The Berlin Seminar 2009, A Fulbright Fellowship Fest
Publicado el 29 mayo 2009 | Archivado en Actividades Socios, Relaciones Internacionales, Viajes | Salir del comentario
In Spanish the word for “fellowship” is “beca”. But if you look for the word in Webster’s New World Dictionary in the first three entries you find words like “companionship” and “mutual sharing”. Only in the fourth entry appears the word “stipend” which corresponds to the Spanish word. A lot is lost in translation, for a major component of a Fulbright Fellowship is the community experience it affords with the consequent opportunities of making new friends not only among the other “fellows” with whom you share the experience of teaching or researching but also among the people you teach or research with in a foreign country. This social and community experience makes possible the “mutual understanding” that Senator Fulbright wanted to bring about when he and Senator Hays founded the fellowship named after them. In Spanish something like “becario compañero Fulbright” would be closer to the literal meaning of “Fulbright Fellow”.
The Berlin Seminar, organized every year by the German Fulbright Commission, has turned into a veritable Fulbright Fellowship fest, a celebration of the Fulbright community spirit . It brings together all the American Fellows teaching or researching in Germany. But Fulbrighters from other Countries in Europe are invited to attend as well. This makes the Berlin Seminar the largest annual gathering of Fulbright Fellows in the world. I had the privilege of attending my first Berlin Seminar while still on my Fulbright “beca” in 1975. But in recent years, thanks to a gradual increase in opportunities for alumni to attend, I have been able to return and have found each experience almost as engaging and exhilarating as my first one.
“Building the Transatlantic Future” was the theme of the panels and lectures in 2009’s edition of the Seminar, held from March 15th through the 18th. A regular and important feature each year is a concert offered by Fulbright musicians, which this year included two Fulbright Fellows from Spain, guitarist Adam Levin from Madrid and cellist Michael Unterman from Barcelona. Another regular feature is the disco night which closes the Seminar on the last day.
This March, however, there was a quantum increase in the quality of the Berlin Seminar experience brought about by a bold experiment. For the first time ever, all the Germans granted a Fellowship to study, research or teach in the U.S. for the coming Academic Year were invited as well! Usually, around 300 Fulbrighters attend a given Seminar, but this year the number doubled: 600 attendants. And it worked very well. The Germans were delighted to meet and network with Americans who could give them contacts and references to the cities they would be living in. For two days, they all attended lectures, shared meals and partied at night. This massive mixture of German and American Fulbrighters was a huge success and could serve as model for similar events in other countries some day.
The attendance of numerous Fulbright visiting professors as well as alumni widened the age range of the Fulbrighters at the Seminar; and so, like in any large family, different generations were represented and participated in the “fellowship” and community spirit which is the keynote of the Berlin Seminar.
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