Four USU Faculty Members Named 2025-26 Fulbright Scholars

Four Utah State University faculty members have received the Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program Award for the 2025-26 academic year from the U.S. Department of State and the Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board.

Ekaterina Arshavskaya, professor in the Department of World Languages and Cultures in the College of Arts and Sciences; Sarah Braden, associate professor in the School of Teacher Education and Leadership in the Emma Eccles Jones College of Education and Human Services; Amanda Katz, assistant professor in the Department of History, Cultures and Ideas in the College of Arts and Sciences; along with Alexander Romney, associate professor in the Department of Marketing and Strategy in the Huntsman School of Business, are among an elite national cohort of about 800 academic professionals chosen through the highly selective annual process.

“We heartily congratulate these faculty members who have been selected for this prestigious, competitive honor,” says USU Interim President Alan L. Smith. “Participation as a Fulbright Scholar provides a uniquely enriching experience for our scholars, where they can share their expertise, build international collaborations and, upon return to USU, share valuable insights with students and colleagues.”

Arshavskaya travels to Spain’s University of Alcalá, where she’ll pursue the project, “Promoting an Intercultural Dialogue through the Pedagogy of Multiliteracies, Service-learning and Technology-enhanced Approaches.”

“I’ll be hosted by the university’s Modern Languages and Translation program, where I’ll share my expertise and experience in teaching English as a second language, Russian-English medical interpretation and continuing teacher education courses,” she says. “I hope to learn new insights and tools to bring back to USU. I also hope to foster opportunities for USU graduate students to travel to the University of Alcalá in the future to teach English and study Spanish.”

Braden travels to the University of Lisbon in Portugal, where she’ll pursue a collaborative effort to develop and pilot an initial model for adapting engineering curricula for Portuguese students.

“Together, we’ll co-design and conduct engineering learning activities in K-12 school and afterschool programs with local stakeholders,” she says. “The research will produce a case study demonstrating how educators in Portugal can develop and enact engineering education that supports multilingualism.”

Braden plans to use expertise and partnership gained from this collaboration to expand her research in science learning for dual language immersion programs in the U.S.

Katz will travel to the University of Crete in Greece, where she’ll undertake the project, “Road Scholars: Teaching, Learning and Research the History of Science and Technology in Greece,” and will have the opportunity to conduct maritime and land transport research at the Institute for Mediterranean Studies.

“My teaching will focus on global histories of science and technology,” Katz says. “My goal is to expand my expertise beyond U.S. history, positioning the U.S. in the context of the global world. I hope to build strong connections with the University of Crete and other cultural institutions in Greece, with the aim of creating a study abroad program for USU students.”

Romney travels to Ireland to pursue research with faculty at Dublin City University.

“In collaboration with colleagues at DCU, I’ll explore how trust in leadership influences the quality and quantity of employee voice,” he says. “We’re particularly interested in how perceptions of leader competence, integrity and benevolence shape employee input – and what happens when input is embraced or ignored.”

Romney’s project will use a mixed methods research design to investigate the broader implications of voice endorsement or non-endorsement on employee well-being and organizational outcomes.

“I plan to use this opportunity to deepen ties between USU and DCU to pave the way for future student exchanges and shared learning opportunities,” he says.

According to its website, the Fulbright program has provided, since 1946, more than 400,000 U.S. scholars with opportunities to study, teach and conduct research abroad. Notable Fulbrighters include 62 Nobel Laureates, 89 Pulitzer Prize recipients, 80 MacArthur Fellows, 41 heads of state or government, and thousands of leaderships across private, public and nonprofit sectors.