The Fulbright Scholar-in-Residence (S-I-R) program plays a pivotal role in enriching Historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) by bringing international scholars to their campuses. These visiting scholars meet the specific curricular needs of schools, bring diverse global perspectives, and foster an environment of cross-cultural understanding and academic growth. The program is designed to have an impact beyond campus, and three of the 2024 Fulbright HBCU Institutional Leaders — North Carolina Central University, Huston-Tillotson University, and Howard University– exemplified this goal, benefiting classrooms and communities.

North Carolina Central University has brought global expertise to its Durham campus by hosting Scholars-in-Residence from India and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Most recently, Dr. Balasubramani Karuppusamy, an expert in geospatial technology from Central University of Tamil Nadu, India, collaborated with NCCU’s faculty on designing and teaching courses on geography information systems and remote sensing of natural resources.

“Since my childhood, I knew about the problems of farmers,” Karuppusamy told NCCU news. The child of subsistence farmers in Tamil Nadu, Karuppusamy was motivated to discover crops that would thrive with the available land and water resources. Originally employed as a data engineer in the private sector in India, pursuing doctoral studies introduced Karuppusamy to satellite imagery and GIS based approaches to develop sustainable agriculture plans.

“Being a geographer, I wanted to enhance my skills and look at different environments and a different culture,” Karuppasamy said.  Meeting NCCU professor Rakesh Malhotra at a conference in the United States led to Malhotra to spearheading NCCU’s application to host Karuppasamy at NCCU. There, his unique background allowed him to give students, in his words, “a comprehensive view of sustainable development which touches on environment, people, economies, and governance.” Karuppasamy’s students learned the effective use of geospatial techniques for sustainable agriculture, preventing and mitigating disaster risk, and improving public health.

Exemplifying the Fulbright mission of cultural exchange, Karuppusamy made an impact outside of the classroom as well. On campus he mentored students, worked with the University’s sustainability group, and took part in the university’s international cultural fest. In the greater community, he served as a moderator for the North Carolina Regional High School Science Bowl, and engaged with professional and academic associations across North Carolina. He served at a food bank and a community health coalition in Durham, and took part in a hunger relief day in Raleigh.

“Hosting a Fulbright Visiting Fellow in our department is a great opportunity for our students and faculty to interact with a top researcher in our field and learn about other cultures while increasing the international profile of our program,” said Dr. Gordana Vlahovic, chair of the Department of Environmental, Earth and Geospatial Sciences, who was a Fulbright Scholar to Kosovo in 2018.

Over the past 25 years, NCCU has also hosted Fulbright Visiting Scholars from Ghana, Democratic Republic of the Congo, United Kingdom, and Ukraine, and had more than 20 of its U.S. professors participate in the Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program. 

David H. Jackson Jr., a NCCU professor and Fulbright-Hays alum who served as Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs for the past three years, considers engaging with Fulbright to be part of the fulfillment of the school’s Eagle Promise. “We promise our students that they will have a global experience while they are at the university, traveling abroad or interacting with people who can expose them to other cultural realities,” he said, explaining that Fulbright helps make NCCU a “place people can come to broaden their worldview in general.”

Through the SIR program, institutions can either name a scholar they would like to host, or ask to be matched with a scholar given a specific discipline and qualifications. When Huston-Tillotson University (HTU), in Austin, Texas, wanted to add to their capacity to equip their students to address future technology challenges, they applied to host a Fulbright Scholar-in-Residence to teach courses in computer science and engineering and develop the curriculum in those areas. Their proposal sought to host with Professor Manoj Kapil, the dean of engineering and technology at India’s Swami Vivekanand Subharti University and an expert in the fields of web technology, security and cryptography.

Steven Edmond, Dean and Professor in the Office of International Programs, said that he was seeking to host a highly skilled computer science professor who “would be a good ‘fit’ with HTU’s values of creativity and innovation and who understood the importance of diversity, equity, and inclusion.” He said Dr. Kapil was his first choice, as “someone who could help HTU build upon its existing efforts at internationalizing its campus and preparing its students to work in a global economy.”

According to Dr. Edmond, Kapil was instrumental in assisting with the design of a STEM MBA program at the university. HTU created a partnership with the Scholar’s university in India, through which Kapil and his colleagues are scheduled to teach virtual courses in the new program upon its launch in Spring 2025. They also created an Education Abroad partnership to send HTU’s MBA students to India in summer 2025 for the MBA Global Trip assignment. While in the United States, Kapil delivered lectures on cyber security and the ethics of hacking, mentored PhD students, and advised government departments on cyber-criminal cases. Kapil taught two undergraduate computer science courses  each semester while at HTU at their School of Business and Technology–Theoretical Foundations, Programming Foundations, Systems Analysis and Design, and Introduction to Web Programming.

Community engagement is an integral aspect of the S-I-R program, and like Karuppusamy’s experience at NCCU, HTU’s hosting had more than an academic impact. Kapil brought an international perspective to his service on the Study Abroad Committee and the school’s multicultural festival, hosting a “country table” and speaking with students about India as part of the university’s goal of introducing students to international opportunities. He also attended an Asian Chamber of Commerce meeting, to network with the broader Austin community.

The Fulbright Scholar-in-Residence program can also help a particular department or center at a school to host a visiting scholar to advance the goals of specific courses. For example, Howard University’s Center for Women, Gender, and Global Leadership wanted to introduce a transnational perspective to their courses, so they turned to the S-I-R program to invite an international scholar. Howard applied to host an S-I-R, Dr. Maame Efua Addadzi-Koom, from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Kumasi, Ghana. Addadzi-Koom taught the course “Gender, Law and Politics” and co-taught a course on “Women, Gender, and Sexualities in Transnational Perspectives” with the center’s founding director. While there, Addadzi-Koom also took part in ten public lecturers and community engagement events, such as joining the “Read Africa Team” (through Howard’s Center for African Studies) to distribute books about Africa to local elementary schools and teach them about the culture of Ghana.

Read our interview with Dr. Addadzi-Koom on the international perspectives on feminism that she brought to Howard’s classrooms.