NOVA Psychology Professor Awarded Fulbright to Hungary

NOVA professor Amy Coren arrived in Pécs, Hungary (about 100 miles southwest of Budapest) at the beginning of September to begin her Fulbright fellowship in teaching and research at the Institute of Psychology and the Faculty of Law at Hungary’s oldest university – the University of Pécs, founded in 1367.

Professor Coren is proud to be one of only five Americans from U.S. universities who were selected by the Fulbright Commission to teach and carry out research in Hungary for the 2017-2018 academic year. As a result of her unique qualifications (Ph.D. in Psychology, and J.D.), she has been engaged with both the faculty of law and the psychology department in teaching courses – an advanced undergraduate and M.A. level course in cross-cultural psychology, a seminar for Ph.D. students on the psychology of consciousness, and a lecture series in forensic psychology.

In addition to her teaching responsibility, Prof. Coren is also a thesis advisor for several undergraduate research projects spanning the fields of law and psychology (including one project examining the correlation between criminality and frontal lobe processing).

During her time in Hungary, Prof. Coren has attended several conferences on neuroscience (specifically the Regional European Neuroscience Conference, FENS), and will be delivering additional lectures to students and faculty interested in the US educational system.

At the end of October, she will be delivering a keynote address on the mental health challenges facing migrants at a conference sponsored by the University of Pécs Medical School and U.S. State Department. In addition to her ongoing teaching responsibilities, the rest of the semester spent in Hungary will involve collecting data for an international collaborative research project on positive youth development and continuing to lay the groundwork for exchange programs bringing Hungarian scholars and students to the US for academic exchanges.

The Fulbright Scholar Program is funded by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and offers over 500 teaching, research or combination teaching/research awards annually in over 125 countries. For more information on the Fulbright application process faculty can contact Stacey Bustillos (sbustillos@nvcc.edu) in the Office of International Education and Sponsored Programs for tips and guidance.