Prof to Teach U.S. History Seminar in Ecuador

Professor Stephen G. Rabe in the School of Arts & Humanities will lead a seminar on contemporary U.S. history this August in Quito, Ecuador.  The seminar will be held under the auspices of the U.S. State Department and the Fulbright Commission.

Rabe has previously worked for the State Department and the Fulbright Commission, having taught seminars on U.S. history over the past five years in Brasília and Recife, Brazil, and in Buenos Aires and Rio Cuarto, Argentina.  Many of his Latin American students have subsequently gone on to graduate study in the U.S.

Rabe says the seminar will represent a unique experience for himself and the Fulbright Commission. 

“The Fulbright Program aims to reach college-age students from non-traditional backgrounds.  The twenty students being recruited for this program come from the Andes Mountains and Amazonia region of Ecuador.  Their ethnic background is Amerindian or Afro-Ecuadorian, and Spanish will be the second language of many of the students.  Their first language is Quechua, the language of the ancient Incan civilization.”   

To overcome any language impediments, the Fulbright Commission will offer simultaneous seminar translation from the English presentation. The seminar will be held at the Universidad de San Francisco in Quito.  The students will also be taking a seminar on leadership led by Professor JoAn Herren of the University of Maryland.

Rabe adds that the Fulbright Commission is making a long-term commitment to these Ecuadorian students.  “Fulbright is going to give the students two years of scholarship support for English language study in Ecuador. The Commission’s goal is to build a stronger pool of students from historically marginalized groups for future graduate study in the U.S.”

Rabe is University Professor of History at UT Dallas, where he has taught for 31 years. 

He also has served as the Mary Ball Washington Professor of American History at the University College Dublin in Ireland and as the Fulbright Bicentennial Chair in American Studies at the University of Helsinki in Finland. 

Rabe has taught or lectured in 14 countries worldwide.

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