Fulbright Forum

January 8-12, 2019 we traveled 7 hours by train from Edinburgh to Southampton, at the very southern tip of England, for the Fulbright Forum, where I met with other US-UK Fulbright scholars, Distinguished Teaching awardees, and Postgraduate awardees. There are 36 Fulbright scholars, 3 Distinguished Teaching awardees, and 45 Postgraduate awardees. Seven of us are in Scotland (Edinburgh, Glasgow, Dundee, and Aberdeen). It was wonderful to connect with scholars from all parts of the US and a variety of disciplines. As for Fulbright scholars in the arts, 2 are art historians---one in Dundee the other in York, one music educator (Glasgow), one theatre faculty (Belfast) and one creative writer (Belfast). A few of the Postgraduate students are in acting, dance, film, music, and poetry. As far as I can tell I'm the only visual artist/art educator.

While the train ride was lengthy and required a change in London on the way down and Wolverhampton on the way back, looking at the bright green open spaces of the countryside was refreshing (see my Instagram posts #pamelaspress). We traveled along the coast for part of it and went through towns like Berwick on Tweed, Newcastle, and Winchester. The University of Southampton, world renowned for its oceanography and earth sciences programs hosted us. We had a series of dynamic speakers on topics as varied as climate change, oceanography, archeology, and pirates! On the final day, each Fulbright scholar gave a 10 minute presentation about their research and Fulbright project plans.