Professor Invited To Give Keynote Speech in Austria
Austria has invited Liping Bu to be the keynote speaker at an academic conference that celebrates the 60th anniversary of the country’s Fulbright Program.
Since President Harry S Truman signed the Fulbright Act into law in 1946, the international exchange program has aimed to increase mutual understanding between the citizens of the United States and people of other countries through people, knowledge and skills.
Liping Bu
The conference, which will highlight ongoing research related to the impacts of such academic exchange, is sponsored by the Austrian-American Education Commission, Austrian Ministry of Science and Research, and the University of Vienna, among others.
Bu, professor of history at Alma College, is the author of many publications related to this topic. Her 2003 book, Making the World Like Us: Education, Cultural Expansion and the American Century, has had significant influence on the scholarship of international education and foreign relations.
American Historical Review commented that the book is “an extraordinarily informative and significant contribution to the scholarship on the cultural and educational dimensions of foreign policy.”
The Journal of American History says that Bu “makes an important contribution to the role of soft power in American foreign policy, a powerful component of America's national security state."
In addition, she also is the co-editor of the 2001 book The Cultural Turn: Essays in the History of U.S. Foreign Relations.
Bu’s numerous articles on international education also have appeared in the Journal of American Studies, Peace & Change, Comparative Education Review, as well as many other academic journals.
“I was quite pleasantly surprised by the invitation, but it’s a great honor to have my scholarship recognized on an international level,” she says. “I feel very proud to represent both Alma College and the U.S. at the conference.”
Along with significance for her professionally, Bu says the invitation also carries a remarkable significance for Alma College.
“This is another example of the quality education a student can receive at Alma because of the significant contributions its faculty members make," she says.
Since its establishment, the Fulbright Program has provided 300,000 students and scholars, including 17 Alma students, opportunities to study and teach abroad.
Posted: Thu, October 14th, 2010 at 1:07PM
