TAMIU’s Olsen-Fazi Named Fulbright Scholar

A Texas A&M International University professor has become the University’s latest faculty member to be named a Fulbright Scholar.

Dr. Annette Olsen-Fazi, TAMIU associate professor of English and French, has been awarded a Fulbright Scholar grant to lecture/research at the University of Sousse in Tunisia during the 2007-2008 academic year.

The notification was provided by the United States Department of State and the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board.

TAMIU provost and vice president for academic affairs, Dr. Dan Jones, said selection of a  Fulbright Scholar is a rare privilege.

“We are delighted with Dr. Olsen-Fazi’s selection.  She joins a distinguished group of global scholars whose teaching and research efforts are worthy of emulation. We salute her and all TAMIU faculty who have been previous Fulbright recipients,” Dr. Jones said.

Dr. Olsen-Fazi joined the University’s faculty in 2005. She holds her Ph.D. in Anglo-American Studies from the Université Paul Valéry, in Montpellier, France. She recently conducted a study-travel program for TAMIU students in France and was the recipient of a special grant from Humanities Texas, a state partner of the National Endowment for the Humanities.  That grant has created TAMIU’s first French Film Festival, “La Vie En France,” now underway throughout the month of May.

Olsen-Fazi is one of approximately 800 U.S. faculty and professionals who will travel abroad 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 the rest of the world.

The Fulbright Program, America's flagship international educational exchange program, is sponsored by the United States Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.

Since its inception, the Fulbright Program has exchanged approximately 273,500 people - 102,900 Americans who have studied, taught or researched abroad and 170,600 students, scholars and teachers from other countries who have engaged in similar activities in the United States. The Program operates in over 150 countries worldwide.

Recipients of Fulbright awards are selected on the basis of academic or professional achievement, as well as demonstrated leadership potential in their fields. Among the thousands of prominent Fulbright alumni are:

Craig Barrett, Chairman of the Board of Intel Corporation; Mohamed Benaissa, Minister for Foreign Affairs, Morocco; Raoul Cantero, Justice, Florida Supreme Court; Luis Ernesto Derbez, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mexico; Renee Fleming, soprano; Gish Jen, Writer; Dolores Kendrick, Poet Laureate of the District of Columbia; Daniel Libeskind, Architect; Aneesh Raman, CNN Baghdad Correspondent; Robert Shaye, CoChairman and Co-CEO, New Line Cinema; Ruth Simmons, President, Brown University; Javier Solana, Foreign Policy Chief, European Union; and Muhammed Yunus, Managing Director and Founder of the Grameen Bank.

Fulbright recipients are among over 30,000 individuals participating in U.S. Department of State exchange programs each year. For more than forty years, the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs has supported programs that seek to promote mutual understanding and respect between the people of the United States and the people of other countries. The Fulbright Scholar Program is administered by the Council for International Exchange of Scholars.

For additional information on Dr. Olsen-Fazi, contact the TAMIU Office of Public Relations, Marketing and Information Services at 956.326.2180, e-mail prmis@tamiu.edu, click on tamiu.edu or visit offices in the Sue and Radcliffe Killam Library, room 268.

For further information about the Fulbright Program or the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, please visit exchanges.state.gov contact Heidi Manley, Office of Academic Exchange Programs, telephone 202.453.8534, or e-mail academic@state.gov

Journalists who need additional information or help with media requests and interviews should contact the Office of Public Relations, Marketing and Information Services at prmis@tamiu.edu