SOU professor awarded Fulbright scholarship to study in Ireland

NEWS RELEASE (available online at https://goo.gl/VfZ695)
(Ashland, Ore.) — Eric Levin, a professor and director of theatre arts at Southern Oregon University, has been awarded a Fulbright scholarship to study in Ireland during the 2017-18 academic year. He will use the grant to teach for a semester at the University of Ireland in Galway, and to participate in that university’s international Eugene O’Neill Conference.

Fulbrights are among the most prestigious scholarships in academia, and Levin’s award is the first for an SOU faculty member in four years.
“I was pleased and surprised to receive this honor,” Levin said. “In addition to learning about Irish university programs and curriculum, I also hope to create ties with the University of Ireland in Galway and other universities as well as professional theatres.”
Levin, who has been an SOU faculty member for 12 years, directs the university’s Master of Theatre Studies Program for theatre teachers. He also teaches theatre literature and foundational courses.
He earned his bachelor’s degree in dramatic arts from the University of California, a master’s degree in theatre from Western Oregon University and a doctorate in theatre arts from the University of Oregon. He previously served as an assistant professor of theatre at Dickinson State University in North Dakota, an adjunct professor at California State University-Fresno, and a part-time instructor at College of the Sequoias in Visalia, California. He has also taught secondary school in Oregon and California.
Levin’s work has appeared in publications including the Journal of American Theatre and Drama, The Eugene O’Neill Review and Theatre Research International.
His theatre experience includes set and lighting design, technical direction, acting and directing.
Levin is SOU’s 16^th Fulbright Scholar. The most recent previous awardee was English Professor Diana Maltz, who used her 2013-14 scholarship at the University of Liverpool to study lifestyle aestheticism, visual culture and family identity in late Victorian and Edwardian England. SOU’s first Fulbright Scholarship was awarded to Economics Professor Byron Brown for the 1986-87 academic year, which he spent lecturing on economics at Karl Marx University in Budapest, Hungary.
Fulbright scholarships are part of a merit-based, international educational exchange program sponsored by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. It was founded by former U.S. Sen. J. William Fulbright and has awarded scholarships each year since 1948. It currently offers about 8,000 grants annually for graduate study, research, lecturing and teaching in more than 160 participating countries.
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