Third-year students in American Studies at the University of Bucharest ended their spring semester seminar in American Icons by completing a joint assignment with undergraduate students at the University of Miami, Ohio. Their instructor, U.S. Fulbright Scholar Oana Godeanu-Kenworthy and Miami instructor, Dr. Allison Wanger, coordinated a project where Romanian students and American students in a similar class at Miami had the opportunity to interview one another.

Each student was assigned a partner from the other institution, and together they discussed the cultural significance of specific American icons. Their findings were then integrated in written papers submitted for the two respective classes. The project used various online platforms, such as Whatsapp and Skype, to connect Bucharest students in real time with their American peers at Miami University. Despite technical challenges and the 7-hour time difference that sometime complicated setting up the interviews, both groups reported that they enjoyed discovering the variations in cultural perspectives about the same icons, but also the commonalities they shared.

As one student at University of Bucharest, Ioana Hangu, commented in her paper, "All in all, this assignment was helpful in seeing how, because of globalization and the Internet, two people that live at such a great distance from each other, one in America and one in Romania, can have such similar views."

Jenny Keroack, U.S. Fulbright Student Researcher in the field of Public Health at Babeș-Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca, has continued her series of presentations, this time for students in Timisoara:

“Presenting my research on the anti-vaccine movement in Romania to fellow Fulbrighter Natalie Davis’ masters student class was a lovely experience. Even though this is their last class of the year, the students were really engaged and asked great questions. This is clearly a great group and I’m excited to hear what they do after graduation. And if it’s something involving network science, I hope they’ll reach out to me and that I’ll be able to help.”

Professor Thomas Cousineau, U.S. Fulbright Scholar at the University of Bucharest in 2014-2015, is once more back to Romania for a lecture at the National Museum of Romanian Literature (8 Nicolae Crețulescu Street, Bucharest).

The lecture titled “To Double Business Bound: René Girard, Mircea Eliade, and Hamlet” will take place on Wednesday, June 19, from 6:00 p.m.