More than 4,500 miles lie between Fredericksburg, Va., and El Mourouj, Tunisia, where a Fulbright Specialist Grant allowed Mukesh Srivastava to spend a month this fall. The first faculty member of the UMW College of Business to receive a prestigious Fulbright award, Srivastava hopes his work there will help bridge the distance between the U.S. and the country on Africa’s northernmost tip.
This grant “will expand the global reach of UMW through the development of student and faculty exchanges and research collaborations with Tunis Business School [TBS],” said Srivastava, who worked with TBS faculty in October to develop and implement the school’s graduate program in management and information technology.
Part of Tunis University, TBS is Tunisia’s first English-language business school.
Srivastava, who is associate professor of management information systems and associate dean of the UMW College of Business, is one of more than 400 U.S. faculty and professionals who will travel this year through the Fulbright Specialists Program, created to complement the traditional Fulbright Scholars Program.
“This grant gives us the opportunity to share expertise developed in graduate programs at Mary Washington,” said Srivastava, “and to learn more about how other international universities are engaging their business schools.”
The Fulbright Program, an international exchange program sponsored by the U.S. government and overseen by the U.S. Department of State, is designed to increase mutual understanding between the people of the U.S. and the people of other countries.