.S. society.

Participants in the event, mainly Romanian undergrads and graduate students, eagerly joined in the discussion, asking questions on topics ranging from more effective ways of confronting and integrating traumatic moments in history to versions and subsets of Black American identity, as well as shifts in the representation of Black Americans in popular culture and the “Black Panther” phenomenon.

Many thanks to Jasmine Mangrum for agreeing to join us for this event!

On January 29, 2018, Fulbright ETA Courtney-Sophia Henry visited Școala Gimnaziala nr. 12 in Timișoara, at the invitation of one of her American Studies Masters class students, who is also a teacher at the school. Ms. Henry spoke to a group of students, aged 9 to 14 years, as well as teachers who will soon begin their own travels as part of the Erasmus program, all of whom are studying English and wish to improve their listening/receptive skills. Ms. Henry spoke about her experiences as a K-12 teacher in the United States (notably in Washington D.C., Camden, New Jersey, and Detroit, Michigan), as well as various aspects of American culture. Participants came prepared with their own questions for Ms. Henry, and were quite interested to learn more about her experiences adapting to Romanian culture. Food, music, education, movies, and more were discussed at length.