ANNUAL REPORT 2011-2012 AUSTRIAN-AMERICAN EDUCATIONAL COMMISSION (FULBRIGHT COMMISSION)

ANNUAL REPORT 2011-2012 AUSTRIAN-AMERICAN EDUCATIONAL COMMISSION (FULBRIGHT COMMISSION)

Austrian-American Educational Commission, 2012

AUSTRIAN-AMERICAN EDUCATIONAL COMMISSION ANNUAL REPORT 2011-2012 CONTENTS INTRODUCTION AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS... 1 I. THE AUSTRIAN-AMERICAN EDUCATIONAL COMMISSION BOARD... 3 II. PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS... 4 III. THE FULBRIGHT AWARDS... 8 AUSTRIAN STUDENTS... 8 AUSTRIAN TEACHING ASSISTANTS... 12 AUSTRIAN SCHOLARS... 15 U.S. STUDENTS... 17 U.S. LECTURERS/RESEARCHERS... 20 FULBRIGHT SPECIALIST PROGRAM... 22 INTERCOUNTRY LECTURE PROGRAM... 22 IV. THE US FOREIGN LANGUAGE TEACHING ASSISTANTSHIP PROGRAM... 23 V. ADDITIONAL FULBRIGHT ACTIVITIES... 25 SEPTEMBER ORIENTATION... 25 U.S. AMBASSADOR S RECEPTION... 25 FULBRIGHT PRIZE IN AMERICAN STUDIES... 26 FEBRUARY ORIENTATION FOR U.S. SCHOLARS... 26 ALTENMARKT SEMINAR IN AMERICAN STUDIES... 26 PRE-DEPARTURE ORIENTATION AND FAREWELL DINNER... 27 JULY ORIENTATION FOR CANDIDATES FOR FULBRIGHT STUDENT AWARDS... 27 EDUCATIONAL ADVISING/PUBLIC INFORMATION... 27 ALUMNI ACTIVITIES... 28 DOCUMENTATION... 30 DOCUMENTATION NO. 1: THE FULBRIGHT PROGRAM IN AUSTRIA... 30 DOCUMENTATION NO. 2: TOTAL PARTICIPANTS BY DISCIPLINE 2011-12... 31 DOCUMENTATION NO. 3: AMERICAN PROFESSORS AT AUSTRIAN INSTITUTIONS OF HIGHER EDUCATION 1951-52 2011-12...33 DOCUMENTATION NO. 4: BREAKDOWN U.S. TEACHING ASSISTANTS 2011-12... 34 DOCUMENTATION NO. 5: BREAKDOWN AUSTRIAN STUDENTS AND FLTAS 2011-12... 35 FULBRIGHT PROGRAM... 36 AUSTRIAN AND U.S. PARTICIPANTS 2011/2012... 36 AUSTRIAN FULBRIGHT SCHOLARS (3)... 37 FULBRIGHT SCHUMAN GRANTEES (1)... 37 U.S. FULBRIGHT GUEST PROFESSORS AND SCHOLARS (18)... 37 U.S. FULBRIGHT SPECIALISTS (3)... 38 AUSTRIAN FULBRIGHT STUDENTS IN THE U.S. (20)... 38 U.S. FULBRIGHT STUDENTS AT AUSTRIAN UNIVERSITIES (15)... 39 AUSTRIAN FOREIGN LANGUAGE TEACHING ASSISTANTS AT U.S. COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES (7) 40 U.S. FOREIGN LANGUAGE TEACHING ASSISTANTS AT AUSTRIAN SECONDARY SCHOOLS - A PROGRAM COORDINATED BY THE FULBRIGHT COMMISSION FOR THE AUSTRIAN MINISTRY OF EDUCATION, THE ARTS AND CULTURE (144)... 41 I

AUSTRIAN FULBRIGHT STUDENTS IN THE U.S. PROGRAM EXTENSIONS FROM PREVIOUS ACADEMIC YEARS (21)... 49 II

ANNUAL REPORT 2011-2012 (October 1, 2011 - September 30, 2012) INTRODUCTION AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The Fulbright Program is based on legislation initially proposed and sponsored by U.S. Senator J. William Fulbright (Arkansas) in 1946. The legislation, best known as the Fulbright Act, authorized the Secretary of State to use proceeds from the sale of surplus war property outside the United States to finance exchanges of students, teachers, scholars, and scientists. This legislation provided an unprecedented amount of funding for exchange programs. It gave international students and scholars unparalleled opportunities to study, to pursue research, and to teach in the United States and provided U.S. citizens with equally unparalleled opportunities to engage in the same kinds of pursuits abroad. The Fulbright Program also introduced a new concept for the management of exchange agreements by establishing binational commissions for program administration. In 1961 the Fulbright-Hays Act consolidated various pieces of educational and cultural exchange legislation. Fulbright-Hays broadened the scope of the program, provided for U.S. government funding thereof as a line item in the federal budget, and authorized the receipt of contributions from other governments to fund the program. The act also expressly defined the mandate of the Fulbright Program as follows: "to increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the peoples of other countries by means of educational and cultural exchange." The Fulbright program in Austria began in June 1950 when the Austrian and U.S. governments signed the first of three Fulbright Agreements. The first exchanges under the auspices of the U.S. Educational Commission in Austria took place during the 1951-52 academic year. After the Fulbright-Hays Act was passed in 1961, a new agreement between the Republic of Austria and the United States of America was signed on June 25, 1963 establishing the Austrian-American Educational Commission (AAEC) as a binational entity capable of receiving funds from both partner governments and responsible for the execution of the Fulbright Program. The following report summarizes the activities conducted by the Austrian-American Educational Commission from October 1, 2011 to September 30, 2012 during the 61 th year of Fulbright exchanges between Austria and the United States of America. This report is submitted to the governments of the Republic of Austria and the United States of America to satisfy the requirement of annual reporting, as stipulated under the terms of the 1963 binational Agreement, and is also made available to institutions and individuals with an expressed interest in the Fulbright Program. The AAEC and its secretariat wish to express their appreciation to the following governmental and non-governmental organizations on both sides of the Atlantic that participate in the funding and administration of the program: Austrian Ministry of Education, the Arts and Culture Austrian Ministry for European and International Affairs Austrian Ministry of Science and Research Bureau for Educational and Cultural Affairs, U.S. Department of State (formerly the United States Information Agency) Council for International Exchange of Scholars, Washington, D.C. Institute of International Education, New York, NY J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board, Washington, D.C. U.S. Embassy, Vienna (Public Affairs Section) 1

Since the late 1990s, the AAEC has to pursued a strategy of institutional partnering to increase the number of awards it can offer and the scope of its activities. By the end of the 2011-2012 program year, the AAEC had operative partnering and cost-sharing relationships for twenty-four jointly funded awards, and it wishes to acknowledge the valuable support that it receives from the institutions and individuals listed below: Fulbright-Academy of Fine Arts Visiting Professor in Media Theory and Media Studies (2004) Fulbright-Botstiber Visiting Professors of Austrian-American Studies (2): Dietrich W. Botstiber Foundation, Media, PA (2011) Fulbright-Diplomatic Academy Visiting Professor of International Relations (1999) Fulbright-Diplomatic Academy Visiting Student Award: Diploma Program or Master s of Advanced International Studies (MAIS) (2002) Fulbright-FH JOANNEUM University of Applied Sciences Graz Visiting Professor (2012) Fulbright-Freud (Sigmund Freud Privatstiftung) Visiting Scholar of Psychoanalysis (1997) Fulbright-Graz University of Technology Visiting Professor (2012) Fulbright-Internationales Forschungszentrum Kulturwissenschaften an der Kunstuniversität Linz (IFK) Junior Visiting Fellow (1997) Fulbright-IMC University of Applied Sciences Krems Visiting Professor (2012) Fulbright-Internationales Forschungszentrum Kulturwissenschaften an der Kunstuniversität Linz (IFK) Senior Visiting Fellow (1997) Fulbright-Johannes Kepler University of Linz Visiting Professor (rotating) (1999) Fulbright-Kathryn and Craig Hall Distinguished Chair of Entrepreneurship in Central Europe: Craig and Kathryn Hall Foundation, Dallas, TX (2001) Fulbright-Karl-Franzens-University of Graz Visiting Professor in Cultural Studies (1998) Fulbright-Management Center Innsbruck (MCI) Visiting Professor (2012) Fulbright-NAWI Graz Visiting Professor in Natural Science: Co-funded by KFU Graz and Technical University, Graz (2008) Fulbright-quartier21/MQ artist-in-residence (2005) Fulbright-Salzburg University of Applied Sciences Visiting Professor (2012) Fulbright-University of Innsbruck Visiting Professor (rotating) (1998) Fulbright-University of Klagenfurt Visiting Professor in Gender Studies and Humanities (1999) Fulbright-University of Minnesota Visiting Professor at the College of Liberal Arts (2001) Fulbright-University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences Visiting Professor in Sustainable Development (2007) Fulbright-University of Salzburg Visiting Professor (rotating) (1998) Fulbright-University of Vienna Visiting Professor in the Humanities and Cultural Studies (1998) Fulbright-WU (Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration) Visiting Professor (2004) 2

I. THE AUSTRIAN-AMERICAN EDUCATIONAL COMMISSION BOARD The Austrian-American Educational Commission (AAEC) board consists of ten members: five U.S. citizens and five Austrian citizens nominated to serve for one calendar year by their respective governments. The five U.S. members, two of whom are Foreign Service officers from the U.S. Embassy in Vienna, are nominated to serve on the board by the U.S. Ambassador. Three of the five Austrian members appointed by the Austrian government traditionally have been Austrian university professors and two have been representatives of the ministry responsible for higher education and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, respectively. The dates of the initial appointment of the respective members are noted in brackets below. The AAEC Board meets on a quarterly basis to discuss budgetary, policy, procedural, and program issues and has a number of subcommittees that meet on an ad hoc basis. The Executive Director of the AAEC reports to and is monitored by the AAEC board. The AAEC Chairperson and the AAEC Treasurer are elected annually. These positions rotate annually between the Austrian and U.S. members of the Board. The Austrian Minister responsible for higher education and the Ambassador of the United States of America to Austria serve as honorary chairpersons of the AAEC. The following individuals served on the AAEC board during the 2011-2012 program year: Honorary Co-chairs: William C. Eacho, III Karlheinz Töchterle U.S. Members: U.S. Ambassador to Austria Austrian Federal Minister of Science and Research Edward Bergman Institute for the Environment and Regional Development, Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration (2001) (Chairperson, 2011) Jan Krč Counselor for Public Affairs, U.S. Embassy, Vienna (2011) (Treasurer, 2012) Marlene Nice Assistant Counselor for Public Affairs, U.S. Embassy (2011) Antoinette Van Zabner Professor of Piano Performance, Zinn-Zinnenburg University of Music and Performing Arts, Vienna (2007) Austrian Members: Ernst Aichinger Austrian Ministry for European and International Affairs (2007) Thomas Fröschl Institute for History, University of Vienna (2009) Roberta Mairhofer Center for Inter-American Studies (CIAS), Karl-Franzens-University of Graz (2009) Barbara Sporn Vice Rector, Vienna University of Economics and Business (2007) Barbara Weitgruber Austrian Ministry of Science and Research (1998) (Chairperson 2012, Treasurer 2011) Commission Secretariat Lonnie R. Johnson Executive Director (1997) Alexandra Enzi Jürgen Hörmann Elisabeth Müller Martina Laffer Program Coordinator (2012) Heinz Rotte Irene Zavarsky Program Officer and Educational Advisor (2003-2012) Program Officer, USTA Program Program Officer and Educational Advisor (2012) Accounting Consultant (2005) Program Officer (2010) Auditor: Peter Greifeneder (2004) 3

II. PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS During the 2011-12 program year, the Austrian-American Educational Commission had an operative budget of $ 1,578,234 ( 1,219,995) Under the auspices of Fulbright awards in various grantee categories, grantees received an additional $ 864,942 ( 679,245) of direct or in-kind support in the form of scholarships, awards, tuition remissions, housing, or salaries as teaching assistants. The AAEC was in a position to fund 66 grants in its core programs 20 Austrian students enrolled in U.S. Master s or PhD programs 7 Austrian Foreign Language Teaching Assistants at U.S. colleges and universities 3 Austrian scholars 1 U.S. Distinguished Chair 17 U.S. lecturers and researchers 15 U.S. students enrolled at Austrian universities 3 U.S. Fulbright Specialists Furthermore, one Austrian scholar received a grant under the auspices of the Fulbright- Schuman Program co-funded by the European Commission and the U.S. government, and the AAEC brought four U.S. Fulbright scholars participating in the program in other European countries to Austria as guest lecturers in the Intercountry Lecture Program. The AAEC also facilitated the placement of 143 U.S. college and university graduates as teaching assistants at Austrian secondary schools under the auspices of a program it has managed for the Austrian Ministry of Education, the Arts and Culture since 1962. U.S. teaching assistants serve in a wide range of secondary schools in communities large and small all over Austria, and they work with hundreds of different teachers and have contact with an estimated 40,000 students each week. The AAEC also successfully continued to extend its network of affiliation and collaboration during the 2011-12 program year. The AAEC concluded five new letters of understanding establishing so-called hyphenated awards with the following institutions: the FH JOANNEUM, Graz; FH IMC Krems; FH Salzburg; International Management Center, Innsbruck; and the Technical University, Graz. Dr. Max Schachner (Head of Academic Mobility at IMC Krems and Fulbright Visiting Scholar at Arizona State University,2005), Dr. Lonnie R. Johnson (Executive Director, Fulbright Commission), Dr. Karl C. Ennsfellner (IMC Krems Vice-Rector) with the one of the four recently concluded collaborative agreements establishing a Fulbright Visiting Professorship at leading universities of applied sciences. 4

Prof. Horst Bischof (Vice Rector TU Graz), Prof. Harald Kainz (Rector TU Graz), Dr. Lonnie Johnson (Executive Director AAEC), Mag. Sabine Prem (Head International Office TU Graz), Prof. Hofmann-Wellenhof (Vice Rector TU Graz) Four of these five awards are with universities of applied arts (Fachhochschulen) and represent a new field of collaboration for the AAEC with leading institutions in this postsecondary sector. These awards were advertised for the first time in the U.S. by CIES as of January 2012. These new partner institutions will host their first Fulbright visiting professors from the U.S during the 2013/14 academic year, cover the great majority of their on-site costs, and contribute a total of 100,000 towards their grants. The inaugural Fulbright-Mach awards for four U.S. research students were made during the 2011-12 program year and represented a new, indirect contribution of the Austrian Ministry of Science and Research toward the Fulbright Program of 33,840 ( 940 per month per grantee disbursed directly to the grantees for nine months). In 2011, the Dietrich W. Botstiber Foundation agreed to support two new Fulbright-Botstiber Visiting Professors in Austrian-American Studies one for an Austrian scholar to be hosted by a U.S. institution and one for an American scholar to be hosted by an Austrian one with awards of $ 20,000 each annually for three years. During the 2011/12 program year the Council for International Exchange of Scholars in Washington, D.C. and the AAEC entertained applications for these new awards for the 2012/13 program year. Starting in 2010-11, the AAEC, WU Vienna, and the Craig and Kathryn Hall Foundation (Dallas, TX) agreed to anchor the Fulbright-Hall Distinguished Chair for Entrepreneurship in Central Europe at the WU Vienna, and in the course of the 2011-12 program year the trustees of the Hall Foundation agreed to extend the funding for this award ($ 50,000 per annum) for an additional three academic years: (from 2013/14 through 2015/16). In 2011/12, the AAEC also directly recruited three new institutions to host Austrian Foreign Language Teaching Assistants in the U.S. for the 2012-13 program year: Emory University (GA), Rollins College (FL), and Linfield College (OR). It also revived its working relationship with the University of Illinois (Urbana/Champaign), which had hosted Austrian FLTAs in the past and resumed doing so for 2012-13. On March 6, 2012, the AAEC hosted Susan Ness, the Vice Chair of the J. William Fulbright Scholarship Board in Washington, D.C., and organized a roundtable for her to meet with current U.S. and former Austrian Fulbright students, scholars, and foreign language teaching 5

assistants. Ms. Ness also had an opportunity to meet with Barbara Weitgruber, AAEC Chair, and Jan Krc, AAEC Treasurer. On March 23-25, the AAEC extended an invitation to the twenty-four executive directors of European Fulbright commissions to participate in a self-evaluation entitled Challenges of the Next Decade for the Fulbright Program in Europe. This conference started with a DVC at the U.S. Embassy, Vienna, with representatives of the Bureau for Educational and Cultural Affairs which was followed by a series of roundtable discussions in the offices of the AAEC in the MuseumsQuartier. First Row: Maria Grazia Quieti, Italy; Hanka Ripkova, Czech Republic; Maggie Nicholson, Belgium; Belinda Theriault, Iceland; Andrzej Dakowski, Poland. Second Row: Eric Jönsson, Sweden; Petter Naess, Norway; Huba Bruckner, Hungary; Colleen Dube, Ireland; Artemis A. Zenetou, Greece; Marcel Oomen, Netherlands; Nora Hlozekova, Slovak Republic; Alberto López, Spain; Julia Stefanova, Bulgaria; Rolf Hoffman, Germany; Myron Stachiw, Ukraine; Marie Monsted, Denmark; Arnaud Roujou de Boubee, France; Lonnie Johnson, Austria Finally, two publications on the history of the early years of Fulbright program in Austria appeared in 2012. The first was a special volume of the Austria s premiere journal for contemporary history, zeitgeschichte (2012/1), that consisted of five articles on exchange programs in postwar Austria and Germany. These articles were based on papers presented at an international conference the AAEC organized at the Amerika Haus in Vienna under the auspices of the celebration of its sixtieth anniversary on November 18-19, 2010: Impacts: Does Academic Exchange Matter? The second publication was a book by Thomas Koenig, Die Frühgeschichte des Fulbright Programs in Österreich: Transatlantische Fühlungnahme auf dem Gebiet der Erziehung, an abridged version of his doctoral dissertation that was based to a 6

considerable extent on research conducted in the AAEC archives. Both of these publications were presented at a well-attended event at the Amerika Haus on June 14, 2012. Prof. Oliver Rathkolb, Dr. Thomas Koenig, Prof. Mitchell Ash, and Dr. Lonnie Johnson at Amerika Haus 7

III. THE FULBRIGHT AWARDS AUSTRIAN STUDENTS The AAEC received 30 applications from Austrian students for Fulbright placement and financial aid in May 2010 and interviewed 28 candidates in June 2010 for the 2011/12 program year. The commission initially nominated 23 candidates and recommended them to the Institute of International Education (IIE) in New York for placement in Master s and PhD programs in October 2010. One of the great advantages of working with IIE is the central management of applications to U.S. universities. Austrian candidates list up to four universities to which they wish to apply. The IIE placement section reviews these proposals for balance. Based on the candidate s choice of program and prospects for admission, IIE suggests alternate institutions, taking the prospects of tuition remission or scholarships into account. IIE also submits applications for candidates, which gives them the added advantage of entering the admissions review process at the respective institutions as potential Fulbright grantees, and it assumes all application-related costs. The Institute of International Education also annually organizes so-called Gateway Programs, one-week-long orientation programs with the following objectives: to provide skills essential for academic success; to provide an introduction to U.S. academic culture; to reinforce the Fulbright identity; to explain the roles of the sponsoring and administrative agencies; to provide a period of acclimation to life and study in the U.S.; and to begin Fulbright networking activities. Austrian Fulbright group 2011-12 at the predeparture orientation. 8

Nine Austrian students participated in Gateway Programs with other incoming Fulbright grantees from all over the world before starting their academic programs. During their first academic year in the U.S., Austrian Fulbright students also were eligible to apply for participation in four-day long Enrichment Seminars, which were held at different regional venues in the U.S. between February and April with all travel costs and per diems being assumed by IIE. The Gateway orientation in Nebraska was great! We received helpful information on life and study in the US, the Fulbright program and how to deal with culture shock. Also, our host, the University of Nebraska at Lincoln organized home stays, where we got to spend time with American families, which was a great way to experience the US way of life. Kathrin Greisberger Austrian Fulbright Student 2011-12 Master in Global Policy Studies University of Texas at Austin Of the 23 candidates the AAEC initially nominated for awards, 3 candidates ultimately withdrew from the program for personal or professional reasons, and IIE placed 20 Austrian students at U.S. universities. The AAEC provided Austrian Fulbright students with travel grants of 800, grant-related health and accident insurance, and awards of up to $25,000 for tuition and/or living expenses. Twenty Austrian students from previous program years had their Fulbright status extended for another year of study. The level of support individual students received from the AAEC depended upon the overall costs of the programs individuals chose and the scholarship and financial aid offers receiving institutions made. Although the majority of students received the full $25,000 awards, seven of the 20 Austrian Fulbrighters received such generous offers from receiving U.S. institutions that they did not require the entire $25,000 award to cover their tuition and living costs. These experiences are hard to put into words and it is even harder to explain one s emotions. One can only truly understand it if one experiences it and I would like to recommend warmly to everyone to take this exciting step! Dr. Carl-Erik Torgersen Austrian Fulbright Student 2011-12 LLM Harvard University Furthermore, IIE solicited scholarships, grants, and tuition rebates for Austrian Fulbright students from their receiving institutions totaling $ 292,105. IIE also provided $ 25,000 in support from its Shepherd Fund in June 2011 as the second-year funding of four candidates from the 2010-11 Fulbright student cohort. Program Cost Ranges for Austrian Fulbright Students: Fulbright Grants $ 12,320-25,000 U.S. university awards $ 0 34,928 Overall costs of program (including living costs) $ 29,064 88,964 Personal funds (Eigenbedarf) $ 0 63,964 9

Austrian Fulbright students Mag. Julia Raptis, Mag. Romana Heuberger, and Mag. Aakriti Chandihok represent Austria at International Night at Columbia University. Since the academic year 2005-2006, the Austrian Fulbright Student Program has been used as the institutional vehicle to award grants previously funded in a separate program and known as BMWF Postgraduate Stipendien. The combination of Fulbright awards with BMWF postgraduate awards eliminated a number of redundancies between the programs and represents a very effective allocation of funds. For the 2011-12 program year, the AAEC received 360,000 in funding for Austrian postgraduate awards from the Austrian Ministry of Science and Research. If the AAEC has any uncommitted Austrian postgraduate funds at the end of a given program year, it rolls these funds over into a reserve fund for use in future years. The Austrian Ministry of Science informed the AAEC in November 2010 that, due to severe budgetary pressures, it was compelled to reduce the level of funding it could place at the disposal of the AAEC for Austrian postgraduate awards as of the 2012-13 program year to 200,000. The AAEC decided to correspondingly reduce the number of awards it would offer in the future. My first year in Columbia University s MFA program for Theatre Management and Producing has truly exceeded my hopes and expectations on each and every level. I am so very grateful to the Austrian-American Fulbright Commission for enabling me to study and live in a creative and academic environment that has made for a more rewarding and more exciting experience than I could have ever imagined. Mag. Michael Csar Austrian Fulbright Student 2011-12 MFA in Theatre Management and Producing Columbia University 10

Ruth Pollak, Fulbright Student in a brochure of the School of Public and Environmental Affairs (SPEA) at Indiana University Bloomington 11

AUSTRIAN TEACHING ASSISTANTS Fourteen Austrians applied for Fulbright German language teaching assistantships. They were graduates of post-secondary teacher training institutions, universities, and students of English, German, translation, or Deutsch als Fremdsprache (DAF) in the second stage (zweiter Studienabschnitt) of their studies. Immerging into an excitingly different culture, exploiting unlimited travel opportunities, tasting good foods, working with zealous students and dedicated colleagues, meeting like-minded friends, and doing all that in a homey environment this is how I would describe my nine month long experience as FLTA in Geneva, New York. Tanja Bruxmeier Fulbright German Language TA Hobart and William Smith Colleges 2011-12 Austrian FLTA Tanja Bruxmeier teaches at Hobart and William Smith Colleges, NY. In collaboration with the Institute of International Education (IIE), the commission placed seven Austrians as German language teaching assistants at U.S. colleges and universities under the auspices of the Fulbright Foreign Language Teaching Assistantship (FLTA) Program. Austrian FLTAs received travel grants of 800; grant-related health and accident insurance; and, in most cases, partial maintenance grants from the AAEC. These grants are calculated on a case-by-case basis, contingent upon the benefits (room and board) or salaries and stipends individual FLTAs received as teaching assistants from their respective host institutions. The AAEC attempted to ensure that the total in-kind and cash value of all FLTA awards was equal to at least $ 14,000. IIE organized regional Gateway Orientation Seminars for FLTAs from all over the world to provide them with an introduction to U.S. culture; to exchange ideas and experiences about teaching foreign languages to U.S. students; and to explain the roles of sponsoring and administering agencies. FLTAs were also invited to attend a three-day mid-year seminar in Washington, D.C, in December, which brought together program participants from all over the country. All associated travel costs, accommodations, and per diems for this event were assumed by IIE. 12

Besides my duties as a teaching assistant at the university, I had a great time getting to know the U.S. geographically as well as socially. I am convinced that my year as a German language teaching assistant equally shaped both my personality and my view of America in a positive way. Mag. Claudia Albrecht Fulbright German Language TA University of Montana at Missoula 2011-12 Austrian FLTAs 2011-12 at the Washington Seminar organized by IIE. The AAEC is particularly interested in continuing to develop this aspect of the program. It fulfills the Fulbright mandate well and is flexible as well as cost-effective. Host institutions provide a combination of stipends and salaries or in-kind awards for housing and meals (totaling $ 77,376) in addition to waiving the tuition for two courses per semester (with tuition remission totaling $ 108,394) The total cash and in-kind value of the teaching assistantship positions Austrian FLTAs assumed in 2011-12 was $ 206,394, and the average level of support (including tuition remission) for each Austrian teaching assistant was $29,485. Later in spring semester, I motivated several of my students, friends, and professors to join me in dancing the Austrian Zillertaler Hochzeitsmarsch in traditional Austrian Dirndl and Lederhosen for the international event on campus, which was a great success Mag. Manuela Faschang Fulbright German Language TA Linfield College, OR 2011-12 13

FLTA 2011-12 Mag. Manuela Faschang (r.) at the Culture Festival at Linfield College, where she taught the participants a traditional Austrian dance. 14

AUSTRIAN SCHOLARS I had a very inspiring and great time - and I am very grateful for all the support I received from the Fulbright Commission, from the former Austrian Fulbrighters I had met before leaving to Minnesota as well as from all colleagues at the University of Minnesota. Dr. Gundula Ludwig University of Marburg Fulbright-University of Minnesota Visiting Professor in Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies The AAEC has provisions for flexibly awarding three-to-four-month grants. It awarded a total of 15 months worth of grants to four grantees, including an annual Fulbright Visiting Professorship at the University of Minnesota (College of Liberal Arts and Center for Austrian Studies, a partnership inaugurated in 2002-2003). The University of Minnesota tops off this AAEC award with a partial salary and local housing allowance. In 2011-2012, the Fulbright Visiting Professor at the University of Minnesota was awarded to Dr. Gundula Ludwig, University of Marburg, who taught at the Department of Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies. This award rotates annually to a different host department and will move to the Department of Geography in 2012-13. Fulbright Visiting Scholars meeting at Stanford University The four Austrian scholars supported by the AAEC each received a travel grant of 800, grant-related health and accident insurance, and a maintenance grant of $2,500 per month to pursue research and/or teach in the U.S. 15

My research experience was very positive. As a senior scientist at AIT, my main role is that of group leader and administrator; it was very fulfilling to return to the laboratory to conduct experiments and to be able to focus my entire energy on a single project. Also, having been personally involved in the initial proof of principle of the project will help me to better supervise future students involved in the collaboration... Dr. DI Peter Ertl AIT Austrian Institute of Technology Fulbright Visiting Scholar at the University of California - Berkeley One Austrian scholar applied for an Fulbright award under the auspices of the Fulbright-Schuman Program cofounded by the European Commission and the U.S. Government and received an award totaling $ 15,000 for a total of 4 months in the U.S. with an institutional affiliation at Brooklyn College. Fulbright Visiting Scholar Dr. Peter Ertl at his lab at UC Berkeley.. 16