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| English Professor Jim Aubrey will teach in India on a Fulbright Scholarship. |
Metro
State is packing in the Fulbright Scholar Awards this year. In addition
to English Professor Robin Quizar’s award to teach in the Czech
Republic and Computer Information Systems Professor Stuart Monroe’s
award to teach in Swaziland, English Professor Jim Aubrey received word
last week that he has been awarded a Fulbright to teach British
literature at Guru Ghasidas University in central India. He will teach
there from July through November of this year.
A specialist in British literature who has been at Metro State since
1989, Aubrey “got interested in India late in my career. It was an
offshoot of my interest in Britain, as they’ve been so closely linked
for so long.” Aubrey developed an interest in Indian literature, as
well as Indian movies.
“I started learning Hindi language and culture to understand Indian
movies better,” he says, joking that this has taken on more urgency
since news of his pending trip arrived. Once he finishes his
lectureship at Guru Ghasidas, he plans to travel in India for a month,
researching the way movies are being exhibited currently in India,
before returning to teach at Metro State in January.
No stranger to international travel, Aubrey has lived in Denmark,
Thailand and England. He traveled to Egypt two years ago with a group
of five faculty members from Metro State on a five-week Fulbright study
tour, organized by retired professor Ali Thobani. He also taught a
semester in London in 1994 as part of a semester-abroad program in
which Metro State participated, along with several other colleges. But
he is most intrigued currently by India.
“I like the fact that they’re struggling to be a democracy, even though it’s messy,” he says.
Aubrey traveled to India two years ago with Village Earth, a
nonprofit group from Colorado State University. “They were doing
development projects in water, micro-credit and educating slum children
in Bombay. I tagged along with the group; it was a great opportunity to
get into places I wouldn’t have gone on my own, where they don’t speak
much English.”
Aubrey obtained his bachelor of science degree from the Air Force
Academy, where he also taught for ten years. He holds a master’s in
English from Northwestern University and a doctorate from the
University of Washington. He has published two books about 20th century British author John Knowles.
Over the course of his career, Aubrey has studied 18th
century literature, British satire, modern literature, and now the
movies. “I’ve been able to pursue various interests here at Metro in a
way I wouldn’t have been able to at a research institution,” he says.
Approximately 800 U.S. faculty will travel abroad to some 150
countries for the 2006-07 academic year through the Fulbright Scholar
Program, established in 1946. Recipients of Fulbright Scholar awards
are selected on the basis of academic or professional achievement and
because they have demonstrated extraordinary leadership potential in
their fields.
Editor’s note: Metro State has received an additional Fulbright
academic appointment this year under the shorter-stint Fulbright Senior
Specialist program, which provides two-to six-week opportunities to
U.S. faculty. Math Professor Don Gilmore is in Honduras under this
program. Watch @Metro for an article about Gilmore’s experience after
his return.
