UCCS professor studies in Jamaica as Fulbright Scholar

Robert “Rex” Welshon, associate dean, College of Letters Arts and Sciences was recently awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to lecture at the University of the West Indies in Mona, Jamaica, during the 2008-09 academic year, according to the U.S. Department of State and the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board.

Welshon is teaching a philosophy of language course and a graduate-level course on analytic philosophy in addition to assisting with dissertation committees and consulting with University of West Indies leadership on its general education curriculum. He has also visited Jamaican high schools and will participate in various panel discussions and presentations over the next several months.

Welshon began his Fulbright in late August and will continue through May 2009. He is one of approximately 1,100 U.S. faculty and professionals who will travel abroad through the Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program this year.

“I arrived in Jamaica three days before Hurricane Gustav, which brought torrential rain and a great deal of destruction, including the death of 14 people,” Welshon said. “Being part of something as well-established as the Fulbright program is amazing, particularly as I have the opportunity to travel to more remote parts of the country and to interact with people as an expert rather than as a tourist.”

The Fulbright Program, America’s flagship international educational exchange program, is sponsored by the Unites States Department o f State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. Since its establishment in 1946 under legislation introduced by the late Senator William Fulbright of Arkansas, the Fulbright Program has provided approximately 286,500 people – 108,160 Americans who have taught or researched abroad and 178,340 students, scholars and teachers from other countries who have engaged in similar activities in the United States – with the opportunity to observe each others’ political, economic, educational and cultural institutions, to exchange ideas and to embark on joint ventures of importance to the general welfare of the world’s inhabitants. The program operates in more than 155 countries worldwide.

Recipients of Fulbright awards are selected on the basis of academic or professional achievement as well as demonstrated leadership in their fields.

For more information, visit http://fulbright.state.gov.

- Tom Hutton