Fulbright Awards for DU Faculty, Staff & Post-Docs

Scholar Awards

Fulbright Scholar Awards comprise the bulk of awards offered and include opportunities for professionals, artists, and scholars at all career levels. Location and eligibility vary across all awards, and some awards may be restricted to certain career levels or types of scholars. 

Distinguished Scholar Awards

Distinguished Scholar awards are viewed as the most prestigious appointments in the Fulbright Scholar Program. Awards are open to scholars who have more than seven years of experience in their discipline or area of expertise, though some awards may further restrict eligibility. 

• Program Duration: 2-12 months
• Application Cycle Opens: February 15, 2024
• Deadline: September 15, 2024

For faculty, staff and established professionals to engage in short-term and project-based exchanges at host institutions across the globe. 

• Program Duration: 2-6 weeks
• How to apply: Prospective Specialists and host institutions participate in a competitive selection and matching process. Learn more about the process here. 

Postdoctoral Awards provide recently graduated scholars an opportunity to conduct research and receive professional training abroad. Awards may involve limited teaching. Postdoctoral Awards are open to scholars who will have received a doctoral degree (Ph.D., J.D., M.D., Ed.D., etc.) within five to seven years of the fellowship start date, as noted in the award description. Degree conferment before the start of the award is mandatory. Institutional affiliation in the United States is not required.

• Program Duration: 3-24 months
• Application Cycle Opens: February 15
• Deadline: September 15

These awards are seminars designed to help U.S. international education professionals and senior higher education officials create empowering connections with their counterparts and higher education systems of other countries. Selected applicants have the opportunity to learn about the host country’s education system as well as establish networks of U.S. and international colleagues over the course of an intensive two-week grant duration. Awardees return with enhanced ability to serve and encourage international students and prospective study-abroad students.

• Duration: 2 weeks
• Application cycles are announced throughout the year. 

Paul Kosempel gets quizzical looks when he tells people that he teaches leadership at the University of Denver.

“There’s this mythical quality to leadership that perhaps it can’t be taught,” says Kosempel, teaching professor and director of leadership studies at DU. But Kosempel has dedicated his career to doing exactly that.

“People have a better sense of how to teach leadership with graduate students or people who have been in the working world,” he says. “But the question of how we teach leadership to students without as much ‘real-world’ experience seems more ambiguous and is one that I’ve enjoyed pursuing.”

Kosempel will take his leadership studies expertise to the Technological University of Dublin in Ireland as a Fulbright Scholar from September through December. There he will work with members of TU Dublin’s School of Management, People and Organizations in the Faculty of Business.

The Fulbright Program is the U.S. government’s flagship international educational exchange program.

Featured in The Bridge on August 3, 2023

Hilary Smith’s appointment as a Fulbright Scholar to Academia Sinica in Taiwan is still months away from its January 2024 start date. And yet, Smith, associate professor of history in the College of Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences, realizes that she needs to rewrite her Modern China course syllabus to include some of the lessons she already has learned.

Smith will spend six months in Taipei as a Fulbright Scholar at Academia Sinica’s Institute of History and Philology. The institute is full of scholars who, like Smith, specialize in Chinese history and the history of science and medicine. Her host in Taiwan will be Li Shang-Jen, a historian of medicine.

The Fulbright Program is the U.S. government’s flagship international educational exchange program. Fulbright’s network of scholars, alumni and global partners aim to foster mutual understanding between the U.S. and partner nationals, share knowledge across communities and improve lives around the world.

Featured in The Bridge on July 24, 2023

Like many Americans during the COVID-19 pandemic, Kimberly Ann Bender and her family hardly left their neighborhood. Now, they are preparing to move across the world.

In August, Bender, the University of Denver’s Philip D. and Eleanor G. Winn Professor for Children and Youth at Risk in the Graduate School of Social Work, will begin her six-month term as a Fulbright Fellow at National Taipei University in Taiwan. She will work with the NTPU Flagship Project, which blends social work and sociology in researching youth.

“One area they focus on is youth participation, an area that I’ve been studying here in the U.S. and have wanted to spend time thinking about through an international lens this year on sabbatical,” Bender says.

Much of her recent work has focused on youth participation and activism. Thus, she plans to devote part of her time to interviewing other scholars who do youth participation work to understand how they conceptualize the topic.

“And one of my collaborators in Taiwan has connected me with a community-based organization where we’ll do research with young people in an after-school program,” Bender says. She also will conduct a training workshop at NTPU on Photovoice, a participatory action research method that allows participants to tell their stories through their own photographs and narratives.

The Fulbright Program is the U.S. government’s flagship international educational exchange program. Fulbright’s network of scholars, alumni and global partners aim to foster mutual understanding between the U.S. and partner nationals, share knowledge across communities and improve lives globally.

Featured in The Bridge on July 10, 2023

As a long-standing faculty member of the Department of Geography & the Environment with more than 35 years of teaching and service in his career, Dr. Andrew R. Goetz has contributed to the University’s goal of creating inquisitive and global-minded citizens through accessible research, innovative faculty and interactive learning experiences.

Now, Goetz is continuing to advance research and academic discourse in a totally new environment. After being awarded a Fulbright U.S. Global Scholar Fellowship last year, Goetz is on sabbatical in Malta, researching and teaching at the University of Malta.

In just a month, Goetz has already started teaching his course, Transport Geography; has begun work with his faculty sponsor and a colleague on their research; and attended panels. In collaboration with his fellow scholars, Goetz is studying the impact of low-cost airline entry to Malta on patterns of air service, tourism and sustainability goals. After attending a panel focused on improving public transport in Malta, Goetz will be delivering a public lecture in March 2023.

Featured in The Bridge on February 28, 2023