Franklin-Morris Visiting Scholarship

Speaking of Study Abroad, how about the reverse? UGA and the Franklin College have many extraordinarily vibrant programs that bring visiting scholars and artists for extended stays on campus. Much like the opportunites during Study Abroad, these programs allow our students and faculty to learn from and interact with some of best scholars and artists in the world. One of these, the Franklin-Morris International Scholars program, is a collaboration with the University of Liverpool that sent Tom Whittaker (Hispanic Studies and Film) to UGA. where he spent the summer as the inaugural Franklin-Morris International Scholar.

Tom delivered a course entitled ‘Space, Movement and Identity in Hispanic Film’, which was informed by his wider research interests in Spanish and Latin American cinema. The course ran for four weeks, and was open to both undergraduate and postgraduate students across UGA’s  Faculty of Arts and Sciences.

Tom says: ‘The Franklin-Morris Visiting Scholarship was a fantastic, life-changing experience. Teaching within a different university system was fascinating, and the students were incredibly enthusiastic. I can’t rate University of Georgia highly enough for its research culture, resources and administrative support. Athens, its location, is great too: it has a thriving arts and music scene, which provides a dynamic backdrop to the university.’

Flattery to our campus community aside, Whitaker sums it up well. The ability to bring such an expert to campus to conduct a four-week course is a dynamic illustration of capacity-building in instruction - one that perpetuates unique learning experiences for students. Our thanks to colleagues in Cultures, Languages, and Area Studies (CLAS) of the School of Histories, Languages and Cultures in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Liverpool, and to Franklin College and UGA administrators who make these partnerships a reality.