Dr. Jewell Mayberry, associate professor of English and chair of the Department of Languages and Literature at Pfeiffer University, has been selected to participate in the 2009 J. William Fulbright-Hays Seminar Abroad Program, which is administered by the International Education Programs Service and the U.S. Department of State.
Mayberry will spend five weeks this summer in China examining the country’s history, culture, society and economic growth. She will attend lectures, meetings, site visits and discussions to better understand both the country’s fascinating past as well as its current challenges ó social, economic and political.
China’s continuing transformation into a worldwide economic powerhouse is important to U.S. educators whose role it is to provide information on and explanation of China’s new position and the challenges this presents not only to other countries, but also to China itself.
A resident of Salisbury, Mayberry earned her bachelor’s degree from Pfeiffer, her master’s degree from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and her Ph.D. from UNC Greensboro. She joined Pfeiffer’s faculty in 2007.
Mayberry’s visit to China and the insight she acquires will enhance the university’s current Chinese program offerings.
A delegation of Pfeiffer administrators, students, faculty and staff have visited China each summer as part of an ongoing cultural exchange cooperative agreement established in 2006 between Pfeiffer and Shanxi University in Taiyuan, China. The partnership between the universities provides students and faculty from both institutions an academic and cultural immersion for a two-week summer session.
Founded in 1946 by U.S. Sen. J. William Fulbright of Arkansas, the Fulbright Program is the American government’s flagship program in international exchange, administered by the State Department. Funding is appropriated annually by the U.S. Congress and by contributions from partner countries and the private sector. Scholars are chosen for their academic merit and leadership potential.