 Dr. Cheryl Drout will teach in Japan. |
 Dr. Jack Croxton will teach in Russia. |
“It is remarkable that a campus the size of SUNY Fredonia has had so much success with the Fulbright program for a number of years. This success is due to the quality and commitment of faculty who have been selected to participate in Fulbright programs,” said Virginia Horvath, vice president for Academic Affairs.
Dr. Croxton, chair of the psychology department and faculty member since 1979, is spending the fall term in Russia. His grant proposal, “Teaching and Program Development at a Russian University,” calls for teaching classes and delivering presentations throughout much of Russia. This is his second Fulbright award. Dr. Croxton’s wife, Mary, is accompanying him.
He is teaching a course in organizational psychology to undergraduates as well as a graduate-level course in advanced social psychology at Nizhni Novgorod State University, located in Nizhni Novgorod, the third-largest city in Russia with 1.5 million people. Outside the classroom, Dr. Croxton has delivered major presentations at Moscow State University and a branch campus of Nizhni Novgorod Institute of Management and Business.
Dr. Croxton presented a paper, “Career Development and Outcomes Assessment at an American University,” co-authored by Judy Elwinger, director of SUNY Fredonia’s Career Development Office, at a conference in Kazan. Seminars in St. Petersburg and a lecture at Tallinn University, Estonia, are also on his schedule.
Dr. Croxton is continuing research on cross-cultural differences in the use of gender, physical attractiveness and vocal stereotypes by utilizing assistance from students from Nizhni Novgorod State University and SUNY Fredonia. Two local students and Psychology majors, Stephanie Moore of Ransomville and Gina Vecchio of Fredonia, completed an independent study with Dr. Croxton last spring, and two more students, Amanda Donlon of Hornell and Kristina Blakely of Westfield, also Psychology majors, will assist him when he returns in January 2008.
Dr. Drout, who joined the SUNY Fredonia faculty in 1989, will spend the Spring 2008 term in Japan. Her grant proposal, “Re-inventing Student Centered Learning in Japan; Comparative Educational Reform,” includes teaching two courses at Aichi University of Education. The school is located in Aichi, which lies in the vicinity of Nagoya, the country’s third largest city with 2.1 million people.
“I am excited about the challenge of teaching Japanese students in their cultural settings. I have taught Japanese international students in my classes at Fredonia but not in their native context,” said Dr. Drout. “I anticipate learning a great deal about intercultural communication and intercultural understanding at the same time that I am teaching cross-cultural psychology and conducting research overseas. Our own personal norms and cultural assumptions are brought into much sharper focus when we are compelled to operate within a different set of cultural assumptions. The potential for fresh insights is tremendous.”
Dr. Drout will conduct research with Professor Yasuhiko Nakano, a member of the Aichi University School of Education faculty, which examines attitudes that teachers in Japan hold toward Japanese educational reforms. She spent one month in Japan with a Fulbright travel-study group in 1995.
During recent semesters at SUNY Fredonia, Dr. Drout conducted preliminary pilot work on this project with collaborators that included: Amy Hontz, a SUNY Fredonia alumna and local teacher; Chiyuri Sato, a former SUNY Fredonia international student; and two SUNY Fredonia undergraduate Psychology majors, Emily Akers of Pittsford and Amanda Nobrega of Rochester. Dr. Drout’s husband, Robert Siedentop, will accompany her on the six-month stay in Japan.
“Clearly, Fredonia’s commitment to international learning is evident with these two Fulbright award winners, and I expect that their scholarly, cultural, and personal adventures will benefit our campus community for years to come,” Dr. Horvath said.
