Idaho State University’s Josephine A. Garibaldi receives Fulbright Award to teach dance, choreography in Riga, Latvia

Josephine A. Garibaldi, associate professor of dance in the Idaho State University School of Performing Arts in the College of Arts and Letters, has been awarded a Fulbright Scholar grant to teach at the Latvian Academy of Culture, Department of Contemporary Dance, in Riga, Latvia. She will complete the Fulbright award from February through June 2014, the United States Department of State and the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board announced recently.

During her Fulbright, Garibaldi will teach coursework in choreography, interdisciplinary and collaborative practices, world dance, and presenting workshops and seminars throughout Latvia on various topics. Paul Zmolek, a fellow faculty member at ISU and Garibaldi’s creative partner for more than 20 years, will accompany Garibaldi with a teaching invitation at the Latvian Culture College.

“It is very exciting to receive the Fulbright,” Garibaldi said. “It is a long process to apply. In any given year, the Fulbright application is due Aug. 1. In December 2012, I was notified that I had been advanced to the next level. I did not hear back of my award until June 2013. It didn’t really hit me until I was attending the Fulbright orientation last July in Washington D.C. It was wonderful to hear about other Fulbrighters’ experiences and learn the goals of the Fulbright Scholar Program, the Institute of International Education and the Council for International Exchange of Scholars. I have great respect for these government programs.”

Garibaldi will work with Zmolek, the IT team at ISU and colleagues from the Latvian Academy of Culture in developing interactive online coursework where students in Latvia may interact in real time with students of ISU.

Students in both Latvia and Pocatello will be able to talk live and collaborate on creative and scholarly projects face-to-face in an online environment through coursework World Dance/Local Identity and in the international choreographic project “Global Corporeality: Collaborative Choreography in Digital Space” to create original choreographic works that will be performed live (with, hopefully, live streaming from Latvia) at the end of Spring semester for public performance.

“We are breaking ground here,” said Garibaldi. “This type of project has never been done before. It is a choreographic experiment to create a work together for students here and in Latvia. Our goal is to be able to perform it live at both universities with real time webstreaming.”

The online courses will be designed by Garibaldi, Zmolek, Ryan Faulkner and Lisa Kidder with ISU Instructional Technology, and Kristi Austin, ISU Oboler Library reference librarian.

Since receiving the Fulbright, Garibaldi said there has been non-stop communication with the host university as she and Zmolek prepare for the trip.

“I am very grateful for the tremendous support from the University, the College of Arts and Letters, the School of Performing Arts and my Department,” Garibaldi said. “I would also like to thank Ryan Faulkner, Lisa Kidder, Kristi Austin, Kent Kearns of ISU and Ramona Galkina, Olga Zitluhina, and Krzysztof Szyrszen of the Latvian Academy of Culture.”

Professor Garibaldi is one of approximately 1,100 U.S. faculty and professionals who will travel abroad through the Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program in 2013-2014. The Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program is administered by the Council for International Exchange of Scholars, a division of the Institute of International Education.

The Fulbright Program is the flagship international educational exchange program sponsored by the U.S. government and is designed to increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of other countries. The primary source of funding for the Fulbright Program is an annual appropriation made by the U.S. Congress to the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. Participating governments and host institutions, corporations and foundations in foreign countries and in the United States also provide direct and indirect support.

The Program operates in over 155 countries worldwide. Since its establishment in 1946 under legislation introduced by the late U.S. Senator J. William Fulbright of Arkansas, the Fulbright Program has given approximately 300,000 students, scholars, teachers, artists, scientists and other professionals the opportunity to study, teach and conduct research, exchange ideas and contribute to finding solutions to shared international concerns.

Fulbright alumni have achieved distinction in government, science, the arts, business, philanthropy, education, and many other fields.

For further information about the Fulbright Program or the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, please visit http://eca.state.gov/fulbright or contact Josue Barrera, telephone 202-632-6454 or e-mail ECA-Press@state.gov.
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