Faculty Mobility Fellowships Fuel Personal and Professional Growth

Since 2020, the network has awarded more than 100 faculty mobility fellowships, providing a platform for collaboration across partner institutions on teaching, course design, curriculum development, scholarship, research, and civic engagement. With both short- or long-term stays at partner institutions, the program has built teaching capacity and expanded course offerings throughout the network. Fellows have also collaborated on public lectures, workshops, and training for faculty and students. Read on to learn about the experiences of two faculty members who recently concluded their mobility fellowships

Lucia Lopez Vazquez, a professor of Spanish Linguistics at the American University in Bulgaria, received a Sabbatical Fellowship at Bard College for spring semester 2025.

LV: My experience at Bard was incredibly enriching in terms of personal and professional learning. At the professional level, the acquaintance with different methodological approaches allowed me to reflect on my own teaching practices and led me to incorporate some of these techniques into my own courses in my home institution. 

The fellowship has also given me a completely new perspective on the field through my interaction with a diverse group of students who have a very different profile from our students at AUBG. At a personal level, the interactions with other fellows, staff, and faculty at Bard has led to interesting academic discussions, but also to a deeper understanding of the importance of human connections to achieve common goals. 

In my opinion, faculty mobility is the most effective tool to enhance inter-university alliances and cooperation. Understanding the dynamics, curriculum, and students of the host institution, as well as establishing a relationship of mutual trust, respect, and appreciation vis-à-vis the colleagues and staff, are key to creating solid foundations for mutual development and knowledge exchange.

Sasha Rai is a PhD candidate in History at the University of the Witwatersrand in Gauteng, South Africa, whose research examines the political, social, cultural, and legal intersections of gender, sexuality, and oppression in the colonial and apartheid eras in South Africa through the lens of kink community development. Rai received a Short Term Fellowship (three weeks) at Bard College during spring 2025, co-teaching and leading history classes on “Africa Before the 1800s” course and “Herstory: Women in African History.”

SR: I found my time at Bard to be incredibly rewarding. Being able to engage with new kinds of students in a university space so different to my own experiences was incredibly enriching. I have learned new teaching techniques and informed my personal teaching pedagogies in ways I hope to adapt and implement with my own students in the next year. 

Bard is a very student-forward institution, and while the scales are not comparable, as we have substantially larger classes, there are a number of student-based activities which I think can be adapted, particularly in tutorial spaces where the numbers are similar. On a personal level I found it incredibly exciting and on a professional level it was incredibly liberating to be able to explore this new teaching system and meet fascinating and engaging students and staff, to learn from them what their needs and goals are, and to see how those aligned with or changed my own.

I think faculty mobility is essential for revitalizing teaching passion and creative input. I have been able to experience an education system totally unlike anything I have context for, which has inspired me to be more flexible and innovative in my teaching applications. While my ideas are still in development, they are ideas I previously had very little confidence in, which I think I can implement in some capacity going forward.  I have also been able to forge professional connections which can potentially spark future collaboration and knowledge exchange. 

I think faculty mobility can create more holistic academics, who are more flexible and creative in their teaching approaches, and who are better able to reach students from a variety of different backgrounds, creating a fuller and more engaging teaching and learning experience. 

Post Date: 05-21-2025