University of Southern Maine

News Releases

USM Faculty Member Receives Fulbright Award

July 1, 2008

USM's Office of Public Affairs is sending you the following news 
release from the Fulbright Program.

USM Associate Dean and Professor of Theatre Susan Picinich is a 
resident of Scarborough. Picinich, who joined USM in 1987, serves on 
the Boards of Directors of the Maine State Music Theatre and the 
Portland Stage Company. In May of this year, she designed the 
costumes for the Portland Stage production of "Doubt," and last 
November did the costume designs for the North Shore Music Theater's 
(Beverly, Mass.) production of "Les Miserables."

For more information, please contact Bob Caswell or Judie O'Malley of 
USM Public Affairs at 780-4200. We're also available at home, 
839-2026 (Caswell) and 839-6402 (O'Malley).

Fulbright Release Follows:
Susan E. Picinich, associate dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and professor of theatre at the University of Southern Maine, has been awarded a Fulbright Scholar grant to lecture at the National Academy of Theatre and Film Arts in Sofia, Bulgaria, during the spring semester of the 2008-2009 academic year, according to the United States Department of State and the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board.

Picinich will teach theatrical design workshops, share current American theatre practices, and collaborate with Bulgarian colleagues on curriculum planning strategies.

Picinich is one of approximately 800 U.S. faculty and professionals who will travel abroad through the Fulbright Scholar Program.  Established in 1946 under legislation introduced by the late Senator J. William Fulbright of Arkansas, the Program’s purpose is to build mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the rest of the world.

The Fulbright Program, America’s flagship international educational exchange program, is sponsored by the United States Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.  Since its inception, the Fulbright Program has exchanged approximately 273,500 people – 102,900 Americans who have studied, taught or researched abroad and 170,600 students, scholars and teachers from other countries who have engaged in similar activities in the United States.  The Program operates in over 150 countries worldwide.

Recipients of Fulbright awards are selected on the basis of academic or professional achievement, as well as demonstrated leadership potential in their fields.  Among the thousands of prominent Fulbright alumni are: Craig Barrett, Chairman of the Board of Intel Corporation; Mohamed Benaissa, Minister for Foreign Affairs, Morocco; Raoul Cantaero, Justice, Florida Supreme Court; Luis Ernesto Derbez, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mexico; Renee Fleming, soprano; Gish Jen, Writer; Dolores Kendrick, Poet Laureate of the District of Columbia; Daniel Libeskind, Architect; Aneesh Raman, CNN Baghdad Correspondent; Robert Shaye, Co-Chairman and Co-CEO, New Line Cinema; Ruth Simmons, President, Brown University; Javier Solana, Foreign Policy Chief, European Union; and Muhammed Yunus, Managing Director and Founder of the Grameen Bank.

Fulbright recipients are among over 30,000 individuals participating in the U.S. Department of State exchange programs each year. For more than forty years, the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs has supported programs that seek to promote mutual understanding and respect between the people of the United States and the people of other countries.  The Fulbright Scholar Program is administered by the Council for International Exchange of Scholars.

For further information about the Fulbright Program or the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, please visit our website at http://exchanges.state.gov or contact Heidi Manley, Office of Academic Exchange Programs, telephone 202-453-8534, or e-mail academic@state.gov.

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